Day 27 - Orpington, UK.

We've been back for a few days now and it's been bliss sleeping in a proper bed again. We've got a couple of weeks before heading off to Moscow for the start of the next leg of the journey and it gives us the chance to refine the packing. At least we won't need to be lugging the sleeping bags around with us any more as, thankfully, we'll not be doing any more camping.

On our last day in Maun we all decided it would be a great idea to take a flight over the delta to try and see some of the animals that were supposed to be living there. Very exciting it was too. There were five of us to a plane, one of the small Cessnas and although it was cramped, it was a great flight. We soared over the delta and managed to see groups of elephants, hippos, wildebeest, impalas and a few giraffes. They looked incredible, but tiny in comparison to the vastness of the delta. Back on land one of the other groups was telling us about their pilot doing some acrobatics in the sky and swooping down to about 50ft to they could get a better look at the wildlife. I'm glad ours was a bit more sensible.

The next day was an early start (again!). We left the campsite about 6am and headed towards South Africa on our marathon 12 hour drive for that day. The reason for such a long drive was that Mike, our driver, wanted to reach the border so we could bush-camp and make Jo'burg by lunchtime the next day. We never made the bush-camp. Instead, we passed what looked like a pleasant motel and after Mike negotiated the rates with them, we had to rustle up the money between us to each pay for a room. Well, I don't think the owner of the motel was used to renting the rooms out for the whole night - I think it was one of those that were usually rented by the hour. Let's just say, it wasn't only the pipes to the hot-water tank that were banging all night! Despite the promise of a comfy bed with real blankets, we still decided to use the sleeping bags on top of the bed to sleep in. Heaven knows what was lurking on that sleazy, sequinned bedspread. Yuck...

Another early morning the next day and, as usual, Pete cooked us breakfast from the truck. He seemed embarrased that it wouldn't be up to his usual standard, but he still managed to cook eggs for us as well as cereals, bread and tea and coffee. Bless him. What was left of the mountain of boiled eggs ended up on the truck for us to snack on during the journey.

The border crossing into South Africa was all relatively straight forward and surprisingly quick. Only two of the girls in the group received marriage proposals from the immigration officers, and I think one of them might have been interested until she was told by her suitor that he wanted 10 kids. We made Johannesburg by late afternoon, and after a magical mystery tour around the perimeter roads we made it to our hotel. Jo'burg has a reputation of being a little unsafe but I've seen nothing like it. All of the buildings had massive security gates, alarm systems, spikey fences and vicious dogs and the place we were staying was like a cross between the Big Brother house and Colditz. We could only leave the hotel en-masse, sticking together in a herd and taking it in turns to be on the outside of the herd in case of attack. I now know how those impala feel...

Now I'm home, I'll be posting some pictures and not taking anything for granted any more.