Last leg in UK

Friday 5th October

We woke up and after booking our flight up to Scotland for tomorrow, we set off to visit Southwold where the Adnams Brewery is and some other seaside towns. Mike and Debbie both took the day off so that was great. The weather was clear and sunny and we had a lovely day seeing the countryside and having lunch at a lakeside restaurant in Thorpeness. After lunch we returned to Ipswich where we walked around the town centre and then bought meat and beers for a braai. Gaynor and Leanne, both of Debbie’s sisters joined us for the evening which was great as Dave grew up in the same neighbourhood as these girls.


Saturday 6th October

We had a leisurely start and then Mike and Debbie took us up to Norwich airport to catch our flight to Glasgow. Trevor met us at the airport and we went home to the farm where we met all the family.


Sunday 7th October

We relaxed around the farm – it was a glorious day – and in the afternoon we went and had tea with the Murdoch’s(Judy’s parents). In the evening we had a lovely family dinner where we met Phil, Barbara’s new boyfriend.


Monday 8th October

We went to Paisley to check up about train tickets down to Oxford and then we went swimming with Kimberley – she loves the water and has no fear, but is not quite swimming yet. She is an adorable little girl and is very friendly to everyone that she meets. In the evening Barbara cooked us dinner.


Tuesday 9th October

We relaxed at the farm and packed our bags ready to leave the next morning.


Wednesday 10th October

We caught a train down to Oxford where Duncan & Lin Black met us at the station. It was wonderful to see the Black’s and where they live and to catch up with their lives. Our purpose of going to the UK was simply to see family and friends and we are really enjoying all the socializing.


Thursday 11th October

Duncan went to work but Lin took Dave and me into Oxford where we did an open bus city tour and then had some lunch. It was an enjoyable day seeing Oxford University which is not a campus as such, but rather a whole lot of colleges interspersed throughout the town. Unfortunately, we did not think to look up Maria, one of the overlanders, who is now at Oxford – she only sent us an email once we were home and that reminded us that she was at Oxford University. We spent a pleasant evening at home.


Friday 12th October

Lin took us driving around the Cotswold area – seeing where she and Duncan had worked at various times in the past 5 years and just visiting all the quaint villages. England is really very beautiful and it is lovely to see elderly people walking around with shopping bags in their hands with absolutely no threat of being mugged and robbed! We have been removed from all the violent crime in South Africa for 7 months now and I am feeling quite apprehensive about returning!


Saturday 13th October

John and Norah Lewis came over for lunch – they are also ex South Africans now living in the UK. We chatted non stop and caught up with the last 8 years. All the people we have seen in the UK seem to be making a good living and although the weather is miserable, the thought of a safe and secure life is appealing.


Sunday 14th October

Duncan and Lin drove us down to Kingston where Kelvin(my nephew) and Taflin live with their baby, Jordan. Once again it was lovely to see family and where they are living in the UK.

Tomorrow we fly home. I am so excited that I have not even been able to think of it before now – or else I would not have got through these past 10 days!
It is very hard to believe that our ‘dream journey of a lifetime’ - 10 years in the planning is now over. We have seen and done the most incredible things and have seen beauty and the harshness of life alongside each other. From the stark barren deserts where at times there were no roads at all and we had to have blind faith following the railway line into the unknown, to the green lush mountains carpeted with delicate flowers and prowled by wolves and leopards. It has definitely been a journey of a life time. Dave and I have had to depend on each other and work together as a team through flat, hard, crusty salt pans to misty, winding mountainous paths. We have had to endure times of drizzle and rain and times of extreme heat when our bodies felt as if they were on fire and our thirst could just not be quenched. We have realized what a very small part we play in this huge universe that we all inhabit – but that with mutual respect and kindness, each and everyone of us can make a massive difference to the world we live in.
The past 7 months have been surreal in many ways as we have been completely removed from the normal day to day hassles of earning a living and keeping our home and family going. Carmen-Jo, our eldest daughter handled all these affairs for us and it was as if Dave and I had gone back a few hundred years in time – we were living in rural Africa and in fact we just had to survive each day in the basic sense, that is we had to make sure that we had food, kept clean and had a place to sleep each night! Back to complete basics. There was no TV, no fast pace of our modern lives, no socializing and no diary commitments to honour! A lot of problems and issues that had seemed so, so important back home faded into insignificance and we had time to think about what was really important to us in our lives. We are firmly entrenched in our mutual belief that life is the journey NOT the destination and we urge each and every one of you out there to not linger, but to go out and start living out your dreams right now. Life is a very fragile thread and we all need to seize the moment and enjoy our lives on a daily basis.
I thank you all for sharing these past months with us and we look forward to taking up the thread of our lives with all our very precious friends and family.


The End (Dave)
I suppose all good stories need an end, so why should this one be any different? Having got to the UK and met up with family and friends and discussing with them our trip, recalling different special moments, disgusting hotels we stayed in and the hot desert days etc sure brings back a flood of emotions and good memories.
We are often asked, so which was your best country? Well this question is hard to answer, because each country is so different. The dirtiest country, with litter flying everywhere, was without doubt Libya. The cleanest country for me is Rwanda; they have a half day a month where everyone cleans their city. But of course the genocide is enough to break any ones heart. The most surprising country was Ethiopia; I expected a hot dry country with starving people everywhere. Well how wrong can you be, it was cool (18-20deg) all year round as most of the country is 2500m above sea level and is green with plenty of water and crops. But their children were the worst, you could not stop anywhere for 5min without having 20 kids attacking you and shouting ‘you you you’- personal space did not exist. The other question that is always asked is did you ever feel threatened? Or did you have any problems? Well the answer in both case has to be no. We can, without doubt, say that South Africa is by far the least safe place. This was also often stated by other overseas and local people that we spoke to along the route. The statement being “What a lovely country but the violence” We have become complacent over the past months, leaving our car open and belongings out while away from the vehicle, we are going to have to once again get use to locking everything and be on a careful lookout all the time. What you also notice is the aggression of the SA drivers, other big cities that are busier than ours have drivers that are polite and even tempered. Why is South Africa like this? Will it ever come right?
We had a pleasant stay in the UK with Beryl’s brother in Scotland, Mike and Debbie Eldrow, Duncan and Lin Black , Kelvin & Taf Byres – all ex South Africans. It is so nice to see how everything works, trains run on time, everything is clean and well maintained. You can take a walk down to the corner shop or take a stroll in the park, knowing that there will be no problems. This has without doubt made us feel terribly un-settled.
Enough of my gripes. We are also asked, did we not have a problem living together 24/7? I can honestly say no, Beryl was an amazing navigator, especially in places like Cairo. I have to thank B for putting up with all the hardships that we had to face from time to time. For being a companion bar none for the duration of the trip, washing clothes, cooking and forever cleaning. There are very few women that would have handled what she had to. You are my star.