Pleased to say it's about time to start getting ready for the next trip.

I know Christmas is only just behind us and New Year's is still to come, but I am more concerned with how quickly Valentine's day will arrive, as that's the day my sister and I board our flight to Nairobi for a week of photographic safari in the Masai Mara..... 7 weeks to go!!!
I know Kenya has not had a good time of it in recent years and news channels have followed Kenya's story as their military entered Somalia at the end of 2011 to fight Al-Shabab Islamist militants. I understand that Somalians have since carried out major reprisal attacks inside Kenya, but that these have lessened in the last few months. As always, I look to our Foreign Office website for guidance....
Looking at this map, we are thankfully not going anywhere which our government consider to be risky. We are also not planning on spending any time actually in Nairobi; we arrive late and go straight to a recommended hotel on the "right" side of town where we will be collected at 8am the following morning for our transfer to Wilson Airport and a short flight out to the Mara reserve. Our return trip is a straight-through and should therefore present no major risk either. As with any trip, home or abroad, it's my belief that being responsible, being alert and not doing anything to put yourself in unnecessary danger should be the default mode of behavior - that and of course making sure there is a Masai Warrior on hand at all times. :-)

The Cotswolds as seen from the South Oxford Canal

Wow what a fantastic week. Only one day of not-so-good weather and 6 days of fantastic cruising in totally bearable temperatures - we arrived back at the boatyard on the last day in a balmy 18 degrees.... in November?! gorgeous.
We set off, six of us, from Napton boatyard aboard our rented 70ft Black Prince Narrowboat named "Adele".  With 3 fixed doubles and a twin room at the back (which became our wet room), a kitchen and lounge/diner we had ample space to spread out and relax. The South Oxford canal is a real skinny affair with dinky little bridges, wide open vistas and very well kept towpaths. It was also in full Autumnal bloom with stunning leaf colours and bright red berries, all complete with early morning mist. 

When it comes to canal-side pubs, good grub and decent ales, the South Oxford is (in my opinion) on a par with the Kennet & Avon. The Folly does a cracking Lamb Shank, tasty Steak and Ale pies full of fat-free meaty chunks (apparently) and has a somewhat eccentric owner serenading the guests as he passes- but book early as the place fills fast. The Great Western serves a mightily impressive Sea Bass as well as the largest Sirloin Steak I think I have ever seen. The pub was so good in fact that we went twice - once on the way there and again on the way back.
We made it to Banbury on the third day and, as is fast becoming traditional, we moored up, donned our fancy dress and headed into town for supplies. This years theme was Cowboys and Indians and what a giggle. Amazed how many people of Banbury saw the funny side and joined in, but equally amazed at those that had no sense of humour at all - especially the women in shoe zone who failed to see the funny side when asked if she could shoe our hobby horse for us!

Seemed to be less abundance of wildlife on the South Oxford, but that could easily have been the noise we were making and the strength of wind blasting across and keeping the birds sheltered inside the hedgerows. We did however see two kingfishers and a number of herons, ducks, and swans, as well as a Kestrel catching a mouse on the bank in front of us on our last morning - simply stunning. The other thing we saw which was a real treat for me was a group of what must have been about 20 partridges, running along the towpath beside us for a good 100m or so. Never seen that before and boy do they move fast.

Home sweet home

I've returned home to a newly decorated bathroom, a newly painted front door and a cat who almost acted like she missed me (almost). Feeling a very lucky girl.
I filled the washing machine with my filthy clothes, scrubbed myself clean and then treated and redressed my feet before sleeping a few hours and am now on my cosy sofa awaiting my roast dinner and deciding whether or not to have a first look at my images on a big screen - a bit nervous (as always) but nothing I can do about it now. It was my first tour shooting in RAW too so with any luck any minor mistakes can be rectified. I kind of miss the days of film, where a weeks worth of waiting in anticipation for the developers to do their thing helped me practise patience. Images will be uploaded to my Flickr account when I feel brave enough to choose enough for an album and then find the time to sufficiently process them!

Day 13 - the unexpected day!

So I woke early again as was worried about how to get home, but managed to doze until 7am which seemed a more sensible time to have breakfast... trouble was, despite not eating anything since noon yesterday, I found I couldn't eat - I forced down some fresh fruit and half a ham and cheese roll before retiring to pack my room again. The hotel kindly drove me back to the airport for 10am and waited whilst I went in to investigate. BA office was still not open, but it seems the day staff are more knowledgeable than the evening lot as a passing official told me there was a BA office behind the Terminal 1 check-in desks in Wing A. So the driver, (who was a lovely guy, who spent 18 months in the UK learning English at a college in Guildford) drove me from T3 back to T1 and waited again whilst I went in to investigate. The BA guy was most helpful and told me not to panic, I was to come back about 12:30/1pm ish when the BA office opens and they will get me on the 16:15 flight. Tears of relief followed as I ran back out to the waiting shuttlebus where my new friend suggested I wait back at the hotel as they would not yet have cleaned my room and he would bring me back in a couple of hours - things were looking up.

my plane IS going to be here

As soon as I was back in the hotel room I unpacked the chargers and plugged everything in again, I'm not risking it this time! I emailed yesterdays boarding card to reception and asked them to print it as evidence and tried to get a quick cat nap in before noon.
By the time I arrived at Terminal 3 for the 4th time in 24 hours, the BA desk was open! and a very very nice man called Renato swiftly took my paperwork, called for one of his staff to sort me out a boarding pass and told me they were looking for me last night and knew I was somewhere airside - they had already been told about the lost gate situation too and he apologised for the problems I had had and said he would take me as far as he could before being airside again.  He got me to the front of the check-in queue, he then took my rucksack to the "fragile" counter to have it sent through immediately and then took me again to the front of the departures gate before explaining exactly where gate 32 is. Of course this kindness set the bottom lip quivering again, but I held it together long enough to shake his hand and disappear behind the departure screen. Once through, I didn't dare stop for shopping for fear of missing something; a gate change, terminal change or even cancellation etc. not that I feel like buying anything from this airport after spending so much time in it - least of all a plastic snow globe with I "Heart" Sao Paulo on it!
So now I am sat in a cafe overlooking gate 32, I can see there is no plane there and there is not expected to be one for another hour - but I will see it arrive and I will be on it when it leaves - inshallah!

Day 12 - Travelling, travelling and more travelling

Dawn at Santa Tereza again saw no visit from toco toucans which is a shame, Ricardo thinks they are possibly nesting somewhere and therefore busy building. Despite the 1am finish, I still couldn't sleep and was up at 5am to see the sun rise again and take a swim before breakfast at 6am.
Had a very tired, reflective and emotional truck journey home - 4 hours, in the front row this time, with my head phones on. Much as I love my life at home, and I detest the number of biting bugs and insects here, there's something truly magical about this part of the world.  Like something out of the just-so stories and I hate to leave it.
We checked in to Cuiaba airport at noon then went off for lunch, said our goodbyes and got on the plane. All was going well until about 2 hours into the flight we landed in what appeared to be nothing more than a field. The teenager next to me tried her best to translate what the captain was saying; there was atraffic jam at Sao Paulo, and we were flying too long without enough fuel on board,  so we had stopped at Ribeirao Preto instead of Sao Paulo to wait and refuel. We would be taking off again in an hour. Slight panic hit me. Cuiaba is an hour behind Sao Paulo so where I thought I had 3 hours, I actually only had 2 to transfer, now with this delay it was not looking like I would make my connection.
We eventually landed in Sao Paulo at 745pm (my connecting flight leaving at 8pm) - by the time I had got my luggage it was 8pm so I walked to a TAM desk and the guy said your flight has been delayed an hour - RUN!
so I ran, and I ran and I sweated, then I dripped. I had no time to recheck my bags onto the plane, so I was carrying/dragging everything I had. Queued through the immigration area and then my phone battery started bleeping meaning soon I would no longer have a boarding card (I was electronic since I had checked in online only!) thankfully I was able to take a photo of the boarding card with my second phone before the first one died - aaaaaargh!!
It was 830pm by the time I had made it airside and the screens showed "boarding" - so I ran some more, searching for gate 50 - I continued running, but the signs ran out, where the hell is gate 50!!????, a nice man from Air Italia took pity on the state of me and grabbed my biggest rucksack from me and started to run with me - he could not find gate 50 either. 20 minutes of frantically running round the airport, up and down escalators, no-one seemed to know where the gate was - by the time we found it, the flight was gone. The guy was very apologetic, he said he was embarrassed about their new terminal and the confusing signage (or lack thereof) and embarrassed that all the staff we had asked did not know either. So now I was airside without a ticket, without a boarding card and without a way back through immigration - the guy again took it upon himself to help me. He handed me over to another nice guy on one of the immigration booths who shut his booth down and took me back through the various channels to obtain a second landing card, which then had to be stamped again as I had legally already "left" Brazil. By the time I got landside in the main terminal the BA office was shut, the TAM office said they couldn't help me with a seat on one of their flights (even though it was their delay!!) but that they could give me a form for me to show BA tomorrow stating what the cause of the flight delay was - this letter will apparently force them to put me on the next available plane home. Who knows when that will be.
10pm - dripping, shattered and starving hungry I wandered outside the arrivals hall, met a hotel rep and negotiated a price and a transfer to the Hotel Domani - by the time the complimentary shuttle bus turned up a few minutes later I was fairly calm and alert again - night time, alone, in a big Brazilian city wasn't the way I really wanted to end my trip but I knew the risks. and hey, there's another day tomorrow un-touched.