Photos from South Africa

I took the next few pictures after a 2-hour hike to the top of Table Mountain, which overlooks Cape Town:







The "tablecloth" rolls over Table Mountain:



Lounging around with the penguins in Simon's Town, in the south of Cape Town:







The next few photos are from a township (the equivalent of a shantytown) in Cape Town. I wish I could enlarge this first one; the woman is splitting a goat head with an axe, preparing a popular food in the area:



Getting ready to sip some homemade beer in the township:



I'm not sure what the hand signals mean, but I'm pretty sure they're not offensive:







A few friends I made in Cape Town; the three on the left traveled with me for the first few days of my road trip:



Planning my travel route at the hostel in Cape Town:



The view from Hogsback, a village of 1500 people in the hills of south-central South Africa:



A few shots taken while hiking around Hogsback:







Arriving on the Wild Coast--this is the beach in Chintsa:



A friend I made in Chintsa volunteered at a local game reserve, helping to raise lion cubs. She invited me to play with the cubs one afternoon, making for one of the highlights of my trip:





These little ecosystems exist in holes eroded into boulders lying on the beach in Chintsa--they were the home of crabs, snails, and even fish:



In Coffee Bay, a quiet beach town along the Wild Coast, I took a hike with a group to a place called "A Hole in the Wall." These are some photos from the hike:







The locals splashing around near A Hole in the Wall:











There's a reason it's called the Wild Coast--there are more cows sunbathing than people:







And here it is...the 1.4 liter asphalt igniter that successfully got me across South Africa:



More photos from Tanzania, Zambia, and Thailand will be coming soon...