Last day in Africa & last day of the Nuffield Scholarship travels for me and it’s been one to test me so far….

Pec & I managed to get all the way to the outskirts of Jo Burg by about 8.30pm and booked ourselves into a decent sort of a lodge for the final night of our African adventure. Also found our way to a quiet little bar for a couple of drinks to celebrate the trip & be thankful we’d made it after all of the earlier misgivings about the safety of travelling the ‘dark continent’. As I’ve said before, the only danger we have faced is from ‘over indulgence’, & my bet with Cathy way back in America about losing some weight (a lot needed actually!) here in Africa is doomed to utter failure.

With all the fencing I have planned, it won’t be a problem for too long.

However my mouth has been soured somewhat with the realization that my wallet was missing when packing my luggage this morning. That is the sort of nightmare that I’ve managed to avoid thus far on my many travels, and after turning the room upside down it could not be found anywhere.

I think what made matters worse was my surprise because the night before we had       pulled up to help a couple with a young boy who had run out of petrol in their car. At first we had gone straight past & then I thought “noâ€�, as tired as I felt we turned around and went back, then back tracked a couple of miles to get some fuel for them as I insisted it would be “Good Karmaâ€� and we would be repaid. Well losing my wallet was not what I had in mind, so now I’m sure something really good is just around the corner….

Late the night before I had gone to the reception foyer, checked emails & called home on Skype, and the only thing I can think of is that  the damn thing must have somehow fallen out of my bag then when getting the cable out for the computer.

And no, I did not take it to the bar the night before!

They have security cameras in the lobby & I told them that there was two other security guys there (with guns taking delivery of cash I guess) when I went to bed, plus the receptionist and no one else, but as fate would have it their video footage wasn’t working at that time!

Great, just bloody great. My biggest concern of course wasn’t the limited amount of cash involved, rather the inconvenience of ringing Australia and canceling the three plastic fantastic cards that were in it. And with Cathy in Toowoomba it also meant that her card which is linked would be out of action as well. At least I could call home with the computer & luckily I had a reliable travelling mate to sponge off as well, or it could have been much worse.

Also, I had to remind myself that it was better to be happening on the last day & not on the first…and I suppose it will seem funny one day. Not just yet though!

And now I’m sitting up in the BA lounge awaiting our next flight and while it is comfortable with food and drink etc, their internet won’t work so I’m still feeling a little aggravated.

I think being anxious to get home & finally see my girls again is adding to my poor frame of mind.

Nuffield have got the time allocation of four months quite good I think, as although difficult to do and a strain in many ways on a business & family, it adds value to both through strength out of necessity.

“What does not break us can only make us stronger�

Unless we are pushed (or choose to jump!) out of our own personal comfort zones than how can we possibly grow and learn, and therefore create a larger comfort zone.

A slight feeling of ‘discontent’ is healthy I think.

Although Jim Rohn says “ We should be both content & ambitious� and I guess he means we should be happy with what we have achieved, and yet willing to try harder to do better.

I’m sure this trip is going to continually influence my destiny for the rest of my life, and I’ll always be thankful for the great opportunity to jam so many beneficial experiences into such a short space of time.

If anyone out there in ‘cyber land’ is contemplating applying for a Nuffield Scholarship (or any other such scholarship) or just taking the chance to travel the world than I could not recommend it more highly. I’d like to think that I have learned invaluable lessons from a wide variety of people who were willing to share their knowledge, and also learned to be more humble in my opinions (of which I have many!) and realise that the world is far more complex in many ways beyond my earlier comprehension, and yet many of the worlds major issues and problems are so similar.

Enough of the philosophy….the next blog will be from home soil in Sydney!

Till then.