The Route

Hi there,
People have been asking exactly what route we will be taking. Nothing is definite yet, that is the joy of travelling independently. After we leave Chennai the aim is to cross to the west coast of India travelling over the Western Ghats and arriving on the coast north of Cochin, Then head north to Goa where we will spend a few days then on to Mumbai and after that Rajasthan province, Mind you it's going to be hot the next few weeks with temps at the moment in Chennai averaging 41C with a minimum about 28C. We might find it wise to rest up in one of the hill stations in the Ghats for a while then push on from there.
An alternative is to head north to Shimla, in the foothills of the Himalayas to get away from the heat, just like the English colonials did during the Raj. They even governed from there for a few months every year.
We then cross into Pakistan at Wagah. This town is on the Indian side of the border, Lahore not far across the frontier on the Pakistani side. One diversion I have been looking forward to is the trip up the Karakoram highway that leads through the mountains into China. It is meant to be very spectacular. We then turn around and head south, bypassing Afghanistan ending up in Quetta the capital of the Baluchistan Province. This is in the tribal area and is quite unsettled at times. The Iran border is a further 600kms on over desert country. Other travellers have arranged an armed escort for this part of the trip. I will see what the situation is like when we arrive in Quetta and also if we have met up with any travellers going in the same direction.
Once in Iran there is a further 350kms across isolated country to Bam. This where a severe earthquake demolished the ancient citadel in 2004. We visited Bam 30 years ago, a lot of effort was being made at that time to rebuild the mud brick buildings, I can only imagine the devastation caused by the quake..
From Bam we more than likely will head to Shiraz then on to Esfahan. The Shiraz grape originally came from the this area many years ago. Now Iran is a dry country with being in the possession of alcohol a major offence. The Shah was in power when we were last here with a much more open society. I remember buying a couple of bottles of wine in Tehran, one was mediocre but the other was an excellent drop. It was a Shiraz if I can remember correctly.
I would like to bypass Tehran if possible, not too sure if that is feasible though, we might travel along the Caspian sea then come back to Tabriz and then cross into Turkey.
Not far over the border is a town called Agri. It mightn't be shown on the map but it's a town we won't forget because it was where we ended up after our near fatal accident on that last trip. With temperatures nearing -40C it was quite a shock for a family used to the Alice Springs heat. But that's another story.
We would like to spend a few weeks in Turkey but haven't looked very much into where we would like to go apart from Cappadocia. This should be taking us into early August which means all of northern Europe will have headed down to the sun. It could influence our route a little.
From Turkey we will revisit Greece, We both love the place although it won't be the best time of the year to be there. I think we will take the ferry across to Bari or Brindisi in Italy then head north to France.
Gary