Out of Africa

Last week the inevitable finally arrived: I left Africa. The end of my 3 month jaunt in South Africa was over, a day before my tourist visa was due to expire, and the flight I'd pushed ahead 6 weeks was suddenly in my face. It was a bittersweet experience, taking off from South Africa... I'd spent 4 months visiting 4 African countries, each one spectacularly different from the other. It was also the day that marked the 5th month of my trip, hopping around the world and living out of my 3000 cubic inch pack. But the plane was headed for Thailand (via a 4 hour layover in Qatar, my first real glimpse of the Middle East), one of my favorite corners of the Earth, and in Thailand, awaiting our arrival, were Charley and Tatiana, good friends of ours from Cali.

We pushed through a 26 hour train ride, three flights, two layovers, taxi and longtail boat rides, and made it from Cape Town to Railay Beach in Krabi in 3 days.
What a trip. The rock climbing began in a big way the instant we arrived and is continuing to rock (haha) my world today even. In fact, I gotta get off this expensive computer and get ready to climb the limestone outside...

So here am I, 15 months later, back in Thai Thai. I said I'd be back. And now I remember why it was so hard to leave.