Our Crazy Route

Carol's friend Naqi made this map for us. It shows our absolutely cockeyed route through central South Africa. It gives you an idea about our wild adventure through this amazing country. The black circle in the middle is the kingdom of Lesotho where strangely, people live in round houses, wear pointy hats, ride ponies, and wrap themselves in beautiful blankets year-round. Go figure. The map doesn't really show our Lesotho adventures, but we spent about 3 days in Lesotho, which were definately some of the best of the trip.

Right now we are in Joburg and are getting ready to leave for Kruger National Park tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. I am so excited and hope to see the Big 5....especially elephants! After Kruger I am off to Malawi for about a week and then I'll return to Houston on Aprl 27th.

Many of these cities we have visited are small towns that you won't find in your average tour book of South Africa. Make no mistake, however, we have had some of the best times and had some of the wildest parties in some of the smallest towns. Last night we were up till 3 a.m. in Potch$%#&*@!!! Mooi having very wild adventures. It was the last stop of the official GSE tour and we gave our final presentation. So it was definately an event. Among other things, we enjoyed a few South African drinks. The best of which is the Sprinkbok: a layered shot consisting of amarula (a YUMMY SA kahlua-like drink) over crème de menthe. Trust me, it's better than it sounds! The night ended with 3 of our group in a van and a policeman driving us home at 3 a.m. Yes, the police got in the van and drove us back home. Wouldn't happen in the States, that's for sure. Apparently we were too wild and crazy for Potch Mooi--they wanted us to stay home! Haha! Don't worry everybody, no chickens were hurt in this adventure.

Speaking of chickens, I ate some ostrich today. I won't say anymore about that.

More later.