World Cup Trip Update 2

update 17/6 afternoon

(Apologies for the delay, who knew Internet access would be hard to come by in rural Africa!)

Our arrival in Durban was memorable to say the least. Another truck that we were travelling with arrived at the site where we were supposed to be staying a couple of hours before us only to discover that is was over 60km from the centre of Durban and didn’t meet our needs. So while the other operators where finding somewhere else for us to stay we sat by the edge of the road and waited. After an hour or so we received conformation that another place had been found. By this stage we were much more concerned about finding a pub to watch the USA vs England match, thus we made our way to a beach-side pub to watch the game and have a feed. After the game, when we left the pub we were amazed to discover that the accommodation that had been provided was a 3 ½ star hotel on the beach south of Durban CBD.

The next morning, we made our way to another camp-ground close to the centre of town, where we set up our tents and got dressed in our Socceroos gear then headed to Fan-Fest Durban which was on the beach about 3km south of the Stadium. The Fan-Fest was epic, with Ghanaians, South Africans, Germans and Aussies all watching the Ghana- Serbia match on a big screen with vuvuzellas being blown and everybody getting more and more excited about the game coming up.

After the evening game we walked down to the stadium with much good-natured ribbing between each set of supporters. Entry into the stadium was something you are used to seeing on the sub-continent with massive lines, people pushing in and a general sense of chaos, with all the supporters having to walk up several ramps to reach the stadium; as a local explained, “the ground will have a capacity of 40,000 after the World Cup, and the average crowd will only be 15,000, so the stadium didn’t need to have many exits or bars to accommodate the weekly crowd.” As the playing field came into view, my eyes where drawn towards the roof structure, which is incredible. Even 1-½ hours before kick-off, the atmosphere was electric with gold shirts out numbering the white of the Germans, however the Socceroos numbers were swollen with the locals wearing the shirts of Bafana Bafana. The anthems were sung with great passion, as I struggled to believe that the world cup had started and I was a part of it!

The game was a disaster with the revolutionary 4-6-0 system back-firing massively.

The Germans were far too good in all respects, their passing and movement through mid-field made us look like navy witches-hats at time. The sending off of Cahill was met with disbelief from the Aussies, who couldn’t believe that their worst nightmares had come to life.

Moving forward, without any knowledge of what is going on in the camp; Kennedy and Kewell both have to start, as we need to score goals if we are somehow able to pull off a miracle and beat Ghana. At the back, Beauchamp should play, as Craig Moore is simply to slow to be able to compete at this level.

The next day, we woke hoping that the night before was a illusion, however reading the local papers our worst fears were realised, the press was even more scathing of the Socceroos that any of our supporters. With the Durban behind us, we pushed up the coast to St. Lucia where we went for a evening wetland cruise. We had only gone 250m up the river before spotting a large herd of Hippos wallowing in the shallow waters. This quickly made us completely forget about the match the night before, as the hippos swam next to the boat.

The next day promised even more with a full-day safari in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve. Driving through the gates at dawn, we immediately saw hyenas on the road and zebras and giraffes in the scrub. After a couple of hours of driving along the tracks spotting antelope, a call came over the radio that lions had been spotted with a kill. We immediately drove there to find a dead baby rhino, 2 female lions and 2 cubs about 15m of the road in amongst the scrub, after watching for 15 minutes a roar was heard close by and a male joined the group. Eventually we left the area to start heading back towards the gates for lunch. After lunch, still recovering from the Kiwis stealing a draw from the their 1^st game, it became even more exciting with gnus, zebras, giraffes and buffalo forming big packs in the grasslands. After seeing an old bull elephant giving himself a mud bath, we turned a corner to find 2 female elephants with 4 young elephants in a clearing ahead. The bigger female saw us and mock-charged with ears flapping and a resounding call before ripping a bush up and throwing it to the ground with its trunk. The young started to make a move so we backed up and watched them walk past our truck. The baby elephants knowing they had a captive audience then started dancing and playing on the road in front of us, so we watched and took photos as they seemingly played up to the crowd. After a while they moved off the path so we could drive past.

Almost around the next bend there was 3 giraffes feeding at the roadside before taking off up the road behind us. It was amazing to watch these gangly creatures break into top speed up the track. Before the end of the day we also spotted a pair of rhinos, marking of 4 of the Big 5 African animals in a 24-hour period. The day was capped off by watching the plucky North Koreans holding Brazil to a 2-1 scoreline.

The next day saw us cross a land border into the Kingdom of Swaziland, where we were reliably informed that the king has 18 wives and chooses another each year, during the reed ceremony (Google “Swaziland reed ceremony”, you will not be disappointed!). From the border we headed to our campsite at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary. On the drive from the gate we spotted warthogs, antelope, zebras and ostriches. Watching Bafana Bafana lose last night was quite sad, as all the locals had spent the last 2 days telling us how they were going to win it all!

Today saw us do a few activities around the reserve with monkeys, antelope and zebras being spotted by almost everybody. We went to a local village at lunchtime to meet the chief and see how the locals live, and spent the arvo watching hippos being fed.

Who needs the soccer anyway!!!