Back in the land of sand and sun

It's a funny feeling, after having been moving constantly for six months from exciting place to exciting place, to suddenly come to a standstill. It's almost as if the world made sense and now that we've stopped moving, it's spinning. What do we do now?

It's nice to have a cupboard to put our clothes into again and a bed that belongs to us that we won't have to leave in a couple of days. But after leaving Zimbabwe and arriving in Dubai it puts into perspective a lot of things that just seem plain wrong now that we're back.

Cheerful children

For instance — our last week in Zimbabwe was spent with HIV/Aids orphans born with the illness and living incredibly difficult but positive lives with an organisation called Chaz.

They speak positively about their hopes and dreams but behind them is a ramshackle office with peeling paint and six months of unpaid rent. And all these kids want are football boots, blankets, food and an opportunity to do something with their lives. I fly to Dubai and get invited to the polo where, wearing flip-flops and the one dress that wasn't stolen in Cape Town, I watch ladies in designer dresses swan around eating caviar or whizzing by in ridiculously shiny Rolls Royce cars. What recession? How is this fair?

I'm trying to get in touch with anyone who can help me organise a collection box in one of the major malls for those in Dubai tired of the glitz and glamour — those who have the means to donate clothes, blanket, shoes or anything they can send to Zimbabwe for these kids. Please get in touch through e-mail (arabiatoafrica@gmail.com).

Looking back over the last six months, we have had a truly magical incredible trip. Even with the occasional hiccup — like the herd boy who threw a stone at our rear window and shattered it. I was furious and the kid ran off into the distance, leaving all of his livestock on the road. We were trying to figure out how to confiscate one of his cows, tie it to the car and take it to the police. It turns out I'm not really a cow person and we still had 350km to go to the next village, which would have been a slow process with a cow tied to the car! Very annoying but thankfully we got a replacement window sent down with a couple of friends a week later.

Then there was the machete incident: Before we bought new tyres in Addis we were driving up to Lalibella in Ethiopia and at one point both our spare and one of the Xterra tyres had punctures, so Martin hitchhiked to the nearest village with the tyres while I looked after the car. I looked up and there were two men with machetes at the window, staring at me and smiling. Terrified, I made as much noise as possible and eventually managed to call over a mother and her seven children to my window from a mud hut nearby. I kept them entertained for two hours, teaching them English and giving them food until Martin returned, while the men with the machetes looked on in confusion. That was the moment we decided we had enough of Ethiopia and headed to Kenya.

Tales to tell

But on the upside we have some amazing experiences to tell the grandchildren one day — riding ostriches in Oudshorne in South Africa, great white shark diving, a hot air balloon ride over the Sabi River, watching the Sun rise in Oman as turtles hatch and head to the sea, swimming with a whale shark in Mozambique and riding elephants in Zimbabwe. How are we ever going to get back to normal life?

Hopefully we won't have to! We're editing all the JVC and Canon footage from the trip and aiming to get thousands of hours of tape into seven 24-minute episodes that (fingers crossed) will be on TV in Dubai sometime this year! Then, the grand plan is to set about acquiring funds to do it all again for Series 2! We've left the Xterra in Zimbabwe in the hope that we can convince Nissan to give it to us for another year so we can explore West Africa. But for now, real life has kicked in. We're back to having to earn money like all the rest of the UAE.

Thanks for following us. We'll keep all updates posted on the web (www.arabiatoafrica.com) ready for the next trip! See you on the road!