Week 2 – research for further travel plans (20th-27th July)

Luckily, we do have some friends who are available during the week.  Vitally, that includes Abi and Alwyn who are the link to our potential South African adventure (Alwyn being South African).  Having had their first child, Alex, in March whilst living near Manchester they have since relocated to Norwich for Abi’s job. However, Abi is still on maternity leave so they are available for mid-week catch-ups and so, keen to start discussing the next leg of our travels, we headed to theirs for two nights.  In between feeds (for us and the baby) we had a good chat and we utilised their internet to research volunteering opportunities the world over.  There is so much out there to choose from, but the majority costs a fortune.  You can see that certain companies are targeting much younger travellers than us to gain life experience for a couple of weeks with some assistance from the bank of Mum and Dad.  We are looking for longer-term projects for more ‘mature’ individuals where we can make a real difference, maybe even in a management capacity if available.  There is a wide spectrum of companies and with our now limited travel budget we will have to be very choosy.  Our minds were buzzing with opportunities.  

I still had my heart set on Costa Rica and South America but it looks like the safest way to travel those countries would be on an organised tour (ie expensive).  It just wouldn’t be sensible to try and drive ourselves around like we had the luxury of doing in the US.  Too risky.  We came up with a vague plan.  Head to South Africa in October, hopefully via a stop-off in one of my top dream locations - Madagascar - for a brief tour.  Once in SA we would snap up the opportunity of staying in Alwyn’s house in Durban with his Aunt whilst Simon fulfils his dream of getting his pilot’s licence (cheaper in SA than anywhere else in the world) and we both volunteer at a local diving school in return for topping up our diver training.  UK residents can stay in SA for 90 days with no need for a visa.  This would be sufficient time to get a real feel for living there before moving on to Thailand where we’d hope to put our new-found diver training to use at dive centres in exchange for some free diving!  Then, depending on how the money is going, we would hope to still have Australia and New Zealand within our reach.  It was rapidly becoming apparent that South America may have to wait until we are earning again and can afford to take a tour there within a two or three-week window.

Alwyn is a very busy man these days.  Working as many hours as possible at Norwich hospital to support his family whilst also trying to start his own business, does not leave much time to sit around and twiddle your thumbs!  So, it is not lost on us to be grateful for any time he can spare to help sort out our travels because we are reliant on his contacts in SA to make this happen for us.  What we suggested was that it would be lovely if he, Abi and Alex were able to join us in SA for at least some of our time there, preferably near the beginning so that he could introduce us to important people.  It would also give them the opportunity to introduce Alex to family and friends for the first time.  A great idea in theory, but whilst the future of his business is unknown they cannot commit to anything.

Having only left their house an hour or so previously we received a call from Alwyn.  He had contacted his Aunt who had no problem with us moving in with her for a few months – step 1 achieved! However, he had also spoken with his friend at the dive centre.  In theory she loved the idea of us volunteering for them.  They have committed themselves to training a certain number of people up for a shark conservation project which sounds right up our street.  We would be useful to help train new divers to assist in this work.  But there was one problem.  The weather.  The expert was telling Alwyn that no one dives off Durban between October and February because it is rainy season.  This causes run-off of sediment into the water making the visibility poor for diving.  In turn, that may mean it is also not the best time of year for flying! Ah.  Back to the drawing board.  There would be no point whatsoever in using up our chance to live and work in SA at the wrong time of year.  We needed a rethink.  But, better to discover this now than after we had booked flights!

All of this was a pipe dream, however, depending on how negotiations went with our employers.  After the drama and stress that was applying for a career break, being turned down, appealing, being rejected again to subsequently being given a reprieve the week before leaving the country (in a nutshell!) – the time had come for the next step.  Having received a letter very late in the day to confirm our 12-month career break in June, we were also informed that we needed to let them know whether our intentions were to return to work or apply for an extension…. By the end of July.  I.E. THIS WEEK!  So, having had our second weekend of socialising with family and friends, it was time to knuckle down and put something in writing.  We decided that honesty would definitely be the best policy.  The truth was that when we booked our American road trip it was in the knowledge that we would have resigned our jobs so were in no way answerable for our travelling activities.  What I mean by that is, we did not have to rush into doing the conservation or voluntary work we wanted to, because we had been rejected by our employers.  They didn’t want us to remain on the books so we would darn well go and drive the length and breadth of America and have a blast before considering volunteering or work opportunities!  Our futures were uncertain but we would worry about where our next pay check would come from later.  The last-minute twist that meant we can return to our old jobs was too late in the day to change those plans.  Therefore we applied for an extension to our career breaks of a further 12 months in order for us to achieve the travel and voluntary work that we applied for in the first place!  Cheeky?  Well, there were two possible outcomes.  We would be granted the extension or we would have to consider quitting our jobs for a second time!  We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it – their response is due within 28 days.

Week 1 back in the UK (13th-20th July)

It appears that nine months in a different time zone makes getting over jet lag quite tricky.   That must be why, despite feeling absolutely exhausted and having achieved only about 5 hours sleep over the last 36 hours, Simon and I were in the ‘wide-awake’ club until at least 3am on our first night back. This pattern continued over the next few nights.  But still, a tiny price to pay for 9 months of awesomeness!

The first couple of days back consisted of the usual post-holiday stuff, just on a larger scale – unpacking, getting through a stack of mail and starting on some admin to try and reclaim some money for baggage and unused American road tax for example.

Ralph being all obedient with Ann at agility class

It’s great to see Ralph so happy and I’m reassured to see how enamoured Simon’s Mum, Ann, is with him.  The guilt of leaving them with the burden of looking after an additional hound was increased when we heard, only a matter of weeks after we had left, their beloved golden retriever, Caspar, had to be put to sleep.  This would have left Ray and Ann free from the ties of owning a mutt had it not been for the fact that they were now responsible for Ralph and everything he entails – daily walks, trips to the vets and not being able to leave the house for more than four or five hours at a time.  No matter how you look at it, dogs are a massive tie.  But Ann enrolled her and Ralph onto some agility classes and their friendship is going from strength to strength.  I went along to their Thursday night session to witness the spectacle for myself. 

Safe to say, I was very impressed with them both.  Ralph for actually doing what he was told and Ann for having the energy to run around an agility course with him!  Plus, they both seemed popular with the staff and other owners who were keen to tell me how much progress they had made since they joined the classes. Maybe leaving Ralph with the Newmans isn’t too painful for them after all…?

Simon got busy very quickly sorting us out some temporary wheels.  Having sold both of our cars before heading to the States and with Simon’s parents’ one car being in very regular demand we would need something to tide us over until we head off again so we wouldn’t be over-reliant on a parent-taxi!  As luck would have it, Simon had spotted a ‘run around’ car up for sale on Facebook because the owners were relocating to Canada.  A sixteen-year-old silver Corsa with boot space for the dog and 80,000 miles on the clock would do us just fine.  So, after a little haggling on the price and sorting insurance, we were back in business and on the British roads within three days of getting back.  Driving on the left and using a manual gearbox came back to us both like riding a bike.  It may not be the smartest or quickest car in the world but as long as it gets us from A-B and for only a couple of hundred quid, that’ll do.

We may have been in hiding until Saturday night but that didn’t stop us from arranging a low-key reunion with some of our closest friends on the Friday.  It also gave us the opportunity to hatch plans for how we were going to arrive at the party the next night and surprise the Birthday boy.

Saturday 15^th July came and, despite a few last minute near-misses, it appears that we managed to keep off the radar.  We wanted to wait until the party would be in full swing for our arrival and the plan was to pretend to call Andy’s wife from the States to wish him Happy Birthday whilst sneaking into the building to surprise him in person.  It went pretty much to script.  Whether or not he had an inkling that there was something going on as he claimed we’ll never know, but there is no doubting that he was overwhelmed to see his brother make it to his 40^th Birthday party.  Simon had told him straight that we wouldn’t be there because we couldn’t afford to change our flights.  I had a lump in my throat as we were welcomed by so many friends and family members who were also completely in the dark about our return.  A great night was had by all, even if it did descend into the typical family party event…. Yes, I am talking about ‘Oops upside your head’!

We managed to rein ourselves in enough to prevent serious hangovers the following day.  We had a rare family meal with my side of the clan on Sunday 16^thin the Midlands.  Having completely missed the 2016 gathering due to running late which in turn lead to us getting marooned on the M1 when a lorry jack-knifed blocking the entire carriageway, the pressure was on this year to make it!  We successfully arrived first, taking with us our trusty USA road Atlas to make explaining our activities of the last 9 months easy and they were going to be told about it whether they liked it or not!  It was good to see my Aunt, cousins and their families.  We may only get together every year or two because of geography and everyone’s busy lives, but when we do, we do it properly and everyone thankfully gets on well.

A chaotic and sociable first weekend back setting the stall for the next few months.  Unfortunately for them, most of our friends and family have to work Monday to Friday so we will have to make the most of our weekends to cram in visits whilst we can.  The weekdays are a different matter.  Time to get back to the gym, get some serious dog walking in and see what unemployed people fill their days with…. Shouldn’t be too hard!

Wednesday 12th July – the return to the UK

We landed on schedule, just before 9am to an unsurprising overcast day at Heathrow.  Our lift, Si’s Dad, timed our collection perfectly so that we could grab a coffee before meeting him and heading off.  I remember dreading being reunited with the British roads after the spacious and empty American roads, but thankfully the M25 behaved itself today and we made it back to Rochford for 1130am.  As we approached the house, out came Simon’s Mum, Ann, along with our spaniel, Ralph for a reunion in the street.  I had my concerns that Ralph would have forgotten us in the last nine months but he seemed pleased enough to see us. This was despite him having been dressed up in ribbons with A4 posters of himself tied to his sides as decoration!  He had no idea what was going on and you know what dogs are like?  I don’t know if the welcome we got was precisely the same as if we’d popped to the shops for ten minutes!  Ralph appeared to have gained some weight during our time away but was clearly very happy.

It was great to be reunited with another important part of my life that I had missed dearly – a decent cup of tea!  We both felt a little ‘vague’ due to the time difference and lack of sleep.  The plan to defeat the jet lag was to allow ourselves a couple of hours nap before forcing ourselves to stay awake until a reasonable UK hour.  The first part worked like a charm, I was even able to join Ann for a dog walk. Then we were spoilt by being given a roast dinner before I knuckled down to try to catch up with this blog – no rest for the wicked!

It is probably just as well whilst we are jetlag zombies… but we are 'in hiding' until the weekend.  We have been in cahoots with Simon’s sister-in-law for months in order to surprise Simon's brother, Andrew, at his 40^th Birthday party this Saturday night, the 15^th.  It means that we have resisted the usual temptations of social media updates and photos indicating our return.  A few people are in the know, but we are still trying to create the impression that we remain Stateside.  Hence, I have been posting belated sandwich updates on Facebook to cover up the fact we are back!  Sneaky, eh?!