It is time to bid farewell to you, Phil. You have been on the trip since meeting The Ball at the airport in Casablanca. You need to get back to your little boy Jasper and your lovely wife Sophie in Brighton. Wow, your third journey – following up on 2002 and 2006. You have been a fantastic travel companion Phil, it is going to be a hard slog without you. I’m going to have to wear all of the hats now. But hey, what a time we have had!
West Africa will always be with us: That mad arrival in Dakar and Richie’s bag of tricks, you showing that professional team how to warm-up on the beach, your Remi Gaillard kick of The Ball onto the DHL cargo flight, your, ahem, “crappy experience” at the Grand Mosquee in Djenne, the amazing sequence of events from the Dogon Country to Ouagadougou where public transport Africa style was phenomenal, 46 hour tropical train ride to Abidjan to the cavalcade massive [check out the next blog entry to see Phil’s trip swan song]. Welcome to Africa Bruce!
Sophie, maybe you will agree to Phil coming back for the final push into Johannesburg? You wouldn’t want to miss that would you now, Phil?
