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no one said it would be easy

because in those days the last tube went before midnight and the night buses were pretty limited. For those few hours, we were his mates.

We also got across to Chelsea one Saturday so I could look in a pet shop window at snakes. Like many Kiwis (NZ and Ireland are reportedly the only snake-free countries in the world) I reckoned I suffered from herpetophobia. Aussie Ann had cracked up at my over-reaction to a grass snake encounter in Yugoslavia a couple of years back. Even looking through the glass brought on a shudder. By now I had The South American Handbook, a brick-like tome which detailed everywhere relating to where we were going and what we should know. It was a serious guide aimed at travelers, not tourists … not like the Fodor publications of the time. I'd read the bit about snakes and how it is vital you catch the snake that has bitten you, or can identify it accurately. My new knowledge allowed me to pontificate to all at-large how snake venom kills you either by over-exciting your nervous system or by slowing it down till life is precarious … or not at all. If the wrong antidote is taken it will certainly be the end of you … you’ll either over-excite to death or just fade away.

I’d also seen the display in a posh Rover dealership of the British Army’s 1972 expedition led by Sir John Blashford-Snell, detailing how they had gone the whole length of the Pan American Highway, including getting across the Darien Gap between Panama and Columbia. They had rafts, ladders, ramps, winches and all sorts of paraphernalia. Their Darian Gap team consisted of more 60 army engineers and civilian scientists. It took them over 100 days to get the two Range Rovers through the 66-mile swamp. Until viewing this I must admit I didn’t know much about the Darian Gap and was unaware that the Pan American Highway hadn’t made it through. I’d read in the early 1970s that the US was sponsoring an effort to build a road through and that it should be finished by 1975. Oh well, we’ll cross that (non) bridge when we come to it!

My Latin education finished when I was 16, but I knew that tempus was bloody fugiting and it was not looking like there would be much time for sea trials or shake-downs. Penelope was up and running but Samantha still needed work. One small episode unnecessarily delayed us and it probably was down to me helping. Roly is not the world’s fastest mechanic but he is thorough and meticulous, not one to make mistakes. On the other hand, I am neither thorough nor meticulous … and also not a mechanic. At best I am ok at holding things and passing over spanners.

Samantha was finally adjudged ready for her maiden voyage. I slopped in fuel