Whilst in South Africa with the infamous “Troll”, we heard about an amazing opportunity to visit Russia, Mongolia and China in the Summer of 2009. Due to both of us having been bitten by the travel bug a few years earlier, this sounded like a great idea. And so, as soon as the information was published, we signed up. Unfortunately a number of problems with airlines and finances meant the Russia component had to be dropped, but it was still a three week trip to Mongolia and China.

As time went by, it seemed that Summer 2009 came at the end of a long arduous journey for both of us with Richard finally completing his training (degree and chartership) and Rosie completing her NEBOSH training. This made it seem fitting to extend the trip into more of a gap year, so we looked at the options, and eventually decided upon a 5½ week extension travelling across China, Tibet & Hong Kong smiley