(Daniel) This morning marked the end of Nicks time in the field with the Expedition.  On my insistence, he had extended his stay after a slow start in Mexico had left me wanting him to get a better taste of Expedition life.  Thankfully, these last weeks in Southern Mexico and Belize have really satisfied that.  After finishing packing his bags, and with both of us showered and ready for the day, I drove Nick from the Raddison to the small airport just outside the city limits.  

As a Pilot himself, Nick was pleased to see that the tiny airport was served mainly by small planes, Cesna Caravans and smaller 2 or 4 seater aircraft lined up infornt of the terminal building.  Most of these belonged to Carib Air, a tiny charter airline that flies domestic and international flights to the Caribbean islands.  As Nick and I watched the planes landing and taking off I noticed a tiny two seater marked in Carib Air colours, a passenger was running over to the plane where the pilot was waiting.  He sat up front next to the pilots seat, with his briefcase across his lap!  The only way to fly charter!  A group of Melanites, the unusual puritan settlers that we had encountered all over Belize were waiving off a relative.  Strange, that many of these quakerlike people will not use a car, radio or TV, but they don’t seem to have much issue with flying around the world!

Downstairs in the check-in lobby, Nick checked his bags for America, and the onward flight to England.  At the desk, the girl looked at us, then asked if we were military, presumably this would require a different visa exit form.  I guess the weeks on the road have made old Nick look a bit rough around the edges!

Nick and I ate a hearty breakfast of hamburgers and fries, sat together discussing the adventures of the past 6 weeks and what changes and work to do on the website. Then all too soon, it came time for him to leave.  I left Nick at the cue for Passport control, and walked out into the hot Belize day.  As I walked to the car park where the Wolf was waiting, a deep melancholy came over me.  I had grown use to company on the road again, but of course it wouldn’t be long before I found some friends, but also a longing for something.  To see home again, to see my friends, to see Nii again.

To add to my ill ease, an underlying feeling of things spiraling out of control had crawled in to my thoughts recently.  My tenants, renting my house in England had decided to move out early, this would be an expensive issue, and would throw me back into paying a mortgage immediately on my return home.   The shipping agents which I had contacted about shipping the Wolf to  Africa had all ignored my mails, and time was running out to get over there. Infact, even if I left now the shipping would probably take a month with a week either side for arrangements, that would leave me only 6 weeks to get through 5 African countries, then across to Spain and back through France.  This seemed like not only a huge task, but a waste of precious time, I have hardly scraped Central America, why waste the rest of the trip watching things fly past in the window?

There was one last issue, one that never leaves my mind.  You see travelling helps to clear the mind of all the crap that clogs up ones thoughts.  I always find that after travel I am left with a multitude of new thoughts and better defined opinions.  But usually there is one clear message, a thought for the future, a note to self.  In my first travels, the thought had been to travel more.  Beg borrow or steal, but see more of this amazing world and it’s people, learn all you can.  Later in my travels, the thought had been to set up a base, buy a house and make some financial investments.  This time the message that seems to be forming is about finding someone to start a family with.  In the past I have never found someone who I wanted to do this with, although many times I thought that I had found the person.  They always proved to be too soft, or too needy.  Not independent, not understanding, the family from hell or just not different enough.  But now I think that I may have found that person.  Nii has all the things that I have been looking for and more.  Her family and background is simple and honest,  she is intelligent caring and strong.  But she won’t wait, not for long.  

Some careful thought and planning would be required, but for now, I needed to stop for repairs.  The whole purpose in coming to Belize was to make repairs to the Wolf.  I had passed the Land Rover dealer on the way here, I now headed back along the road towards them, hoping to fix the broken shock mount and two ball joints which needed replacing.

At the Land Rover Dealer my feeling of despair was compounded.  The dealer didn’t have any of the parts which I needed.  Despite having an English registered Defender in the car park.  They pointed me in the direction of Marine welding, who could fabricate parts, I climbed back in the Wolf hoping to salvage at least some of the day.  

At the Welders, the manager who came to see me, looked over the broken rig in the shock tower, he explained that he would be able to make the parts using tougher 4mm steel plate, but that he would not be able to disassemble the suspension setup or remove the old part.  I asked for some workshop space, and set to work doing this myself.  An hour and a half later, it was done.  I worked with the two welders until the shop closed, and we finally had a working solution to the problem.  Although not 100% to my design, this would be a tougher part than the standard, and would hopefully see out the rest of the Expedition.

I returned to the Hotel, and ordered a Pizza to the room.  I sat looking at the laptop screen for an hour, before giving up on breaking my mood and going to sleep.  During the night I woke up several times, It began to become clear in my mind that the Africa leg of the journey would be a waste of time and money.  Surely I could shop from Central America to Spain in half the time, and at a fraction of the cost.  Perhaps I could even cross to Morocco and Western Sahara to complete some of the African countries en route?

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