Heck thats alot of km!

So i previously stated a random amount of miles we were gonna travel across Africa i shall now update that figure....its actually more then 22,000km heck that's a lot of km...

So Last Saturday LP arrived home from kiwiland and ever since it has been all go on all fronts! on Sunday we jumped in the car and headed to Barnstaple for a day of learning some family history and seeing some historic family sites...here's some pictures....

Stained glass window in the Newport church in Barnstaple (The Jewells are family)

The Bridge in Barnstaple

Me and a tree planted by the Jewells

Sues Old house in Chilerton

Then on Monday me and LP had a day of organising for Africa (he got up at 5am headed up the hill to work got there where he was sent home as he wasn't actually working hopefully this will teach him to read messages a bit better)

so we started off by writing ourselves a big list then checking them off in the town....

ü 15 passport photos for LP for obtaining visas on route (I got mine ages ago when I had to get pictures for my new NZ passport)

ü Got LP some hiking boots (cheap ones as he doesn't like boots…who doesn't like boots)

ü Got some new torches (wind up ones which never need batteries how handy…)

ü Assembled almost all of our first aid kit…(all we need now is some needles just in case we end up in hospital (touch wood))

ü Got all our toiletries (including shampoo bars like a bar of soap but shampoo great space saver!)

ü Then when we got home we brought our insurance online…(over 70 outdoor activities are covered including rambling and orienteering I’m so pleased that really takes a load off! But seriously it does cover the very necessary safari and gorilla trekking so is money well spent)

ü And lastly we brought our train tickets (to London for the 31^st October )

so it all seems to be coming together in less then four weeks now we head into the unknown....wish us luck...

Journeys

"A journey of a thousand miles begins

with a simple step" - Lao-tzu

A fitting quote really... in just five weeks now we will be heading off on what i would like to call the journey of a lifetime but will hopefully be the first of many epic journeys of lifetimes...time has moved so quickly these last few weeks and it all seems to have rushed up on us... In just 6 days LP will be back from Aotearoa and we will be putting the finishing touch on our preparations (finally getting the dreaded anti-malarials i constantly harp on about,getting the last few bits of gear, get some travel insurance, train tickets to London etc) LP is bringing my hiking boots back from NZ i need to break them back in... (so expect some pics of me in my boots all over town)

our journey is going to take about 20 weeks the distance between Cape Town and Cairo (as the crow flies) is approx 4467 miles...(that's 7189km for all the normal people who use normal measurements!) bearing in mind we are not doing a straight trip that's a lot more miles on the road... so "a journey of over 4467 miles starts with a simple step" and ours was deciding we wanted to visit this amazing continent i think that's a pretty good starting point but still cant wait till we actual take our first step in Africa....

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

At the moment LP is far away in kiwiland...i want him back....thank goodness he will be in Africa with me because i cant do any longer then the two weeks he will be away...i think this sums it up nicely...

Rushing rushing always rushing

Ill start off with a little about our recent trip to London town... it was lovely darling lots of seeing friends eating good (tasting slightly bad for you) food and generally relaxing we took in all the sights as we played tour guide and i realised i miss living in London this trip did a pretty good job of convincing us when we get back from Africa London is where we want to be.

(below i have included a picture of me and a squirrel just for the fun of it)

We have become accustomed to the slower pace of life that Cornwall has to offer theres no rushing to get to where you want to be its more relaxed,calmer the world is more at peace with itself...so it seems strange that as soon as we arrived at Paddington station we were back in the swing of things...in London everyone is always rushing everywhere...now Ive touched on this before Patience is a virtue and all that jazz but i don't think many londoners have Patience.... whilst we were there the lovely folks at transport for London decided to have a tube strike (any other week would have been fine with me!) so there was about a quadjillion million bajillion more cars on the road (then the normal million hundred or so) which is fine I'm down with people trying to get where they need to be but does that have to include being in the bus lane when your not a bus?...or indicating to change lanes then sitting blocking the traffic because no one will let you in? we have already established I'm lacking in the Patience department but i was even more fired up due to the fact i needed to catch a train and if i missed it i had zero pounds to my name to buy a new one (this fact made no difference when i did get to the station with moments to spare they were taking any tickets for that day so i could have been late if only i had Patience....) when we get back from Africa next year i think I'll have the Patience thing going for me....one can only hope....

Do these jandals make me look fat?

as you can see my poor wee brown jandals have officially kicked the bucket... for years now (yes literally years) i have been wearing these bad boys and only recently after at least 6 years loyal service a hole has made its way through...these loving jandals long ago lost all ability to grip the footpath making every steep surface and rainy day a challenge but i stuck with them determined to wear them till i no longer could and that day has come...

now i have these new ones, these bright blue ones these £15 at Camden market ones, these perfectly even because they haven't yet grooved to the shape of my feet ones... and yet i cant quite bring myself to chuck out the old ones....sad times for the old dogs....

if anyone out there has some jandals that need a new home (sorry not beat up old bangers like my brown ones I'm talking new or only slightly worn non-toe-jammy jandals) then donate them to a great cause Flip-flops for Africa (www.flipflopsforafrica.org) is a non profit organization aiming to bring flip flops to the masses in poor and underdeveloped nations the idea being that many simple health problems (such as sores,cuts and infections) could be reduced simply by wearing shoes something to think about anyway...

London calling

So today we are off to London town for two glorious reasons... the first being to visit my lovely NZer friends for a few days of general touristyness (I'm the tour guide heck yes!) i cant wait to hear tales from the travels to three lovely cities Edinburgh, Paris and Rome all of which we have explored and loved! ...and the second is to leave LP at Heathrow so he can journey back to the land of the long white cloud for a few weeks of family friends and fun... normally when we go anywhere together for a short stay we go minimal and simplistic sharing a tiny wee roll on suitcase... but as our paths will separate along the way i get the whole suitcase to me lonesome meaning of course it is packed to Maximilian with crap...well i saw crap but actually i mean my belongings clothes, shoes , straighteners,make-up etc etc...(well yeah actually i do mean crap) but at least it gives me options...

Yestermorning we packed LPs bag for NZ and it went well and by that i mean it went too well hes baffled by my upsetness that nothing went wrong... but it all just went too smoothly... everything fit first time, its not too heavy, there's still loads of room..(for all the pineapple lumps hes going to bring back for me) but to me this is a bad sign something of vital importance is missing from that bag and i don't mean to jinx it but its not going to be discovered until too late...oh dear

then LP came out with "it was always going to be easier then when we pack for Africa" now i don't know about him but I'm set... i know the exact layout of my bag I've already mentally packed it over and over (and once last week i did a cheeky half pack when i got the bag out for LP to take to NZ) I'm set but still i expect there to be a tantrum or two (or three) its just the way packing should be....