Liverpool - UK & Livingstone - Zambia 

The next two days were just a flurry of packing, cleaning and sorting out emails. Unfortunately things weren't going too well back in the UK, our tenants had stopped paying the rent and it looked like we would have to take them to court plus we were under growing pressure to remove our stuff from my Mum's house in Liverpool as quickly as possible so it could be put on the market.

We thought going back earlier than planned would allow a good opportunity to get rid of some of the stuff we found we were not using out here plus we could take the broken inverter back and send it to Foleys. We had left the two big soft bags we had flown out to Cape Town with Carol in Joburg so we only had two small soft bags to try and cram all our stuff in, then late that night the zip on one of the bags broke and couldn't be fixed.

Sods law, to make matters worse the next day, our last before flying was a public holiday so everywhere was closed! Our only hope was to rush out as soon as the shops opened on the morning we were flying and buy a new bag ASAP! We had arranged with Nick the new owner of Foley's garage to drop Rupert off by 10am then he would take us to airport to catch our flight which was leaving at 1pm, so time was going to be a bit tight.

Livingstone lies on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls and is easily the main tourist centre in Zambia so you would think this would mean the choice of shopping is good but not so. In the 80's Zambia was quite Marxist politically and was also pretty much a basket case, when we visited Livingstone in 1986 there were bare shelves in the shops and foreign imports where few and far between.

Now the country is in much better shape but still in transition,  credit cards are not accepted anywhere in the country and with the exception of Lusaka there are hardly any supermarkets, Livingstone has only one. The majority of shopping still revolves around the small mainly Asian general stores or Dukas so finding a new bag was not as easy as it sounds.   

Our best bet was a store called PEP, part of a South African chain, which sells low priced clothes and assorted household items. It was due to open at 8.30am so if we got there first thing and got a suitable bag then we should have no problem getting back to Jollyboys, re-pack and be at Foleys for 10am as planned.  We arrived just before 8.30, five minutes went by then 10, then 15, a growing group of people had gathered but still the doors remained closed, 9am and the bloody shop was still closed.

By now we were well pissed off and getting worried about the time so there was nothing for it but to start searching the Dukas. Most didn't sell bags and any we found were small sport kit bags or school kids satchels but after rushing from one to the other eventually we found a small shop which had just one bag which whilst not perfect would do.

We had 10 minutes to get back to Jollyboys, get packed and then head off to Foleys, we had looked forward to a more relaxed departure but I guess this typified our trip so far. 

Nick assured us Rupert would be stored indoors but we were still very apprehensive about leaving him with complete strangers, still needs must. Nick is a good guy but a bit of a scary driver, by now we were late for the airport which is normally about a 20 minute drive away, he had us there in about 10!

We were flying BA back to the UK and would be changing planes en route in Joburg entailing a 6 hour stopover. We didn't think we would be allowed out of the airport but we thought this could be a good opportunity to take the two bags we left with Carol off her hands. We had emailed her from Maun to warn her we would be passing through and ask if she could meet us at the airport with the two bags we had left with her then we could try and check them in with our other stuff.

We didn't hear back from her until very late on the night before we were flying, she couldn't make it to the airport but if we could get to her then we could collect the bags,  it was hardly likely we could do this so we had to forget about the idea, god knows when or even if we will ever get the bags back again.

Our flight to London took off from Joburg at 9.30pm, by then we had been travelling or rushing round for over 20 hours yet we still had a nine or so hour flight ahead so we were completely knackered by the time we reached Heathrow at the crack of dawn the next day. Next task was to get into London to Euston to catch a train to Liverpool, this was the bit we were especially not looking forward to, especially as it meant battling with all our luggage against the morning rush hour.

When we finally got to Euston we found a huge crowd just staring up at the main notice board, it transpired all the trains were delayed indefinitely due to a signalling fault! It was ironic that we had travelled thousands of miles to get here and were now stymied by the last 200!  It seemed very strange to be amongst so many people after so long in the bush but we soon knew we were well and truly back in the UK when we went to buy our tickets and found two singles to travel less than 250 miles would cost £112!

In was mid afternoon by the time we arrived in Liverpool, by now we had been travelling for over 36 hours. Mike and Liz picked us up at the station, so knackered or not it was good to see them again after all this time.  We hadn't seen each other for six months so it would be good to see them and our nieces again and to enjoy some of the things we had done without in Africa such as a good Chinese and Indian takeaways!

The first six months of our African adventure was over, for the next few weeks we could enjoy the English summer and knuckle down once again into the nitty gritty of UK life.