So have you all forgotten to look here?

Back from a great game drive, incredible fynbos landscape — proteas, ericas, heathers, all sorts of beautiful plants (Sandy, I kept thinking of you, how much you would LOVE the plants in SA, keep thinking you should just ignore the plane trip and come with me sometime) — plus animals, too.  Eland; gnu, including a golden gnu (very rare); impala, including black impala (also rare); waterbuck, lions (that had eaten yesterday so were almost comatose — we got very close and they just opened their eyes briefly, then shut them again), two females and a male; ostrich; mountain zebra; giraffes; and a tortoise.  Probably some I forgot to list.  Elsje decided against the game drive and went on an elephant ride instead.  Tomorrow we leave for Addo, an elephant national park, on the way back to Pretoria.  Every day has been terrific!  But lots of driving, so I’m sure Elsje will be glad to be home again, not having to be responsible for the hours upon hours of driving, watching us drink lovely wine at lunch.  We went to a cactus farm the other day, then went down the road to a restaurant that was FABULOUS.  It was OMG good!  Laird and I had kingklip (fish) baked with a shrimp crust; Marita had poached chicken wrapped with prosciutto and humus; Elsje had steak — L, M & I had the least expensive bottle on the menu and it was excellent.  Our next lunch we did the same, the cheapest bottle on the menu, again excellent.  What are the chances of that happening in the US?

I don’t know what we’ve been doing all these days, but at the end of every one, we have toasted with gins and tonic, or wine when there was no ice, and said how wonderful they had been!  How fortunate we are to have such friends!  And I can’t wait to share whatever memories I can remember with all you friends — you’ll finally be saying, “please, enough, no more, stop it!”  And I cannot wait for all y’all in Santa Fe to meet Marita when she comes to visit in the fall — what a great treat you have in store!  Dona and Bill, there will be large drinks at our house — we’ll go get Joan, too.  And she’s already agreed to make a SA feast for everyone — all the rest of us can be her sou chefs; Daniel, you’ll love it.  Maybe we can talk her into staying for thanksgiving and everyone can come, the CATS, Louise, Emily, Daniel, Dona and Bill, whoever else I forgot and Sandy, you can come from Fla.  Sharingly yours, jm