Jo'burg and Goodbyes

I'm sitting in the backpackers in Jo'burg, all alone, it's a bit surreal that everyone else has left, I keep expecting George to walk in with some very useful advice or a "hello, miss madeleine" from Johnny. There were some very tearful goodbyes at the airport yesterday, and believe everyone, at some point in the last couple of days, has shed a tear? The last few days in Jo'burg have been awesome, although there has constantly been a little black cloud hanging over us all when we realised it was nearly over. Annie's birthday celebration was a very good night, with an amazing meal and some very amusing memories... Sunday was our last full day in South Africa and included a picnic for Vince and Johnny, where we presented them with the Pepper survival kit, including a mouse trap for Johnny, to keep the rodents away, and a whistle for Vince, which he said he wished he had been given 3 months ago. In the evening we all walked to Spur for an evening of prize-giving, speaches and tears, we were each given photo frames with some of the highlights of the trip, which will definitely be kept forever, thank you so much Johnny and Vince. It must have been hard selecting the photos out of the 8000+ photos of the trip!

I arrived in Cape Town 3 months ago, thinking I was just going to stay for a month. Little did I know I would still be here now after the most incredible 12 weeks ever! I have so many amazing memories of the trip, and to list even the best bits would basically be writting out everything we've done in the last 3 months, but I have to mention the game reserves, which was so unlike anything any of us have ever done before, with, of course, the elephants being the highlight, but I know both George and Enzo have written about them in their posts. The other highlight of the trip I'm going to mention is the surfing, because although I wouldn't exactly call myself a natural, I can't even stand up after 2 months(!) and I usually came out of the water saying: "I actually nearly died" (possibly a tiny bit meodramatic?), I really enjoyed either practicing my 'pop' on the beach, i.e sunbathing, attempting to stand up in the white-water with Hattie i.e. swimming, or paddling out behind the break, if I could, and just chilling (unfortunately this usually ended with me being attacked by a massive wave and "I nearly died"!). I have to thank Johnny and Vince for their patience when trying to teach me to surf! Maybe I'll get the hang of it one day...
Anyway I have to go now as I have 3 planes to catch to get home, somehow I managed to arrange the most round-about route possible, but this truely has been the most AMAZING experience of my life and I'm going to miss everyone sooooooo much! (I already miss you all and it's only been a day!) Thanks everyone for putting up with me and see you soon.
Lots of Love
Maddy
xxxxx