This is the last post before I leave, this time I promise, but I had a few minutes and knew you'd appreciate a post. I happened to realize that I didn't give you a detailed breakdown of where I'm going on my vacation! So, here you are:

Today: I leave at 3 for Durban. My friend Kate is picking me up at the airport and we're driving to the Drakensberg Mountains to her family's cottage there. Here's a picture of the Drakensbert Mountains:

As Natalie says, "geez, Lis, it's a tough life." It is tough, but someone has to volunteer for it.

After two days in the mountains, I will join my friends Emily A., Emily K., Alli, and Niv in Durban where we will stay overnight. If you're interested in seeing more about Durban, follow this tourism link.

The next morning, we're leaving Durban for St. Lucia, South Africa. St. Lucia is in the middle of a huge nationally-protected estuary. It's basically a small beach town with lots of crocodiles and hippos and birds. I should be in paradise! I am going to see if I can't convince the group to go on a whale-watching expedition. It's whale migration season in this part of the world and I've never seen a whale, so I think that should be on my list of to dos. Here's a link about St. Lucia.
In St. Lucia, we're staying at BiB's Backpackers, which looks pretty cool. Check it out. My favorite part are all of the "freebie" activities.

From St. Lucia, we'll drive on to Maputo, Mozambique. Yes, I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I've already talked to Naftal on the phone and I'm just counting the days. Here's a link to info on Maputo. While in Maputo, the group will go on to Tofo, and I will stay in Maputo with my friend Kristian. Then the group will return after a couple of nights in Tofo and we'll all head to the Kruger National Park. You don't need a link to that--just go back a couple of days in my posts and see pictures. Ok, just kidding, I found information on the birds you can find at the camp where we're staying, and even if Laurie Glenn is the only person to ever look at that, I'm satisfied. I've been wanting to see a broad-billed roller. And just so that my nerdiness is complete, I went out and bought the cutest tiny little binoculars yesterday. They were only R160 and they can fit in your pocket (with some difficulty--womens pants are not made to carry things right now). I'm super excited about using them. I may drive the rest of the crew crazy with my birdiness, but I'm okay with that. They already love me unconditionally, so I think we're fine.

So, I'm pretty excited. We're going on another great adventure with great friends--what could be better?? Ok, yes, if Orlando Bloom volunteered to come with, but I don't see that as much of a possibility, so I'm looking at the bright side of things. Plus, my accompanying friends are much cuter than I--there'd be no guarantee that Orlando would be all mine. So, no, this is the best possible vacation! See you in 11 days!