6000...

...kilometres and nine countries is what lies between Prague and New Dehli. It is my plan over the next six or seven weeks to make that journey. It starts tomorrow with a 35 hour bus ride from here, Prague, to Istanbul, Turkey.

The last couple of days here in Prague have been spent with Heather preparing my things for the trip and preparing to say goodbye to her for what feels like another eternity.

If not sure if anyone else got this feeling. But when I was a little boy and had plans to go and sleep at a friends house I was always really excited right up until the point when mum dropped me off and I was all of a sudden in a strange place without the comfort of someone I knew and loved by my side. Of course as soon as I was indoors and playing then all was fine. But that initial feeling of wishing I hadn't made the choice to leave my comfort zone used to pull on my heart strings. Well I'm feeling that now. There is a part of me that wants to get the next flight back to Brisbane and help Rob with the calves that are due soon and walk up to the top of our olive grove with mum at sunset and chat about stuff. But there is the other part of me that has been yearning for this challenge for such a long time now. And it feels like it will be the biggest challenge I have faced yet. I thought London was, but I always had Lucas by my side and the Walkabout on Friday nights to help me through. To be honest I am feeling quite nervous, initially about how I will feel tomorrow morning when I have to put Heather in a taxi to the airport - I'm familiar with that emotion when it feels like you are having your insides torn away from you, leaving just the shell. I hope that it won't be so bad this time.

But I am also feeling nervous of about travelling alone. Not for one instant in the past two years have I felt a moment of anxiousness or concern about any situation I've been in. Being stuck at a deserted border crossing from Guatemala to Honduras at midnight was a jolly old adventure when Lucas and I faced it. But travelling by oneself makes the scenario feel a little more desperate I think. Add the language barrier that wasn't faced in South America and I'm starting to take some deeper breathes to calm myself a bit when I imagine the same scenario but trying to cross from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

But....this is exactly why I am doing it. I love adrenalin and fear. Tearing down a mountain on a snowboard or mountain bike knowing that any mistake could result in serious injury makes the senses heighten beyond their usual dull acknowledgement of the world around them. And so it will be with bright eyes, bushy tail and loudly beating heart that I venture east, and continue east until I reach my sunny home.