First Weeks

It's hard to believe we're here. It's hard to believe that we've been in Africa for almost a week!

I don't know if it's because we've just been waiting to get here for so long or because this week has seemed more like a very cush and incredibly pleasant holiday instead of a hard core, roughing-it, sweat and grime filled camping trip. It's been awesome :)

We left Phoenix on Monday morning. I had been nervous all week long. There was no reason for it, honestly. Especially because I was more prepared for this trip than I have ever been for any other one. Erik had packed the bikes up days before, I packed up all of our equipment as well. I actually slept sunday night, which is very unusual. Erik thought the reason I was freaked out was that we were going to go cycle from Cape Town to Nairobi. Haha. Probably.

Our first flight from Phoenix to Atlanta was very uneventful, even though our nerves were every where. We kept saying that we were going to Africa and laughing nervously. Maybe that was just me :). In Atlanta we had some high quality McDonalds and made last minute phone calls. It went by pretty quickly. Our 16 hour flight was also relatively easy. The guy next to me was from Durban and very nice. He liked to talk, a lot, so it was good that the lights basically went out right after we were fed. We were actually very impressed with how much food we got on that flight. Both of us slept a fair amount and watched a few movies. We landed in Johannesburg the next day, went through customs, picked up our bikes, rechecked everything and climbed into the next plane. Two hours later we were in Cape Town! Woo! Again, our bikes showed up without a problem and only a few minor dents on the boxes.

We walked out of the gate and there was Chris!! Chris contacted us on Couchsurfing.com after we posted that we needed a place to stay in Cape Town. He very graciously offered his home to us and then even more graciously picked us up from the airport. It took us a while to get the bikes in the car but somehow we managed and headed to his and Tamlyn's lovely house.

We can't even begin to express our gratitude to these guys.

-Steph