Well, it is finally time to venture back to Africa as a family. I was always cognizant when I took my sabbatical in 2015 to travel the world that the kids might not fully remember the experience when they were older, so I had always hoped that I would get the chance to do a mini adventure with the kids when they were older. Now in 2002 we finally have the chance to do this, I didn't want to take another year off as I feel it would be adversely affected their education and social groups being teenagers. Having tried road-schooling last time, I am not saying it can't be done but it was challenging for us and we were rather relaxed about it, saying that they were younger it was less of an issue. 6 years later I now see all 3 kids excelling at school and you would never know that they missed a year of education, in fact the feedback we get from teachers is very positive how they bring their experiences during the year travelling into the classroom.

Maddalena has GCSE exam next year, Arabella is about to start the 2 year course work for GCSE and Luca is going into Year 8 I think it would require much more dedication to road schooling if we took a year out. So, in the end we decided to try a go for a summer school holiday which is 6 weeks.

We choose Africa as it holds a special place in our hearts, I met my wife there and we truly love being there. It is hard to put into words but we just love being there, it's the people, the food, the wild experiences, arid landscapes and the sense of adventure of going into the bush or desert.

We decided we would stick to Southern Africa and visit some of the places we never had time to see last time round as the countries are so vast, all of the places we are going will be new with the exception of Victoria Falls.

South Arica is the only country in Africa where we don't like as you are restricted to what you can do due to safety concerns (Not that South Africa doesn't have some wonderful places to see), so once we land and pick-up our 4x4 camper we are going to head into Botswana the next day. We have a couple of stops in Botswana then head into Zambia to see Victoria falls and then go on safari in Kafue National Park, we then head southwest into Namibia making our way to the coast to do a private 1 week guided tour of the Skeleton Coast off grid, for the last part we wanted to go somewhere out of the more touristy areas of Southern Africa and decided for Angola.

Angola is up and coming and is building a tourist infrastructure at speed and feels it's the right time to visit, we are always unsure of visiting less developed African nations so we have booked a local Angolan Portuguese speaking guide for a 2 week tour that we will follow in our 4x4. This not only helps us get the most our of our limited time there but also gives a chance to gain a better understanding and ability to connect with the cultures, tribes people and history.

We are now at home finishing the last few days of work and school, excitement is building along with the anxiety of the unknown, but we just can't wait to be back on Africa soil.