Waking up in our own bed, in our own house, with no fixed itinerary felt pretty strange after nearly six weeks away. The UK summer heatwave seems to be continuing, so it was very pleasant to be able to walk out the back door into temperatures that were the same (and hotter!) than Africa. A gentle and very welcome introduction back to Cottage life.

On our first day back, we weren’t really up for much and even if we had been, we were too exhausted anyway. The ‘expedition bags’, remained in the back of the car for a few days, still coated in the dust and sand of Namibia until we were ready to tackle them. The washing machine got a good work out. Back in the clean and pleasant land of Wales, some of our clothes really did look filthy!

At least the skies were blue and the weather good for washing – five loads in total!

As we were driving home, a friend of ours called to say she was visiting North Wales, so the following afternoon, we joined her for a walk down to the river. The perfect level of exercise and a wonderful way to catch up with each other’s news.

We’re lucky enough to have the time to ‘process’ all the things we’ve seen and done, while gradually unpacking. In between washing loads and kit cleaning, we’ve walked slowly from The Cottage to reacquaint ourselves with the local views and local friends. We felt very grateful to be able to walk to the village and along the way, stop and chat with friends and neighbours. Having been by ourselves in far-away lands for so long, it has felt like a nice homecoming. The rain gauge only had 37mm in it, which is unheard of for around here (we can get more than that in a single rain storm in winter), and the river level is certainly low, but compared to our recent visits to Surrey and Northants, the grass here is still mostly lush and green.

It takes time to ‘come back’ from a big expedition like we’ve just experienced and simple pleasures, such as just being able to draw water from the tap, feel like a real luxury. The levels of ease for almost everything is remarkable. For example, making coffee can be done at the click of a button, rather than hauling a heavy gas canister out of the back of a dusty truck and setting up the stove, selecting the water bottle with the purified water in it, measuring out just enough water for two cups, filling the kettle, finding the lighter, making sure the stove is out of the wind, finding the coffee from the sealed food box, dusting out the two available mugs (rather than chosing from a whole cupboard full!), and finally making a brew!

It’s great going away and it feels good to be back.