Let's start with some facts and figures. During our journey we slept in 129 different places. This entails quite a lot of travelling! The shortest period we stayed in one place was a 12 hours; the longest period in one place was 2 weeks. In Africa we spent - on average - 3,0 days in the same place; in southeast Asia this went up to 3,2 days and in New Zealand it went down to 1,6 days on average in the same place. A campervan really gets you moving.

During our backpacking period (Southeast Asia), our combined luggage weighed approximately 55 kg. That's excluding laptop, our travel guide and the clothes we were wearing. We all had about 3 different sets of clothing, which were selected for optimal combining amongst each other (you will have noted this in our pictures.....).

While we were away, Lasse grew 6,5 cm and Sil even a little bit more: 8,5 cm. Claudia and Peter also grew, albeit not in length, due to the lack of sport / exercise. We were away for 363 days. We schooled Lasse and Sil on 160 days (96 one-session days and 46 two-session days).

Between us we ended up storing some 12,500 pictures on our laptop. Taking into account the number of pictures deleted before upload to our laptop, we must have taken some 20,000 pictures this year. Considering each picture takes a couple of seconds to make, we have been photographing for over 40 hours continuously. You're more than welcome to come by one evening to watch them......

We travelled nearly 16,500 km in our Disco while touring in Africa. In Southeast Asia we travelled about 4,500 km in buses, minivans and on boats. In New Zealand we drove 3,500 km on the south island and 2,500 km on the north island in our camper. We flew around the world once, in total some 48,000 km as we did not follow a straight line. So in total we travelled approximately 75,000 km - we deserve a holiday!

We have also had our share of luck on this trip. It started with our departure to Cape Town, South Africa, which was made possible due to a two-week window during which the Eyjafjallajokull volcano on Iceland stayed quiet and allowed our plane to fly according to schedule. Peter nearly lost an eye when a piece from a fire cracker hit his eye. Lasse nearly stepped on a very venomous puff adder - to use his own words: 'I jumped and started running while I was still in the air!' Sil's foot was caught under the moped he was driving on with Peter, but luckily nothing was broken. Shortly after we left Thailand the country was hit by severe flooding and shortly thereafter there were riots at the border with Myanmar. And earlier, in Mozambique, three days after we left Maputo, heavy riots broke out during which at least 12 people were killed. In Christchurch we arrived exactly one week after the devastating earthquake. So you see, we must have had a couple of guardian-angels travelling alongside of us.

Some concluding remarks. We started this journey very much in a 'state of doing'. We were making preparations, talking to various people and organisations, doing our research, buying our gear, our clothes and our equipment. All in a very much JDI-mode (just do it). Great fun. Our first leg of the journey we were (still) ‘doing' South Africa, but gradually we entered into a 'state of being'. Just being where we ended up to be, enjoying our time together and getting a feel for the land, its people and its culture. This was our main mindset during our time in Africa and our time in Southeast Asia. This happens when you go away for more than a few months. We thoroughly enjoyed it, although there were times we did get bored, but we also learned how to deal with this and found that very creative things can happen while you are bored. After entering New Zealand we soon found ourselves in a 'state of seeing'. There was just so much to see! It took away the magic of 'being', but perhaps this was also part of getting used to having to end our journey and going home..... And then, back home. Back into the rich, western world, where we are all very much in a ‘state of having'.

After a year of living out of our rucksacks, our greatest challenge will perhaps be not to get sucked back into the every-day hectic, but to keep things - better still - to keep our lives, sober and simple. And of course the challenge to remain (as much as possible) in a 'state of being', cherish the precious moments with friends and family and keep room for spontaneous decisions and get-togethers with friends and family.