Capetown!

We landed late last night after 20 hours of travel from Cairo (through Amsterdam; thanks, Delta) and a teary goodbye to Melissa and mom.

We slept hard after not sleeping for a full day--but we did make good use of our earplugs, having somehow booked ourselves in the "party" hostel. This morning Capetown has offered us a warm welcome, literally and figuratively. It's about 100 degrees, but the streets and air are clean, the cafe culture is in full swing, and the touts that followed us around all of our recent Middle East stops trying to get us to buy something from them are conspicuously absent. We bought travel books this morning and are in the process of developing a plan. Likely: Capetown for a couple of days with hiking Table Mountain, visiting Robben Island and maybe hitting the beach; then to Bostwana to rent a 4WD vehicle and drive up through Chobe reserve to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe; then onto Namibia and the skeleton coast. We're not sure whether we'll travel by land or air. Depends on costs.

Can't belive we're in Africa! Only 5 more weeks left on our trip, but I don't want to think about that.