Days 24-31-Last stop: George

 Our last leg of our African journey is a town called George, where Ron and Anya are from.  We spent our last week with Ron’s family, taking in the local sights and winding down after a whirlwind tour.

Some places we explored outside of George were places called Knysna and Cango.  Knysna was a gorgeous town off the coast, that had a beautiful waterfront and an amazing little trail that took you to the pinnacle of a marina entrance.  This area, on a high tide day, is impossible to pass through.  The waves were crashing all around (and this was during LOW tide!) while small sailboats were bravely steering their way out into the wild.  It was just another visual of our irrepressible Mother Nature.

Next, we went to the waterfront to enjoy a delicious lunch of fresh oysters, sushi and salad.  With a little wine and beer, of course. :)

Stalagmite in the Cango Cave, roughly 1.5 million years old

On our last day in South Africa, Ron and Anya took us to a town called Oudtshoorn, where the Cango Caves are housed.  These caves are approximately 3 miles in length, and are estimated to be over 80,000 years old (although some of the stalagmites and tites are estimated to be around 1.5 million years old!).  We elected to do the “adventure” tour, which meant climbing through passages aptly named “Lover’s Lane” (because you get so up close and personal to the walls that are squeezing you through), and “Devil’s Chimney” and “Letterbox” (this one because the only way out of the tunnel is to drop through a slit not much wider than yourself…head first!)

Overview of one of the rooms in the Cango Caves

 This was a really fun “last adventure of Africa”.  Especially going through the “Devil’s Chimney.”  We had to stick our right leg in first, then our left shoulder, and THEN our head, just to be able to fit into the tight squeeze.  THEN, we had to lift our right leg approximately 1 foot high onto a “step” to propel ourselves up into the “chimney”.  THEN, we had to find the foot hold for our left foot, and again lift our right foot onto another foothold at least a foot higher than the last.  The problem?  The entire width of the area was just big enough to barely fit, let alone trying to figure out a way to lift your leg perpendicular to your body and then push yourself up.  Thankfully, Ron went before us, and was able to help pull Anya up a bit to get the right footing, and Matt went behind me and was able to push my bottom up a little to get the same effect. 

Once we thankfully made it through the Devil’s Chimney and saw the daylight skies again, we ventured to our final touristy spot: petting cheetahs.

I’m not normally an advocate of caged animals being exploited so people can say they got to pet a wild animal, but Ron and Anya told us that this was a wildlife preserve to protect animals in the endangered species category.  And since this happens to be a very popular destination for both tourists and locals alike, we decided to financially support the preserve and pet a cheetah or two.

Actually, it was just me who went into the cage.  Matt looked from the safety of the railing above, while Anya went to cuddle with some lemurs and Ron took photos.  The preserve was more or less a zoo; with some of the animals being primed to be re-released into the wild (more like into nature preserves in the wild, but still fenced off to keep poachers away), most of the animals were not approachable.  But we were able to learn a little more about a few creatures of the wild: vultures, crocodiles, hippos, white lions, Bengal tigers and such.  All in all, it was a good experience, and a great last day in the “wild.”

Our last night was spent with Anya’s parents, who cooked us a delicious meal of roast lamb, potatoes, veggies and chocolate cake.  These two know my weaknesses!!

While we were sad to see the end come so quickly, both Matt and I were excited to get back to the states and begin our next chapter.  But that’s reserved for a separate blog. :)

Our last day together! :(

Going into the Devil's Chimney!

Glad I played Twister as a kid!!

Sliding through the Letter Box...

...and sliding out!

Me and Luigi, the cheetah

Waves crashing at Knysna

At Knysna

The Southern Most Point in Africa

Our 5 year wedding anniversary started with a trip to , which is the southern-most point of the continent of Africa.  It’s where the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean meet.  It was brilliant.  And WINDY.

The waves were crashing one after the other and poured into the shore, while the wind, blowing gusts easily of 40 knots, almost carried us away at a few different moments. 

It was absolutely amazing to see a part of the world that is unseen to so many.  And unknown to so many. 

We could only visit the area for a few minutes as the weather conditions were so rough, but the few moments at the southern-most point was fantastic.

Here are the photos.

Being carried away by the wind

Hang on, it's WINDY!

Happy Anniversary!!

The Indian Ocean's cold!!

Getting blown away!!

These waves were easily 15' tall

Day 23-Hermanus: Whales and Wind

 

We left Cape Town around noon on Thursday, September 26^th, after a walk around the Waterfront area.  Since our 5 year wedding anniversary is tomorrow, Matt and I made a little journey to a jewelry store to commemorate said day with a token on my finger: a Tanzanite stone.  Since we’re in Africa on our anniversary, it makes sense to mark the occasion with something that only comes from Africa.   

Fitting. 

Anyway, after we walked around a bit and stimulated the South African economy, we made our way through the winding mountainous/oceanic road toward a town called Hermanus.  We stopped here for the night for three reasons: 1)it’s beautiful and right off the coast, 2) it’s the perfect place to do our Great White Shark cage diving excursion, and 3)two more friends of ours from the BVI live here during hurricane season and invited us to stay with them for the night.

 Since our Great White Shark plans were put on hold due to the weather, we settled with the idea of a chill day/night taking in the sights and visiting with our friends.  The drive alone was fantastic; I would say it’s California’s equivalent of the Pacific Coast Highway.  Mountains to one side; ocean and cascading waves on the other.  Sprinkle in a few homes and tunnels along the way and you’ve got a fantastically awesome drive.  To make it even more enchanting, it was a cloudy/misty day so the gray skies made the green and brown stand out more. 

What we didn’t realize, until we arrived, was how windy it was outside.  The cage diving was cancelled due to inclement weather, and we could see why.  Easily 20 foot waves and wind that I’ve never experienced made it rather, er, windy for our liking outside.  We met our friends at a little restaurant just off the wharf and enjoyed a lite lunch and some wine, while watching whales in the distance breaching (humpbacks and Southern Rights migrate this time of year to mate).

Southern Right off in the distance

 After a bit, we journeyed back to our friends’ house, and had a lovely evening catching up and drinking wine.  It became windier, and as we settled into bed for the night we could hear the wind knocking into our windows! 

I’m REALLY glad the shark diving was cancelled!

Cape Town, Days 18-22: Eating, Drinking, A Trip to Table Mountain and a Wee Bit of Wine

Happy on our wine tour!

 We landed in Cape Town on Saturday, September 21^st after a fairly short drive of about 3 hours from Lambert’s Bay.  And we rang in our arrival with a classic pitstop:

HOOTERS.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but Ron and Anya are 100% absolutely addicted to buffalo sauce.  And the Hooters in St. Thomas has solidified their love of buffalo wings.  So since they’d been in wing withdrawal since leaving the islands in June, we decided to curb their cravings and make a bee line to some good ol’ American food.

Except their ranch dressing was pretty much sour cream and the buffalo sauce didn’t quite taste like the American version but in a pinch, it’ll do.

Anyway, after our stop to Hooters, we made our way to the hotel that will be our home for 5 whole nights!  A nice hotel called Fire and Ice, it is located right in the center of Cape Town.  Our first night we spent with Ron’s best friend Gavin and his wife Candace, and we did what we do best: eat and drink.  But it didn’t take too long to wipe us out so we called it an early night around 11pm.  And back to our cozy king-sized bed hotel room.  With a super awesome hot and powerful shower.  Oh YEAH.

The next night, after spending a beautiful day in wine region, we headed to Madame Zingara:  a Cirque du Soleil-esque show.  The only difference being it’s served with a 4 course dinner and we are encouraged to dress up funky and have a little fun with costumes and make up.  Being as I left my freaky costumes back in the states, I settled for a face painting and feather braid in my hair.  Actually, we all got our faces painted, except for Matt, who purchased a sombrero and mustache and became Mateo for the evening. 

Stay thirsty, my friends

The show was spectacular.  Filled with acrobatic amazement, singing, dancing, performing and audience participation, it was truly an awesome show and well worth the $25 per person.

Yep.  You read it right.  $25 for a four course dinner, show and drinks.  Okay, so Gavin (who works at a hotel) pulled a few strings to get us a show discount, but normally the price is $50 per person, which is unheard of in the states. 

I seriously might move here.  I could get used to these prices.

Oh, and the 4 course meal was delicious. 

On top of Table Mountain

The next day, Matt, Ron and Anya and I ventured up to Table Mountain, which is the flat-top mountain (hence, the name) located literally in the middle of Cape Town. Once again, another spectacular breathtaking view of Cape Town and the ocean.  When we got up there around 10am, it was pretty hazy.  As we were looking down and over the city, we could see the clouds lying over the surrounding mountains and beaches.  There are a lot of paths to walk, one being 45 minutes from the main area that overlooks yet another part of Cape Town, or you can walk up the mountain, which would take roughly 4-5 hours to hike up (we opted for the cable car).  Either way, we walked around the area on top of the mountain, which has been “pathed out” in between boulders and bush, making the area seem as if you’re walking through a garden at some large estate.  Matt and I could walk around this area for hours; we wanted to see the whole length of Table Mountain but we had to head to the ghetto.

Hanging in the ghetto

Not necessarily your first place to spend a day in the states, there are a few “townships” in Cape Town that have actually opened up their area for those of us who don’t belong, to eat and drink and buy a tshirt that says, “I went to the ghetto” kind of thing.  It was actually really cool.  Apart from the huge Italian tour bus that came in and made such a loud noise in the dining area, we got to hear some local African music from a couple of guys who played drums and sang, and we ate to our heart’s content of meat, pork, lamb and nshima.  With our hands.  It was spectacular.

After a week of overindulgence, we decided to make it an easy night food-wise and met some of our BVI friends, Jason and Paulina at a bar.  Of course, what started out as a “one drink” stipulation, we found ourselves sitting around with Jay and Paulina’s friends, and talked and had a couple more drinks than we had planned.  But it was a night of being around Cape Tonians in a local haunt, and once again reminded me of how similar we all are.

Luckily we didn’t stay too late; us old people started to get a bit outnumbered by the youngsters who started to infiltrate the bar around 10pm.  So we decided we’d had enough and made for our comfy bed back at the hotel.

Day #4 found us once again planning our day around food.  It was National Heritage Day, which is South Africa’s Fourth of July.  Well, since we’re here, we should do as the South Africans, right?

RIGHT!

We loaded our car up with more meat than Oscar Meyer’s warehouse and found ourselves in a large park that housed roughly 1000 other South Africans and sat around with more of Ron and Anya’s friends and proceeded to partake in National Braai Day.  This year, South Africa was attempting to break the world record of the biggest consecutive braai at one time (a record currently held by the Japanese, of all people).  So there was grill after grill after grill lined up where you could take your meats and go to town.  At one point we had 3 grills going with all the meat we had.  It was really cool to be a part of their day.

Back to the hotel around 7pm, full of food and beer, we made it an easy night and went to bed early. 

Because the next day was the day I’d been waiting for since we first planned this trip: WINE TOURS!!!

So far, what I’ve seen of Cape Town has not disappointed me.  This city is amazing in how the people who’ve developed it were smart and built around its nature.  The mountains, the hills, the trees and the vineyards are all a part of its charm.  And so the wineries of Cape Town are no more than 45 minutes away from the city’s center.

Luckily, Gavin was smart and hired a van to drive us around so we wouldn’t have to worry about driving ourselves after tasting wine all day.  We managed to make it to 4 wineries.  Since there were 7 of us, and we did 6-wine tastings at the first 2 wineries, we started to run out of daylight.  But we also treated ourselves to a delicious lunch, which lasted easily another 2 hours.  Since wineries close their doors at 5pm, and we only got started touring wine valley around 11am, our time was a bit limited.  But we made the most of it, and while our driver dealt with wine-tasters of 6+ hours, we found ourselves verrry humorous. 

We finished our last night in Cape Town eating a South African classic: Indian Curry.  By this point I think while we were all sad to head out the next morning, we were looking forward to having a wee bit of a food cleanse.

But no matter.  That’s tomorrow!

Days 17 & 18, Lambert’s Bay and Holy Crap it’s COLD!!

Wow, what a difference 60 miles makes in climate.  It’s absolutely freaking COLD once you hit the South African border.  Holy cow, we were soooo not mentally prepared for this one!!

Our time in Namibia has officially ended, to the sadness of all of us I think.  And that also means that our time camping has ended, as it is too cold to brave the elements in the northern part of South Africa (I may be a camper now and all, but I’m not stupid).  But, we still have so much to explore in South Africa, that leaving Namibia doesn’t feel as though our vacation is over; rather, it’s just another chapter in the story.  Nonetheless, I know our time in the desert is over (for now), and I feel a little sad to say goodbye to all the friends I’ve made so far: the 12 dogs we met at various campsites, the water otter, Bokkie Spit Braai the goat, lions, elephants, giraffes, springbok, leopards, cheetahs, zebras, the list goes on…

But, we’re on to another country, and that means more to explore!  So since our drive from the border of Namibia to Capetown is about another 600 miles, we decided to break up the drive and visit the west coast of South Africa.  Except we had no idea it was going to be so cold.

Our original plan was to stop in a place Namaqualand, where flora and fauna flourish in the spring.  Evidently it looks like a Monet painting.  But since we found South Africa to be a wee chilly for flowers, the flora and fauna called in sick and all we saw was buds.  Oh well.  Can’t say I blame them…

On our way to Lambert’s Bay, we made a pitstop in Springbok to replace the flat tire, and found a restaurant to sip on some hot chocolate and eat some cold-weather food while they mounted the tire.   Once the tire was ready, we made our way to Raston Guest House, where our rooms were waiting for us with (mostly) warm and cozy accommodations.  There were space heaters in the rooms, so once we plugged in the heating plate, loaded ourselves with blankets and closed up all extra doors to keep the heat in, we started to thaw out a little.  Luckily, our room had a bathtub so I was able to soak my chilled bones until my legs were rubber.  But I won’t lie; I was in absolute HEAVEN with a bed, a bath, a heater and a tv.

Our night was spent eating some fantastic seafood and we all went to bed fat and happy.  The next day, sunny but cold, found me in my cozy bed literally the whole day while Matt, Ron and Anya went exploring around Lambert’s Bay and socializing with the locals at a pub.  After driving and driving and driving the last 2 weeks, we were happy to not have an itinerary.  It was a very chill couple of days, which was good to have because according to Ron, once we hit Capetown we’ll be going and going and GOING. 

So as long as I have a bed to live in, I’m gonna take advantage of it!!

The Mav Bag

You may have noticed (or not), several photos in this blog include us posing with a red backpack. This backpack belongs to a very special friend of ours, Mav Lyons.  Mav, the 8 year old son of our friends Sarah and Paully, was happy to loan his backpack to Matt for our trip.  As a “thank you”, we are including his backpack in a lot of our photos so he can see where it’s been.

So, in case you haven’t noticed before, here are some photos of the Mav Bag in action!! 

At Big Ben

At a plaza in Barcelona

With a huge lobster in Barcelona

With the Christopher Columbus statue

On safari...

 

With an elephant...

With a giraffe

Hanging with some Orec antlers...

Let's go sand-duning!

At the base of Big Daddy...

...and at the top...

At Fish River Canyon, the 2nd largest canyon in the world

On top of Table Mountain in Cape Town

The Food, Part II

I can’t believe I’m going to admit this…

I’m so full.

We have eaten, drunk, and eaten again our fill for the last week or so.  And it seems like at each meal, we are making our plans for the next venture.   And that more or less revolves around eating.  Again.

And not just eating your normal sandwich for lunch, cereal for breakfast, light something for dinner.  Oh NO!  No, we’re talking about meat for breakfast, meat for lunch, meat for dinner, and a little meat in between for those late-afternoon munchies.

Let’s look at this logically: I’m a Midwestern girl.  I grew up eating cow and pork and still tend to favor cow and pork over other selections on a menu.  And even I am blown away by the amount of meat this country consumes on an hourly basis. 

I’ve never officially had a meat coma before, but I think it’s safe to say, I’m headed there in a heartbeat.

Okay, so we’ve eaten like kings for the last few nights (not to mention lunch following our dinner out in Ai/Ais was one of the best burgers I’ve eaten in MONTHS!), so maybe we should slow things down a little, huh?  I mean, we’re sitting in a car all day, getting out for lunch and getting back in the car for another 3-4 hours, getting to the campsite and setting up for the night, make dinner while sitting around a campfire, eat said dinner and go to bed, only to get up again and eat.  So maybe we just have a small sandwich or something to tide us over tomorrow…

Nope!  After Ai/Ais we said farewell to Namibia and ventured into the land of South Africa.  Where COLD weather greeted us like we were entering the arctic.  The arctic that is 1 hour’s drive away from the hellish heat of the desert.  I’m still trying to work that one out.  But anyway, what does a cold, grey rainy day prompt you to do?

EAT COMFORT FOOD!!

We stopped in a small town called Springbok, about 4 hours from our night’s destination, and we were freezing.  It doesn’t help that the whole of South Africa does not seem to have insulated anything in hotels, homes or restaurants, as the restaurant we dined in had to bring in a space heater to keep us warm.  Anyway, as I sat shivering and waiting for my hot chocolate arrived, I decided to keep up with the warm cozy feeling and ordered a beef pasta that was similar in description to a beef stroganoff.

Are you seeing a theme here yet? 

Oh this was divine.  Beef and pasta noodles and vegetables in a hearty creamy sauce. 

Yep, that’ll do her!

En route to our next destination, Lambert’s Bay, we were given a reprieve from beef for a night: SEAFOOD!  Lambert’s Bay is located right off the Atlantic Coast, which is perfect for all us fish lovers.  Except, Lambert’s Bay doesn’t actually have a fish industry…they have a potato industry. 

I’m still trying to work that one out too.

But anyway, no matter.  Because there are fishermen in the area and they do sell to the local restaurants (all 2 of them).  So after we settled into our B&B, Raston Guest House, and checked in with the rest of the world after being internet free for nearly a week (LOVE it!), we ventured to a restaurant called Isabella’s.

They had apparently overbooked this tiny restaurant located off the wharf.  But that was no problem.  Because they had a private room just off the kitchen reserved just for us.  The Marilyn Monroe/Elvis room.  It had 2 tables and a door that divided us from the rest of civilization, with a bell to ring in case we need the server.  And we weren’t entirely lonely; Marilyn and Elvis pictures were everywhere to keep us company.

But that didn’t bother us none ‘cause we were there to EAT! 

Feasting at Isabella's in Lambert's Bay

For starters, we had escargot, prawns, mussels and Greek Salad.  Then we had our mains: Calamari and Hake for Matt and Anya and Ron, and Kingklip for me.  All served with a GINORMOUS serving of rice (or fries!) and your choice of sauce: garlic butter, lemon butter, sweet chili butter, or tartar sauce.  Oh yea, this is healthy living.

And it was DIVINE.

We finally finished our dinner at about 10pm, trudged back to the B&B and curled up in bed to stay warm and dry as it was rainy and windy and downright bitter outside.  And we woke up to breakfast being served at 8am.

Seriously.  All I’m doing is eating.  Non-stop.  But it’s so GOOD!  How am I supposed to stop??!!

We had a delicious breakfast of eggs, hash browns bacon and toast.  And some of the best decaffeinated coffee I’ve had in ages. 

After breakfast, we decided to stay put in Lambert’s Bay as the room rate was fantastic ($56/night!) and the next town we wanted to drive to was booked solid and/or 3x the price of our cute little place we were currently in.  So what does that mean for Melly?

LAZY DAY IN BED!!!

For the first time in months, I laid in bed with the tv on, the internet up and running, and my room cozy and warm.  And I LOVED it.

Every waking/sleeping minute of the 9 hours I lay there.

Meanwhile, Anya and the boys decided to do some driving/exploring of the town and came back around 6pm, just in time for me to get up, get ready and…?  You guessed it: EAT AGAIN!!!

This time we went to the other hotel in town (okay, I’m minimizing the town a bit.  There were actually four restaurants in the town) and once again devoured food like we hadn’t eaten in days.  And really, it had only been hours.  And we topped off our food with a delicious Amarula.

Oh, I’m sorry, have I not mentioned Amarula?

Well, allow me to describe it for you!!

Amarula is the fruit from the…you guessed it, the Amarula tree.  Elephants dig out the fruit from the tree and eat it and actually become intoxicated.  It’s a sweet liqueur, similar in creaminess to Baileys but slightly smoother and sweeter.  And sooooo easy to drink.  And for $1.20 a glass, it’s even EASIER to drink.

So by now, we’re starting to fill up.  Except that once again, we’re back to the B&B around 11pm, just in time to go to bed so we can get up and…EAT AGAIN!!!

Another delicious breakfast, and this time we’re headed to Cape Town for a 5 night stay in the city.  So you KNOW what this means…

More eating.  More drinking.

Okay, the first night: the Codfather Seafood Restaurant.  Recommended to us by our friends Steph and Todd, they said this was an absolute MUST for sushi (not to mention just the plain fact the name rocks).  So we ventured out to the Codfather for sushi and the pick-your-own pieces of fish.  They had several to choose from: Kingklip, Mahi Mahi, Monkfish, Bluefin (not tuna), Yellow Snapper, Hake, Dover Sole, Prawns, Rock Lobster and Calamari.  You chose which one(s) you want and how big, and they cook it for you and serve it with rice, fries and veggies (the Africans LOVE to double carb their meals).  And to top it off?  You guessed it: garlic butter, lemon butter, apricot chutney and peri peri sauce, which is a spicy sauce used on just about anything.

Yeah.  I wasn’t hungry when I went to the Codfather, and I certainly wasn’t hungry when I left.  But boy was I satisfied.  The sushi roles were so fantastically fresh, the fish we picked out (Kingklip and Bluefin) were so light and creamy, and the sauces just made it even better.  Matt and I decided to share a plate and thought we’d be “good”: no fries.  I mean hey, you gotta draw the line somewhere right?

Okey dokey.  Another awesome meal in the span of 4 days.  Well, actually, another awesome meal in the span of 3 hours but really let’s not get technical.  Now what?

Hmmm, the next morning was chill as Ron and Matt needed to get the camper van back to the dealer, so I found myself (after doing an hour workout!) hungry again.  Okay, I’ll just pop into the hotel restaurant for a little something.  No biggie.

Except the hotel restaurant boasts just about the biggest breakfast buffet I’ve ever seen: not only do you get the requisite eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, etc., but you get eggs cooked to order, bacon, BEEF sausage, PORK sausage, mushrooms, baked beans, pancakes, some kind of “chef’s daily special” of creamy pasta, cheese board, deli meats, nuts, yogurts, fruit, cereal, muesli, seeds to top your cereal, pastries, muffins, and oatmeal.

Listen, I’m all for selection, but as I looked over everything I realized, I’m really not starving!  So I settled for some eggs, baked beans a piece of toast and some bacon.  And managed to eat about half of it.  Meanwhile others were piling on their plates some 3 or 4 times.  Clearly they hadn’t been where we had been the last 4 days!

Okay, so breakfast is over, time to relax and maybe do something not food/booze related?

NOPE!  Off to a winery market day it is!!  To do…more eating and drinking!  But this was so much fun because you can pick the food from the vendors at the winery, pick your bottle of wine and find a small place to picnic, all the while listening to music and visiting with friends.

Okay, I can do that.  No biggie.  It was fantastic.  The day was gorgeous, the food delicious and the wine wonderful.  A perfect way to spend a Sunday.

Which means Sunday night we have to REALLY do it up, since we really didn’t have lunch you know.  Ron’s friend Gavin had arranged for us to see a show called Madame Zingara, which was an event in and of itself, so I will reserve that story for another blog.  But, as it’s mentioned in this post because it is also food related let me just say this: 4. Course. Dinner.

Sigh…

I mean, if the food was bad at any of these times it would be easy to forfeit.  But it’s so good everywhere we go.  And I can’t be rude now can I?

Alright, so we’re onto day 3 in Cape Town.  A morning spent going up to Table Mountain, the oldest mountain known to man.  And since we had an early start we decided to wait until we got up the mountain to have a late morning snack. 

Our “snack” ended up being an egg and smoked chicken croissant.  You could make 4 meals out of this thing.  And of course, just as we ordered the sandwiches, Ron comes up to us to tell us we’re meeting Gavin and his wife in 2 hours for lunch.

Hmmm…

All this meat...for 6 people.

We met Gavin and Candace at what is called “The Township” and what is known in the states as “The Ghetto.”  This particular township, called Gugulethu, is known for tourists coming in and out.  And it’s also known for its butcher shop, Mzoli’s.  You order meat, and they cook it for you and bring it out to an area that’s set up like an outdoor picnic area and you eat meat.  Lots and lots of meat.  Lots and lots of good meat.  Beef, lamb, pork rashers, chicken, boerwoerse, you name it.  And it’s served with nshima, or as the South Africans call it, “pap” and a relish of spicy vegetables, called chakalaka.  And you eat it all with your fingers.  Every juicy last bit.

Okay, now I’m REALLY full.  I may have to take some time to digest for a while. 

Nshima, or, as the South Africans call it,"Pap"

Except the trip’s agenda doesn’t allow for that so much, because the next morning we had to get up to get ready for South Africa’s Heritage Day (our 4^th of July), but really better known as “National Braai Day.”  And this year, they were making National Braai Day a huge event: South Africa is attempting to enter into the Guinness Book of World Records as having the biggest braai in the world.  A feat not entered into lightly.

Which means…yep, you guessed it.  More meat.  And so it was.  Lamb, pork, chicken, boerwoers, salad (thank GOD!), potato salad, chips, cheese & crackers, etc.

I have officially entered a meat eating capacity.  I cannot. Do. It. Anymore.

And yet, as I write this, my tummy starts a-grumbling…

...and more meat...