I’m on my way, this time tomorrow I’ll be having a braai with my cousin and her hubby in SA.

It still doesn’t feel real although I’m definitely at the stage of saying that it’s only eleven months and not even a year. This mentality makes me feel slightly better about leaving friends and family behind.

I’m not getting much of a chance to make last minute goodbye phone calls as my phone has been disconnected for the last 36 hours and O2 haven’t managed to rectify the problem.

Packing was an ordeal but I did manage to cram pretty much everything in, well into a cricket bag at 23kg and one carry on sports bag at 15kg. It’s the books that add the weight, my guide to 1,000 plus trees of Southern Africa weighed in at over one KG.

I had a fantastic send off from colleagues, friends and family, I will miss them all terribly but I will be back in less than a year with some great stories to bore them all silly.