highlights from my trip to South Africa begin with a tree canopy tour, which involved swinging tarzan-style from tree to tree, 100 feet up in the air. considering all the horrible times i had on team-building ropes courses as a youngster, i absolutely loved this and would take running starts off the platforms, flinging myself through the air. tried to take footage of this, but the camera was turned the wrong way so you get visuals of my shirt with wild screaming in the background. :

and then the safari, which was breath-taking even when we weren’t looking at animals. it was this game reserve that you go bouncing through in a souped-up landrover and it feels EXACTLY like the indiana jones ride at disneyland. went on 4 trips (you go out at night, morning, night, morning), stood no more than 10 feet away from the big 5 – lions, leopards, cape buffalo, elephants and rhinos, LOVED EVERY MINUTE. and we had the sweetest guide, named franz, and he knew so SO much. did you know that buffolo are considered the most dangerous animal in the wild because once they decide to kill you they won’t let up, whereas other animals, like lions, are more capable of a change of heart either ’cause of boredom or exhaustion. fascinating, no?

my boyfriend and i had the best time. for all our everyday differences, we become twin-like when traveling. we want to do exactly the same things (like monkeyland! a real place! a great place!), and emerge from experiences with really similar thoughts and feelings. oh, and one night he suggested, in all seriousness, that i consider becoming a wildlife photographer. i should NOT consider it, actually, but he earned lots of points for arriving at that conclusion.