Expedition HQ, Chobham, Surrey (i.e. Flo's mum and dads room above the garage!)
2 days to go!
We’ve taken over Wendy & Rodger’s (Florio’s mum and dad) room over the garage as our Gambia Expedition HQ. It looks a little chaotic to say the least but we seem to be making some semblance of progress……..really……
We’ve had a busy couple of days, running around London and Surrey, saying goodbye to friends (and Mr P – my 17 year old arthritic dog!) getting the rest of our equipment and gear, which also included a visit to the hallowed halls of the Royal Geographical Society http://www.rgs.org/HomePage.htm (we are very honoured to have easy access now that Florio is a ‘Fellow of the RGS’) to look at maps of The Gambia. Florio has since been back and spent an afternoon in the venerable RGS library sourcing the most amazing maps of the country. So, at least we won’t get lost!
We were also invited onto BBC Surrey Radio to be interviewed on Nick Wallace’s Breakfast Show about the expedition. Live radio is a little daunting but an adrenaline rush too – i.e. it really keeps you on your toes! You can check it out at (the interview starts at around the 2hr 36 min mark):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p004q5y2/Surrey_Breakfast_with_Nick_Wallis_19_10_2009/
Hopefully we didn’t have too many ‘ums and ‘arrr’s’ and ‘you know’ in there!
Again, we can’t thank people enough for their very generous donations of gear for the expedition. David from Addict invited us down to his warehouse in Southampton and we came away with clothing and caps for the guys and ourselves (Big Shout to you,Dave!), a couple of the girls at the Eden Project very kindly donated camera’s for the Gambian team members. Janneh & Mohammed will be stoked as they will be able to document the journey through photo’s too. Alan at Fra-Angelica sent us an amazing stand-alone mosquito net which means we also have the choice to sleep ‘outdoors’ when we feel like it. Nothing quite so wonderful as sleeping beneath African skies. The night sky is blacker than black out in the bush, the stars are so big and close up that you could almost reach out and touch them…..bliss……
OK, back to Gambia Expedition HQ to finish packing…….Jenny Adams at Gambia Experience (who very kindly donated the return flights) has been a complete star and managed to wangle extra baggage allowance for Friday so that we can get all the gear down there without having to dip into our meagre savings to pay for excess (thanks a million, Jenny, we owe you one!).
More to come……….watch this space and please feel free to comment 
Jones & Flo x
PS : If you would like to help us to help the Gambian school kids get their Gardens For Life set up, then please see the previous posting on ‘how you can help…..’ this will give you all the details you will need about PayPal. Thank you!
Image: Jones2009
Related posts:
- Getting together with the Gambian ‘Short Walk…….’ team members, haggling for the best deals on equipment (and ground nut grass for Neil & Paddy!) in the markets of Brikama, Serrekunda and Banjul, interviews with Gambia TV………. Sat 31st Nov 09 Its been a whirlwind of a...
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October 21st, 2009 at 11:54 am
Great to hear you’re nearly all set! We’ll be keeping up with your posts as you and are frankly as jealous as hell we can’t come with you!
We wish you all the luck in the world
Cheers
Matt
October 21st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Thanks Matt! You were on my list of people to mail with this new blog site URL. You beat me to it!
Remember, we are ’selling’ (for donations) walking slots on the expedition if you fancy joining us for a few days/a week? All you need is a tent and a good pair of walking shoes!
H & Flo
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:36 am
So today’s the big day. Good luck and don’t forget the blister plasters!!
October 31st, 2009 at 7:31 pm
thank you!! internet issues but we are trying to download whenever we can!! more to come soon
H & Flo