Back on the straight and narrow

One day we went for a fantastic excursion in the Makgadikgadi National Park in the centre of Botswana. Most of the park comprises 2 massive salt pans, the remains of a now dried up inland sea. We went quad biking on the pans in the afternoon which was excellent fun.

It was a strange lunar landscape - stunning to see.


On the edges of the pans were some dry desert-likegrass lands and, against the odds, herds of grazing animals have somehow managed to eke a living out of the the area even in the dry season. We saw herds of truly wild feisty zebras and wildebeest which were so much more exhilerating to watch than the rather passive animals we'd seen last year in a South African game reserve.

These guys were fantastic, running alongside our car, apparently just for the hell of it! I took loads of pics but the conditions were not great for photography (being bounced along on a sand track) so this was the only decent shot!

Before going out onto the pans for our overnight camp, we visited a family of meerkats. Because there were only the 2 of us, we were able to walk amongst them. Apparently meerkats, decide quickly whether you're a threat and, if you're deemed safe, they then totally ignore you. It was a brilliant experience as you didn't feel that you were corrupting wild animals, it was as if you were invisible to them!

....apart from when the dominant female decided tht my head would make a handy vantage point for her stint of watch duty!! How funny...

I couldn't stop giggling...

Well, I've steadied the ship after one proper bad day after we got back. We arrived back from Botswana on Monday morning and I'd taken the Tuesday off from work to spend it with D and to do chores. What I actually did was find myself sitting around and snacking indiscriminately. Once I got back to work on Wednesday though I have managed to establish a better routine. I'm back into healthy breakfasts, sushi or salad for lunch, sensible supper and exercising every day. Progress is slow on the scales, probably due to too many little extras like cappucinos and fruit, but there is progress so that's a good thing.

I've been quite contemplative over the last few days. I suspect it is the imminent airing of the TV show next week which is making me review whether I have really learned the lessons I was so proud of learning earlier in the summer. I think I have but it's probably a good thing to keep myself on my toes and not get complacent. I feel as though I have a different attitude to food and exercise, a more sustainlable one, so I'm hopeful that I'll keep this one up.

The only worrying thing is that I'm struggling to lose real weight since the show finished filming. I've managed a lb here and there but I've not been getting steady decreases week on week. One of the things I learned on the show was that my chimp is sneaky and pseudo-rational so I'm constantly second guessing myself as to whether I'm falling for her rationalisation or whether I really am happy with my progress....it's a nightmare I tells ya!!

Anyway, I'm going to keep plugging away and enjoying life and, as long as I'm 12 stone 12 or under by Christmas (which will mean a 2 stone loss in 2009) I will count this year as a total sucess!!!