Safely home

Safely home but I think not without a bit of us left with our friends in the Eastern Cape. It seems hard to believe that they are there, six thousand miles away, getting on with the business of sorting out their libraries.

Leaving Port Alfred was emotional and although our journey was beautiful and much less demanding than the one we had through the rain on our way there, we were very aware that we weren't coming back this time. As we drove along the coast, I couldn't help wondering if this was going to be the next big holiday destination - there is huge potential for that kind of trade in the part of South Africa and the beaches are the key to it. They are stunning. Having said that, I wonder if it would be better if the coast stayed as it is - wild and dramatically beautiful.

The final evening in East London was interesting and gave us the chance to see just a little of a much bigger African town. The Sea Front was remarkably like our own sea front in South Shields and the flavour of East London wasn't a million miles away from home in that respect. It's a working town with a large river port so we felt reasonably at home.

Our journey home was about to get tortuous. We spent Friday morning waiting for the South African Airways plane to sweep us back to Johannesburg and a further five hours there waiting for the first of our Emirates voyages to the Persian Gulf. All appeared to be going to plan and we got on board on time. An hour later we had put up with watching as the baggage pallets were very slowly loaded on board, we waited whilst a passenger was ejected from the plane and we waited again whilst their bags were taken off....

Arriving in Dubai, still an hour late, we realised that we had just fifteen minutes to get through security, run to the far end of the United Arab Emirates (well it seemed like that) and join a bus to a far off departure gate apparently somewhere in the desert! We made it with seconds to spare. Some 28 hours after leaving East London we flew into Newcastle and I have never been so pleased to see a soggy North East England.

It was all worth it though - even the long journeys. Who could imagine what we have seen in ten days. It was a truly special experience for us all and one we will never forget.