After finally arriving back in my home town – not before discovering my backpack was accidentally in China and negotiating yet more delays via the reliability of National Express – it was time to surprise my family.

The initial plan was to simply chill out at home and wait for their arrival. However this plan quickly fell through after the realization that I had no way to get into my own home! Bad planning on my part!

So I headed up to my Auntys to collect a spare.
On the short wander from the bus stop to their house I bumped into my Uncle, who was unsurprisingly puzzled and confused about my arrival!
After a quick catch up over a much needed scrumpy cider (I missed them in Oz!) I still had a few hours to kill, so I decided to randomly turn up ay my Granparents house too!

They’d moved a few months prior, so after some directions from my Uncle I simply wandered in unannounced with the words “nice place”!
Needless to say my Grandmas face was a picture and she was rather caught off guard with the whole thing!
Many a cup of tea was had and I was spoilt rotten with cakes and biscuits, some things never change!

Then it was off to Mothers work. Mum was under the impression I was currently surfing and topping up my tan in Bali before heading home via Asia, and I’d spent my arduous journey back from Oz spinning her email of hostel finding and lack of Internet access to cover my back!
Again I kept it simple – I just waltzed into her office! It took her a quick double take to catch on to what was happening but the expression on her face when the penny finally dropped was worth it!
After a lot of hugs and explaining on my part we headed home for the final installment of my surprise return – my Dad.

A simple knock on the door and waiting for him to answer sufficed!

Finally back in my Devonshire home for the first time in a year I quickly boshed out a shower an munched down some food, because I was off again.

My bus journey from London to Exeter had given me far too much time to think and had lead me to book a train ticket from Tiverton to Heathrow where a day of surprises would finish with Kerri.
Having spent 2 days flying solo and with numerous airport transfers (including a 12 hour stint in Melbourne!) I felt rather bad for leaving her in Heathrow for 7 hours before her final flight.
Had I arrived on time – the day before – it would’ve made no sense to wait around. But I could’ve stuck out 10 hours in London so that she didn’t have yet more hours of silence to deal with. Unfortunately the mishaps with my baggage had misted my judgement and I had simply wanted to leave the airport ASAP.
Mother kindly booked us a hotel room for the night and I embarked on yet another adventure to London.

It had been an uber long day, in fact an uber long 3 days of travel.
The look of shock, excitement and happiness on her face, followed by the tears made it worth every minute of it though – especially considering the textual bashing she’d given me for the final hour for not waiting around!

We finally made it into bed and curled up together for a few hours Kip before her flight to Aberdeen in the early hours and our final goodbye.

Although it’s not a goodbye…like she says it’s a see you later…