Soaked and scrubbed on American soil

Today would have been my sweet mother's 80 somethingth birthday ??and as I sit here bathed and in clean clothes for the first time in a while, I know she would be so proud of me. I'm pretty damn proud of myself. Two weeks, more than 22,000 air miles and another 2000+ by train and bus, 8 separate accommodations to coordinate with a backpack and on my own. Apart from a 12 hour train delay that turned into an ongoing party and a watch I left at security that they held for me, the trip was essentially flawless. South Africa is a beautiful, diverse, loving country where the food is good and the wine is great and I would visit again in a heart beat.

I truly loved everything about it and aside from the safari drive which is hard to top sitting 10 feet from beautiful rare while lions, the highlight was meeting so many people from all over the world.

I loved Annie who runs the Beach Backpackers in the wonderful town of Wilderness. I felt her motherly love almost the moment I walked in the door and my ocean view room was amazing. Or the fabulous British couple we met drinking wine in Stellenboch and who gave us a ride to Franshoek for our dinner reservation which was a half hour away. And probably most of all my dear new friend and fellow traveler - Alexander.

Alexander and his mother Jessica traveled quite a few of those bus miles with me and we spent several days together in Chintsa. Here's the handsome young man from their next stop which is Coffee Bay.

I promised no "soul-searching , emotion-filled, what-is-the-meaning-of-all this" writing when I burned the journals last April because believe me with that many hours of solo travel you can really get into your head. But I do have stories to tell and lessons learned to share. I'll save those for another day.

In the meantime, happy birthday Mama and thanks for sharing your love of travel.