So it is about midnight on Thursday and the USA will play Slovenia at Ellis Park here in Johannesburg tomorrow afternoon. While the sun continues to shine it is absolutely frigid outside. Wednesday morning it was so cold and windy that Chris and I decided to pack up and head to Durban where we were assured “it barely notices winter”. Not without a trip to the SAB World of Beer Museum here in Joberg where we tasted Sorghum(sp) Beer, the traditional African brew and let’s just say that you won’t be finding 6packs of that stuff on the shelves of your local grocery any time soon. You might be better off cleaning the tires of your car with it. Wait a minute… Let’s back up a few days to the USA England match in Rustenburg.
Only 8 hours after bribing my way to the Hotel Apollo Chrs, Dave and I were in the Hyundai and on our way to Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, site of the USA vs England match, Royal Bafokeng Stadium is the only community-owned stadium in South Africa. The owners are the Royal Bafokeng Nation, one of the country’s richest tribes. Seeing South Africa in the daylight was quite refreshing after the previous night’s nonsense. We headed north out of Joburg to Pretoria and then west opting for a 2 lane road that ran parallel to the main interstate passing private estates, shanty towns, a huge mining operation (we’re told 70% of the worlds Platinum comes from this area) and loads of cars sporting the flags of their support. Obviously South Africa is the most heavily represented but the majority of those have at least one other flag on their car (usually English). “All South Africans claim two countries” we were told. And here i thought that Americans were the only hyphenated culture.. Keeping with the spirit, Chris put up a SA flag on one window and the USA flag on the other. We arrived in Rustenburg a good 4hours prior to kick off so as not to take any chances. There were still alot of questions regarding security and parking etc so we weren’t going to take any chances. We stopped at a mall to grab a bite to eat (I don’t eat KFC in the states but i do in SA) and pick up a case of beer, water, chips and some apples… Not really knowing where to go next we just headed west again following the park & ride signs eventually winding up at the Phokeng East park & ride… Phokeng East… Say it with me “Phokeng East”.. This parking lot was literally in the middle of the bush… There wasn’t a building in site, let alone a stadium, just a red dirt parking lot half full. We parked and quickly met a group of americans who had been living in SA for a few years doing aid work. We shared a couple beers with them, took a few photos and then headed to the back of the parking lot where there was a busload of Americans having a tailgate, complete with chicken wings, baked beans and potato salad. The parking lot began to fill up and our crowd grew in size. Security was everyone but they seemed more concerned with keeping people from wandering into the bush than any potential problems between fans. The English kept to themselves and we did the same. We asked one of the security guards where the stadium was and he told us it was 2.5Km,
“just over that mountain” he pointed
“2.5? That’s not far, can we walk it?” i asked
“Oh no. you musn’t walk it. Very dangerous” he responded.
“What’s dangerous”
” Lions”
“What? You mean like..” i make the international sign for Lions with my hands “…Lions?”
“And wolves”
“Lions and Wolves out there” I point toward the mountain.
“What’s to keep them from coming in here” chris asks
“Oh no, they don’t come here. They sleep on the mountain” he assured us.
“OK. We’ll take the shuttle.” we promised him
As the sun and beers went down, the volume in the parking lot went up. Phokeng East became Phoking East which became Foking East which, well, you can probably see where this is going.
We stood as 15passenger mini-busses appeared and whisked travelers off to the stadium. Before boarding the worker would tell us “Remember. When you come back make sure you tell the driver ‘Phokeng East’. Everyone enjoyed another round of Juvenile behavior asking him “how do you say it? Again please? one more time..” Then everyone would shout “Phokeng East!”
We arrived at the stadium to find plenty of empty parking surrounding the stadium. Apparently the only way to get anywhere close was by the Park & Ride system. 2 security checkpoints later we were in the stadium. As you can imagine, the place was absolutely buzzing with excitement. The only beer offered is Budweiser, much to the consternation of the English, and it was madness trying to get to the front of the line. I volunteered to head in and Dave handed me 100R to get three. I made my way to the front and beers were only 30R, which is only about $4-5, so decided i might as well get 6 of them since i didn’t want to have to fight that crowd again. We walked around the stadium. Any time an English person passed us we found ourselves pointing and taunting them with “You would be speaking German!” or “if you’ve got a foreign coach, clap your hands!” to which we would just stare at them. or my personal favorite “There’s only one super power!”
The excitement was at it’s peak, the anthems were played the game kicked off. I’m sure you all saw it so i won’t bother to recap that but let’s just say that the relief Clint Dempsey provided us before halftime made that out to be the only 15minutes i can honestly say i truly enjoyed myself. The nervous anxiety was almost unbearable. In 15hours we’re going to do it all over again.
The ride home wasn’t quite as smooth as the ride to the match. We found a “short cut” on the map and well.. We ended up in Soweto, the famous SOuth WEstern TOwnship that is the birthplace of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu at 1am. Let’s just say that you won’t find any guidebooks suggesting Soweto at 1am. We dropped dave off at his hotel sometime after 2am and Chris and I headed back to our place. So happy to be home, have a bed and get some real sleep i’m pretty sure i fell asleep immediately once my head hit the pillow.
DURBAN
The temperature dropped severely on Tuesday and after a visiting the South African Brewery World of Beer tour we decided it was too cold and took off for Durban on the Sun Coast. Not before packing up our swim trunks, a change of clothes, and our new best friend, a Garmin GPS.. We started calling numbers for lodging from the Lonely Planet guide knowing it would be tough with the Spain Switzerland match going on there. We finally got in touch with the Smith Cottages in Durban and they assured us that they had a “Caravan” for us and that it would be “very nice”. Well, I’m not sure what you call a caravan but this was straight out of the movie Snatch only it wasn’t the Periwinkle Blue one that Brad Pitt wanted for his mother. Nonetheless, after 6 hours in the car it was a welcome retreat. By the way, driving across South Africa at night was amazing. There is absolutely NO light pollution and it is pitch dark. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever in my life seen that many stars. Perhaps on a boat 5 years ago sailing around Galapagos but probably not. Incredible.
Along the way we stopped to get gas a few hours outside Joburg and talk about a surreal experience. The gas station, service station, snack bar was literally the only thing we had seen for 100km. We walked in and the place is being run by an Asian family of about a dozen. I picked up a couple Coca Colas for the caffeine. Now I’m not big on guns, never have been. Probably because i went hunting when I was maybe 13 or so, shot a rabbit, and scarred me for life. Needless to say i really don’t know much about handguns but behind the counter of this place, next to the 15year old asian kid taking my money was a .45 caliber or 9mm type handgun, in plain view, obviously for protection. This may look like Kansas in the winter but it definitely isn’t Kansas.
Durban is Great! We woke up in the caravan around 9am and Gary, the husband and part owner/operator of the Smith Cottage gave Chris and I a ride to the beach along with Robbie, a Swiss taxi driver who said he works double shifts 8 months out of the year at a wealthy resort town in Switzerland so he can “holiday” for 4 months out of the year! whatever works i guess. He just got to SA the night before and would be here for the remainder of the tournament. Durban has a boardwalk that is book ended by a Casino at one end and an aquarium at the other. Along the way are shops, restaurants and hotels. Sort of like Venice Beach meets Miami Beach. There were three huge TV screens set up playing the Chile Honduras match. Robbie insisted on ‘inviting us for a beer so we could let this guy down. After one beer i couldn’t fight it any longer. I went to the public bathroom, changed into my swim trunks in a stall and took off for the huge strand leaving Chris and Robbie to watch my things. The weather was a bit cooler than I’d like to be honest but the water in the Indian Ocean is absolutely amazing. I’m told it was 21degrees Celsius, which is very warm, and that during the summer it gets up to 29C. that’s like bathwater. It was a fun. Afterward i made my way back, dried off and changed back into my khakis. After another beer and Chris’s turn in the Ocean, Robbie said we could be Swiss for the night so we headed back toward the Casino end of the boardwalk where the stadium is situated. Google MOSES MABHIDA STADIUM if you haven’t already seen it because it is the single most amazing location for a stadium I’ve ever seen. The game was sold out, even Robbie was unlucky so we went back to the Fan Fest on the beach and watched the game there. As you may know also the Swiss upset the heavily favored Spanish and Robbie was beside himself. After the game we went to the Casino and as we were walking in, low and behold, there’s Avin walking out of Casino! I hadn’t tried to reach him via email because i thought he was going to be at Kruger National Forest. He snapped a photo of the two of us and that was the last i saw of him.. I lost 200R at blackjack and we headed back out to the Fan Fest and the South Africa Uruguay match. SA got handled 3-0 by the Uruguyans and the mood was quite somber. By this time it was late and my diet of beer, sun and beer had began to take it’s toll on me. We ordered a couple BLTs at a hotel then decided to try and sneak into the pool. busted. We politely offered to show ourselves out and called the Smith Cottage. Gary’s father picked us up, along with several travelers from Finland and Germany who were staying at our cottage, and headed home. Exhausted, I fell asleep immediately once my head hit the pillow.
This morning we woke up around 9am again, showered and thanked Gary and Leah from the Smith Cottage as well as Gary’s mom, son, daughter, 2 dogs, and the parrot and headed back to Joburg. Along the way we drove through the Valley of 1000 hills, a Zulu landmark, had some lunch and took in the amazing landscape. Driving back during the day was Phenomenal. The night before we noticed a large fire on a mountain but didn’t think much of it. TIA you know? But on the way back there were numerous fires of varying sizes. Listening to the radio we learned that they are “Felt(sp) Fires”. There hasn’t been a drop of rain in this area of SA in 5 weeks and they are wild fires. The area is so remote though that there didn’t seem to be any sort of urgency to put them out. some of them were burning right up to the highway, probably from errant cigarettes thrown from car windows while others were larger and off in the distance. The fires continued to to dot the landscape all they back to Joburg… TIA i guess.
So tomorrow is a huge day. The USA Slovenia match is at 4pm local time and we’re heading to a place called The Radium Beer Hall which is apparently a famous pub near the stadium that the USA fans are apparently congregating. Thanks for reading.; I”ll do my best to get something up sooner. By the way, my laptop is officially FUBAR so i have no way of posting photos or videos. sorry about that. guess you’ll all have to wait. Cheers,
bradfromohio@gmail.com