The last blog entry…..two months later!!!

Casting my mind back to the last day on the truck on day 74 was one we both had been looking forward to for quite some time! Again an early start for us both. We were pretty rough after getting back to the room at 2am after some birthday drinks at the camp bar! I think we managed all of 3 hours sleep due to the early start for the 6 hour drive that we still had to make.

Today we would finish the overland adventure and say bye to the group. We were dropped off in Livingstone which sits on the Zambian side of the falls. We stayed in the Protea hotel which we booked the previous day. Over our allotted budget but we didn’t care, we needed some decent accommodation! To find a comfy bed, decent shower, bathroom, tv and wireless internet we thought we had died and gone to heaven!! Over the next few days we pretty much slept and relaxed. On the last day before heading to South Africa we visited Victoria Falls which was breath taking to see. We even managed to walk right up to the edge of the falls and jump in one of the rock pools. Not the devils pool but who cares. The pictures attached show how close we actually got to the edge.

Next on our trip was a short stopover in Johannesburg before a week in Mauritius. We stayed at a casino not far from the airport so we of course had a wee night out at the casino! It was great being back in the land of the living and had a great night out.

The final stop over on our long way home was the beautiful island of Mauritius. We arrived late at night and having negotiated a taxi to our hotel which was an hour drive up the coast we finally got to the hotel around midnight. The week should have been the best week of the trip but turned out to be one of the hardest. Di ended up with the flu, I got sandworms and our close friend Steve died after a long battle against illness. The passing of Steve floored us for a good few days and by this stage we both just wanted to get to the Gold Coast. Mauritius is a stunning place but due to our issues and tiredness we just didn’t give it any justice.

Our last day of the trip almost turned into a nightmare as we arrived at the airport to hear the final boarding call for our connecting flight to Sydney!!! We had both somehow managed to get the time of the flight wrong by an hour. After pleading with the lady at the check in desk we managed to get on the flight. She was really good with us actually and sorted it all out with minimal fuss and no high and mighty jobs worth opinion of us being late. After this drama it all went smoothly from there on. We arrived in Sydney on time and connected to Brisbane with no fuss to be met by Di’s family. At last we had made it!!!

All in all the 88 days I spent travelling the world with MacGyver Burns was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. Being able to spend that amount of time with her and share all the experiences is something I will have for the rest of my life. Don’t get me wrong, not every day was amazing, some days were really tough but having Di there every step of the way made it for me.

Top 5 highlights
1. Making it to Australia alive!
2. St Emillion wine making
3. Victoria Falls
4. Winning the Morton Portuguese Open (with rental clubs)
5. Seeing the Great Migration in person

5 sore points
1. Saying goodbye to my family and friends
2. Watching Di struggle for 3 weeks with sandworms and not be able to help her one bit
3. Being attacked by every bug going at bedtime every night for 3 weeks
4. Egypt – Great place but a lot of the population need to remove their heads from their backsides.
5. Taking Di’s chicken from her lunch box on safari and ending up with food poisoning…burn!