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| Team Canada |
We managed to pack all our stuff into our backpacks and the
two new carryon bags we purchased yesterday and with Shannon doing some ingenious
packing, we managed to get everything in minus a few things we left for Muma
Flow. We had a lazy day around the
backpackers packing, reading and playing cards with the French and Aussis. When it was time we got Gloria to take us to
the airport and the epic travel days began.
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| Team Aussi! |
We decided to wrap our bags to check in as it is a fairly
commonplace thing in most of the airports we’ve been in over the last three
month. We haven’t bothered yet as we
only have clothes and nothing of great value but we have heard so many stories
of people losing stuff in the Jo’berg airport, we figured the $7 /bag was worth
it. Why push a good thing and let’s just
hope that our bags come through on the other end... so far so good.
Sitting in the airport I think we all are looking forward to
different things when we get home. We’re
all looking forward to seeing Ellie as there have been lots of different dogs
on the trip but nothing like El. I hope
she still recognizes us when we get home but I guess we’ll find out soon
enough. Sounds like she’s been pretty
spoilt with all the attention and bike rides so I think she’s had a pretty good
summer too! I’m really looking forward
to my bike and getting some exercise and both Shan and I have big plans for
yoga and the gym! We’ll see if its just
another resolution or if we can stick with it.
I know both kids are really missing their friends and the upcoming
weekend will be full of catching up with all our friends and family. It’s kind of like the old cliché about
realizing what we have when its gone and I think we’re all extremely lucky to have the friends and
family that we do.
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| Team France |
As I look back over our trip it’s hard to believe that we’ve
been gone 3 months! Yet Iceland seems so
far away and it’s incredible when we look back over the photos of all the crazy
places we’ve been and the cool stuff we’ve seen. I was sure glad we did the trip the way we
did with crazy castles and museums in the north; insanely old ruins and beaches
in south eastern Europe and then completely changed it up with wildlife and
outdoor stuff in Southern Africa. Just
when we were starting to lose the excitement over what we were seeing, we moved
on to something new. It was great to
have the kids there as they always reminded us of what we were doing out there
and let us know when it was time to move on.
I think we’ve got a whole new level of communication between us all
which is pretty cool!
When we talk to people about our trip, everyone always ask
what was our favourite part. I think all
of our responses are that it’s really hard to nail down one thing. Iceland was new and exciting being the very
start of the journey, while England was amazing hanging out with Rich’s family,
Puffin Island is up there as well as St. David with the castle and Jenna and
Rich surfing. London was cool staying
with Jen and her family as well as Vimy Ridge and seeing that with the
girls. Paris was a bit of an eye opener
and was a lot dirtier than any of us ever thought it would be. Italy was cool with the beaches and Rome but
I sure realize now how lucky we are in Canada with so few people around, where
you can enjoy beaches and beautiful views without being two feet from your
neighbour! Croatia was definitely
cheaper than the rest of Europe and we’d definitely go back to do some more
exploring. Turkey was stunning with so
many different landscapes and history and Shan and I loved Gerome in Cappadocia
where we finally got to do a bit of hiking without a pile of people around. Finally, Africa was incredible in so many
ways from it scenery and animals to its people and taught us all a ton about
life. I feel incredibly lucky to have
been able to do such a trip with Shannon and the kids and to have met so many
awesome people along the way. Hopefully
it’s just the start of friendships to come and we can visit them in future
years.
The trip home was pretty uneventful. The immigration officer in Jo’berg was by far
the nicest one we’ve met and said he just loves Canadians! When I asked him why, his response was that we
weren’t racist! We managed to meet up
with Papa and the kids from France in the airport and said our goodbyes,
hopefully we’ll see them next year in Canada if all goes as planned. The flight to Dubai went pretty quickly as we
all watched 3 or 4 movies each and Alyssa got a bit of sleep. It was dark when we left and arrived but the
sun sure came up quick in Dubai with the time zone change. The stopover in Dubai wasn’t too bad and we
all got a few winks of sleep before cashing in our food vouchers from Emirates
Airlines for breakfast in the airport, man it’s an incredible airline to fly
with! The flight to Seattle was the
crazy long one where we managed a little time travel! It’s a 14.5 hour flight but we only gain 3.5
hours, leaving at 9:30 am and getting in at 1 pm. They flew over the Caspian Sea and then over
the north pole flying over Alaska and the sun never set... I think it might
take some time to recover from that one!
Ten hours to chill out in Seattle before we completed the last flight to
Kelowna. We managed to get through
customs with no issues and by 1:30 am we finally checked into our hotel. We were all fast asleep instantly only to
wake up at 7am. It might take a bit of
time to acclimatize back to normal life as after 9 time zones and 40 hours of
travel our bodies were a little messed.
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