We landed in Canada on 21 August. It was good to be home. We got back into our old house and got all our stuff delivered (though not yet all unpacked). We saw my grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins. We met our great neighbours and I reconnected with good friends. Nice. I am in a new school working hard to make new friends - with some progress I am happy to report. So things here are good. 

Canada is clean and orderly and easy. And there's lots of fun to be had. But I am already missing Africa. I miss the great weather (quite cold and some rain here in Ottawa). I miss the beaches, the snorkelling and the surfing. I miss our great friends from Mozambique (and good friends that have recently left Maputo for Manila, Rome, Washington and New York). I miss traveling to "House of Fire" in Swaziland - amazing music festival called "Bushfire". I miss the American School and the great teachers. I miss sushi and movies in Nelspruit. I miss zip-lining the canyons of South Africa. I miss Rachel (our housekeeper) and Americo (our cook). I miss Breakers hotel and the climbing wall in Umhlanga and the Ushaka water park in Durban. I miss tearing between houses with my Danish buddies on our street. I miss my tortoise "Tiny." I miss our big house and taking over the third floor for sleepovers and nerf gun battles. I miss gelato at Sommerschield park. I miss camping at the Elephant Reserve and in the Drakensberg mountains. 

That is a lot to miss!  But its not forever. Goodbye for now Africa - I'll be back! 

But for now, pass me another box. Where can we put this? Has anyone seen my skateboard?

Ok we are clearly a bit behind in finishing our story, since I am writing about this a month after it happened, but anyway, I thought you would all like to know how it ended...

On 19 August 2014 we drove the last few hundred kilometres from Cairo to the port city of Alexandria. It was not one of our easiest days. We were tired and a bit stressed about getting the the paper work done to get the car shipped back to Mozambique. 

But it was great to see the Mediterranean Sea - here is a picture of the three of us at the top of Africa! And beside that a photo of the end-of-the-drive kilometre reading on the GPS: 20,332.2 kms. Definitely a big drive. 

For those geographers out there - while we did get to the very south of Africa (Cape Argulas) we did not get to the very northern tip of Africa - that would be Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia at 37°N. Alexandria is at 31°N. Each degree is about 111kms - so the true tip would be another 700km further north. Getting there however would have been a very big challenge - requiring a drive across the highly unstable country of Libya. So you do what you can. 

My Dad spent the day in Alexandria at customs getting the car ready for export. He last saw the Pajero at the customs hall (see pic below) from where it gets loaded into a container and onto a ship to go back to Mozambique.  

We were sad to say goodbye to the car - it has served us very well. Happily, it will continue to transport adventurous travellers around southern Africa as it will soon be in the hands of our good friends Marike and Eric. 

From Alexandria we we headed back by bus to Cairo. One more sleep (and a visit to the stunning Cairo Museum) and we were on a plane back to Canada. 

By the way, if you have ever heard anyone talk about crazy traffic in Cairo, here's a photo to prove it. That was just one way - the other side also had eight jammed lanes most of the time. Although my friend Louis V says the traffic in Manilla is even more insane.