Trip end and trip map

Okay. It's time. The last post of the trip. The journey ends where it began 3.5 months ago: in Sydney. (And actually, we even spent our last morning on Australian soil having breakfast with the same family friends at the same restaurant where we had breakfast the March morning we arrived with my mom. Could not ask to come full circle more literally!) 

 

Only now, it's the dead of winter here. Since that means lovely weather not nearly cold enough for snow, it's no hardship. But I did get to see snow in Australia!: at this little enclosure for kids where they manufacture it. For some reason that just struck me as hysterical, and a good final photo.

 

 

At the end of last year's mega North American road trip, I posted a map of my trip route, and a few of you seemed to particularly enjoy that visualization. Thought I'd do the same as the parting post for the Australia/Bali trip of 2014. Pardon the athletic tape covering my mistakes and cobbling together two pieces of paper, the poor lighting in the campervan, and all the other signs that this map was made by someone traveling around with only what a backpack can hold! Okay, with that enthusiastic recommendation....

 

 

Map it

It's been awhile since I've posted any maps. So for those of you who love a good paper representation of the planet as much as I do, here's a visual recap of the past six weeks. First, the path through western Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta...

And then the string of highways I've been writing about. I picked up the Alaska Highway at its origin on the right center of the photo and took it all the way to Whitehorse, in the southern Yukon. Klondike Highway from Whitehorse up to Dawson. Dempster for that jaunt to the top of the map, at Inuvik, and then the Top of the World Highway from Dawson over to the far left of the frame, into Alaska.

It's all south from here....