Nightmare on Abelia street

So it's no more sleeps... tonight we leave for our Big Trip. AT LONG BLUDDY LAST!
So this is how it's going down...

The characters:

• The Band (the hot one)
  
• The Caz (the supposed damsel in distress who is actually the hero of the story)
  
• The Joshwaaaa (AKA The Oracle. their faithful friend of old, best man at the wedding, part of every major adventure they've ever had, and in fact, the one who introduced The Band to The Caz)
  
• The Harry (the youngest and newest to the group – AKA replacement Josh. While Josh lives in JHB, Harry lives in their flat. He's become part of the family and The Band and The Caz keep tabs on him ensuring that he is home within his curfew and gets a decent meal every once in a while)

The plot:
A couple of weeks ago our characters buy a Toyota Hilux aka The BOOSTER (bought at a steal on auction - bless this financial crisis) and pimp it up. Much planning and packing and purchasing and borrowing ensues while our heroine organizes 2 weeks free camping on Bazaruto island (all in a day’s work!) and bakes rusks and crunchies in her spare time.

4 weeks will be spent driving, eating, sleeping, dhowing, snorkeling, beach batting, exploring, birding, bribing, swimming, reading, pokering, backgammoning and white water rafting. Firstly we go to the tropical paradise of Bazaruto – gorgeous island off Mozambique. Then it’s off to Mana Pools – the wildest park in Africa. No fences around camps. Unaccompanied walking permitted. After that possibly Lake Kariba or possibly not and then…VIC FALLS. We’ll white water raft and should be able to spend a night or 2 in the 5 star Matetsi Lodge through Josh.

Where are we now:
The chalk board countdown is over and it’s no sleeps til we leave. This evening we drive through to JHB. Sunday morning we leave for Vilanculos in Mozambique. On Monday we take a dhow over to Bazaruto….

The house is chaos. The car is ready. The packing will be done tonight. The audio books have been taken out the library (I really am that dorky!). Music is being burned to CDs. Tensions are high all around.

The Fine Print
Our plans are not set in stone. We are all pretty chilled and will play things by ear. If things really go bad in Zim we’d have to make a call on whether it is still wise to go that route. We could do both Mana Pools and Vic Falls from the Zambia side if needs be.

The Muttlies
Shame, I haven't blogged about my stepdogs in a long time and actually a delicate truce has occurred. See when I got into my gardening phase I realised that the Zac (also known as the Caz-backwards) and the Zebu can be useful allies - I was trying to dig up grass for a veggie patch and it was exhaaaaausting. Then I invited the pooches with an encouraging "dig!dig!" and pointed where I needed digging and in about 5 mins I had a gorgeous patch of ground. Cheap labour, you got to love it!

Well needless to say, with all the packing going on the pooches are getting mightily depressed. They KNOW! Shame. Last night at about 3am we were woken to the most spine chilling mournful howling. "Arrooooooooooorooooowoooooooooooooooooo". Had Zac been bitten by a snake? We went to look for him and called and called and he didn't come. Eventually the Band found him still fast asleep and in the throes of a terrible nightmare. I suspect he dreamt that we were going away for a month....

Shame!