SEPARATION DAY – ITS OFFICIAL

WEATHER: Min 10C and Max a cooler 24C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Shorter day in the truck

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Drinking too much vodka and having another stack

BUYS OF THE DAY: A blanket for 8USD, an hours internet for 1USD or my beanie for 2USD

WORD OF THE DAY:

CAMP SITE RANKING: A true campsite but still has hot showers, flushing toilets and a bar 3 out of 5 stars

It’s official.  Today is ‘Separation Day’.  Drew and I have been separated officially for the required 12 months and 1 day.  Now the process can begin with the divorce.  As mentioned previously I have all the tools I need, and who would have thought it would be that easy to start the process in Africa of all places!

Normal morning for us up at 6.15am, breakfast at 7 and then on the road again at 7.30am. This group is very punctual and I don’t think we have been late leaving anywhere at all!  There is nothing I hate more in a trait than punctuality, it drives me nuts, but that is something I don’t need to worry about on this trip.

We had 350km to travel today getting us into Bulawayo, the second largest city in Zimbabwe, at 12 noon.  We were all given 5USD to buy lunch with and let loose on this once impressive city for 2.5 hours.  As a group, we decided to have Chicken Inn, which looked like a Kentucky equivalent.  A meal cost me 7.50USD where I paid with a tenner and got 2USD and 5 rand back.  The chicken was surprisingly moist and delicious, the bun was a little less desirable but all round it was nice to have a ‘western’ meal, and yes the second take away meal in 2 days. 

The main thing I HAD to get this stop was a blanket.  As it is getting so cold at night, my sleeping bag (rated to 10C) and my Masai blanket are just not cutting the mustard during the night, it seriously is like super freezing, like ice box freezing, like a freezer.  Our tent is like a freezer.  Luckily Lisa saw a baby / material shop straight up and there I found my sleeping aid for the next 30 days.  It is a full on thick, flannel woolen blanket and I think it is going to be the most important thing on my trip now, after my camera and IPod of course!  From here we went to the local market that sold clothes, and 3 of us picked up beanies and Dave also bought a scarf, so we are getting ready for our run down south as it is only going to get colder the further we go.

We found an internet place, so to help kill some time, we got 1 hour for 1USD.  That has to be the cheapest internet on my whole trip so far and the speed was surprisingly quick.  I got an email from the office, my flight from Santiago to Quito in November has been cancelled and they have put me on an alternative flight, a DAY later.  Yeah that is not going to work, as my Galapagos cruise leaves on the day they now have me flying in.  I knew this would happen; it is the only part of my trip that I don’t have buffer days between Antarctica and the Galapagos, and knowing the way the south american airlines run and how unreliable they can be, you HAVE to have a buffer of some sort.  As the flights are part of my round world ticket, I have a feeling that there is no alternative to keep them on that, and I am going to have to buy an internal flight to get me to Quito on time.  I am still to reply back to the office.  But man I hope I can get it to work, as I can’t change any of the 3 tours as all the dates are tight as and there is no room to move them.  Bugger it.  Otherwise all news from home was good and no other ghastly surprises.  I haven’t had any Wi-Fi, so I haven’t been able to upload any blogs for the last 5 days, but it is good to get onto the internet and check banking, Hotmail and Facebook.

We had 15 minutes to kill, so Sean and I we went to a bakery and bought 12 donuts and a bottle of coke for 7.50USD!!  Maxine had bought some buns the night before for us all for dessert, so we decided to return the favor.  Pretty cheap for dessert for 23 people! 

So we left Bulawayo at 2.30pm for the 40 minute drive to our camp site.  The only warning we have for this site is it is renowned for scorpions.  So no leaving your shoes outside the tent and try and not wear thongs around the camp.  Roger that.  I could think of nothing worse than getting bitten by a scorpion.  After setting up camp, we then went for an hour walk with a ranger (Jordan) around the area where we are staying.  The scenery is very rocky, granite and large boulders.  Apparently the stone is one of the oldest in the world, giving Ayers Rock a run for its money.  It certainly is spectacular and the walk with Jordan was quite interesting and we got some great photos.  He showed us a cave that had paintings from over 10,000 ago and the reason they are still visible is what they used in their paint.  The main ingredients the local people used were urine and gall bladders from animals, which in turn actually ate itself onto the rock and this is why they can still be seen today.  Pretty amazing stuff.

So back to camp and then it was time to have a small celebration in honor of ‘Separation Day’. Dave and I hit the vodka’s, Lisa was onto the gin, Jimbob was on beers and soft Sean had 1 beer.  Dinner and PFT rolled on, we got drunk, and then we saw this bright flash in the sky as something fell to earth.  It was a white light with a little blue and we think it was a meteor.  It was pretty amazing and a good luck sign for the commencement of the new Bernie chapter.  Lisa got the Gin Monologues, with a toast in honor of ‘Separation Day’, Dave and I had quite a few in depth conversations and then the worse thing happened.  We ran out of Vodka!!!!  I know – drama city.  But in hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise really, as I think we had had enough to drink anyways.  Well for those of you who know me, running out of vodka doesn’t stop me from having a drink, so I went and bought a beer and came back to the fire, and this is where things get a little hazy now and I either fell off the chair or I went to get up and tripped over the massive rock and went down, spilling my beer, like a sack of potatoes.  I do remember the fall, and feeling like I was in slow motion.  I also remember being so embarrassed, so I didn’t move, which got people worried and they all came over to check on me.  How embarashing!  I think it was time I went to bed.  I was a little upset, but I think the culmination of alcohol, the weight of the day and the falling over business just bought on a sudden wave of tears.  Dave is pretty in tune and knew something was wrong, so he came into my tent for a while and we had a drunken chat about… well who knows, but he brightened me up and it was time to sleep it all off.  As I was falling asleep in my drunken stupor, the last thoughts I had was that maybe I would cut my trip short and finish in Vic Falls in a few day’s time, fly home for 3 weeks and then come back to continue with my trip and onto to Madagascar.  Pretty harsh thought isn’t it. Is it still an option? Well maybe it could have been if I had of thought about it earlier, but I think it would be too much to organize in 3 days, so the reality is a no, but it was a great drunken idea.

I think I just need a few warm hugs and a bit of family love, nothing like little people to sort that out is there?

Tomorrow is a new day, a new chapter and thanks to all for helping me celebrate my ‘Separation Day’