Monday, 15 June. The day we leave Cape Town. After numerous countdown calendars and multiple To Do lists, the day had finally arrived.

We woke up to rain... and a pile of wet laundry, waiting to be dried. The tumble-dryer which we have never switch on had it's 5 minutes of fame as we tried to get the laundry dry so we could pack the last of it into our backpack.

Oh, the last of the packing. The seemingly small pile of things sitting on the bed to be packed last minute... so deceptive! The magic sucks-all-the-air-out bags were hauled out again, and the pushing and shoving began (Kevin) ... and the tears and total loss of perspective. (Monique) I just wanted everything to fit in the bags. Now. No exceptions. Poor Kevin tried to reason with me but I was too far gone.

Three slightly overweight bags and one underweight bag that had reached it's max capacity..... and a few more items still on the bed. Darn! Time to start strapping the remaining items to my body! ;)

What I love about traveling is that you learn not to make the same mistakes twice. Our learning began before we even boarded the plane. Firstly - don't leave your last load of laundry for the day before you fly. Especially if you don't own a tumble dryer. Either wear clothes you aren't taking on the trip, or be happy to shove a dirty tshirt or two in your bag and do a load a few days into your trip. Yes, that would have been a lot less stressful.

Dry laundry, bags packed, burgers for lunch, prayers and final good wishes from Kevin's parents took us to 14:00 - my mom arriving for some tea. The tea was nervously made as the reality of things came creeping in. We were leaving. On a jet plan. Fortunately, we plan to return again... at some point.

After all the stress and grafting we were just about to head off on a holiday. For a month. A whole month in a country that we had both longed to visit. Wow, exciting times ahead.

Off to the airport we went. Said our goodbyes to my mom at the Drop and Go and Pete and Pam parked and came in. God blessed us with a very gracious lady who, after a minimal amount or wiggling items around, pushed our overweight-by-a-few-kgs through. I make mention of our bags only being a few kgs because, from our previous travels, we have really learnt how far is too far on this overweight luggage thing. Your sweet smile can really only get you so far. Thankfully, ours was sufficient.

Bags through and off we went to Mugg and Bean for a drink. We snapped a couple last photos and gave the very last goodbye hugs before we heading off through the security check.

Kevin loves being in airports. He feels all the stress of over - bags are checked in and all that is left is to board the plane. Of course the plane, with it's gazillion movies is also something he really looks forward to.

I, on the other hand, am more concerned about how to get hold of some water. I normally drink a lot of water in the day so I find I get very thirsty very quickly. I am that annoying person who bugs the air hostess as soon as I get on the plane for water. And then another glass. And then I take two glasses back to my seat. Kevin, who is already getting settled into his movie watching always says "I didn't ask for any water" and I always tell him they are both for me. Water with ice, fruit juice with ice and a whole cup of ice - that's me on repeat for the duration of flight. Oh, and then the obvious loo breaks. I always take an isle seat! On that note, that it another trick we have learnt - we book the isle and the window in a set of three seats. Unless the flight is fully booked, it is quite unlikely that the seat inbetween us will not get booked. If it does, we would just ask the person if they would prefer to take the isle. Of course the isle is better that the middle seat, so we're pretty confident that would be keen. So far we have been lucky and this sneaky booking has given us a spare seat between us for all of our flights. Kevin can stretch his legs a bit. We can move our food trays onto the spare take and I can nap on Kevin's lap... and ignore the jealous eyes of the sardines around us.