Hello old friend.

I have missed you.

Now back to work.  I have a six week quilt along to finish in five days. . .
xoxoxoxox

Totsiens! Ons sal jou baie mis!

According to the interwebs, that means "Goodbye.  I will miss you." in Afrikaans.  (If it means something else, forgive me.  I haven't picked up the Rosetta Stone for Afrikaans yet. . .)  This is the sunset outside our room last night.  I'm sad to be leaving today because I know that there is so much left undone.  I told a friend yesterday that while we've been here, I've eaten too much and shopped too much but I wouldn't change a minute of it.  (My jeans and my bank account might disagree.)

This has been the most stellar trip I've ever made.  There are already rumblings of coming back next year.  Who knows if that will come to fruition but I'll cross my fingers and say a little prayer because I love this place with all my heart.

I'll be back to quilty and knitty subjects soon.
xoxoxox

I heart Cape Town

Sadly, we're starting to wrap up our visit in Cape Town - only two more days to go.  It is an amazing city.  It hasn't grabbed me in quite the same way as our days at Londolozi but it is truly beautiful here and - as with most coastal cities I've visited - I'd move here in a heartbeat.  

It has been unbelievably windy for the last 24 hours.  For most of last night it sounded like the roof was about to be taken from the villa where we're staying so I'm wondering how wise the hike up Table Mountain that we have scheduled for today will be.  I've asked our local expert so we'll see what the day will bring.  If not climbing, then shopping.  Either way I'm happy.  

Here's the latest round of lovely.  More tomorrow if we make it up the mountain.

xoxoxoxox

James and the confused clown fish at the Two Oceans Aquarium.

A crazy sculpture made entirely out of Coca Cola crates for the World Cup.

Sculpture at the Victoria and Alfred waterfront shopping center.

Predator birds exhibit at Spier Winery in Stellenbosch.

Waterford Estate Winery where we did a wine with chocolate tasting.  Ahhhhhhh. . . . 

Waterford Estate Winery

Marina in Hout Bay.  We were planning on going out to Duiker Island to see the seals but the water was too choppy.  Seasick is not a good way to start the day. . . 

. . . but we did get to see this guy feeding "his" seal.  The seal is 45 years old.  His human friend is much older.  The story we heard is that they've been pals for 27 years now and the seal regularly comes to hang out with his friend.  I'm guessing the fresh fish feedings don't hurt.

Hout Bay

Fishermen at the Cape of Good Hope

Lighthouse at Cape Point.  BRRRRRRRRRR.

Boulder Beach.  Look how hard the water is blowing off of the rock in the ocean.  It was freezing.

Penguins at Boulder Beach

Rockhopper penguins at the Two Oceans Aquarium

The ugliest fish you've ever seen.  He had an angry old man face.  You almost expected him to start complaining about those damn kids on his lawn.

The closest I ever want to be to a shark.  Yikes.

I left my heart

Last night at dinner, one of our group asked that everyone go around the table and use one word to describe the trip so far.  We got "breathtaking", "nature" and the like.  James said "giraffe".  I had a hard time.  There is no one word.  How do you narrow an experience like this down to one word?  So I cheated, but they gave it to me anyway.

Life changing.

No more words other than captions to explain because I can feel myself getting emotional again already and after leaving Londolozi yesterday, I wasn't sure that there were tears left to cry.

xoxoxox

Hyena mother and cub

Hand knitted hat in the wild.  Don't I match the lions in the back nicely??

Lion and lioness couple that we saw mate just a few minutes after this picture was taken

Baboons - not really my jam

Cocktail stop on the evening drive

Cocktail stop when Melvin broke the Land Rover for the second time and we were awaiting rescue

Just a few of the thousands of impala we saw.

A water bridge called Taylor's Crossing

South African traffic jam

This one and the guy below are two of a group of three brothers that we saw several times.  The third boy was being shy.

Sunset with water buffalo

Warthogs!  My new favorite!!!

Female nyala outside our room

Milton and the junior tacker

Wildebeest.  My other favorite!!!

The Londolozi choir performing in celebration of Nelson Mandela's 93rd birthday.

This little guy put on quite a show by standing on his hind legs.

I hoped and prayed that I could add these two to my collection of animals we saw mating, but she was having none of it.

Water buffalo

Two lionesses with four cubs.  They'd just killed a kudu and were having a feast.  I'll spare you those pictures.

Our new Londolozi family, minus Milton the tracker.  I love these guys.  It was the best summer camp EVER.

Hello Cape Town.  I think we'll love you too.

Safari baby!

This won't be a wordy post because the pictures really speak for themselves so I'll just put little captions on.  But we are having an AMAZING time.  I've broken down three times because this place is so beautiful.  The elephant below walking up to Scott came right up to our vehicle and almost put his trunk on Margeaux's head.  So much soul in those eyes.

And, this morning, I was taught how to spit impala dung.  (Think spitting watermelon seeds.)  I was the only one of our group who was stupid brave enough to do it.  I could stay here forever. . .

More to come.
xoxoxoxo

He was really this close.  Scott could've reached out and touched him with no effort. 

AWESOME!

Headed out at 6am for the morning drive.

Shorty the Leopard.  We followed him for a long time. 

Shorty taking a sunny nap.

White rhino

Melvin (our guide) and Milton (our tracker) preparing our morning coffee break.  Special drink is coffee, hot chocolate and a bit of liqueur called Amarula.  Seriously delicious.

Melvin teaching James how to play elephant poop soccer.

Scott and his new BFF.

Hippos just outside our camp