Goodbye and thank you for all the fish...plants, birds, reptiles and insects.

Group photo taken at Noup

So the dog has caught the bus. Quite a silly expression, really. Take it from this dog; we’re not interested in catching buses. We’ve got a lot of better things to do. But I guess it should be treated idiomatically. Meaning the chase is over. The impossible has happened. Mission accomplished. Something like that. 

I know I’m waffling, but it is in an effort to take my mind of what is really happening. Because I am sad. Tomorrow the long trek home begins. It will be the last few hours of being together with some very special people. It is so great to sit in Gerhard’s vehicle up front and see the convoy of Toyotas sliding seamlessly along. It has become a creature with its own DNA.  

Do you have any idea how great it feels to be part of this team? Just less than three weeks ago, we were a bunch of strangers getting together. Today I will go to war with these guys. There is Mashian the Russian, Sooper Cooper, Herman van der Sanbank the fisherman, Prof Mickie the magician, Bird Brain Bolt and Il Doctoré Olivier the tree hugger to name but a few. Olivier the tree hugger...hmmm, he’ll be known from now on as the Olive Tree. 

Be that as it may, I’ve seen specialists at work with dedication to do their bit to help the human race understand this awesome planet and all its inhabitants. With motivation and sheer guts. Energy and perseverance. But above all with passion. Not only passion to always be ready to collect samples or process them, but passion to help make the trip run smoothly. Have you ever seen a professor passionately helping to prepare sandwiches late at night for the next day’s lunch? I have. Yes, no prima donnas around here, but they’re all prima. 

Another prima subject is the total number of species. And the number is... (Drum roll please) but before I reveal it, I am sure it is one of the biggest, if not the biggest contribution to iBOL in such a short time.  

One more thing just before I reveal the total is to put it in perspective. If you remember correctly, the original aim for the trip was 1 500 species. Our team managed to top that total just over halfway into the expedition. That didn’t reduce their effort. They knew they only had so many days in which to do it. Remember, they are scientists. Facts and figures are all that count. They couldn’t double the days. So they doubled their effort. And more than doubled their original aim. And the total is... (Drum roll please) 3544. Remember, this is the total number of species, but there are more than 10 000 specimens going back with the convoy. 

And with this great news I have just decided not to be sad anymore. The Toyota Outreach will never end. We only, yes just only have 3144 species. And there are thirty seven trillion zillion species still untouched. The Toyota Enviro Outreach is committed to the iBOL project until at least 2012. Like my fellow celebrity Arnold Schwarzenegger once said: “I’ll be back...”  

This is not the before, it is the after

And until we meet again, I’d love to leave you with some great words, but Neil Young took it right out of my mouth:

We’ve been through

Some things together

With trunks of memories

Still to come

We found things to do

In stormy weather

Long may you run...