The long drive home

On the truck yesterday I overheard a discussion between two English passengers about the heatwave in England back in June. And as we do, I thought back to myself swimming in the Thames, getting sunburnt at Royal Ascot and popping the top on the Campervan to let the breeze in because it was too hot to sleep. It also feels like it was so long ago, holidays have a habit of that as I am fairly sure that if I were to ask anyone who was in Melbourne if they remember the big chill of June 2017, they would say it hasn't ended! But for me it seems so long ago due to the amount of ground I have covered.

Yesterday I set off with my new group for the longest drive of the trip so far. We left the powder white sand of northern Zanzibar at 7.30am, spent two hours on a ferry (I stared at the horizon for 1 hour and 50 mins before being drenched by a torrential downpour) then two hours in gridlock traffic in Dar es Salaam (me awake, everyone else asleep) before driving another 9 hours to camp. It was a no lunch day and we were given 10 mins in a mini mart to buy snacks before getting back on the truck. Snacks means biscuits or cassava chips. I also found a can of chilled sparkling pineapple juice. Winning.

Our camp is in a national park and one of the best camps so far. There are hot showers, a restaurant/bar, swimming pool and, so the sign says, wifi. But let me say, that it's African wifi. I have now learned the true meaning of that. I am told it costs an establishment $250 US per month to maintain a wifi connection, and needless to say, many of these places have issues with "the network" when you arrive so you take the signs with a grain of salt.

The group are heading off shortly on an optional game drive and I am staying put as we have another 6 hour drive this afternoon to our next camp. Not even the pull of the animals could make me want to break down the tent in the dark today. So I am sitting here with all the activity happening around me, just happy to be able to stand still for a couple of hours in my own company. Very few people get to experience even a fraction of what I have done over the past couple of months and I haven't lost sight of how fortunate I have been to have taken this trip. I also haven't lost sight of the fact that it's not over yet.

The rest of the long drive home is jam packed with life changing experiences. We will see lots more animals, we get to spend a couple of days off the grid again at Lake Malawi, we are donating clothing, bedding and lots of goggles (a fellow passenger is a gym/pool manager and brought them with her) to some people in Malawi and the final stages will be visiting some of the places we went to 20 years ago in Zimbabwe. I still have memories of Bulawayo and the Rhodes National Park and of course Victoria Falls. It will be sort of a homecoming before coming home.

If there was ever a way to wrap up the long drive home, then I would say this is picture perfect. But please, no cassava chips today.Read more