A little over eight years ago, Claire and I left Cape Town for London. We planned to spend two years working and saving money, in between travelling to Spain and Italy, perhaps, or to Amsterdam and Prague. Now, as I sit writing this in the sleepy town of Luang Prabang, in northern Laos, we have yet to return home for more than a flying visit since leaving eight years ago. We’ve travelled across the length of Eurasia – from London to Shanghai, overland – and lived in China, India and Southeast Asia. Right now, we’re slowly making our way home, on what Getaway called “an epic trip” when they interviewed us earlier this year. We’re taking public transport from Shanghai all the way to Cape Town and documenting the journey on our travelogue, Old World Wandering.
Old World Wandering is an experiment. It is a literary travelogue reinvented for the internet. Over the past few years – between writing a book each, and working on various other projects – we’ve spent as much time as possible writing long-form non-fiction about the people and places we’ve encountered on our journey. We’ve done this without payment, because we love travel writing and we want to be a part of its transition to the internet, but our attention has also been divided. We want to take the next step now, and dedicate ourselves to telling the story of our journey home as it unfolds.
This morning we launched a campaign to help us fund the project, which we explain in the video below. You’ll find more details on our project’s Kickstarter page. It’s an ambitious, exciting project, but it’s terrifying too, because if we don’t hit our target, we get nothing. You can support us by choosing a reward: a handwritten thank you postcard from the Silk Road, a set of professionally printed photographs, a limited edition hardback book of our writing, or a long weekend in Istanbul. You can pledge as little as $1 or as much as $2,000, or you can help us by just spreading the word. Either way, thank you! You’re helping us to trace a single line – and tell a single story – that connects China with South Africa and everywhere in between.
