The one where we don’t sleep much, move out of our flat, and arrive in Africa

Well, it’s first blog time (Jen here by the way - hello!) and what a week(ish) it’s been since finishing up with work. After some drinks with some very lovely humans at Players on 22 November, it was straight into pack-up-the-flat mode. 

We’d arranged with my brother Matt that he’d drive down in a van on Sunday 24 November to move us into a storage unit, so we had a firm timeline to work to for getting everything packed. Sara had been off work for about a week already working diligently on Project Pack-Quickly, so I was feeling optimistic that we’d have a gentle Saturday morning of packing before a relaxed afternoon of pottering. I’ve been told in the past that I may occasionally be optimistic to the point of it being unrealistic regarding timescales. Unfortunately, this was one of those occasions. We start packing at 7am on Saturday morning, and with three 20 minute breaks, we still haven’t finished at 5am on Sunday morning. With Matt scheduled to arrive at 9.30am, we agree that more than 90 minutes of sleep is a luxury we can ill afford, and accordingly go to bed only to get back up again at 6.30am. 

Fast forward to 9.30am and Matt arrives. Is the flat packed yet, you may wonder? No, no it is not. Unfazed, Matt and I begin loading the van while Sara continues to pack. One loaded van later, we head to the storage unit to offload. “Would you like 75 square feet or 100 square feet?” the helpful chap behind the counter asks. “75 should be fine, right?” I ask Sara who looks at me doubtfully. I interpret her expression as complete agreement with my assessment and choose the smaller space. We can always move to a larger unit if it turns out we don’t have space after all.

It turns out my brother is also sceptical about the size I’ve gone with. However, after we’ve offloaded the van and between them Matt and Sara have stacked the first load to the rafters, we’re all feeling much more optimistic about the rest of the stuff fitting in the unit.

Much relieved, we head back to the flat to load the rest only to find it’s actually more than we remember and involves some large and interestingly (read awkwardly) shaped items it won’t be simple to fit. 

Now slightly on edge, we fill the van and manage to fit everything remaining in, but it’s now pretty full. Off we go again, Google Maps set to the Wembley storage unit, when Google Maps says “Destination Safestore Wembley… closes soon.” 

“Sorry, did that say the place closes soon?!” We call up to check and, disaster, it’s Sunday and therefore closes at 16:00 but it’s 15:56 and we’re 20 minutes away; and while it does have 24 hour access, we don’t have it set up and would need a physical key fob to gain access out of hours! Matt has no flexibility with the van and has to have it back in Glossop (4.5hrs away) first thing in the morning, and we’re being checked out of our flat at 11:30am plus would have no means of getting our stuff to the unit if the storage place closes before we get there. 

Enter Sara and, hero that she is, she persuades them to stay open for us. With three sets of blood pressure dangerously high, we rocket to the unit hoping that they’ve not changed their minds to find the staff still there and waiting for us. It’s not an exaggeration to say I nearly cried with relief, and Sara had the same reaction when the staff then waived the £144 annual fee for us to get 24hr access. 

Now with unfettered access to the premises, the focus of our mutual stress returns to the unit itself. There’s no longer an option of upsizing the unit given the staff have left, and Sara and I are getting the train north straight after we check out of our flat in the morning, so everything MUST fit. Once again, enter Sara and Matt who do some professional level Tetris on our life’s belongings to get everything to fit (and with space to spare, no less). My innocent comment to the effect that we should have gone for the unit one size smaller was met with unimpressed faces.

Matt takes us back to our now largely empty flat and heads home to Glossop (thanks again Matt - you’re the best!). It’s evening, we’re sleep deprived and tired from moving, so decide cleaning the flat can wait until the morning. Cleaning surely won’t take very long with two of us doing it after all. Surely.

Nope, wrong there too (again, overly optimistic about timeframes). We’re up at 5am on Monday 25 November cleaning and, without any breaks to speak of, are still doing the final bits at 11:30 when the check-out agent arrives to inspect the flat. Fortunately he’s a nice fellow who lets us finish off in one room while he goes around the rooms that are ready. 

Finally we’re done and head for the train to Yorkshire to my parents’ where we’re spending a few nights before we fly to Kenya. But work doesn’t stop here because we’ve a pretty chunky to do list of life admin, trip prep, and packing our WAY TOO MUCH STUFF into our backpacks. “This will probably take a couple of days to smash through,” I estimate, “so we should be able to have a nice chilled day with Mum and Dad on Friday before we all go to Matt’s on Saturday.” In keeping with the general theme of this blog entry, of course that didn’t turn out to be enough time, and we’re working early and late every day, up until 1am on Saturday morning and again from 6am Saturday morning trying to get everything done in time. Key things we did fit into those four days: haggis, stovies, a proper Yorkshire chippy, fish pie, cheesy beanos, Irn Bru, Thanksgiving dinner, and managing to see Vicky and Mike for dinner plus Laura and Becky for coffee and cake. Yes, basically all non-prep stuff we managed was food related. I don’t think this should surprise anyone who knows us. 

It’s a lovely Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning at my brother’s seeing our three nieces (ages 8, 6 and 7 months), and spending some time together with my parents, Matt and Dorota before we head off for such a long period of time. My parents head home mid-morning on Sunday and Matt drops us at Manchester airport mid-afternoon for our flight early evening. We have very mixed emotions through all of this: we’ll miss family a lot while we’re gone, and our nieces in particular are going to change and grow a lot before we see them again, but we’re of course also excited that the adventure we’ve been planning for so long is finally starting.

We fly with Ethiopian Airways to Nairobi via Brussels (where we don’t disembark but more passengers join the flight) and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia (where we switch planes). Addis Ababa is where we lose our first (and hopefully only!) item during an unexpected security screening for all passengers with a connecting flight. In the chaos, I forgot to clip my travel neck pillow back onto my bag after removing it to go through the machine, and now will have to either sweet talk Sara into giving me hers (unlikely) or suffer with a crick in the neck if I want to sleep on drive days until I find a suitable alternative. All things considered, it’s probably one of the least consequential things I could have lost, so I suppose I’m grateful it’s only a neck pillow that’s gone.

Anyway, finally we’re in Kenya and everyone is super friendly and helpful so far. We’ve been here around 30 hours at this point and have spent the time sleeping (finally!), getting ourselves ready for joining the truck in the morning (Wednesday 4 December), and sampling the local drinks. Kenyan beverages tested so far: Tusker lager, White Cap lager, and Tusker cider. Our agreed assessment: Tusker nice, White Cap better, Tusker cider sweet but tasty. 

And that’s where we are right now, sitting outdoors at Bashasha, the Heron Portico hotel bar, Tusker cider on hand, feeling nervous and excited for tomorrow morning when at 7:30 we join the truck. I believe the day 1 plan is to go to the Giraffe Centre and the Sheldrick Elephant and Rhino Orphanage, both in Nairobi, before we head west(ish) to spend a night with the Maasai on Thursday and then go to the Masai Mara on Friday for our first safari. I’m not sure when we’ll next have WiFi but signing off for now and will post again when we can. Africa: here we go!