The numbers: 15,000km in 9.5 months
Trying to get a ferry accross the caspian is harder than you might thing:
http://candmwanderings.blogspot.com/2009/08/lesson...
Aditional background (not exactly sure what type of background Chitownclark wanted):
My mother (all-rounder, ex-forester, esl teacher, and sometimes travel writer) is good at languages and learnt some mandarin for this trip, she had previously learnt spanish for the Cuba trip. She tends to try to quasi speak the language of the country, while my dad is in charge of body language. Dad (dyslexic physisist) is in charge of making sure to see if the body language means anything dangerous. So my mum usually writes the more wordy posts (and any botanical references are hers), and dad likes to make photo essays (and the pythagoras references were his)
So, while Margo is the prime overall planner (and writes about the planning on their website and not the blog), chris is more into the nitty gritty details (looking up wind directions, weather trends, country warnings).
I am sure if anyone needed more information about parts of their current trip or past trip they would be happy to correspond over e-mail (they like to convert other people to cycle touring) - especially once they are back home in a month or so.