YouMe&Michael


After years of saving and planning, our dream to overland through Africa is finally becoming a reality. Along with our Land Cruiser, Michael Buble, we will be travelling through our beautiful continent for 6 months! Woohoo!

About Us

We have been married for two busy years and have lived in Johannesburg all our lives. Ang is a Speech Therapist and Grant, an Environmental Consultant. We both love the outdoors and have dreamt of travelling through Africa together before we were even together (sort of). Please keep in touch and let us know your news. Hope you enjoy the journey with us.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Homeward bound: Kosi Bay to Cozy Jozi

Well, here we are; sitting in our lounge, preparing to post our final blog entry five whole weeks since we arrived back in Joburg. Time flies in this city.

We told some small white lies in our last post regarding the specifics of our return home because we were planning on surprising a heavily pregnant Lisa and Steven on the 25th June. After two lovely nights at Craig and Nadia's spot in Mangusi Hospital, Kosi bay, we woke early and embarked on the very very last road trip of our amazing journey.



We listened to all our favourite trip songs and got lost in our thoughts as we prepared ourselves for 'going home'. The sight of the fully completed N4 and N3 highways was impressive. The world-class quality of our city struck us in comparison to the cities we have driven through and stayed in over the past 6 months. We felt quite proud actually.


With bubbling excitement we pulled into the driveway of Lisa and Steven's complex and begged the security guard to let us in so we could surprise them. My likeness to Lisa stood in our favour and he let us in! After a series of knocks on their door, we were faced with a stunned Steven and were run into by a bowling-ball Lisa! We surprised them fully and it was so wonderful to see them and catch up after 6 months. Four days later our beautiful niece, June Valerie Barrett arrived, and we are completey in-love with her!




The weeks following have been chaotic. Family has been up from CT to meet little June and so we have been lucky to have spent time with the Hallands as well as the Beringers and catch-up with friends too. After a week settling into our flat and sorting out our lives, we went back to work! Back to school, back to reality, as they say :) Bush-man-Grant has been replaced with school-boy-Grant for the hefty price of R50 including a face massage and neck-click.

 




I'm loving being back at work (best partner, colleagues and clients in the world), but hating the chores of daily life in Joburg. Visits with friends and family, returning to our church and regaining our status as most-frequent customers at our DVD shop have kept us smiling and not frantically planning our next trip. Michael has been attended to by a new (more competent) mechanic, but has unfortunately left us deep in debt. After a serious discussion on the merits of keeping him, Michael's charms have won us over- he's staying!


After many great chats and fantastic support, we are resting in the knowledge that it will take us a while to adjust to life here and at the same time, not lose the life-lessons gained on the trip. But, in the meantime, here are our trip-stats, as promised:

Total days on trip: 163
Number of nights slept in tent: 126
Number of nights not slept in tent: 37
Kilometers travelled: 23 988
Liters of petrol consumed by Michael: 4091.12
Countries visited: 8
Mountains climbed: 1
Number of marriage-saving GPS's flown-in to Nairobi International Airport: 1
Nice people met: Too many to count
Horrible people met: 1 (Australian- typical!)
Number of days spent waiting for a new hub for Michael: 12
Number of bribes paid: 0
Number of mosquito bites: thousands
Number of malaria self-tests performed: 3
Number of malaria infections: 0



'Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagles'.
Psalm 103 v 1-5

... And Michael was his Name-O

Our Trusty Land Cruiser goes by the name of Michael Buble'. Unlike his human namesake, he is not from Canada, has not won any Grammy's and does not sing (he purrs). Our Michael got his name courtesy of Ang. When she first saw the Land Cruiser 80 Series she said they looked like big bubbles. Upon doing a little research we found that in Columbia and Venezuela the Land Cruiser was nicknamed Burbuja (Bubble) because of it's roundness. Bubble turned into Buble' and Michael was his name.

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