Well, we arrived back yesterday evening. The trip home was smooth and easy. The more DIY travelling becomes, the better it is. While we were in London we met my brother Stan. He was on his last leg home from a two month African Safari. Needless to say he had a million amazing stories to tell.
We started with breakfast at the Jury's inn where we spent the nite. He regaled us with fascinating stories through breakfast and in the car all the way to Stonehenge, Bath and Stroud (our Dad's roots). All the stories were about the camping, animal spotting, truck breakdowns, scenery beyond compare, photography etc.... Most fascinating.
On our way back to London he happened to mention something, just a tiny aside, that instantly caught my attention. He mentioned another travel mate, and she was from Campbell River, where my brother lives. Now, seeing as there are only six people on this trip, from all over the planet, another person from Campbell River would be just too much of a coincidence. "What??" I asked. "From Campbell River?" I asked incredulously. "Did you know her? Was that planned? WTF??????"
And then he told the most amazing story, far more interesting and captivating than his lion/zebra encounters!!! And I hope he never reads this blog because he is such an honourable person and the lady that showed up on that trip is an older person and friends of friends of theirs and he would never publicize her faux pas. But I will! Don't tell him though.
It took me all the rest of the whole two days he was there to try to understand what happened. It was all a little bizarre. After a gruelling forty hour trip and a long walkabout in Cape town, he was understandably exhausted. While sitting at a table in the lobby at his laptop, he fell sound asleep. After about two hours, in the deadest of dead sleeps, someone tapped him on the shoulder and awoke him. He looked up to see (I will call her anna) Anna standing over him grinning. Anna is best friends with a friend of Antonia (Stan's wife) The friend (I will call her betty) Betty is eighty one years old and Anna helps her out as Anna is only about 70. They have been best friends forever. Stan and Antonia have been friends with Betty for years and through her have become acquainted with this Anna. But, according to Stan, after much prodding and nosing from me, admitted that Antonia and he don't like her because she is so self centred. They don't have a lot to do with Anna, by choice. And, there she was, in Capetown waking my brother from a deep sleep. He said that initially he thought he was having a nightmare, but reality soon sunk in. She had heard about Stan's trip, and without a word to him, she piggybacked on his trip and just showed up.
Stan was in shock and disbelief and totally horrified. He didn't say much to her at that moment, picked up his stuff and went to his room. Two hours later the anger had built to a point that he knew he would have to confront her. So he went to her room and knocked on her door. Out in the hallway he confronted her. He gave her holy shit about how he had spent months researching the trip, years and years thinking about the trip, planned and packed with huge forethought and many lists and he sure as hell was not prepared to share this experience with her or have to spend one minute looking after her. Keep in mind that there was a lot of gruelling physical hiking etc, putting up your own tent every night, sketchy food etc.... This woman is over seventy and not that fit or capable. He ended by issuing an ultimatum. Either she quits the trip or he would. So she agreed and went to the tour operators. A while later there was a knock on his door. The tour director (and the tour people is another whole unbelievable story I wormed out of him) threatened Stan. He told him that if she didn't go they were going to charge Stan double! Long story short, she went, she needed looking after and Stan sucked it up best he could to make it all work as best as possible.
Somewhere in there he started to talk about the evil woman tour guide that was with them. Some of those stories were incredible....she was evil!!! Far more interesting than the animal stories!!!! And I know there is way more I haven't heard. I can't wait for xmas and I shall pump him for more!!
The reason I am writing this story is to get your opinion. Did he have a right to react so strongly? Did he have a right to issue that "you or me" ultimatum? The whole time I was listening to him two things kept popping out to me. One of them was how this wasn't his first story to tell (and we had skyped quite a bit before London so lots of opportunity) and did she not have the right to go on this trip and not check with him first? So bizarre and I would love to hear your opinion!!
She had no right to go on to this trip with him. None whatsoever. Yes, you guys tagged along at the end, but you asked first, then made arrangements. You didn't ambush him while he was checking out the changing of the guard. NO ONE and I mean NO ONE has the right to invite themselves along on someone else's trip. It's rude, selfish, self indulgent, arrogant, etc. If Stan wanted company, he would of asked people to join him. But the fact remains he didn’t, it was his trip and she had no right to do that.
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