Jet lag hit hard yesterday evening – was trying to stay awake at 7pm, but my body was complaining that it’s 4am (in S Africa) so why the hell aren’t we in bed asleep? It was a good question and was moot soon thereafter.

It all seems like a dream now, the looooong travel hours and the early morning safaris. Some key memories:

• British Air proving themselves to be a poor choice for international travel. Bad seating on half the flights, and some of the worst customer service imaginable.
• Some *really* hard beds in places I didn’t expect.
• S Africa’s awful power grid problems. It’s something that no state or region in the US would put up with for a month, much less the 5+ years estimated to fix things in S Africa.
• The very friendly people of S Africa. Maybe they were just playing nice for their tourists, but it worked.
• The thrill of seeing the animals up close, in the wild. I sure hope we figure out a way to avoid killing them off.
• The absolutely beautiful cliffs and canyons on the way to Kruger Park.
• Fighting off a helluva lot of pain during the trip, particularly the first week. That wasn’t fun.
• The baobab trees. They are special.
• Meeting some really nice people on the trip (and at least one asshat). A family from Canada and another from NY were great to hang out with.
• Our Natgeo guides and drivers were awesome. Friendly, informative, and helpful.
• The size of the Chobe and Zambezi river deltas – they’re *huge*.
• The elephant procession across the Chobe River, right in front of us.
• Victoria Falls. Hard to describe; you have to be there.

I lost a lot of opportunity for documenting fresher thoughts about the trip when my Mac died. Lesson learned; I now have two backups for the main computer. We won’t get fooled again.