The adventurous lead up 10th April 2026

This was to be called "not the Stans IYKYK" but we reconsidered this as a bit obscure.  It has certainly been quite the adventure, and we haven't left yet! 


First, We found out the United Kingdom of great Britain and Ireland has changed the rules. If you are a citizen you MUST enter using a UK passport. In broad terms if your father was born in UK (like Stuart) you must

  1. use a UK passport or
  2. Relinquish your citizenship or
  3. obtain an enduring certificate of entry 
these last two can take many months to process. so multiple original documents, including Australian passport was sent off to UK to obtain said passport...and it has arrived 10 days before departure. the Australian passport to arrive a couple of days later. talk about stressful!


Secondly this trip, apart from the essential education component (conference in Marrakesh), was to visit the "Stans"; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan & Kazakhstan. we thought we might give Pakistan and Afghanistan a miss at this stage. 

However there has been a bit of an event in the Middle East, so now the trip has been cancelled...again. Yes, this has been our second attempt at visiting the Stans. First time thwarted by a world wide pandemic.


We were to meet several friends at Marrkesh, unfortunately most are not attending because of the "event". we will take careful notes for them.

The third component of this journey was to be a week in Istanbul, as we were passing through. This has now been extended to explore "most " of the Turkish highlights, many of which are already known to Liz. Liz's travel agency has been busy planing and booking flights, buses, accommodation etc to facilitate this.


Finally, despite everything the universe threw at us in way of delays, we have made it and quietly sitting in the lounge having some lunch.

What a whirlwind of a fortnight with Stuart’s passport MIA since the 22nd march and finally arriving in Brisbane this morning, no rush. Just 3 hours before we were supposed to leave.

Never have I ever felt this level of anxiety before a trip and I had my passport!





Look at the smile, passport collected @ 11am. No rush

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