This year has not followed my New Years hopes and plans for a spectacular 2024 - that will teach me. What was I thinking? This year so far has been clouded over with darkness but there is a sunrise I am watching for over the ocean.
It was good returning home to South Africa. It was difficult going back. A trip that was supposed to be with such excitement was a sad one. It's already a case that there is such raw emotion when I return to Africa, the land of my birth and my blood.
We don't get to travel back often. Two years since we got to return for a holiday and much needed family time. Returning home and realizing that two members of my tribe are no longer here defined this trip with immense emotion and a heavy heart.
It has been a bit of a long spell on GypsyDjango and the cabin fever had set in; we needed this trip to venture off into the fast-paced world of terra firma with people and conversations and socializing for a spell of recouping and distraction. Doing so was not without a certain amount of fear and trepidation at abandoning our floating home we have become so attached to - plus, not too sure we could still remember how to behave in company. With the joy of reconnecting with loved ones, we quickly forget about GypsyDjango. The trip was a highlight on our much-needed, largely non existent, social calendar.
Long distance relationships take work and effort and that's what makes them worthwhile. We seem to have been blessed to have the right type of people in our lives that we can pick up with right from where we left off, as if we have not spent a day apart. A month and a half passed in the blink of an eye amidst a flurry of reconnecting and outings to special places with the regret of special people not seen and places not visited as time flew past at a heartbreaking pace.
All too soon it was time to say goodbye, not only to our family and friends but difficult final farewells to my Nessy and Dad. Yet still an amazing trip of upliftment by the epic people in our lives. The outpouring of love and support of my precious children and in-laws, as well as our wonderful quirky friends who filled our lives during this period with laughs and far too much good alcohol and chocolate, will never be forgotten. Between an 80th, a 50th, game drives, the mountains, concerts, rivers and the very many traditional South African braais, we were privileged and this was truly what we both needed.
Memories were created, photos were taken and a very special trip home was celebrated. I am counting the days till we return again.
Adiós Africa de Sud, hasta luego y nos vemos en al otro lado.
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