I’m Back……..

Actually been home for a full week now and I’ve finally settled back in after really struggling, especially during the first few days. I felt quite shattered and in a way was feeling sort of deflated I guess, which is something that we were warned could happen to us by previous Nuffielders. Not that I had been ‘physically’ challenged too much on the trip, now being as soft and unfit as I’ve ever been. However mentally it was quite something else again & maybe that was having a cumulative effect that I wasn’t necessarily fully aware of until I had slowed down to a stop.

Also, I have so many plans to enact & a list of things ‘to get done’ a mile long that is also leaving me somewhat daunted by the prospect of what to do first and how much there is to actually do!!

After a week though…..I’m feeling great & really pleased to be home again with Cathy (after a bit of an adjustment to convince her that I can be needed again!) and we’ve already had three cattle moves squeezed among Cathy having over two hundred ‘guest nights’ with the Bokhara Hutz so far this month. Basically has not been much rain here all year & the fantastic summer we had last season has held on, but the dry conditions surprised me as it had been quite green all the way down from Queensland till not far from home, when it started to obviously run out. There had been about 20 mm here a fortnight before I got home & although grass butts are quite sparse, they are greening up with some growing back a couple of inches in a matter of days after we have taken cattle out of the paddock. With a green pick over most of the country we are well poised to receive a couple of inches soon and have the place jump away nicely. That’s the plan & I hope ‘the big fella’ obliges again this year….

I’ve spent a bit of time over the last couple of days planning out some fencing (well not really ‘some’, more like 140 klms all together!) on a mapping program I have, and how I wish it was as easy as drawing lines on a computer screen… Not that I think or worry about the work involved so much as I have firmly in my mind the future result I can create with the landscape by doing it properly, & I just wish I could get it all done ‘tomorrow’. That was one of the many great things about Africa….plenty of staff, & don’t I wish that I could access some of that right now.

I haven’t really had much of a chance to catch up with anyone other than family since being back home, but with the xmas season fast approaching I guess that scenario will change soon enough….

Cheers again!