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.
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