Botswana. In a trip that had so many expected outcomes a Safari and nonetheless one in Botswana was something we'd
never thought we'd see. Even after planning to come to Africa and then up to Victoria falls and Zambia we had no expectation that while we
were here we'd be able to pop over the border into Botswana and take a safari into the picturesque Chobe National Park. Boy were we glad we
did get this opportunity though. Just remember we are two veteran travellers at this point with ripped bags, worn through shoes and clothing,
bad haircuts in tow and we were going on a safari. One of the most prestigious tourist events that can be undertaken. We'd be surrounded by
tourists who had paid a lot of money to come just here for the safari staying at expensive lodges, not just a hostel across the border. But
we didn't let that bother us from a nice day in Africa. As Ernest Hemingway once so famously said "I never knew of a morning in Africa when
I woke up that I was not happy".
During our full day safari in the Chobe National Park we started the day by taking a river cruise as it was too warm for most the animals on
the land at this stage. While we'd been on safaris before we'd never been done a river on a boat seeing all the animals and for us this made
this part of the trip even more special. While here we saw so many hippos and crocodiles which we'd not been able to see before really, at
least not to this level and this close. Of course we also saw lots of elephants, birds, giraffe, warthogs, mongooses, zebra, a tortoise and deer
as well. None of the big cats though but we were ok with this and spotting them in such a wet and dense forest area was already unlikely. Some
of the elephants were our particular favourites with us able to watch entire families of elephants including babies playing in the mud together.
The maternal instincts and fun-loving nature we truly touching. We were even blessed to see deer fighting horn to horn alongside a few other cute
scenes like watching the birds resting on a buffalos back or several birds cleaning up a giraffe's neck.
It always had to end somewhere, and for us that somewhere was here. I couldn't have
asked for a more beautiful and special end to our round the world trip than sipping beer while on a chilled out largely tourist free safari
in Botswana watching the elephants, hippos and all the other wildlife.
We'd racked up some impressive stats on this trip: 391 days outside the UK, covered 32 countries, took 23,000 photos and videos, drove
12,790 miles in 4 different rental cars, took 27 flights, stayed in over 200 different accommodations from hotels to shanty shacks, converted
and used money in 30 different currencies, visited 4 of the 6 continents of the world, used 750 different ATMs, got life threatening food
poisoning twice and had two car accidents. But we had made it!
Everything had to come together in order for us to pull off this trip. We lived through martial law in Myanmar, narrowly missed political unrest
in Malaysia, the US Government funding dispute that shut every state run national park missed us by just 4 days, we avoided severe flooding in
Colorado, forest fires in California, smog in Beijing, Sand Clouds in China, heavy fog in Victoria and Sydney, massive flooding in New South
Wales just a week before we got there, only just left New Zealand before it was hit by a massive earthquake, heavy snowfall closing every alpine
pass in New Zealand, a tourist fell to their death forcing the park to close just after we'd finished visiting Milford Sound, there was
heavy flooding in Jakarta and Hurricane Karen almost ground us in Miami. Any one of these events could have grounded us, made us miss a connection
or in the most severe cases endangered our lives. But as it turned out luck was mostly on our side and we'd made it through this trip and it had
been more than we could have every expected.
Going in to a trip like this took many months of preparation and there was so much to sort out from housing to storing of possessions to redirecting
of mail to hunting out insurance for such an expedition, just to name a few. We knew this would be an epic, likely once in a lifetime trip and we
were blessed to be able to undertake it while we still had our health and the hardiness of youth. While I'd like to think we'd still have done this
trip at 40 years old I think it would have definitely been more of a challenge physically and mentally. One of the most surprising things for us
about this trip was that no one ever really gets to be away from rigorous systems of control, not for this long. From birth we are told what to do
by our parents, then the school system, then university, our peers and eventually work. By the time we might have the ability to truly decided
exactly what we want to do on any given day we are 60 plus years old and we no longer have the health or money to be able to be truly free.
For us we had a moment, about 3 months in when we had some slow time in the southern Thai islands. It was just a totally different mental outlook. We
had been free to choose what to do for so long we realised we had actually changed. It is a very hard thing to describe but we no longer felt pressured,
desired or strived by any societal goals or agenda. We experienced something neither of us had ever had before...... True Freedom. Freedom from
the pressures of the world in every way. Freedom from expectations. Freedom from goals. Freedom from any agenda. We could wake up tomorrow and decide
to do anything we wanted and we'd be able to do it. It was truly liberating and actually something which made integration back into the 9 to 5 worklife
of the UK brutal, even socialising was hard as you soon realise nothing and no one has changed. Lifes exactly as it was, but now your so different and
you've really lived that year of your life to the max. It's almost disheartening to see how much everyone around you has been ground down by the systems
we put in place and has for all but a better word wasted a year of their lives. Going back to this and agreeing to sign back up to this agenda. It was
a very tough pill to swallow and I'd say we weren't able to fully re-integrate for about 6 months. This is just the harsh reality of life and we needed
to recuperate money so we could again be free to travel the world, unfortunately. This would also mean we'd have a fairly simple 2014 in terms of further
travel despite us arriving home by the end of January.
Was it all worth it? Definitely yes. Would we do it again? In a heartbeat. Should you do it? So long as you don't fall into the usual hole of planning a great
year and then staying in one place and working as a barista for 6 months and never actually travelling or seeing stuff, then yes. Were we worried about our jobs
at home? Nope, we asked they said they couldn't authorise such a long period of absence so we quit. Had a nice Christmas and New Year in the UK without the worry
of returning to work and then set off on our trip. As it'd turn out we actually attended interviews from Argentina and got aligned back to positions starting
when we got back. We even got pay rises from our previous positions before leaving. Will we ever undertake a similar trip? For now we are focused in shorter more
manageable trips but I'd like to think we'd never be too afraid to throw it all in and undertake a trip like this again if the opportunity came up or if we had
plans.
