I’m not sure I hold with those travel bloggers whose Twitter profiles proudly announce how many countries they’ve visited.  Simply popping in and out of a country for a few hours does not an expert make.  But since I have a tendency to reference many of my previous travels in this blog, I thought it might help to show where I’ve visited in the past, and not just on this trip (which you can see here).

So for what it’s worth, here is my travel map, courtesy of the Matador Network.  Terribly poor form when it comes to Africa, and I feel like a fraud including Brazil considering I did literally spend less than a day within its borders . . . but I hope to amend that in future.

It’s a shame that central Asia remains completely grey, given we began this trip fully intending to pass through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Iran, but visas for the latter three proved a nightmare to get on the road. And whilst Kazakhstan offers a two-week visa-free stay for UK citizens, it turns out it’s cheaper and easier to fly there from London rather than travelling overland from Beijing.  So, central Asia remains unvisited, but no less tempting than before.

And Australia I’ll tackle once I’ve got over my fear of their innumerable creepy-crawlies!