The Drakensberg escarpment is at the eastern boundary of Lesotho.  The border between Lesotho and RSA runs along the top of the escarpment in many places.  An old bridle trail descends from Sani Pass at the top, down some 3-4 thousand feet.  Along the descent, hundreds of streams coalesce to form the Mkhomazana River.  The importance of the watershed has led to designation of this site as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Currently it's brilliantly green and filled with clear cool water.  Abundant bird life is found in the fields, trees and along the waterway. Baboons are abundant and we find them at every pullover. We are making plans to take a tour up the pass on Friday.  Once there we plan to take a hike and then refresh ourselves at the highest pub in Africa.

After yesterday's misfire, in which I drove to the wrong gate, we are off to the park.  Today, we're getting picked up by the guide. More to come.

We've spent the last two days looking across the river from our lodging into the park.  Here is what we have seen so far. Elephant Rhino Cape Buffalo Impala Waterbok Spotted Hyena Saddle Billed Stork (very colorful) Giraffe  We have a beautiful viewing spot.  Thanks to my fellow RPCV, Craig Anderson, for letting me on on this place. Today, we got up at 0400 to take a tour of Kruger Park.  Through a series of changes and inattentiveness on my part, I drove to the wrong gate and we missed our tour.  We've rescheduled for tomorrow, Monday. On Tuesday we leave the area.  We have an all day drive to the Drakensbergs, where we will spend 6 days hiking and exploring the Bushman rock paintings in the area.

We arrived at our stop near Kruger National Park.  This is what people think of when they think of Africa. We're currently sitting by the fire along the Crocodile River.  We hear hippos grunting.  Within 1 hour of arriving we saw this guy, hippos, giraffe, antelope and a host of birds, oh and a Cape Buffalo. The night sounds are amazing. I'll update this once I've had some sleep. Update: We sat up late by the fire last night, too excited too sleep or leave the riverbank to prepare dinner.  Here are my random notes. We were able to get an over the counter prescription for an anti malaria prescription at Click pharmacy in JoBurg, so that problem was solved.  We found that no mosquitoes, or insects of any kind came after us.  That was a pleasant surprise. I smoked my first cigar in years, a Cuban that I purchased in JoBurg, and once I opened the Jamesons, well, it kept flowing.  This will explain the exuberant WhatsApp postingd that went on during the eve...

We had a pleasant and long (14 hours) flight from Atlanta to Jo'Burg.  Mostly, everything went smoothly.  Our bags all made it.  We cleared customs and passport .l mmcontrol quickly.  The rental car was availab nole.  Unsurprisingly, we had a credit card de mi clined which is often a problem with overseas travel.  In this case my credit union Visa card was declined.  We used another card which went through.  Later, I checked email and the credit union sent me a message which allowed me to reactivate the card.  This was handy because it meant I didn't have to call them, which brings me to the one snafu. I peepurchased eSIM cards to have country wide data and text for the trip.  I used a company called Maya Mobile.  I bought the eSIM cards before leaving home and prepaid $70 for a month of unlimited data.  Very fair, price wise.  Frances' worked fine, and she got Google Maps up and running so that we had GPS nav...

I received conflicting information about the presence of Malaria in the area near Kruger National Park that we will be visiting Friday.  I have an inadequate supply of Doxycycline, which is recommended as a prophylaxis in this part of South Africa.  I called/visited 5 health care providers, but was told by all that they couldn't prescribe Doxycycline for this purpose.  They could of course prescribe the medication for other reasons.  They referred me to a travel clinic.  I called one nearby, but Huntsville was shut down for a week due to an ice storm. While talking with my brother, I discovered he had adequate supplies of Malarone, another suitable prophylaxis.  He generously offered to FedEx it to me.  Our departure for our flight was 11:00, and for $83 FedEx guaranteed delivery by 10:30. Spoiler alert.  The photo below shows the package sitting on our front porch.  It arrived about an hour too late.  This is how Karma warms you up for ...

 We are less than 48 hours away from our departure from Huntsville, heading to Jo'Burg.  Our bags are packed.  Travel documents are in order.  We've struggled to find a source of anti-malarial prophylaxis, but that problem seems to be solved. Today we enjoyed watching video from a recent trip to Lesotho taken by Pat Halladay, John Kelly and Bob Swanson.  These 3 served with me in Peace Corps Lesotho back in the early 1980s.  Seeing the 3 of them walk and drive around Maseru really got me excited. My Peace Corps class had a healthy turn out for a reunion, our first, in August of 2023.  We met at Cave Creek Ranch in Portal, AZ for 3 nights to get reacquainted and tell stories from back in the day.  I'm sure the memories will come flooding back once back in country.   I can't wait.