Route

18,000 Km To Save Sight Route Map
I will fly to Shanghai on 20th April, and hope to meet up with my car on the 21st.
The Journey proper will start in Shanghai on the 25th April.
Places of particular interest that I wish to see are a Silk Farm in Hangzhou; one of the famous porcelain factories in Jingdezhen; The Three Gorges Dam; The Dazu Grotto; The Panda sanctuary near Chengdu; The great Buddha at Leshan; The Potala Palace in Lhasa and the City of Lhasa; the cross over of the Tibetan Plateau where he will reach a height of 5,500 meters above sea level.
I join the Silk Road at Dunhuang and will see the 1,000 caves and grottoes; to Turfan, the second lowest point on Earth, at 249 feet below sea level and the fruit basket of Western China that has little rain but is fed by 1,400 underground channels.
I will cross in to Kazakhstan and visit Almaty, enter Uzbekistan and follow the Silk Road through Tashkent, Samarakand and Bukhara as well as staying a night in a Yurt traditional tent near a lake in the east of Uzbekistan.
Crossing back to Kazakhstan and drive to Aral'sk that used to be on the Sea of Aral'sk. The sea has now receded many kilometers due to the waters of the feeding rivers being diverted.
Next I cross to the Russian Federation and go to Samara and Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, across to Moscow, and on to St. Petersburg to see what has changed in the last 38 years as well as visiting the Winter Palace etc.
Driving through Finland - Helsinki, Jyvaskyla, Oulu, Ivalo - and into Norway. I will visit the North Cape, the most northerly point in Europe , before heading South down to Narvik, Trondheim to Oslo. I particularly adore Norway .
Heading in to Sweden, at Gothenburg the car will need a service at Volvo. I then travel down to Malmo, across the bridge to Denmark and Copenhagen, and finally through Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and the Channel Tunnel to England.
20 April | Fly to Shanghai |
21 - 24 April | Stay in Shanghai |
25 April | Start Journey drive to Hangzhou , famous for Silk |
26 April | Drive Jingdezhen, famous porcelain onto Jiujiang |
27 April | Drive Wuhan |
28 April | Drive Yichang and visit Three Gorges Dam |
29 April | In Yichang |
30 April | Drive to Enshi (by the Yangtze River ) |
1 May | Drive to Wanxian (by the Yangtze) |
2 May | Drive to Chongqing |
3 May | Stay Chongquin |
4 May | Drive to Dazu, Visit the Dazu Grotto and drive to Chengdu |
5 May | Stay Chengdu , visit Panda Sanctuary and Sanxingdui |
6 May | Drive to Leshan to visit the Great Buddha |
7 May | Drive to Ya'an and go on to Kangding |
8 May | Drive to Litang |
9 May | Drive to Batang |
10 May | Drive to Markham |
11 May | Drive to Zuogong (Wangda) and to Basu (Bama) |
12 May | Drive to Rawu and to Bomi (Zhamu) |
13 May | Drive to Nyinchi |
14 May | Stay in Nyinchi |
15 May | Drive to Lhasa |
16 May | Stay in Lhasa |
17 May | Stay in Lhasa |
18 May | Drive to Shigartze |
19 May | Drive to Lhasa |
20 May | Drive to Naqu |
21 May | Drive to Tanggula Mountain (5,700 meters) |
22 May | Drive to Golmut |
23 May | Drive to Dunhuang |
24 May | Stay in Dunhuang, visit famous Grottoes |
26 May | Drive to Hami |
27 May | Drive to Turfan (second lowest spot on Earth) |
28 May | Stay Turfan |
29 May | Drive to Kuitin |
30 May | Drive to Yining |
31 May | Stay Yining |
1 June | Drive to Holgus |
2 June | Cross to Almaty in Kazakhstan |
3 June | Stay Almaty |
4 June | Stay Almaty |
05 June | Drive to Korday |
06 June | Drive to Taraz |
07 June | Drive to Tashkent , Uzbekistan |
08 June | Drive to Samarakand |
09 June | Stay Samarakand |
10 June | Drive to Buchara |
11 June | Stay Bukhara |
12 June | Drive to Yurt Camp Aidarkul Lake |
13 June | Drive to Tashkent |
14 June | Drive Tashkent to Shymkent in Kazakhstan |
15 June | Drive to Zhargaqorghau |
16 June | Drive to Kyzylorda |
17 June | Drive to Aral'sk |
18/19 June | Aral'sk Sea |
20 June | Drive to Irgiz |
21 June | Drive to Karabutak |
22 June | Drive to Aktyubinsk |
23 June | Drive to Zhympity |
24 June | Drive to Ural'sk |
25 June | Cross to the Federation of Russia and to Samara |
26 June | Drive to Syzran |
27 June | Drive to Ulyanovsk |
28 June | Drive to Kazan via Tsivil'sk |
29 June | Kazan |
30 June | Kazan |
1 July | Drive to Nizlniy Novgorod via Tsivil'sk |
2 July | Drive Vladimir |
3 July | Drive Moscow |
4 July | Stay Moscow |
5 July | Stay Moscow |
6 July | Drive Visniy - Volocheck |
7 July | Drive St Petersburg |
8 July | Stay St Petersburg |
9 July | Stay St Petersburg |
10 July | Drive via Vyborg to Hamina in Finland |
11 July | Drive to Helsinki |
12 July | Stay in Helsinki |
13 July | Drive to Lahti |
14 July | Drive to Jyvaskyla |
15 July | Drive to Oulu |
16 July | Drive to Rovanierri |
17 July | Drive to Ivalo |
18 July | Drive to Karigasmeni and on to Karasjok, in Norway |
19 July | Drive to Lakselv and Kistand |
20 July | Drive to Nordcapp |
21 July | Drive to Skaisdi |
22 July | Drive to Strorslett |
23 July | Drive to Nordkjosbotn |
24 July | Drive to Narvik |
25 July | Stay in Narvik |
26 July | Drive to Fauske |
27 July | Drive to Mosjoen |
28 July | Drive to Steenkjor |
29 July | Drive to Trondheim |
30 July | Stay Trondheim |
31 July | Drive to Dombas |
1 August | Drive to Lillehammer |
2 August | Drive to Oslo |
3 August | Stay Oslo |
4 August | Drive to Gothenborg in Sweden |
5 August | Stay Gothenburg |
6 August | Drive to Halmstad |
7 August | Drive to Malmo |
8 August | Drive to Copenhagen in Denmark |
9 August | Stay in Copenhagen |
10 August | Drive to Kolding |
11 August | Drive to Schleswig in Germany |
12 August | Drive to Hamburg |
13 August | Drive to Cloppenburg |
14 August | Drive to Hengelo in Holland |
15 August | Drive to Eindhoven |
16 August | Drive to Brussels in Belgium |
17 August | Drive to Brugge |
18 August | Drive to Channel Tunnel France and UK |