Hey everyone! Where should I start? So much has happened during my time in Africa. More than anywhere else, I feel nothing I say can really convey or describe the feelings and experiences I\'ve had while in Africa. So we\'ll settle for a few stories and highlights, k? My first tour, the South African Explorer with Nomad had eight girls and tow guides, Bjorn and JP, and one guide in training, Sean. Everyone was really fun and by the end of the tour we were very close. Our overland truck (not a bus!) was named Ella, after Ella Fitzgerald (all of Nomad\'s trucks are named after dead musicians). Ella was a good girl, she got us wehre we needed to go, although the truck that I\'m now, Ray (guess who?) is much newer and more comfortable. Just a few days into the tour Ella started to look more like a Gypsy wagon than truck, with our laundry hanging overhead and bags all over. For our long drives (one day was around 15 hours!) most of us slept in our sleeping bags layed out across the seats (since the truck can fit over 20) or entertained ourselves with talking, playing cards, reading, listening to music (we could hook up our ipods to the stereo system) or giving massages (mostly me giving=) ). Ella had a full kitchen, pull out table, lots of storage for tents and mats, etc...basically self-sufficient once supplied. It was a "participation" trip so we helped out with most everything and set up and broke down our tents everyday. Almost everyday we got up between 5 and 6am adn Bjorn always started the day by playing U2's "Its a beautiful day" in Ella. If this trip doesn't make me into a moring person, I don't know what will! The nights are really cold here and teh long johns that I bought for Scotland, which I didn't need there, I use almost every night here! Us girls also got into the habit of snuggling and spooning to keep warm. We were a special group to say the least.=) The trip went at a quick pace and we saw and did many things. One of the first really fun and interesting things I did was to ride an ostrich. It is so unnatural...who thought of riding a giant bird in the first place? But the funniest thing is that to get on the ostrich, they cover its head with a bag because its so stupid that when it can't see you it doesn't think that you are there, even when you are climbing on its back! Let's just say that their eyes are bigger than their brains. A little later in the trip I got to do one of the most fun and exciting things I've done in my whole life! Bungee jumping off the Bloukrans Bridge (world's tallest bungee jump)! It was so exciting, scary, and exhilarating to take the jump...to just let go, there is nothing like it. 216 meters! Crazy fun! The walk under the bridge was almost as scary as the jump...I was actually shaking a little by the end. It was made of metal grating, so you could see straight through to the bottom. What a way to build suspense! Th jump team was really cool and I felt very safe especially since I had an extra safety harness that I didn't have on my first bungee jump in China...makes you wonder...Anyways one of the guys askd me to come home with him and meet his mother, which is supposedly South African for "Will you marry me?" After the jump when I was being brought back up he asked again and when I said no, he started to lower me back down, so I felt it was a good idea to agree=). It was so peaceful hanging under the bridge after the jump. Everything is so vivid, all of your senses are alive, especially with all that adrenaline rushing through you. Five of us did it together , quite the bonding experience. After that we went to Tsitikamma National Park and did a canopy tour, a muddy hike to a waterfall and swam in the freezing cold waterfall. The next highlight was Aldo Elephant Park. We saw so many animals. Lots of elephants, antelope(Kudu, Red Hertebeest, and Cape Grysbok), and warthogs! we Also saw two leopard tortoises, a yellow mongoose, some buffalo, zebra, ostrich, a blue crane and a flightless dung bettle. The elephants were my favorite expecially the babies. Once we came upon a group grazing alongside the road. A bunch of cars were stopped in the road to watch, and one extra eager car (a mercedes) pulled past the other cars to get closer.. then a mother came across the road towards the car and for a second we thought that she was going to step ON the car! Those people must have had a fright! =) ...well ran out of time again, more to come later....love you all!