Overall, this was a great trip. It wasn’t the most spectacular one we’ve done but it wins on immersion in different cultures plus being able to travel with our friends from previous expeditions. The NGS explorers and lectures on the jet were great, only a couple induced spontaneous napping. The highlight talk for me was from David Dubilet, one of the World’s foremost ocean photographers. His underwater images blew my socks off.
Things didn’t always go according to plan (Monsoon in Bali) but mostly everything went smoothly. The hotels and lodges were the best for the locations we visited. The most spectacular were the ones in the Maldives and the Four Seasons in Bali. Staying with Carl at his lodge in Madagascar was a noteable low point.
The trip was probably a bit long for us, so we’re glad to be getting home, full of great memories.
Some statistics:
We traveled a total of 59 hours on the NGS jet, burning 63,000 gallons of fuel. This did not include the several hours of charter flights at various destinations, nor the 13 hours of flying to and from Hawaii
We covered over 27,000 miles in the process
We covered 14 time zones and crossed the equator 4 times
The chef on the jet informed us that we consumed 400 bottles of wine during the various flights. With approx. 70 people on the flight, and 10 legs, that’s over half a bottle per person per flight. This does not include those that drank other than wine. We’re a boozy lot.
Carol and I feel really fortunate to be able to go on these trips so thanks for following along with us. I hope you enjoyed the ride. I’ll get around to posting the picture gallery once we are home and I’ll send a reminder.
Phew.