Hi everyone! This is our first chance to give you an update from South Africa. The last few days have been quite eventful, and we're enjoying our time here. The internet at our lodge didn't get fixed, and the people were reluctant to give out the wireless code. Our tour officially started last night, and we got on the road for the first leg of our trip at 6:00 this morning. It was early for everyone else, but Katie and I (me especially) were wide awake at about 4:30 this morning, so it was no problem for us. Most of our group is Australian, as we expected, but there are 5 of us from Canada, and one couple from New Zealand. Right now, we're at an internet place in a mall in Mokopane, South Africa. We're on our way to Serowe, Botswana, and we'll be staying at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary there. About the last few days, though...
Our flight from New York was really long (15 hours), but the time went by not too badly. Katie got lots of sleep. I would guess she slept about half the flight. I, on the other hand, had a little girl beside me who was a very fidgety sleeper. I kept on getting hit with stray hands and elbows from her while she slept, so that limited my ability to rest a bit. It didn't help that she threw up three times as well! When we got to Johannesburg, we were reminded of the fact that on the way back, we would still have 4 hours left in our trip!
We arrived at the airport to the sound of vuvuzelas blowing and flag-clad fans running to and fro. We picked up our World Cup tickets and our rental car at the airport in Johannesburg. With some trepidation, we ventured out onto the roads in our right-hand drive car (driving is on the left in South Africa). Our car was also a 6-speed standard, which made things interesting, shifting with your left hand. One other minor annoyance was the fact that the signal light flicker thing was on the right side of the steering wheel and the windshield wipers on the left, so many times when we turned, I would switch on the windshield wipers instead of the signals! Katie did a good job of looking out for me, and for the most part, remained quite calm despite the unfamiliar conditions. We drove out to Pretoria on good roads and in fairly heavy traffic for the first bit, but all went well, and I was very proud of myself for successfully driving in a foreign country. (One more thing stroked off my list of things to do!)
We checked into our little cabin, and headed to a mall to pick up some food. We stopped for a burger at Wimpy, our favourite restaurant here so far. (There's a Wimpy on basically every corner here!) We didn't feel like eating, even though we were hungry. I think it was a mix of nervousness and tummy jet lag. After that, we headed back into Johannesburg to the Apartheid Museum. We had our route all planned out, but missed the fact that halfway along, we were supposed to turn from N1 onto M1. We stayed on N1 and ended up in Soweto! However, the Apartheid Museum was close by, and after a couple stops on side streets to check our maps, we made it.
The museum was both sobering and inspiring. South Africa has an amazing history. I also found it really interesting how, as horrible as Apartheid was, each step along the way to get to that point was easily justified by those in power, and seemed very reasonable (in a twisted sort of way). Even those who enforced it likely were able to justify what they were doing fairly easily. I suppose that's the case for most things like Apartheid. They don't become that way overnight.
Our park and ride location for the game was just down the street from the museum, and it was a life saver. They basically shut down the entire area around the stadium on game day. The streets around the stadium for about 4 or 5 blocks on every side were literally totally cleared of cars and people, and were patrolled by police with only certified vehicles being allowed to enter the area. Parking would have been a nightmare, and the area around Ellis Park is sketchy at best. I wouldn't want to be walking there at night. It was quite a nice treat to be able to sit back and have someone else drive as well! The game was amazing. We arrived at the game about an hour and 15 minutes before the game started, but already the grounds of the stadium were full of fans, and the atmosphere was incredible. We took some time to walk around the stadium, taking part in some of the festivities, and we bought ourselves a vuvuzela! It took me a couple of times making horrible noises with it, sounding like an idiot to the more experienced, before I figured out how to blow into it properly. The atmosphere during the game was amazing, and there were some very exciting moments. Spain scored with a few minutes left in the game to win it 1-0. Almost everyone in the stadium was cheering for Spain, so it was very exciting. There was no real animosity between fans of different countries. It was much like a Rider game, and probably friendlier.
Our cabin was soooooo cold that night! We shared a twin bed and put all the blankets onto it to stay warm. The worst is when you get into bed, and realize that you've forgotten to turn off the light. Imagine camping (our cabin isn't very thick) in +5 degrees weather. Very cold.
Our bus is leaving in two minutes, so we need to wrap this up, even though there's much more we could say. Hopefully we can tell you more once we get to Botswana!
D&K
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