Home is where the heart is…

And my heart is still in Africa I think.

Our little orange truck has been loaded on to it’s container and is awaiting departure from Cape Town, it already feels like we are missing a limb and that September is an eternity away. We really should have hired a private plane to transport it… It deserves the only the best you know!

What’s it like being in London again? “Mixed feelings” would be the standard response…

Pros? An ensuite; oh man, it really is brilliant. My handbag; it’s gorgeous and I missed it! Familiar faces; always comforting. Our own washing machine; we still hadn’t washed our Kilimanjaro clothes… Gross!

Cons? Wearing shoes; jandals (or flip flops) are the way forward. Job hunting; pffft. Cleaning; having a flat is great but you have to clean it all the bloody time! Car problems; you think you’ve left it all behind in Cape Town until you realise the other two need MOT’s, Tax, new batteries and what not. Blah blah, the list goes on, so there we go… I guess the point I’m trying to make IS:

You really only need the simple things in life and as equally frustrating as that can be at times I’d give absolutely anything to do it all again tomorrow.

i.e. Some of the experiences that put a big smile on our faces while we travelled were a washing machine, a clean toilet, hot water and a roadside meal that wasn’t skewers of whole-cooked rat. Richard found joy in scaring the excrement out of me on various off-road “adventures” and mountain climbing expeditions (we climbed a MOUNTAIN for crying out loud!).

It’s been an emotional few days to be completely honest. It’s actually very difficult to let our little African adventure go and in typically girly fashion there are sniffles and damp lashes as I think of how best to word this post.

We have a raft of facts, figures and stats to share with the fellow inquisitive overlander but as Richard is the mathematician in the household I will leave that to him.

Just to wrap things up though… We finished in Cape Town with 34567 miles on the clock. How totally perfect.

Overland travel in Africa really is as simple as 34567.

Love to all, we miss you.
Jo and Richard

And it’s all over…

We upgraded the truck, pretty good eh?!

Bring on the Olympics I guess

Jo and Richard x

Guess where we are today… Cape Town!

What a journey! 🙂

5 months and 17 days (to find a proper flat white)

In an almost award-winning fashion, we’d like to thank…

Brent Skilton(AKA: HQ), you’re a legend B, thanks for doing all our banking, neglected car registrations, taking care of the flat and many other things X

Marco Buergisser, for a lovely cosy night in your family home, it was very much appreciated X

Waleed El Husseiny of Imaginative Traveller, you brilliant man! The best ever itinerary for Egypt-self-drive-travel and all the contacts one could ever need in order to make the most difficult borders some of the easiest. We love you for it X

Matt Young and Richard Tom, you saved our butts with Western Union in Khartoum when we were stranded without money or diesel! X

Karima, Daniel and Manish, for giving us an education in human kindness when we dropped into Mwanza. It was a huge highlight of the journey X

Kevin at Nene Overland, for sending out those bloody rear shocks so quickly and efficiently! It would have been 4 weeks otherwise X

David and Di Grimes, the three nights we had with you were bliss. Thank you so very much for taking us in and just being so lovely X

Mums and Dads of kiwisinafrica, we know you worried a lot, thank you for caring SO much! We also know you’re the most avid readers of our blog and we love you all dearly for it X

Sisters and Brothers of kiwisinafrica, you’re all pretty cool too, love you lots X

Road-workers of Torra Bay, THANKS for saving our asses in the Skeleton Coast National Park. It was a memorable occasion (Go the All Blacks!) X

New Friends, last but most certainly not least to our fellow travellers and overlanders… You’re the reason this trip has been so amazing and eye-opening. We’ll miss our campsite rendezvous more than anything else X

There are many more who helped us on our way but these are the people we can think of now amidst all this excitement!!

Now… a little side mention for all the scoffing cynics, doubters, greedy buggers that assumed we had more money than sense and just generally rude people that told us “we were crazy” to bring this amazing little orange car to Africa: You were all completely wrong. HA!

After 5 months and 17 days of all our polite smiles, polite nods of the head in feigned agreement and polite dismissive chuckles… this is the most polite way I can say what I was really thinking all along:

Alright? Good.

(WOO HOOOOO to kiwisinafrica)

Jo and Richard