Blowing This Pop Stand

I COSed ("Close of Service"d) last Sunday, and civilian life has been treating me well. In response to news from the medical office that I am anaemic, I have been living on a strict diet of chickpeas and spinach. Max joined me several days ago, and we have been running around Gauteng making preparations for our road trip. Tomorrow we'll return to Venda to pick up some things we intend on bringing with us and Monday afternoon, after having the car serviced, we'll hit the road for Botswana.

Our route is through Botswana, spending some time on the pans and the Okavango Delta, then up through the panhandle to the Caprivi. We'll spend some time in Namibia, then head east to Livingstone to see Vic Falls. Onward to Tanzania, where we'll visit Zanzibar's Stone Town and Kendwa Beach. Then to Arusha for crater-climbing and possibly a jump into a nearby park. Back down through Malawi, with jaunts across and around the lake. Finally to the coast of Mozambique for some scuba diving and down-time by the beach.

We'll be sleeping in a tent at whatever Catholic missions open their doors to us. Inspired by the Grapes of Wrath and general wagon-training imagery, Max has procured a harmonica for the trip and intends on favoring audiences of fellow travelers around bonfires. I imagine intense eyebrow-furrowing will be involved. I thought about getting a tambourine, but that would probably mean investing in a new wardrobe, maybe castanets as well. I think probably the harmonica and the tambourine are symbols of contrasting travel moods anyway.

In any case, watch this space! I hope to update more regularly.