The title of this blog is not a description of the effects of too many curries on my digestive system since returning to the UK, but a reference to our brief home visit before heading back to Africa.

Despite having three months in Washington, Alaska and the Yukon our North America trip ended far too quickly, we didn't even get a chance to attend the Overeaters Anonymous (lunchtime meeting) in Juneau.

It has taken a while to get used to walking around without bear spray and a husky and even longer to figure out how 65 million Brits get on with each other in such a small space! The world financial crisis has fortunately passed us by, but only just, we nearly moved our savings last year to one of the now bankrupt Icelandic banks, which would have been a premature end to our adventures!

Our time in the UK has been spent dealing with the consequences of Royal Mail's rule that you can't extend a mail re-direction service beyond 2 years. That arbitrary decision means we've lost 18 years of positive credit rating at our house and as if that is not bad enough, we now officially live with my mother and father in law!

To avoid any blood pressure problems I won't mention the joy we've had changing address details with banks, card companies and pensions agencies, suffice to say they are all staffed by kids who probably think Hitler and Churchill were on the same side in the war!

My brief period of fame as a "travel writer" (the artist formerly known as Ralph is now formally known as Ralph) ended in disillusionment when we found out that Nedbank (our South African bank) returned my writing fee to Leisure Wheels magazine without telling us. It appears our account is frozen. I'm looking forward to going to a Nedbank branch in South Africa next week and asking them to explain why they are still charging us £15 a month in fees for a frozen account!

We are heading to Heathrow Terminal 5 this afternoon, the hardest part of a 6-month trip to South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and possibly Mozambique. It will be great to get back to sunshine, warmth and open spaces, and we can't wait to see the wildlife again, we've missed it!

Big thanks are due to Jo and John (the outlaws), to Alan & Jane for putting up with us in Reading whilst building a house extension and to everyone else we met on this quick visit (even you Steve). To those we didn't get to see this time, you've 6 months to move location otherwise we'll see you in April 2009!