Goodbye London, Hello Africa!

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Geo: -26.1538, 28.0389

Wow, after many years I am finally leaving London. It has now been 4 and a half years since I left Australia for my overseas experience which was meant to last a year! I have loved my time in London. Having virtually known no one when I arrived, I am now leaving many great, true friends and colleagues. It has been a great experience- professionally and personally. With Europe on my doorstep- it made up for the horrible English weather. Fortunately being a school teacher I had frequent opportunities to travel around and made the most of the school holidays. In the end I have been lucky enough to visit over thirty countries, experience various cultures, explore historical sites and take way too many photographs!

I was more than ready to leave London, even though I don't think any other city can compare to this amazing place. I loved all the gorgeous gardens, vibrant markets, free galleries and museums, delicious restaurants, busy Oxford St, red buses, multiple theatre shows to choose from in the West End, riding on the tube (underground), living in sometimes overcrowded share houses, a fantastic transport system that ran for most of the night, the occasional heavy snowfall, messy nights out at the Walkabout and saying hello and goodbye to new and old friends.

Now I am leaving with Paul to live in South Africa! Who would have thought? Having travelled there two and a half years ago, I had a bit of an idea what I was in for.

We have spent the last few weeks deciding which belongings to take and which to leave behind. It's amazing how many belongings I had accumulated. Our belongings had been sorted into 3 piles- send to SA in boxes, take on the plane and leave behind for housemates/charity shop.

We squished as much as we could into our backpacks, headed to Heathrow Airport and began the next part of our journey. We were flying to Johannesburg via Tel Aviv. After about 15 hours of leaving our place in Clapham Junction, we arrived in Johannesburg. Let the adventure continue....

Paul's parents Noreen and John picked us up from the airport and about an hour later we arrived. We were now living with them in an estate in a gated community which is about an hour from Johannesburg.

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Photos

01 From the plane
Somewhere over Africa.

02 From the plane
Somewhere over Africa.

03 From the plane
Flying over Mt Kilimanjaro.

04 From the plane
Flying over Mt Kilimanjaro.

05 From the plane
Flying over Mt Kilimanjaro.

06 From the plane
The east coast of Africa.

07 From the plane
The east coast of Africa.

08 From the plane
The east coast of Africa.