Stop the world…

… I want to get off.

Yep. Whatever. Call me when you can pirouette your way to safety around an Ebola outbreak or conjure up some much needed water in the Sudanese desert using just your cha-cha skills.

And who would ever want to explore Mars when there was an opportunity to wow the audience with some exciting team ballroom work?

I actually have nothing against dancers, but “future-proofing our children” by teaching the Merengue instead of Microbiology?

No. Just no.

Champions!

After they gained promotion while I was camping by the Orange River, Sheffield United were crowned League One Champions this afternoon, after Bolton failed to beat Oldham in the Lancashire derby.

I may have shed a tear.

This makes the Blades only the third ever team to win all four divisions of the English league. It’s been a great season, and I’m actually rather hopeful for our chances of a decent finish in the Championship next year.
But that’s still months away, and we have three more games to play this season.
The pressure is off for once, so why not enjoy them? It’s going to be well-deserved party time at Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane for the next few weeks.

And so I’m back…

Not from outer space, as Glorious Gloria once proclaimed, although certain bits of Namibia do resemble Mars or the Moon or something similar:

[it’s bigger and better on black]

Did you miss me?

3½ days and 64km down the Orange River was certainly an adventure, taking us way out of our comfort zones, but it was also an enjoyable experience that will stay with us for years to come.

The group was fun – a good laugh – and the beers and G&Ts flowed almost as fast as the river. The guides were helpful, friendly and knowledgeable, and while there were numerous challenges of rapids, capsizings and long days paddling through the heat along the way, I think everyone had a good time. The lack of water in the river did make the trip even tougher though. Apparently, during high flood season, some guides had done the same route that we did over those 3½ days, in just 75 minutes! We actually had to do some work.

I’m uploading photos as I write [update: here they are!], although due to a camera malfunction, not as many as I would have liked. Still, others on the tour have pics too, so there are plenty of memories to be shared. And Florence the Mavic came out on the river with us (you couldn’t have packed a Phantom, #just saying), so there’s some footage from there to come as well. Give me time. My bruised, blistered, aching, exhausted, old body needs a little while to recover. Still, with creature comforts like a bed, a roof and a shower to enjoy, I don’t think it will take too long.

More things I want to do in places I want to go (again)

Because of “regulations”, I’m not allowed to fly my Mavic in Namibia. I applied and I tried, but the rules there are very strict and while I submitted documentation upon documentation to a very friendly and helpful Namibian DCA, there were additional complications in that South African ATC is in charge of much of the airspace over the southern half of Namibia. Add the red tape of two different government bodies in two different countries together, and see how far you get. It’s not far.

Still, all being well, I will have had some chance to fly this side of the border while we’ve been away.
Pictures and video to follow? Maybe. But in the meantime, let’s live vicariously through FPV Customs DE, who went to Norway and had some fun with their Mavic.

HD would be your minimum setting to enjoy that one in, and if you do have 4K capabilities, well why not use them?

Every time I see Norway on these kind of videos, I realise how much I want to go back there. There are plenty of other places I want to go too, but the urge to spend some more time in Norway is currently outshining them all.

Placeholder puffin

I pre-wrote a few posts for this period while I am bundu-bashing in Southern Namibia. The last one of those gets published tomorrow.

It may seem odd, but I didn’t write them in date order. And the upshot of that method is that I haven’t written a post for today. All the others are done – including tomorrow’s (you’re going to love it). Just nothing for today yet. But with life getting ever more hectic as we head towards Friday and all that it holds (that’s last Friday for you guys reading this, so “held”, I guess), there’s a chance I might forget.

So here’s a Placeholder Puffin just in case that happens.

Of course, if I do write a post for today, you’ll never see Percival the Placeholder Puffin. If you’re reading this, I ran out of time.

More tomorrow. Back live on Friday.

Have fun!