Last week I was busy in the telling of the adventure wherein seven long and arduous flights found me in Cape Town, travelling up-country with a delightful fellow who was not yet Hero Hubs. (To read part one, click here.) And where we left off, I’d just unknowingly met my future father- and mother-in-love, and enjoyed a few days in beautiful Bloemfontein.

Now pressing on!

After the delightful stay in Bloem, we pressed on toward the northeast of South Africa, passing through the Golden Gate National Park, which was gorgeous, to say the least.

The reminders that we’d soon be returning to Bonnie Scotland continued…

and we occasionally stopped to fully take in the amazing scenery passing by our windows.

But finally we made it to Makhasa Game Reserve, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, where friends of the future-HH were field guide and host.

Sans hair dryers or running water in our dwellings, we were properly in the bush.

See? This male Nyala is blocking the way to my tent! It is under that covered awning there!

The week that unfolded at Makhasa was unforgettable for a gabillion reasons.

I never dreamed of seeing some of the sites I took in, up close and personal.

Dung beetles are so incredible they deserve their own blog post. Hold me to that.

I also had no idea how frightened I should’ve been when the field guide told me to quietly step down, as he chose me to follow him and approach a rhino on foot.

The future HH was wrestling between taking photos and picking up the field guide’s rifle just in case.

Wild, majestic, magical Africa unfolded before my eyes day after day.

I found so much cause for thankfulness, enjoying God’s amazing creation in things great and small.

Care to guess which one’s the female funnel-web spider?

HH-to-be was carefully giving no clue that he had it in mind to ask me to marry him. And when the subject came up, even after such confirmations as my favouritest phone call ever, he threw curve balls by talking about needing more confirmation from the Lord, and being unsure of his next steps.

The day before our last full day there, I went for a walk on the beach while HH2B went scuba diving in Sodwana Bay. (I gave it a go, but wasn’t ready for diving yet.) I prayed and spoke to the Lord about my heart, feeling a little discouraged at being in the perfect place, in such perfect surroundings, and what felt like such perfect timing for a proposal. I like to get honest. I just couldn’t imagine a more magical story than this one, to be the start of our journey toward marriage and life together.

I was walking back toward the spot where I’d meet HH2B when he finished diving when the Lord showed me a rock sitting on the sand near my feet. It looked like sand itself, rough and multi-coloured. Since it looked so much like sand, I almost wouldn’t have noticed it was there, if my attention hadn’t somehow been drawn to it. I picked it up and felt the Lord was saying “You can’t see what I’m doing right now, but trust Me. I’m moving.”

I was met with incredible peace.

And the adventure that lay ahead of me was so overwhelmingly great, that after all these photos and stories, it needs to be told fully all on its own.

Can you make it till tomorrow to hear the tale? {Here’s the story.}

xCC

{Happy Tuesday!!! My heart, thankful for things great and small, has linked up to Chatting at the Sky today. If it has remembered.}