Ing is out! She has been released from Spain.

Yes, they thought her well behaved, civilised and recovered enough to make the trip back to the Mud Isles.

Thank goodness for that litlle EHIC card AND travel insurance. The card took care of the ALL medical expenses in Spain. Right from the word go. Right back to when we started the camino. That piece of plastic smoothed the way many times for us! If you are travelling in Europe, you should not leave home without it! (Shameless plug there!)

And thank goodness for the travel insurance. They sorted out hotel bills and some business class flights back via Madrid and a driver to take us back to a hidy hole in London! After those business class flights and the lounge in Madrid, we can't now travel around the world in economy class! Sadly, but rightly, they didn't want Ing to travel onwards to Egypt and Uganda and beyond so soon after her surgery.

Although Ing was well enough to be discharged from hospital, she is far from fully recovered. So it is plenty of sleep, gradually building up her diet and just generally taking it easy to full recovery. She also needs to get back some weight that an operation like this melts off you!

So with these needs in mind, it was off to Truro, Cornwall for this much needed R&R where another home-from-home was generously made available for us. Gentle pottering around, long sleeps, late mornings and small easily handled day vists to Malpas, St Ives, Falmouth and the like is the order of the day. Although the weather is not great, it has added to the Cornish charm!

But the big question is, "what now?" We plan to continue onwards with our trip into Africa; albeit, slightly reversed. First Cape Town, and then we will head north to Uganda before heading off to Hong Kong and SE Asia. The remainder of our trip stays as it is. Just pushed back by a couple of weeks.

"When does this happen?", you say. Well, because the exact cause of Ing's need for surgery is still unknown, travel insurance want us to find that out before we can head off again. So, without private health insurance, we have to navigate the NHS for an endoscopic procedure. Joy, o joy. Doctors need to have a little lookie-see. As with the NHS, dates are a little unclear. We have, hopefully, anticipated that we will be heading to Cape Town on the 1 May. But time will tell......

"Where will we stay?", some have asked. After Cornwall we will head up to Ing's folks in Norfolk for a spell. After that it may be Brighton, St Ives, Isles of Scilly, St David's or North Devon. Who knows? But what a great opportunity to try out places to live! After all, that is partly what our world trip was all about! If anybody has a spare country mansion with attending staff, we will happily looked after the dogs for you!

Seriously, we will be in London at some point, most likely towards the last week or so of April, for a belated catch-up and a beer or three!

It has been a blessing to be able to receive everybody's words of love, encouragement and support throughout the time that Ing was in hospital. It has made all the difference. So thank you very much for all those kind words you have sent!

Although plans are yet to be confirmed, we will still use this as our main means of contact. You can get hold of us through the message board or via this website's email or our personal ones.

Hasta pronto, amigos!