The Blind Diaries: Finally home after 107 days of traveling around the world!

Phil's version of our final travel day: Day 107/31 May

Happy team after successful flight in Peru

On schedule to reach Madrid, perhaps even a little early. We have a tight connection to London so every minute helps. The sector from Havana is marred by late service of the evening meal after take-off, though maybe it just reflects the Hispanic habit of dining at midnight. A good Rioja helps me to sleep but Allie is disturbed by clomping feet in the aisle.

Trailer landing in Namibia

And what have we achieved?

At the very least we must have tested human tolerance. Well, there can’t be many couples in recent years who have spent 24 hours a day together for 107 days – 2568 hours without a break.

Although we had moments of irritation with one-anothers’ personal habits or whims, we balanced needs and wants with physical and emotional stresses without more than occasional raised vocal tones.

Ladies in Peru

The journey was, by design, a combination of places one or other of us knew with others which were not only unknown but culturally challenging. We had to keep up variety and interest, mix urban frenzy with rural peace without succumbing to travel fatigue or information overload.

The face of Cuba: not much in the way of transport or good roads

Times spent renewing friendships in more than half-a-dozen places were not entirely stress-free (nor cheap by the time we took them out for meals or brought gifts of duty-free), but injected an element of stability to a journey of over 60,000km by land, sea, and air. Because Allie forgot to take her driving licence I did all the driving in Namibia, New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica and Chile, amounting to well over 5000km on roads ranging from motorways to mud-tracks. It was a salutary experience.

Driving through beautiful New Zealand

The political systems we encountered could not have been more disparate and anyone spending over a week each in North Korea and Cuba, regardless of their view of George W’s ‘Axis of Evil’ policies, would be hard-pressed to want to live in either place for much longer. How the inhabitants can still be persuaded they live in paradise by either Mr Castro or Mr Kim is a mystery.

a rare photo of North Korean workers in the countryside 2007

Five weeks in a Spanish-speaking world stretching from mid-Pacific to mid Caribbean makes one realise how much of the globe had its origins in the Iberian peninsular and how important Spanish is as a lingua-franca.

Meeting friends,Teresa and Tim in Hongkong

The rapidly changing face of China was a surprise to me, though less so to Allie with more consistent experience, but it is clear that whilst Putonghua is the medium of communication for a big swathe of people in Asia they are being overtaken by the tide of English which flows even to Cuba and DPRK where it is replacing Russian and German as the preferred foreign tongue.

Phil relaxing on Easter Island

It is of course fashionable these days to rack up a carbon conscience when you travel. I believe this is both superficial and short-sighted, encouraging insularity and discouraging the dispelling of xenophobia which is a far greater danger to our future than staying at home. Transport certainly needs to be made more energy-efficient and cleaner, but not strangled in a fit of environmental pique.

Allie's version of DAY 107: Thursday, 31^st of May

Flying over the sand dunes in Namibia

Home sweet home!

Our flight out of Havana left on time and we arrived well in time for our connection in Madrid. Coming into Heathrow we had to do a few waiting loops before getting clearance for landing, but it allowed us fantastic views right over downtown London. The visibility was stunning and London looked ever so green and beautiful.

On arrival we tried our new eye pass immigration and to our surprise it worked! The camera recognized our eyes and in we were without having to queue or to show a passport. That’s modernization in the right way!

In Sydney

We were lucky to catch an earlier bus then planned (5pm instead of 6). But coming out of the terminal our faces dropped when we realized that we had just hit a huge traffic jam on the motorway. A reminder that we are back to the madness of traffic – wish we were back on those empty highways in Cuba!

Flying an amphibian microlight in Cuba

Nevertheless we heard that we still had been lucky: just moments later there was another accident and we would never have gotten back home on that evening if we had been on our original bus.

So that was “Glueck im Unglueck” as a German saying goes (luck in unlucky times).

great horse riding in Costa Rica

Climbing up the steps to our flat in Bristol with the fresh smell of rain on the pavement made me feel like coming home. Indeed it was wonderful to be back in our little apartment, everything being there as it was before, but a bunch of fresh flowers on the table and the fridge full of goodies.

vintage aeroplaning in New Zealand

We pop in to say hi to Phil’s mother and suddenly it feels like we have been here just yesterday. Did we really travel 60.000 kilometres around the world? Did we indeed enter the empire of the “Dear Leader”, ride horses on Easter Island, fly balloons in Bolivia and Peru and drive through Castro’s Cuba? It all seems to be surreal and unrealistic.