One bag of Mexican Chilli crisps, three of the big 5 and 50,000 vuvuzelas!

Well I thought my first blog, was also my last blog, but the positive feedback (from my mum, brother and girlfriend admittedly!) and by the request of Becky has meant that I am back behind the laptop piecing together the last couple of weeks of my holiday/experience. Of the 7 weeks that I am here in South Africa, I would have to say that my last 2 weeks have been the most holiday/tourist like. It started with a safari at the Pilansburg Game Reserve, which was a 30 minute drive outside of Rustenburg, which was the home of England’s first game against USA (but the less said about football the better I think!). Upon arrival we checked in and made our way to our chalet (posh name for our room) and I quickly fell asleep on my bed. However, I was not allowed to enjoy a moment of relaxation as Becky woke me up screaming “Luke, Luke, Luke”. I jumped out of bed in true cavalier fashion, ready to confront the intruder. To my surprise the intruder was smaller than expected and distinctly furrier. In fact, it looked much like a baboon. But wait, why is it stealing our tasty bag of Mexican Chilli crisps??? I suddenly felt wide awake having seen this strange sight and Becky ensured me that I was not dreaming. A baboon had in fact came into our room, stolen the crisps and was now merrily opening them and tucking in, right in front of our eyes. The cheek of the lad...

During the trip we had 3 game drives and around the same number of drives that we took ourselves around the park. As mentioned in the title we had good sightings of 3 of the big 5 (Lion, Elephant and Rhino), but unfortunately did not get to see a Leopard or Buffalo. This was unsurprising though as Leopards are notoriously difficult to see, and we were told that the Buffalos were hanging out at the north of the park, which was mountainous and as such did not have any tourist roads that we could drive. We also had good sightings of Giraffe, Zebra, Hippo and various types of Antelope, as well as a number of other animals. Our favourite drive was the game drive following the England V USA game. We were apprehensive about the drive due to the likelihood of us seeing a beaming set of USA fans and having to endure a 150 minute drive with these gloating “soccer” fans. As expected there was a set of 4 American fans who had been to the game the night before and claimed that they had not slept! Fortunately, they were all nice lads and good for a laugh. There was also a South African family of 5 (with a South African journalist) who was thoroughly interesting to talk to about some of the big social issues in the country. The most fun tourists that we were joined by were however, a Dutch man and woman. The Dutch man soon pulled out a Dictaphone (in the shape of a microphone) and told the rest of the truck that they were in fact radio presenters from the biggest radio station in Holland (Radio 2- with an average audience of 500-700 thousand apparently!) and they were out in South Africa creating a set of shows about their experiences, both sporting and cultural. In this case, they were doing a show about their experiences on their Safari. The Safari guide seemed taken aback by all these events, especially when the Dutch man was holding the Dictaphone underneath him, as he spoke. It turned out that the Dutch reporter decided that those on the trip were also going to take part in his show. He started by asking the Americans who their favourite USA soccer player was, and they said “Clint Dempsey”. He then asked which animal he was most like, and they said “a gazelle”.

Predictably, he then came and asked me who my favourite English player was, and I responded “Rooney” and said that he was most like a rhino. We soon came upon an Impala and the Dutch radio host asked the Americans if this was close enough to a Gazelle, and he then started shouting, “We have seen a Dempsey, we have had a sighting of a Clint”. It was all rather surreal, but at the same time hilarious. We then came upon a group of hippos, and he asked whether this was close enough to be a rhino, and of course I said, yes. It turned out to be a great safari and a load of fun with some really nice people. Apparently they do a daily show and he said that he will e-mail with the details as to where I can listen back to it!

Having had a really successful and fun safari we eventually headed back to St. Anthonys. We were only there for one day and a night though, but we were able to help out with the kids who had come in from the community (the kids from St. Anthonys have now gone home for the holidays). The next day we headed to Jo’Burg and a guesthouse, which is owned by Becky’s friend, Melissa. The guesthouse turned out to be amazingly nice and we spent the evening eating takeaway, and watching the football in her bar. The next morning we headed off to the Soccer City stadium to watch Argentina V South Korea. The stadium was an amazing sight and it was great to be in such a huge place. We were in the neutral section and were therefore free to cheer for both teams (I ended up supporting S. Korea, as I wanted the most interesting game possible!). It was amazing to see Messi as well, and you really could see that he was a cut above from anyone else playing (even though Hinguain did score a hat trick- they were all tap ins) and Messi was involved in every Argentine goal. The only slight downside of the match was the constant drone of Vuvuzelas. Fortunately, we were right at the top of the stadium and therefore most of the noise was focused towards the pitch. However, it was still seriously loud and people had no shame blowing it straight in your ear! We really enjoyed the match though and so far it is still the game that has had the most goals in this World Cup. We were saying how great it would have been to see an England game live, but we are currently not so sure about that assumption following our sorry showings! I am confident that we will beat the Slovenians though and qualify all the same. Hopefully, Capello will drop Heskey, and either play Rooney up-top on his own, or put him alongside Crouch. Also, he needs to put Gerrard in the middle, and stick Joe Cole on the left wing. Hopefullyyyyyy SWP will also not come close to the pitch again, as he has been truly awful! I just realised that I said at the top that I wouldn’t talk about football, but I need to release my frustration somewhere! And it should also be noted that none of the supposed ‘big teams’ are looking very impressive at the moment. We are currently watching NZ beating Italy, Spain has lost to Switzerland, Germany to Serbia, France are all but out, Portugal looked terrible against the Ivory Coast, and Brazil struggled past North Korea. So with any luck we will begin to find some type of form, and you never know we may have a chance!

Anywayyyy... me and Becky don’t have a great deal planned for the next few weeks. We intend to go to Dundee and visit Father Cullen and we are going to paint the wall outside St. Anthonys. We are also going to visit some of the kids, and hopefully head to Durban(via the Drakensburg mountains) and catch some sun :)

I hope everyone is well at home and I look forward to seeing you all on my return.

Luke xxxxxx