update 26/6 morning
(now coming to you from sunny London!)
The 5 hour drive from Swaziland back to Joburg, was uneventful apart from the border guard at the Swaziland – South Africa border telling us that Nelspruit (the location for the 3rd Aussie game) was only 90 minutes from the border. This made us quite depressed as the days of driving that were coming up basically amounted to driving around in a circle!
Arrival back at Mufasa Lodge saw a mad scramble to get the tents up as quickly as possible so that we could watch the Germany- Serbia match on TV. The result was one that we were definitely not expecting, with the Serbs winning 1-0. When the game was over, some of the group went into Nelson Mandela Square to do a spot of shopping and to check out the scene and soak up the atmosphere. The shopping center itself was huge and walking around it felt like we were outside the opening ceremony, with many of the teams being represented.
Leaving Nelson Mandela Square, we caught a cab to the Total Sports Travel official function, which was an opportunity to eat and drink as much as we could and watch the poms play one of the most boring games in living memory. The lowlight of the night was the interview of Kevin Muscat, who was over here doing some charity work and somehow became the special guest for the function.
The next day saw another long drive in the morning towards Rustenburg, for the Australia - Ghana match that evening. Rustenburg is the main centre for an area that is dominated by Platinum mines and it shows! The ground was miles from town and the traffic getting towards the ground was at a standstill. Despite leaving more than 3 ½ hours before kick-off, we didn’t actually get into the ground until 45 minutes before the game started.
The game itself was a memorable encounter, with an Aussie goal through a keeper error, another Aussie striker being sent off (this time Harry Kewell), and a great second half with the Aussies looking a better side despite playing with a man down.
The end of the game saw a lot of rueful shaking of heads knowing that the Socceroos now had a mountain to climb to reach the knockout stages of the tournament. The leaving of the stadium was even more chaotic than entering the ground, with streaming of people walking in all different directions, no definite answers from authorities about where we were supposed to go and few buses to take people to where they parked their cars. Eventually after a 3 km walk we made it back to the bus, where we sat in traffic for another 1 ½ hours trying to get back to out accommodation. It was at this point that we came to a conclusion that Australia should host a world cup soon as at the very least organising the supporters in and out of the ground won’t be a problem.
We woke the next morning to frost on our tents, with the temperature getting down to -6 over night. We quickly warmed up however, as we were going to Sun City that day. Our arrival at Sun City was met with high expectations by some of the gamblers in the group. I on the other hands was interested in checking out the world-renowned golf courses, which play host to the Nedbank Challenge every year with 1st place winning $2 million US. The golf courses didn’t disappoint, they looked beautiful despite the cold temps over night and the lack of rain to the area in recent months. Some of us discovered that there was a big screen within the entertainment part of the complex that was showing the football so many of us congregated there to watch the kiwis play the Italians. In the end I almost started cheering for the All Whites as the Azzuri became more and more frustrated by the New Zealand “bus parking” tactics. The drive back to camp saw some very heavy wallets as the gamblers had cleaned up at the tables.
The next day, after another morning frost, saw a drive of some 650km from Rustenburg to the gateway to southern Kruger National Park, Hazyview. The day before the last group game saw many of us taking a full-day game drive through Kruger National Park. The drive got of to a great start with 3 cheetahs walking along side the main road just 20 minutes into our drive. The rest of our day was spent spotting rhinos, elephants, buffalo and other wildlife that call Kruger home.
The day of the game saw another early start for me as I took up the opportunity to do a walking tour of a private reserve next door to Kruger. The walk was very educational as our 2 armed guides showed us various tracks and marks and explained about how the wildlife live within the park. Thankfully we didn’t run into any big animals during our walk, however people who did another game drive manage to see both lions and leopards thus completing the Big 5 for them.
The afternoons saw a drive into Nelspruit to watch the English and US attempt to qualify for the round of 16. The English should have won by a much more comfortable margin, whilst the US waited until the 93rd minute to secure their place at the top of the group. At the end of the early games, we boarded a bus from Fan Fest towards the stadium to soak up the atmosphere before the game.
As the players warmed up we knew we were in for something special. Australia started the game a little nervously, but at least had some strike power up front with Kennedy and Cahill. The half-time whistle came and we found out that it was still 0-0 between Germany and Ghana as well.
The second half was a whirlwind ride, with euphoria with 1st “Super” Timmy Cahill scoring then a wonder strike from Brett Holman finding the back of the net. However, the mood became quieter as we found out the Germans were up 1-0, which meant that Australia had to score 2 more goals to qualify. This was unfortunately not to be as the Serbs got a goal back through a Schwarzer fumble. The last frantic minutes saw neither team add to their tally and the full-time whistle was met with mixed reactions; happy because we won, but sad that our world cup dream has come to an end.
At the end of the game there was a lot of Australians who stayed behind to watch the players do a lap of honour, and to finally salute the team on their performance. Leaving the ground there was an attempt to try to swap gear with any Serbians who were left at ground. Unfortunately they all had left and it wasn’t until we made it back to our truck, that we found a busload of Serbs and I was able to swap my Aussie supporters jacket with a Serbian national t-shirt. We returned to our base tired but happy that we had seen Australia win.
The last day of our tour saw us take the Panoramic Route north of Havyview, through 3 viewpoints; God’s Window, where you look out over the edge of the escarpment to the rolling plains below, The Potholes, where millennia of erosion has created rounded holes in sandstone where water has flowed and some surrounding waterfalls and finally The Roundabouts, where the edge of a mountain range has created 3 circular peaks. We eventually arrived back in Joburg that night, after listening to the heroic kiwis record their third straight draw, but be eliminated from the world cup.
Thus ends my South African adventure, stay tuned for the English leg…
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