I am in love with South Africa.

I am more comfortable with South Africa than I have ever been with any person. I am willing to sacrifice more to be around South Africa than I have ever been with any person. I am truly, truly in love with this place.

In the same way that you meet someone and you feel as though both of you have been waiting for that encounter, this country has greeted me with amazing feelings of love and beauty. Look, it even makes me cheesy and hyperbolic.

I just returned from my trip to the Savannah. It was nothing less than life-altering. I had some very, very emotional experiences in the wilderness and I know I will never be able to free myself from their weight on my mind.

I found the trees that I draw all the time. They’re here. That’s incredible. Between the trees, the quiet absence of nonsense, the elephants, and the fact that I spent a night twenty feet from a hyena…I couldn’t dream up a place where I felt more at peace.

So I’ve decided to come back. Well, no… I didn’t so much decide; it feels so much more like a need or a natural response. This is in the same vein as when I tell religious people to bear in mind the fact that one cannot cleanly choose to believe or not to believe in a deity. I simply am coming back to South Africa.

I’m back in Cape Town now. I’m sleep deprived and have a lot of picture editing to do. I will write more tomorrow morning when I’m ready to love and rant.

Goodnight.