Day 217. Thursday 3nd April. Oxford Hotel. Montevideo. Uruguay. End of the Journey.

D-Day 2.

It’s going to be a long day! Ending back in the UK tomorrow, on the 4th., if everything goes to plan.

Exiting the hotel at 11am we wandered around the city, before enjoying a pizza for lunch in a glass lined kiosk, beside a fountain centered park.

The population of Montevideo approx. 1.3 million.

By 2.30pm we were back at the hotel to await our cab to the airport. The drive along the shoreline is more reminiscent of Monaco, with it’s medium rise apartments and hotels lining one side of the road.

The airport terminal is a stylish, functional structure on manicured lawns.

The flights.

The first flight, a two and a half hour journey on an Airbus 320-200, takes us to Sao Paulo, where we have a two hour wait.

As the second flight is also with LATAM, our single bag is checked through to London, Heathrow. This flight departs on time at 11.55pm, a Boeing 777.

The end of our Journey

We arrived back in the UK on their warmest day of the summer so far. Jeff, our regular taxi driver is at the airport to pick us up. Arriving home by 5.30pm after a slow journey on a traffic crammed M25 and M23.

The final leg, Stage 5, started on July 14th, nine months ago in Bogota, Colombia.

Since arriving in Cartagena, Poki has covered 20,212 miles or 32,528 k’s, almost trouble free, in South America. A tyre blowout and replacing worn our rear brake pads the only impediments.

Poki has undergone continual improvement and is now performing better than when we started almost 8 years ago.

While the Caranex is an achillies heel, it has been brilliant for by far the majority of time.

Probably the biggest improvement has been the fitting of a second solar panel and vastly improved secondary battery, and Redarc management charging system. Combined this has allowed the fridge to be run 24/7, and computers and phones to be charged day or night, without ever running out of auxiliary power, or compromising the drive battery.

To summarize.

This journey began on the 17th May 2018. Since which, we have driven 91,241 miles, or 146,838 k’s. In due course, I will add up the diesel consumed and report. We have worn out two sets of tyres and received some minor panel damage in a container journey from Togo to Durban. The only other damage from a roll-over in South Africa, repaired.

There have been several driving, very close shaves. Both in South America. One in Chile at an intersection, when looking for traffic coming from the left, moving off and not seeing a vehicle from the right, we missed it by a fraction. The other, on a mountain pass in Colombia while passing a big semi trailer, judging that it would turn deep into the left hand corner to get the rear wheel set around, the driver must have decided to block our path and cut the corner, missing us again by a fraction.

In all we have visited 55 countries since leaving Blighty in 2018. Fuel purchase details for the earlier stages, are in NZ so I won’t know the total fuel used, and it’s cost, till arriving back home in late August or early September. We have yet to purchase return air tickets

Has the journey been worth it?

The answer is a resounding YES. We both have a much better appreciation for how others live or survive, in different climates and conditions. How fragile yet robust the world is and how it is being exploited and harnessed.

This blog will serve us to reminisce or refer to, during the remainder of our lives. While it has been a chore at times to record. It has been a point of contact and means for family and friends to come with us and share experiences.

At the bottom of each daily blog entry there is a statistic. Numbers of visitors or page views. Also a brief record of visitors cities, however, we know from comments, that these statistics are totally misleading as there has never been anyone from Rotorua visiting, which we know to be wrong. There is statistic, a graph showing sometimes over 2000 daily visits world wide and I suspect somewhere in the middle is the truth.

I want to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to all, family, friends or strangers, who have visited and or commented, during the journey. Your comments on or off the blog, have given us a great deal of encouragement and pleasure. For the pleasure we have derived from visits to strangers homes. To the fellow travelers we have met along the way, who have shared their stories and experiences with us.

I’m going to reserve my final comments to Jen, my partner and fellow traveler, for her tireless daily efforts to find us somewhere to stay every night. For her stoicism in the face of at times, great stress and anxiety. For her positivity when considering large financial expenditures, like flying to the Galapagos and cruising to Antarctica. Despite my, as Kelvin would say, bossiness, she always ended the day with a kiss, before sleep.

While we will no longer comment daily, we will continue to post when there is something to write about and record. The next event will be the return of Poki in early May. I can’t wait for that..;)

Post script. After dividing the total miles driven by the total amount of fuel used (712.71 imp gallons) in South America, we have a figure of 28.35mpg. Now, considering the weight of the loaded vehicle and roof rack mounted boxes etc, that’s a pretty good outcome. I’m very happy about that.

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