On the Road 2002, the First 14 Weeks

"Fourteen Weeks" is a series of updates that Ethan Gelber and Jane Higgins wrote
as a means of staying in touch with friends and family as they traveled around the world in 2002 and 2003.

A BIG HINT:
Hold the mouse over the small pictures to view the caption
and then click on any the picture to see a larger version.

First 14 Weeks (2002) — Part One: Introduction | Part Two: Australia | Part Three: Hong Kong | Part Four: Africa

Second 14 Weeks (2002) — Part One: Introduction, Ireland | Part Two: Europe and U.S. | Part Three: Europe | Part Four: North America

Third 14 Weeks (2002–2003) — Part One: Introduction, U.S. | Part Two: Mexico, Brazil | Part Three: U.S. | Part Four: U.S., Australia | Part Five: U.S.

The following text was sent as an email on June 21, 2002.

Dear Friends,

At long last, here is as quick a look as possible at the last fourteen weeks of travel that Jane and I have enjoyed. Apologies for the lack of communication during this time. Hopefully, this will help explain why:

Ethan and Jane Fourteen weeks ago, at long last liberated from looming deadlines and an unforgiving daily writing grind (a project for Lonely Planet), I joined Jane (likewise recently released from her duties at and to Oxfam Community Aid Abroad in Sydney) in the hasty long-procrastinated planning of a circuitous trip to New York City that would lodge the soils of five continents — Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America — in our insteps. We settled on a meandering course (half plotted, half imposed) departing from Darwin for Perth; detouring through Hong Kong on the way to South Africa's Cape Town and Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls; leaving us to our own land-based devices for the long road from Zimbabwe to Nairobi via Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania; making the jump to London, Belfast and Dublin; and dropping us for a northern hemisphere summer in Europe.

Thirteen weeks ago . . .