March 2014. So this is the plan for the next couple of weeks. A motorbike loop with Ayres Adventures around the eastern half of South Africa along the Drakensberg Mountains, with stops in a few historical sites from the Boer and Zulu Wars, a day in Kruger National Park with a long lens, quick run along the Indian Ocean, the infamous Sani Pass, and two more countries stamped in the passport – Swaziland and Lesotho. Both of these are independent kingdoms landlocked inside South Africa – each about the size and GDP of a couple of Oregon counties.

Just for comparison:

South Africa
– 190K Sq Miles which is about three times the size of California and five time the size of Oregon.
– GDP $385B – equivalent to Thailand, Austria, Venezuela or Michigan.

Swaziland
– 3K Sq Miles – same as Connecticut or Klamath County, Oregon
– GDP $4B – a little less than the GDP of Bend, Oregon

Lesotho
– 4K Sq Miles – say the area of Massachusetts or Malheur County in Oregon.
– GDP $2B – one of the world’s ten smallest national economies.