19th March 08

Date: 19th March 08
Location: Big Milly’s, Ghana
Weather: Scattered blue skies and sunshine, 35°c
Status: Ben – getting better, Colonel – 100% fixed

Got the answer I didn’t want but have expected all along from Owen yesterday after 3 months of waiting for him to arrive. He won’t be joining me for theexpedition and therefore the sole responsibility of completing Afritrex as I planned it originally comes down to my nicely browned shoulders so important decisions which I’ve been thinking about in my head can finally start to happen.

Owen is a great thinker of ideas and a very good friend but needs constant nagging and chasing to make things happen or they become irrelevant in his continually chaotic, self absorbed world. I wish him all the luck for the coming year but feel sad that what he dreamt of is now more than a world away from ever happening. Enough…

So next step is to get the vehicle booked on a ship and sailed down to SA, I will fly there in advance to welcome it into port and intend staying with friends in the meantime to train as hard as my body will allow to get ready for the Comrades in a jut 90 days time.

I am very fearful of not being able to make and finish what I set out to achieve and this set back has only made it harder but given me added motivation to make Afritrex the success I know it will be. The malaria seems to be subsiding and I’ll go for a short run this afternoon to ‘sweat out’ the rest of it. Doctor’s order of course!!

Easter will be spent here on the beach between saying goodbye to Silvia for the last time, drinking a wee bit so as not to set back the recovery and getting the truck packed up ready for shipping. Going to be a difficult holiday period me thinks!

End of day location: The Beach, Big Milly’s, Ghana
Distance covered: 0kms (but soon to be loads)