The Final Week...

.....is upon us, and goodness, it's shaping up to be a frantic one. Spent last week with my Phyto team-mates planning for next year (odd, given that I won't be there for much of it). But I felt actually much happier at the end, knowing that PhytoTrade's a big, solid machine that'll keep rolling on, with or without me. And hopefully it won't have picked up so much momentum by the time I get back that I can no longer hop back on!

Weekend was hectic but REALLY enjoyable. On Saturday we had a leaving do with a few of our friends. In keeping with the spirit of the expedition, we invited some of our closest friends to join us on a trip up Ngomakurira, a famous landmark outside Harare. It's a granitic inselberg, very classically Zimbabwean, and our plan was to drive up to the top and have a braai there. Driving up there is a bit of a mission, and we were expecting this to deter quite a few. But not at all. Just about everyone we invited turned up, and it was a hoot! Sadly I can't show you any photos yet, as I clean forgot to take a camera in all the excitement, but I'll swipe some from one of the many others who were there and who did remember to bring their cameras.


Yesterday passed in a blur doing last minute things to the car, trying to figure out how we're going to pack for 6 months in a car that we usually fill up on an afternoon outing to the animal shelter, going through old tins of tomato paste and deciding whether they really merit a trip to Cairo etc etc. All good stuff! I went out to the microlight club in the evening to bid a sad farewell to my plane, which I won't see again for a very long time. Pete, my hangar mate, took this photo of me coming in for my final landing, which I'll include here in lieu of any trip-related photos.

Today marked the official start of my Last Week at Work, which was only mildly scarey. I stopped off at the engineering shop on my way into the office to get some hi-lift jacking points welded onto the car. A side-trip to a workshop always sets me off in a good mood, so I knew it was going to be a fine day. Strangely, though, that was about the last cogent thought I remember having had during the day, as the rest of it just rushed by in a mad whirl. Now sitting alone in the office, long after dark, and thinking I really ought to be off home. At which point, therefore, I'll bid you farewell.....!