Day 0

Welcome to our diary. Writing a diary is probably one of the saddest things I have ever done, but here it is anyway. Our trip around Southern Africa!

I was on some packed commuter train heading towards Luton Airport Parkway where Stu was going to pick me up and I was sweating like some sort of ill animal thanks to my mega journey which took all day on a coach and two trains. So I perched on the edge of the seat to try and give the guy sat next to me a chance to breath something resembling fresh air and read one of the those free London papers. Whic begs the question; who actually texts in to these things asking for some random girl they saw on the tube to text back so they can go for a drink?

Anyway, I got to the station and after popping back to Stu's house for a shower, we set off for our last supper, 3 platters full of chicken and chips at Nandos in Milton Keynes where Mac was already waiting for us. Oh it tasted good, but then again Nandos always does! Stu got snap happy with his brand new 12billion megapixel or something camera showing off. Even the flash was bigger and better than normal cameras, what with it burning innocent little childrens' retinas if you weren't careful.
Lots of thanks to Stu's mum and dad who picked up the Nandos bill! Legends!

Then we whizzed back to sort out our rucksacks ready for the morning. It was getting late and a 3am start beckoned, so when Mac, who had the rental car in Jo'burg booked under his name, looked up with a worrying look across his face and shakingly said "I've left my driving licence at home", we all shat it.
He called his dad back in Birmingham who didn't sound overly happy at the news and we agreed to meet half way at a hotel next to an industrial park just outside Daventry, which later turned into a meet on the verge of a dual carriageway near a motorway junction at 1 in the morning or something crazy. It turned out that Sean's dad had been on the beers, so when we met up he got out of the car along with Sean's sister and a family friend who had been given the role of designated driver. Unlucky guy!
We pulled off the shady looking handover and went back to base camp... i.e. a living room full of our crap spread all over the floor.

It was then time to sort out the bags, moving things from one person's bag to the other's, in the vain hope of getting all of them to weigh less than 20kgs. In the end we got it pretty close which was good enough, especially at 2am when you have to be up at 3! So bed time.

Jamie