The adventure comes to an end

Happy New Year! 2015 has come to an end and with that our European adventures are coming to an end. 

This is the post I've been putting off writing. We have wonderful news which at the same time is tinged with a little sadness. 

A year ago we didn't expect to be coming to Europe. At this time last year we were at the top of South America. We'd celebrated New Years at Paramaribo (Suriname) with their fantastic firecracker event and then crossed into Guyana. Our thoughts were that when we got to Colombia we'd take a ferry (it was operating) across to Panama, and keep going from there. 

But, by the time we got to Venezuela I could barely walk with knee trouble and we decided to come to Europe (Blac too) and get my knee seen to. 

In Europe we decided it was also time to apply for a Partner Visa for H to be able to come to Australia for longer than what the 3 month tourist stay allows. So we applied, but I had had no idea about the application process for a spouse visa was. The waiting time alone was (according to the immigration website)  to be 10-14 months. So, we had to wait. And when my knee was good enough we travelled. 

We've had a great year. Doing a finger count, I believe we've travelled in 22 countries this year, 15 of which were new for me. We haven't yet covered all of Europe, and we believe you could easily spend 3 years just travelling in Europe. 

For us though, our travels in Europe are coming to and end. The visa for H came through and so we must now go to Australia. 

Of course, we are both very excited to be going to Australia (where we intend to keep travelling), but, over these last few years we've come to think as Blac as being our home and, alas, Blac will not be travelling to Australia. (We are keeping Blac though, it's still good for a trip to Africa, and more travels in Europe.). So, it is with a bit of sadness that we'll be leaving Blac behind. 

For now, we've got a lot of miles to do, first a ferry ride to Venice (Italy), then driving back to Belgium, packing our bags, and then we're off.