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As we sit here in a restaurant in central Dar es Salaam, the bustle feels familiar yet we've never been here before. In front of me is a huge BBQ where a small local man in a blue gown is sprinkling the smoking pieces of red chicken with even more spices. To his left another tends the second grill where he turns skewers of beef between wafting the coals with a piece of cardboard. The restaurant has its fair share of tourists but mixed into the group there is and indian family of five in full islamic dress eating chicken and chips and I can see a group of africans sitting through the glass doors that lead into the inside area of the restaurant. After a year of travelling this restaurant feels familiar not becuase we've ever eaten here but because of the mix of people, the smells, the smoke and sounds of ten different languages being spoken but melding into a low background buzz that competes with car sounds, beeping horns and the distant cry of a mosque.
This is what we love about travelling, I'm waiting for my food with no idea how good it'll be but we might be onto a winner. We've already bumped into someone who was on the dive boat with us a couple of days ago and who knows if we'll sit here for the rest of the night or meet someone else and end up somewhere that we've not even heard of yet. One thing is certain though, at 5am tomorrow we fly home and our adventure comes to an end. That means no more local places like this.
We keep thinking about all the things we've done over the year but it already feels like a dream. Did we really ride camels in India? Drive a motorbike to remote villages in Laos? Climb up rock faces in Thailand? See sharks and feel tremors in Indonesia? Say hi to whale sharks in Honduras? Did I really wake up to find myself on a sand dune looking at Ayres Rock? Jump of a bridge in New Zealand? Do a presentation in the middle of an Islamic prayer meeting? Work as a Divemaster in Zanzibar?
We wonder what has become of all the great people we've met too. There have been others who were on years away like us, some now back at their desks, others just beginning their adventure. We think of the locals we've met - the boatmen in Indonesia, the ladies in the Pare Mountains, the people in the diving school in Zanzibar. Are they really still where we remember them being, doing what we remember them doing? It's hard to imagine the places of our dreams still existing when we are wide awake.
Is there such a thing as parellel universes? Maybe somewhere we're still in Indonesia or Honduras or Zanzibar working as full time Divemasters or managing a hotel on a beach. It's irrelevant though as we're firmly in this reality - one where our time is up. We're going back home and returning to London where we'll no doubt be re-absorbed like a drop of water on a sponge, as if we'd never left and not really ever noticed as missing.
As our tans fade and our stress levels increase we'll do our best to remember to peer through the crowd from time to time to make sure we're moving in the right direction. To make sure we never forget that we're not coming back to 'reality' as if we have no choice on the direction of our lives but to one of many possible realities that are not set in stone. We'll do our best to remember what it's like to wish every day would last forever instead of wishing them away.
So, on that reflective note we'd like to say thanks for following our progress for this last year. We've had the most amazing time. We really hope that this blog has been like a window for you look through onto the places and people we've met without the discomfort of mosquito bites, 35 hour bus journeys and people trying to rip you off at every turn.
Those things, we did partly for you...but mostly for us!
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