Here goes with our collective blog for our journey to the Southern Hemisphere to meet our colleagues in the Eastern Cape Provincial Library Service. It's three weeks to go and we are all very excited at the prospect of making the long journey south to a different world.

Today we received the first draft of our journey through the Eastern Cape to visit a number of libraries and to take part in the planned Indaba at the Mpkweni Beach Resort in Mid March. I confess to having searched the web for photographs of the countryside to see what it's going to look like and I can't wait for the experience of travelling through the open spaces of South Africa.

We're all looking forward to seeing how a different country develops its library service, especially one which has such huge challenges but such a great opportunity to look at its service from a new viewpoint. It's almost impossible to think about the size of the Province - I have to keep comparing it to the UK and the thought of having to run a service across such a wide area is both frightening and stimulating. It will be great to take our experience to the Cape but for us to learn from colleagues there as part of the visit.

The photo shows a very different coast to the one we'll see in the Eastern Cape but one with strange similarities too. The North East shares with the Eastern Cape a "Wild Coast", a rural hinterland and a number of coastal towns, ports and cities. Our ports are like those of the Eastern Cape, busy functional but attractive places with a long and varied history.

We are all impatient to get there.... all we need now are our tickets! Mark.