So how do I do this? Planning this project has definitely become a constant theme of my day dreams. I'm constantly thinking about the best way to make this trip and to document it. Do I try and do it as Edward did, as one continuous trip, or do I do it in stages? Do I try and recreate it exactly as he did? Travel by horse where he traveled by horse, by ship where he did etc, etc?
An exact re-creation was ruled out pretty quick. While I was a fair horseman back in the day, I haven't been aboard a nag for more than a decade and from experience I know that riding is not a physically soft task. Old Edward might have been out riding the day he died aged 81 but he had been doing it pretty well every day of his life till then and was undoubtedly a harder man than I. On that basis I was ruling out sleeping under the stars, with a few blankets on a mattress of brush too. Like I said. Tougher than me.
It is still possible to travel by P&O from Sydney to Southampton via the Mediterranean on a similar, but not exact, route as Edward. At around $8,000 that isn't a cheap option although Edward quoted 150 Pounds as the full fare to England in a shared cabin. That converted roughly to current figures is about $12,000. However, probably the principal obstacle to this method is that today, P&O cruise ships only stop for a day or so in most of the ports and there is no hop-on, hop-off option. There might be only one or two cruises per annual season. In Edward's day, there was a ship along on this, the major mail route, at least every six weeks and you could miss one and catch the next. To explore each destination to the same extent as Edward did would not be possible in a day or so, so a P&O cruise is out. Who said the world is necessarily a smaller place?
So it seems that an exact re-creation is off the table. However, I am still pondering whether I need to make the trip in one continuous effort and if the impact will be the same doing it in separate stages. No decision on that yet.
Next question is how do I document my "travels". Well this blog seems to be up and running so that is the bottom line. Do I add to that though? Does blog morph into book? Do I film it? There will be photos on the blog 'cos that's easily achieved but what about a documentary? Is it interesting enough to consider a full scale documentary? How do you achieve that? What would it cost? To resolve some of those questions, my lovely daughter Cushla who is a radio producer with a myriad of media contacts has lined up for me to meet with a documentary producer to suss out some of those issues.
Who knows? At this stage the only definite is that I will do it...for my own interest and pleasure. Exactly how, and how to document, remains to be concluded. I guess I just follow my nose and see what happens. Stay tuned...
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