7 weeks and I'm outta here ...

Not because I don’t love it here, because I do, but because I’ve got itchy feet and I’m raring to travel. Around the world, in fact. For 9 months.

Together with my partner, Mark Peddle, who is a photographer, I’m about to embark on a Round-the-World journey spreading positive diabetes awareness. I’m a type 1 diabetic (the genetic type) and when I was first diagnosed (a little under two years ago) all I heard about were the horror stories — kidney failure, heart failure, eye failure, amputation. Diabetes is a really serious condition, and if you’re not in good control it can wreak havoc on your health.

But that’s only if you’re not in good control. If you’re healthy, and you eat well and exercise and keep your blood glucose within certain limits, there’s no reason for the disease to stop you doing anything — there’s no reason for it to stop you following your dreams. And that’s the message we want to spread, that just because you have a chronic condition doesn’t mean you can’t do anything you set your mind to.

We’ll be documenting the 9-month journey on a multimedia website hosted by Just the Planet — the online travel magazine for independent travellers. I’ll be blogging frequently about the trip, Mark will post a visual journey of photographs and we’ll record weekly video diaries to post on YouTube and other major networks. We’ll also be recording daily snippets of “The Best Moment of the Day”, 20 to 30 second clips of something extraordinary in each day (so that you can watch a montage of the highlights of our trip). Those who are interested will be able to follow our journey in a really personal way.

So where are we off to? From Cape Town to Hong Kong for a week, then two weeks each in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Then off to China and Japan, and from there to the US, Mexico and into South America: Chile, Argentina, Peru and Brazil (all for 2 to 3 weeks each). Finally we fly into Spain and drive through the south of France to Italy, then over to Greece and Turkey. And then back home — just in time for the 2010 World Cup!

Anyone interested can follow our journey here