Over recent weeks I’ve somehow committed myself to write a blog whilst I’m away. My track record for communicating whilst on holiday is somewhat poor! I’ll be impressed if I write anything, even more impressed if anyone reads it, and stunned if I can keep people engaged! I can but try!

We’d initially planned to hire a car, head to Slovenia, spend a fortune and have a good old time. As I’ve been trying to fool myself into believing I’m voluntarily unemployed, I came up with an idea to remove all luxury, certainty and comfort from our plans and set ourselves a challenge. And much to my surprise Mel was keen!

I think Mel’s performance in Nelson and Rotorua has changed her perception of her capabilities. With a lot of dedication, some planning, endless motivation and a hint of good luck, the impossible is now possible.

To cut a long story short, we’re off on a 420km vol biv adventure – Annecy in France to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in southern Germany.

Neither of us are super-human and we’re not trying to convince ourselves otherwise. Fortunately there is nothing in vol biv that suggests the need to walk! Vol means fly and biv is taken from bivouac, representing camping. So that’s what we’ll do. Fly and camp for 420km. We arrive in Annecy on the 10^th June and we’ve allowed three weeks.

Obviously the objective of the trip is to have fun. We want to fly as much of the route as possible, but we’re not going to jeopardise our enjoyment by making ourselves walk for days on end in the rain. We will cheat, we will use gondolas, we will hitch rides to take off, and we may well jump on buses and trains if we start running short on time. Ultimately, I think the weather will decide how much cheating really goes on!

Much like our trip to India, this trip started as Mel and I… As our excitement has built, others have become more interested. The first addition was Glen Stevens. Glen will join us in Chamonix, a few days into the trip. A couple of days ago Gareth Gore and Stu MacIntosh confirmed they will join us for the first few days. Stu may well drag a few Italian pilots along too. And if that’s not enough, Pete Groves has just booked flights to do the whole trip with us.

I’m on a flight to Auckland at the moment…. And my exciting is building.