"Trust you to come up with something so difficult to answer, ha ha.

Seriously though, it IS hard to say, because South Africa possesses a little bit of everything in her landscape: She has the arid Karoo landscape - very similar to the Australian Outback, I hear - where ancient lands fade into an endless horizon; she has the ruthless Kalahari Desert where only the toughest creatures survive... but that's also where she proves that she has a sense of humour, for right there, among the scurrying scorpions and the lizards and snakes, we find her taking care of scores of perky meerkats.

But she is also proudly curvaceous, with snow-capped mountains in Kwa-Zulu Natal, the Eastern and Southwestern Cape and the surrounding valleys where the vineyards and ploughed fields unfurl like a gigantic and colourful quilt.

Deep within her reaches her golden heart kindly pulsates, fueling the economies of the bustling and first-world cities nestled in her bosom, with their bright lights drowning out the glow of the Southern Cross at night.

Her human and animal children coexist, each species conveying mostly cautious respect for each other, yet sharing the same instinctive possessiveness of their land and a yearning to survive.

She rises up from the restless Indian and Atlantic Oceans laying to her sides. She does her best to keep them separated, but to no avail, for at her feet they collide in a wild and foamy embrace. Legend has it that you can actually see a line where the two oceans meet at the southernmost tip of Africa.

See? This is the type of sap you get for asking me when I'm desperately homesick.

But I know that you are clever enough to see past (if not right through) my sentimental bias.

So when you're done gagging, go and buy yourself a plane ticket. I assure you, it's worth every hour it takes to get there.

R."

P.S. Happy birthday to my big sister!