We’re Tim and Margot, nature lovers, adventure seekers, planet fighters.
What are we doing?
We are travelling from Australia to France without flying. We will be using any « surface travel » means to get from Wangaratta, Australia (where Tim grew up) to Nice, France (where Margot grew up).
We left on 9 June 2024 and we are giving ourselves 12 to 18 months to reach our destination. We love the wild outdoors and the mountains and there are places where we intend to spend more time such as Nepal and Kyrgyzstan, and other places where we might pass through quickly without making many stops. We prefer to spend more time in one country, or one region, and to have a deeper experience, than trying to see everything.
Why we’re doing it?
There are several motivations driving this project:
- For the planet
Flying may be fast and convenient. But it takes a serious toll on the planet. Plane travel is responsible for 2.5% of global emissions, 5% of global heating in the past two decades, and it is growing. We have both been working to fight the climate crisis for over 10 years and are more than aware of the need for major changes in behaviour if we are to avoid the worst of the climate crisis.
On a personal level, being a French-Australian couple has meant that we have accumulated more air miles than our climate consciences can cope with. Almost all of this travel has been for family reasons, but nonetheless the emissions have stacked up. So for this trip, it would feel wrong for us to fly around the world and hop from one place to the other. We have the privilege of having the time, so we might as well take it.
- For the challenge and the adventure
We have been planning to embark on a long trip for many years, and always wanted this experience to be an opportunity to slow down, be challenged and discover new things. We also know from past experiences that a long trip could start feeling purposeless after a while. Hence why we love the idea of travelling from A to B, crafting and following a route with a specific goal in mind. Along the way, there will be encounters, solutions to find, unexpected places to explore and many things that come with a route that is free from the homogeneity of airport terminals.
This trip is an attempt to combine our values and care for the planet with our longing for travel and adventure.
What is the purpose of this blog?
The purpose of this blog is to centralise useful logistical information in one place, hoping it might be useful to a fellow traveller, and inspire more flightless travel.
We have found information in many sources and will endeavour to collate them and add to them here based on our experience. We do not intend for this blog to be exhaustive but rather to be a place to share useful information about the path we have taken and the adventures and challenges along our route.