Problems problems. I was supposed to leave on the 27th December. I must have been on crack to plan that.Here we are sending the car off in Los Angeles.
We don't even have the car yet--it's just coming into Thamesport today so we won't have it until the 3rd or so, making us nearly a week behind "schedule."
So even though we are ostensibly part of "group 3," we will be prattering around somewhere behind them, left to traverse the minefields on our own. Someone's got to be last though. It might as well be us.
Jonathan is already in the UK, putting together some last minute things--I will meet him in London on Wednesday, leaving NY Tuesday afternoon, with my fully loaded kit bag--taking plenty of essential oils.
Basically I have had to be completely organized for this trip for the past two weeks--the holiday time is no time to start new projects. By the time Christmas is a week away, nothing else exists but Enfleurage and long days fueled with plenty of alcohol and grilled cheese sandwiches.
Fortunately I laid in a healthy supply of Scotch as a precautionary measure.
And now I get to spend New Years in my favourite city, New York.
I have to say, it's been a little stressful. Jon and I fought plenty before he left, accusing each other of everything but moral turpitude. Not a good start perhaps but things seem to have calmed down now. After all, we'll have plenty of time to work things out in the next two months! Once we are away from lives and habits I think we'll be able to cooperate and be pleasant with each other. Inshallah!
The plan is still to drive to Gambia, and I am now quite keen to see Dakar, Senegal. Always a city girl I guess. Then we have visas for Mali and Algeria, although I'm not sure the border is open between them. I have a tiny, wee, hint of a sneaking suspicion that we might have to double back through Niger. And I certainly plan to keep pestering the Libyans. And I was not successful in obtaining a Mauritanian visa either. In other words, it's still the vaguest of plans.
