Home, Sweet Home

Heading to Chennai it was clear that 1000km to the east made little impact on the heat - or our waning enthusiasm. We searched within ourselves and found our hearts weren't really in travelling anymore - our heads were in England finding jobs and buying 1971 vw camper vans (singular we hasten to add). We decided to forget the plans for a week in an ashram, after all who wants to be woken up at 5.30am every morning (without the aid of caffeine), chant and then sit in funny positions all day only to go to bed at 10pm without alcohol. After all nirvana to us has always been a rock group and we are not 'jugglers' at heart. That rationale combined with the homesickness we had been fighting off for months concluded the debate and we brought our BA flight forward by two weeks. Checking into a five star hotel with air conditioning and a bathroom (for the price of a Travel Lodge!) that amazingly appeared to have been cleaned in the last two years, we stuffed our faces full of the last genuine Indian food we may possibly ever eat and caught our flight home.

We landed at Heathrow to a disgruntled pilot informing us of drizzle in a grey London. We just looked at each other and said 'brilliant'! Walking into Heathrow was surreal - systems worked, queues were orderly, people spoke our language and noone was farting in public. We saw no litter, we seemed to sink into the carpeted floors and the toilets had seats with paper that you could actually put in the bowl. A coffee cost the same as a nights accommodation in most of the Asian and South American countries we had visited and our dress; flowing tunics and baggy trousers (Steve), ribboned skirt (Beth) seemed decidedly out of place amongst the non-descript English uniforms of jeans and suits.

Seeing our parents was amazing and we re-enacted the Heathrow scene from Love Actually as we (well, Beth and the two Mums) launched ourselves on each other in a frenzy of hugs and kisses. Steve went to Bedford and Beth went to Stroud - it was very difficult to part after being together for 24 hours a day, seven days a week for an entire year but overcome by the temptation of being mothered for a few days.

Even the queues on the M4 held delights - no incessant horn honking and the fields beyond? Stunningly green and the houses all had roofs (forgive us, it has been some time). We rediscovered the beauty of England with it's country cottages, brilliant yellow fields of rape, cow parsley lacing the hedgerows and the spring-time sun bathing the green fields and dancing over the clusters of bluebells and sweetly smelling wild garlic. Ironically it is has taken one year of travelling across 15 countries, three continents and throughout a myriad of cultures to discover that the most beautiful place in the world is actually home.