Sunday 11 May, our revised departure date, came too quickly for all of us.
Saturday morning had been frantic as we tried different ways of loading the back of Tom Cruiser. We’d only picked the car up from Gerald at Alu-Cab on Friday afternoon after final snagging. The wheel arch hidey holes were quickly filled, the ammo box for spares was cunningly packed, only to find that the engine oil had leaked out, so back to square 1. Tents and groundsheets were in and tied down. The pile of things to pack got bigger and bigger, so too did Richard’s jaw and neck! But more of that later!
At 10 o clock, our designated departure time, the road in front of the house was full of family, friends and neighbours coming out to wish us well. There were balloons and streamers everywhere and two very tidy looking Land Cruiser Pick-ups. Coming up the road, Matt and Sue had probably thought they were driving into a road block, naaa, just our manic mates.
Loads of photos are taken, the vehicles are closely inspected and finally… one Land Cruiser is revved into life and chugs slowly up the road (it is a diesel, you know) to begin the trip.
To find out what happened to the other one, well, you guessed it, it’s back to Richard, the “pain-in-the-neck”. To cut a long story short, after our first postponement Richard decided to have some preventative dentistry done. This involved taking out a Wisdom tooth that was starting to play up. (Easy, peasy) Saw the maxo, facillo surgeon chappy on the Wed, quick 20 min procedure in the chair on Thurs, no problem there. Straight out of the chair and on with the preparations, into work on Friday to get some scanning done, drinks at granny Friday night, starting to get more swollen, Saturday, swelling spreads to the neck, sees MFS chappy again Saturday afternoon who prescribes antibiotics and says: sorry, see me Monday morning. Sunday: even worse, so much so that while all the festivities are going on in the road, Richard is being admitted to Rosebank Clinic where he languishes still as he types this (Monday 12th, 1pm).
Where would I rather be?… well Kruger Park would be nice…but hey we’ll get there soon!!!
3 comments:
Speedy recovery to Richard - we really hope you guys are on your way by the weekend.
Luv Sally
Hi Rich This is reeeeally not the exit we imagined and we are pretty sure it is not the exit you planned, so get rid of the abcess and get back on your feet, Africa overland is no place for sissies........
On a serious note we hope you are getting better, wisdoms are never easy peasy and always sore - ask me, Ken or the kids if you really want to know.... Take care, hope you are back on your feet soon. Linda, Ken and kids
Hope your on the mend hoping Sunday is your getaway day!
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