Hurray, 8 years old
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And yet another year flew by. Where does the time go? Well, to answer that question let’s have a look at the numbers. Which has become a yearly tradition here on Ed far from his bed ever since I left on boxing day 2010. Just so we’ll get an idea of where I wasted my time on this time. For starters, I have spent quite a lot of time in my car. Because driving fast is not really an option here in Africa, but nevertheless there over 30.000 kilometers more on the odometer than a year ago. Apart from that I also took, very environmentally conscious, the train. But those 400 kilometers cost me almost a day and a night. So, too bad for the little polar bears, but I’m not going to do that again. An airplane is simply a lot more contaminating faster, I traveled 42.000 kilometers in one of those in less than 72 hours. And basically only because I wanted to shoot parts of my Christmas video in Asia and South-America. All in all I’ve been able to visit a record number of countries in 2018. No less than 28, by doing so I shattered the magical number of 100 visited countries easily.
Ups and downs
Everywhere I came I took it my camera out, so I now have 9.795 new photos. It’s hard to quantify, but taking and processing all those pictures cost a shitload of time. Believe me. Add to that the time I needed to invent write down the 35 stories with which you have wasted numerous hours too. For the first time, since I started this trip, I also had to invest countless hours applying for visas and in drug searches. What a pain in the ass is that! Once again this year has been full of highlights, like the train ride I mentioned and the trip through the Sahara with Sidi, roughing through the Merzouga dunes on a quad, rafting on the Zambezi, skydiving in Swakopmund, off-roading in Nigeria, a birthday in Kuala Lumpur, camel races in Qatar and of course fighting with the cops in Senegal. But of course the day I could pick up LucÃa from the airport in Lusaka I had was the highest climax of them all. In short, it’s basically a miracle all that fitted in just one year. Nevertheless we’ll try to step it up in the year to come. Because we can always won’t take it down a notch until we’re as old as our friends. We would like to wish everybody, but especially you, a 2019 fuller than full with highlights.
