Well I know that we have already started our trip but not by much, we are now in Cape Town, South Africa! We've sent out two newsletters so far, but we'll be converting to this method and sending you notices by email when there's anything new to see.

We'd like you all to keep up with our adventures so I'm attaching our first newsletters to this post for anyone who hasn't seen them. The first one is from Piers and most of Tamar's friends&fam will not have seen this yet:

Hello folks, well we have arrived in cape town and having a great time so far. we were sick as soon as we arrived still suffering from flu that we picked up in Cornwall. pretty much recovered now. I'm starting work at Kirstenbosch tomorrow. The lady that we are staying with, Mitsi, and her sister-in-law are able to give me a ride over to the gardens every day, and we also have the use of mitsi's pickup so we won't have to buy a car which is amazing as for some reason even a rusty pile costs a fortune here. going on a trip to the cederburg mountains this weekend. looking forward to that. the wild flowers this year are suposed to be exceptional. we are staying in a house that dosen't have a computer or a landline so we aren't all that accessable we
do have tamar's mobile still or my one is +27 765012007 we will try to keep up
with emails. love, piers and tamar

The second one is from Tamar and most of Piers' people will not have seen this one yet:

Hi everyone,
This is the first newsletter I'm sending this trip. Piers already sent one to the people on his mailing list, but I haven't had the opportunity yet.
Well, we're in South Africa now, the first official destination on our round-the-world trip. For those of you who are wondering how I am, I'm doing better every day, and expect a full recovery within three months max (and that's only because ear drums take a while to heal.)
So a little about our first month in England... We had an excellent time catching up with Piers' family and friends. The first thing we were there for was Piers' best man's wedding, in which Piers was also best man. We got to know the bride and her friends better. One of her bridesmaids was from Ireland so the next week when we went with Piers' sister and husband and friend to Ireland, we got to stay with her near Kilkenny and go to a proper Irish pub where among other things they sell hammers, nails, and fire alarm systems. Her friend's dad took us up to see the Blackstairs mountain range. When we asked about the rune stone circles in fields along the way, he told us about this farmer that took down a fairy circle in the middle of his field despite warnings from his neighbours and friends that it was dangerous and not to mess with the fairies and all that. Sad but sure, he went to bed that day and never got out of it again. And there was nothing wrong with him before that, it's true... Ireland is more expensive than I remember it being when I was there at 16. The country itself is very much like England except for the accents and Piers says the roads aren't as good.
When we got back to England we did a tour of all the relatives and they fed us lots of yummy food and made us fat. So I was planning to lose weight on this trip and it's not working. Not to mention the fact that now I'm not allowed to exercise because of my head.
We did a day camp for kids in Cornwall for a week and stayed at a beautiful house where we were spoiled with more food. Piers caught a cold while we were there and the lady of the house bought him a box of Men's Kleenex. What is that you ask? It is Kleenex double it's normal size for big manly noses.
We spent the last little while with Piers' gardening friends in and around London and then took off for Africa.
We're staying with Mitzi who knows some friends of ours in Israel. She a nurse/manager in the maternity ward at a hospital near our house. She's also
introduced us to people from her Afrikaans congregation (I'll be teaching some
of them Modern Hebrew while I'm here).
Ok, so Piers is going to tell you what happened a few days ago:

Tamar got hit by a guy with a big stick in the botanical garden on my first day while I was looking round the library, she noticed that a guy was behind her and then before she knew it there was a big stick coming towards her head, and she was knocked out. When she came to she ran to the entrance of the garden where she called me in a panic. We came and found her and took her to the hospital, a nice place - they wanted our money before they did a thing! So she had a cat scan and three Xrays
done and we found out that her shoulder, neck and head were ok. She may have a
hairline skull fracture which aparently isn't such a big deal but if clear fluid (spinal fluid) comes out of her ear for more that ten days we where told to come back. We assured the doctor that we would! The burst ear drum is ringing all the time so is rather annoying for her. She also has a broken little toe which is now in a boot, just like a ski boot, to keep it straight.

That's all our news for now. Thanks to everyone who has called, emailed or prayed for us. It is very encouraging to know that we have all your support even if we're far away. I'll try to write more personal emails soon, but email is actually hard to come by here. There is no computer where we live, and most places with internet only have a dial-up connection.
With love,
The Burdekins

We'll be trying to update the blog with new posts on a bi-monthly basis although where internet is hard to come by, it might be less frequent.