We knew it was coming but it doesn't mean we got used to the idea of going home. We don't want family and friends to think that we aren't happy to see them, because we are, and we're happy to be in England again because, if anything, we will appreciate it more now than ever - it is one of the most beautiful places on our planet.

But we've been living our dreams and now that time is over, so we are bound to be slightly reflective. Depressed is not the right word - I'm very positive about coming back and making a new life. But, I suppose, every now and then I remember where I was last week, last month etc. and try to grab hold of that memory. I'm lucky that I will always be able to do that.

I guess we'd be fed up if we were headed straight back into the lives we left 9 months ago. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but we are changed people. We will try to build a new life in our favourite part of the country - the Lake District. The kids will go to new schools and Lea and I will find new jobs - part-time for now, to enable us to settle in. The trip we have just done has given us the confidence to go ahead and do something like this, because we know we've handled all manner of situations in all sorts of places.

As for this website, it will continue to record our trip for posterity, but new chapters will be added to sum up our thoughts and feelings, and I will put on some of the articles and impressions I wrote along the way. We have plenty of advice to give too - not gospel, just what happened to us and why, so that people can judge how it might apply to them and make the most of their own adventures.

I would love to make a living organising trips like this - I think I could do it in a fraction of the time now, with the benefit of hindsight! So if anybody ever considers their own Big Trip, I am available at very reasonable cost !!