So long, Africa. Until we meet again!

The final hours of my time in Africa have arrived. It’s Sunday morning in Johannesburg’s Tambo airport and I leave this evening for the long flight home. I’ll be home in time for lunch on Monday. It has been a remarkable, exhilarating trip. Suffice it to say that I leave my first trip to Africa with a heart filled with memories and experiences. Oh, I have some wonderful photographs, too! Here is short list of some things I did in no particular order.

I was five meters away from a massive bull elephant as he walked by our truck on his way to a waterhole at the end of the day. I spent several beautiful evenings in quiver tree forests (Google quiver trees to see what they look like). I explored some of the coolest, most photogenic abandoned buildings I could have ever imagined. I flew in a microlight aircraft over a section of dunes in the vast Namib desert. I was up close and personal with a juvenile cheetah. (I was sitting on the ground scratching the cheetah’s ears and back under the supervision of the handler to ensure my safety). I was on a boat while an infinite flock of cormorants flew across the horizon in lines that stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. In the early morning hours, I saw two male lions feed on a large antelope (known as an eland) that they had killed two days earlier. I flew in a helicopter over fog-enshrouded sand dunes on the edge of the Namib desert (fog and sand dunes…two of my favorite subjects!). I dined in some of the most unlikely places you can imagine…beaches, caves, the top of 300-foot dunes, and under the darkest of night skies. I met and saw people so different from anyone I have ever encountered or thought I would ever encounter. It was a nice reminder of the universality of the human condition. I saw dead skeletons of trees on a rock-hard desert playa under Milky Way with zero surrounding light pollution. I traveled with some great companions who are now life-long friends.

OK, not too shabby, but enough for now. I’ll share more later. None of this would have been possible for me without my friends Marsel and Daniella, so a heartfelt thanks to them. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Now I’m off to North America! Until then, here is another iPhone image to share. I haven’t had time for images yet from my big camera. This image is from a helicopter where the dunes meet the fog banks near the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Pretty cool!