A 15 month Adventure of an Intrepid Norfolkian: And The Journey Begins...

So it is another year and that means only one thing for the life of Tom Whitlam. Another adventure - but this time: the hardest, the longest and most dangerous to date.
Over the next 15 months this intrepid Norfolkian will be dodging bullets in the US of the A, fending off venomous snakes with his bare hands and obviously not forgetting the RABID DOGS, these lil' bastards are up against a crazy Norfolkian with a machete! For those interested on the route, the trip is not at all planned - my only bearing is to head south down to Ushuaia (the most southern city in South America and the world); this should take me along Baja California into mainland Mexico and into Central America, where I will be hopping onto a ferry at Panama (renowned for it's ~~beautiful canal~~ being the gateway to most of the world's drug trafficking into North America) and finally along the backbone of South America or the beautiful Andes.

My home for the next 15 months

It is has been a hectic few days, as me being me - loving a challenge that is; I left myself only 1.5 days to get all my stuff fully packed up, bike tested and built and run errands. This proved quite stressful, especialy after being incapacitated by my final exam blow-out and The Parklife Weekender for the four days before my 1.5 day countdown. But in the end ~~everything~~ things were packed and I even managed to achieve this in style.

As Lee said Sun's out, guns out

The journey to Gatwick was pretty uneventful and some could say it was even better than previous years, for example: this year even my OWN dad managed to wave me off at the coach station (which is unusual because he would normally dump me in the middle of nowhere and make me drag 50kgs of stuff a mile or two down the road to my destination as in previous years). My dad was accompanied by my mum and grandad. Mum being in complete tatters to finally have her final son flown the nest - I think the reason she was so upset is there would be nothing to do around the house; i.e. she would have nothing of mine to move and then hide from me (for her own pleasure) or somebody to clean up behind.Thank you all for waving me off :D.

The bike not laden, but with a few bits attached to it including a fishing rod

The flight consisted of a two part special from Gatwick to Oslo, Norway and then across to San Francisco, CA. The flight was similar to the film "Meet the Fockers" and everything went perilously well, apart from one hiccup: falling asleep at Oslo airport. This was quite a scary moment because I was only woken up by the last call for my Oakland flight and therefore had to sprint down the length of the depature lounges and I had to pretend to be Norweigen to get through security quicker, haha I fooled them.
After being in San Francisco for two days I have mixed feelings about it; on one hand you see the beautiful city, the expansive parks full of wildlife and not forgetting the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Yet there is a darker side to SF that I wasn't expecting; in certain parts of the city it is full of homeless people begging for money, drugs are everywhere and you get the occasional nut with pissed-stained pants murmering jibberish at you (but I guess this is expected in any large city). However the beauty and the majority of people are super friendly and my lovely host Cyndi is a fantastic example of this and her alongside the 2 other guests at her house currently (a Hungarian couple called Zeta and RP, who have been on the road for over 3 years) made it a delightful stay consisting of sharing stories, gaining friendship and not forgeting the awesome home-made pizzas.