Not lion food yet

My two plus-or-minus one readers may have noticed a three-week absence during my long-awaited visit to the U.S. My focus was not on this blog, which really doesn't take much effort but seemed onerous during vacation and the weeks before and after.


The beach vacation was bittersweet. It was cloudy, grey, and raining four of the six days, but beautiful Friday and Saturday. I loved being with Jess and her family, but I hated to leave again. Two more months sans wife seemed daunting as I went back to the airport for another 30 hours of travel.

I procrastinated on booking a shuttle to return from Joberg and paid the price. After arriving Sunday night and sleeping at a hotel that seemed far nicer than the $75 it cost me, I awoke to an email that my attempted booking was impossible. I spent the next few hours arranging a different shuttle that ended up costing 5 times as much as the one I wanted.

We drove back through Lydenburg and the Blyde Canyon, a more scenic route than the direction through Nelspruit I took to get to the airport. The pictures are obviously through the window of a speeding van but you can get a sense of the landscape.


After the scenic drive and upon arriving at the beautiful farm where I'm staying I felt much more upbeat about the next two months.