Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Went for a flight lesson – best way to get up there and take pictures… Here’s a good one of Cape Town and the Greenpoint Football stadium

Now that the football is complete we have a few days to go and visit friends and other parts of South Africa. So today we’ll be flying South African Airlines just under a 1000 miles to Cape Town located on the West coast of South Africa. I’ll post pictures and updates as they occur. Unless the airline try and charge us for an extra seat, we’ll be taking Chris jr with us.

Last night we attended the World Cup Final at Soccer City in Johannesburg. It felt special to be there, and the atmosphere is something I will never forget. To see Nelson Mandela was something special, and everyone in the stadium gave him the standing ovation he deserves, football players are often referred to as heroes by the media (falsely), but Nelson Mandela is a real hero, and a great inspiration for millions of people.

The game did not flow very well, and compared to football played in the 3/4th playoff game from the previous night was disappointing, but lets face it, if I was only interested in the football I could have stayed at home and watched it on the tele with instant replays, attending the games has been as much about the atmosphere as the game itself. The Dutch played dirty and unfortunately their tournament will probably be remembered that way.

As with our other games, we met people in the stands, took lots of photos and did our regular video introductions…

Alex from the train to Soccer City

Andy introduces the World Cup final (be sure to listen to my score prediction)

Stacie, our gracious hostess, provides the closing comments

While I was not there in physical presence, I certainly am there still in spirit and I am happy Andy and Carl are joining me watching the game in Durban.

Sorry for the noise they make, they get excited easily.

Although did I mention we managed to get FIFA World Cup Final Tickets! Don’t worry, we’ll take Chris Jr.

Seriously though, it would be absolutely crazy of us to come all the way to South Africa and not do a Safari. So for the last couple of days between games we drove up to Pilanesburg Game Reserve. My poor camera didn’t know what had hit it, for the first time this trip I managed to flatten the battery from taking so many photos. They’re still uploading to Flickr, but you’ll be able to see the complete selection in an hour or so (internet is slow here) at the following URL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iminstant/sets/72157624438149330/

These animals are amazing, they’re massive, and it really comes home when you’re in a tiny Toyota Corolla rental with a Rhino facing you a few feet away.  The car was in reverse and I was ready to floor it and lift the clutch if I had seen that Rhino twitch, fortunately the only thing twitching was Andy’s arsehole (so he says I didn’t check).

We stopped at one hide and were lucky enough see a couple of Elephants come for a drink and a Hippo go for a swim.

Pretty tired now, and need to get sleep for our drive to Durban tomorrow, where we will see Germany take on Spain.  Who do you think will win?

We just got back from dropping Chris at Johannesburg airport for his flight back to the USA. Obviously this is a big blow for our traveling team but all is not lost, I have already found a replacement and I will be introducing him to you all tomorrow!