The MSC Basel (photography copyright Pictures From Earth

It looks like we might have our cargo ship back after all — Hamish emailed this morning to say he could get us on the MSC Basel on the 31st July, Singapore to Melbourne. Yes, that’s the same ship he originally had us on, so we’ve either bumped the other passengers OR will be travelling with them! (In a separate room, I hope.)

It got me thinking about chance and happenstance (a great word, by the way, but one that Chrome doesn’t know how to spell) , and how everything that ever happens is all equally — and massively — unlikely.  (It’s funny that I should stumble across that particular article while thinking about such things, huh? I mean, what are the chances? )

So yeah, things seem to be unfolding as they should — but is that actually meaningful, or just a creation/product of our self-aware minds? I tend to think both: ‘meaning’ is only meaningful to a sentient creature, after all, but that fact doesn’t in any way lessen the, er, significance (meaning) of it all.  I guess the point is: we’ve got a second unlikely opportunity to get home without flying and we’re taking it!

And so, in 2010, we’re packing all our belongings into a shipping container, hoisting our back-packs and catching trains (and maybe some buses) from London to Singapore via Hungary, Siberia, Mongolia, China and Vietnam.

Okay, it’s not motorcycling, but nor is it the normal (20 hour?) flight out of Heathrow. I’ve got an Australia motorcycle license, but Dee doesn’t — and from the look of some of the places that Charlie and Ewan go, you don’t want to attempt it unless you’re an international film star, with associated support crew, sponsorship and local recognition and admiration. After just the first three episodes, it’s quite amazing how many times they’ve been offered beds and food from the locals.

We’ve had some experience of the trains in Europe when we did a mini-tour a few years ago, so hopefully our expectations aren’t too idealistic — especially after “first class” on Trenitalia had us sitting on milk crates, barefoot and dirty, in the shared bar carriage, knocking back Peroni and wine in a desperate attempt to get drowsy enough to sleep in the 35-degree night heat. Okay, so they didn’t have any say over the weather that summer…

Dee has found a site describing, “How to travel from London to Sydney without flying,” and that’s what we’re adapting for our own needs. So we’ll use Eurail passes to get to Vienna, then hopefully take the original Orient Express (the cheap one, not the tourist “experiential” one) to the twin-cities of Buda and Pest. Somehow we’ll get from there to Moscow, then take the Trans-Siberian through Siberia, then Mongolia and into Beijing, China.

Trains in China, we’re told, are very good, so we shouldn’t have trouble getting around — travelling south, possibly with a short trip across to Lhasa, to Guilin and eventually Shanghai. From China, it’s Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, then a flight “home” to Melbourne. (Details are sketchy, but hey, that’s how we roll .)

We’ve also been discussing what to do when we get to Australia, and the plan is an extended 4WD camping holiday around the coast. 6 months on the road? 6 months out of the office?? Sounds good to me.