The Post Script

As the Jambanja team made its way straight back to Harare, we opted for the scenic route, taking in Fish River canyon, some of the Kalahari, the Magkadikadi Pans and the Matopos Hills in Zim. Africa has a way of thwarting even the best laid plans, and we were unlucky to discover that the Magkadikadi pans had had a freak rainstorm the previous week, leaving them underwater and completely impassable. Fortunately we were wise enough to turn back at the first sign of mud, rather than press on (a sure sign that I'm getting old, as I'd definitely have pressed on in my youth!). Lucky we did, as it turned out the only vehicles in the pans were three very stuck South African vehicles who had ignored all the warnings and carried on. Last we heard they'd been digging for 48 hours and hadn't moved.....

We were chased throughout by a very cold front that left our car ice-encrusted several times in the Kalahari. It didn't diminish our fun in any way, but it did mean we were less inclined to hang around than we might otherwise have been. Perhaps a divine sign that we do all need now to get back to reality?!

The return to Zim could have been an anti-climax but, thankfully, wasn't. We had our last night out at a bush camp in the stunning Matopos hills, completely on our own. Huddled round the fire, we played quiz games on our trip (e.g. "in what Egyptian town did we see a seafood restaurant whose menu included the tantalising offerings of Fresh Crap and Muck?"), wink murder (a classic game with a seven year old who can only wink by manually holding one eye open while blinking) and a review of our best and worst meals over the last six months (in which my meals appeared with monotonous regularity in the latter category!). It was an entirely fitting final night, and on Wednesday 1st July we drove back from Matopos to Harare, reaching home at 5pm for a joyful reunion with our friends, our pets and, in some cases, our bicycles. Oh the joy of young boys who haven't had their bikes for six whole months!

A few photos of highlights along the way:

Camping at the bizarrely-named Titties Bay on the west coast of South Africa. It was here we met the woman whose dad was the lighthouse keeper.

Staring down at the impressive but fearsomely chilly Fish River canyon in Namibia. Who needs school when you can get living geography lessons like this one?

Revisiting a favourite camp on the Botswana side of the Kalagadi Transfrontier park. As always, we had fabulous sightings of lion here, and woke up in the morning to find them all around our camp.

Green's Baobab, on the edge of the Makgadigadi Pans. Sadly we couldn't get any further into the pans, due to the heavy rains they'd had the previous week.

A close encounter with an ardvaark just outside Gweta. Botswana is like Texas. Everything here is unnaturally large!

Sundowners on our final evening at Matopos in Zim. We had the whole camp to ourselves for less money than it costs just to get one person into a national park in Botswana!

Home at last for joyful reunions with friends, pets and bicycles.

Some of our pets have grown quite a bit while we've been gone.....

As, indeed, have some of us!

And now we do indeed return to reality. I write this in the early morning from home before my first day back at work, and Jake has already donned his uniform, boarded a flight and gone back to his school in South Africa. Already, after a few days at home, the trip is beginning to fade into memory as what seems like little more than a very long weekend away, but there are many subtle ways in which we're all permanently and irrevocably changed. I might have a chance later this week to reflect on some of those. But there again, I might not!

So, for the time being, I guess "That's All Folks". This blogging lark has been an adventure!