NO, REALLY, THIS IS IT (I lied on the last one when I said it was it...)

OK, so I lied below when I said that it was my final blog (see below). I realized that there was just one more thing I needed to add to this. So many people have asked me what my favorite things were about the trip, well, I’ll try to give you my top 10, although pretty much everything was fantastic in its own way, even the bad days, of which, I am thankful, there were very few.

So here it goes and in no specific order:

Gorillas within five feet of me walking about
Balloon ride over the Masai Mara with the wildebeest migration
Canoe trip on the Zambezi with all of the elephants walking through our lunch
The trek in Nepal in the Himalayas
The leopard walking about, climbing the tree and then continuing lunch
Ellora and Ajanta caves in India
Marrakech and all the crazy colors and sounds of that amazing city
The nine lions feasting on the Zebra followed by the entire animal kingdom congregating at the watering hole in Etosha National Park
Swimming with a whale shark in Mozambique
Sunrise at the dunes in Namibia

Right then, so there are so many other things that are now popping into my head that were just awesome…maybe I should just say the entire trip was fantastic and I would do it all over again in a second (maybe I would go for even longer)! Now, sitting here in the US, I am missing many things and thinking fondly of so much that I was able to experience. I miss all the crazy people I met along the road and small things like the anise seed/candy mix that came after meals in India and was the closest thing to eating licorice that I had experienced in months. The fantastic foods - the Tibetan Thupka soup, Tajines followed by “seasonal fruit”, momos, olives galore, those sticky sweet fried, honey soaked cookies, those amazing coconut cookies the kids in Marrakech sold on the streets, mango lassis and fruit/curd/yogurt.

When again will I say that I actually like porridge/oatmeal? I tried it again here and well, it is just not the same. I think I may have to take back my much earlier comment on how great it was, or maybe I will get lucky and figure out how it is done and be able to make my own. God knows the Moroccan tea I brought back tasted nothing like it did there when I had it. I think I actually even miss my Thermarest and the silky soft interior of my sleeping bag – even Enrique, my tent, holds a tender spot in my heart. I definitely miss the “Don’t Wait!” cry of Charles the cook on the overland truck when each meal was ready.

I worry too, that all those special things that I remember now and all of the feelings and ways and ease of life that I adopted along the road will dissipate like fog burning off in the morning sun. Please, oh please, don’t let me forget, let me remember and hold true to living life rather than letting it pass by unannounced and without adventure.

Again, I say, where shall we go next?