The Departed

The journey has begun after a veritable obstacle course of natural, political and administrative disasters endeavoured to prevent our departure from Australia and journey to Sinon, Tanzania.

In order of hurdle:

1. Civil unrest in Kenya turns violent after a dubious election victory by the incumbent president. Claims of genocide are made and large numbers of Kenyans flee the machete wielders. As our route passes through Nairobi we decide to fly our of Nairobi rather than gamble on a bus that may be an easy target for angry mobs. Luckily Shona, FWS member, is able to secure us tickets through their cash only purchasing system.

2. The final packing up of our worldly possessions is hampered by consistent rains. As the rains continue to fall and intensify we depart from Brisbane in our chock-a-block little cars bound for my parents place near Beaudesert for a final day of reflection and preparation. The Honda, for those who know it, is a dry weather high performance vehicle. Driving through the heavy rain and puddles inevitably resulted in the loss of one, then two and at times three of the cars four cylinders. Barely keeping it above 80kmph on the highway I tried to keep Heather's car in view through the fogged and poorly wipered windscreen. All cylinders dropped out just as we exited the highway, still with 30 minutes of country backroads ahead of us. Two cylinders availed themselves to the task just before the car rolled to a standstill and we were off again. After 25 minutes of treacherous corners, dips and humps and were faced with the final and deepest dip, which by this stage was a coursing torrent of rainwater and debris. It was only a relatively short crossing of a few metres so I ploughed through in Honda. Just as the car was pulling itself out the other side, all cylinders finally drowned and went to a better place. Luckily Heather made it through okay and we made the final couple of minutes to Mum and Dad's place, who used their 4WD to tow the Honda out of the rapidly rising water around it.

3. Severe flooding in the rivers of South East Qld meant our usual route to the airport on Sunday was cut off, which required a diversion south to get onto the Bruce Highway again. And we were fairly sure the alternative route would not be blocked off by rising floodwaters.

4. Administrative errors within Qantas and JetStar meant that we had no seats on the plane when we tried to check in. After some heart palpitations and some rushing around we secured our seats on the plane and shortly afterwards were airborne bound for Sinon via Kilimanjaro via Nairobi via Doha via Bangkok via Melbourne.

5. On collection of my pack in Bangkok airport, somebody's soap gel had leaked out all over the top of my bag, so it was all nice and foamy and smelt pleasant as we tried to wipe it off.

So here we are in Bangkok, with two days of sightseeing before the final jaunt to Tanzania. Our Hostel is a lovely little place between the airport and the city. The clientele are pleasant, unlike the vast majority of those on our flight into Bangkok - mainly football teams or other groups of loud and overly attended to hair males.

Thank you to everyone who has given us such thoughtful and useful gifts, advice or encouragement, it would have been much harder without it.