…feels weird. For most people truck life continues but for me it is over. New people are arriving to take the place of the three of us who are departing and as they sit getting to know the group it feels almost wrong to try and be part of it, as tomorrow the truck will depart carrying them and I will make my way to the airport.

My bag is packed and there is nothing left for me to do other than clean my tent and squeeze the last few items into my bag tomorrow morning.

This journey has been fun. I have met some lovely people, learnt a lot about Africa and will be coming home with a few souvenirs and a lot of wonderful memories.

Here are some pictures of my last truck breakfast

Will I return to Africa? Who knows! I’d like to, I’ve only seen a very small part of the continent and I really like it here, but there are so many places for me still to discover, South America, India, Russia and more.

Africa is not without its quirks and challenges but learning and accepting those things is part of what travelling is all about.

I was in a supermarket yesterday buying some booze. The bottles had security tags on them, but the checkout the girl scanned them through and handed me them in a bag with the tags still attached. I asked for them to be removed. She fixed me with a stare that showed how inconvenient this request was and called over a security guard. The security lady fiddled with the tags then handed me the bag and motioned that I should take the bottles with the tags still attached. I refused saying the tags must come off first, at which point she tried to remove the lids of the bottles in an attempt to free the tags.

Exasperated and not wanting my bottles opened I took the bag and explained that the supermarket will have a device that enables them to remove the tags. She fiddled with the tags a bit more and again handed me the bag telling me it was fine. Eventually I told her that if the tags don’t come off they can give me my money back! The security lady and checkout girl, clearly annoyed with this turn of events, called over the manager who, when he eventually wandered over at snail’s pace, produced a magnetic device that allowed them to remove the tags… Now why couldn’t they just do that in the first place?

Another incident, which sums up Africa to a t happened to Barny in Zanzibar. Barny wanted to use the internet so he went to an internet cafe (which wasn’t a cafe at all but a room with a few computers). The cafe was empty; Barny asked to use the internet to be told the internet was not working. “When will it back on,” he enquired. “Not today,” was the response. So why was the shop still open when the one product they sold would not be available for the rest of the day?

Barny returned the following day to find the guy asleep on his desk and the internet still not working. Which begs the question why bother opening the shop in the first place? Only in Africa…