No long trip would be possible without a "support" crew.

Ours are friends from Canberra and Adelaide, who John worked with 47 years ago.  Amazing that a group of people could stay "connected" all those years.

Lyn and Mick arrived to spend autumn and part of winter, caring for our house and four legged family.

With our "support" crew, daughter Jo Anne, Mick and Lyn West

Just hanging around now, in my golden days

Time on the beach

And finally we are off, 6 years of research and 9 months of planning.  Untold stressful days included, but we were very lucky as our luggage  has been booked through to Istanbul from Hervey Bay, this has not happened ever for us before.  Saved us time and effort at Brisbane airport.   Scrambled eggs and ham for breakfast bit of downtime until our flight to Sydney then across to International to fly up to Singapore.