Back in the UK

After saying goodbye to warm Cape Town I stopped in England for a bit to see Rachel and Rikki again. Having been in nothing but warm weather for 6+ months even the 'mild' winter weather in England was a bit of a shock for me, especially having no real warm clothing. Fortunately Rachel's brother was kind enough to let me borrow a couple of hoodies.

Rachel and Rikki and I caught up for a couple of days, and I tried to lay low and do some reading while they both did work on essays that had to hand in while I was there. Over the weekend we had a great dinner with their friend Greg and Sarah whom I'd met on my pass through in June.

I had to run into London one day to get my Thailand flight squared away and took the opportunity to meet up with Lizzie, who I'd met while I was on Lamu. Lizzie was kind enough to take me around London for the day and we had a quick blitz tour of St Paul's, London Bridge and the Millennium bridge, stopped for coffee at the Tate Modern, and popped in to Harrod's Dept store and saw what it would be like to buy overpriced groceries from a department store. She also informed me that the german movie ('Afrika Mon Amour') that had been filming while we were there was finally complete and had aired.

Before pressing on I got the chance to see the 'Boots Maneuva' (Rikki and Greg's football team) in action which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately they were handily beaten by a far superior team, and I'm glad I wasn't out there running around.

Having a few weeks back in developed countries where things were easy and they worked and prices are fixed was a welcome break from the travel and I got a lot of rest, just hoping that it was enough to be ready for India...

Photos: Oxford, London