We're back online now that we've left Kruger National Park and have now arrived in Cape Town. We've had an excellent time so far!

We've had some very interesting experiences during the last seven days. I won't go into everything, but I'll highlight a few things that stick out in my mind.

One thing is the number of people walking and standing along the side of the road--highway or otherwise. We must have passed more than 100 of them on our way to Kruger last Sunday. We are guessing that they're waiting for what the locals call an African taxi, which is basically a van that is made to hold 8-10 people and instead they cram in 12-15 people.

After being warned so often about crime in this country, I am glad that we haven't had any issues so far. In fact, at one rest stop we were glad to see that much was being done to stop crime around ATMs. The ATM machine was inside a glass booth that locked behind people who were using it. Then the booth was surrounded by an iron fence/gate to keep people a certain distance from the booth. To top it all off, there was a security guard who came over to watch the end of the iron gate for us. We certainly were well protected!

The most exciting thing to me so far has been seeing the animals at Kruger. It was incredible to see these wild animals in their natural habitat and sometimes at quite a close distance. My favorite memories are seeing a group of giraffes gracefully running just ahead of us, a herd of elephants and three baby elephants drinking at our camp's water hole, and glimpsing a leopard as it was retreating to the hills after being thwarted from a kill when our truck came near.

We have loved being by the ocean today. It was gorgeous weather and the view of the city and the coast from Table Mountain was fantastic. We're hoping to head to the beach or hang out at the pool at bit tomorrow.