Day 17... Last Day in Cape Town...

Zaid wasn't there... I asked his mum, Naadia, where he was and she said he would definitely be there before I had to go at 3. After breakfast, I went to the Fan Fest again to see what I could of the Argentina game before I had to head back to start packing up my stuff and head out toward the airport...

Zaid was in the bar with his Dad when I got there, and he told me that I was late... After discussing the fact that he should have been there when I got up and he wasn't, it was decided that we were both on time and I asked him if he had the 2 Rand coin I had given him the day before... He said it was in his mummy's purse, so he grabbed a coin out and asked if it was the same one... After a careful inspection I decided it was and the Championship was played... I thought it was best of 5, as this was all I really had time for... But when I won that, Zaid said that the Champion must win 5 games... I lost the next one and then won the one after that so I won the Championship 4-3. Zaid said that we needed to play more games to decide the true champion. I explained that I had a plane to catch... I am looking forward to finishing the Championship off one day... It will happen... I promised Zaid it would...

During the game I had received a call from Lionel, and he said that he was coming in with some paintings that he had done and he wanted me to choose one... He showed me a couple of them and I asked him to choose the one that best suited giving to me... He picked the one I liked... It was a special moment, and one that I won't forget...

After I had taken it and put it in my bags, Lionel offered to walk with me to the station to get my bus... Zaid heard this and offered to come down too, so each of them carried some of my stuff... When I made a joke to Lionel about him carrying my stuff, he explained that in Zimbabwe (where he is from), someone who is leaving for good or on a long journey never has to carry their own stuff... The people from the village will carry their stuff for them... Well, I wasn't in Zimbabwe, so I carried the heaviest stuff and they carried some of the lighter things...

Got to Cape Town station and looked around for an airport bus, but I was told that there wasn't one... Went to an information counter and they told us we had to go to another information counter and they told me that the bus went from the Civic Centre... Lucky I had Lionel with me, otherwise, I never would have found it... Lionel said that the Civic Centre wasn't far, so we started walking in the direction indicated by some newly placed signs...

Walked right through the newly-renovated Cape Town Station... A very pretty spot I must say, and kept following the signs to the Civic Centre... By this time it was coming up to half past 3, and I was getting worried that if it took much longer to get to the bus stop and then the bus was scheduled half an hour later, and it got caught in traffic, I might miss my flight...

10 minutes later I reached the bus stop... Bought a ticket and the lady said the bus was leaving imminently... Said my goodbyes to Lionel who thanked me, and Zaid who said he would miss me and told me he would say goodbye to his mum and dad for me, and boarded the bus... It departed at about 3:50...

Luckily Cape Town airport is not too far from down town and there were some bus lanes for when the traffic was busy... The bus trip took about 20 minutes, so I arrived at 4:10... Checked in and the lady asked if I had anything fragile in my bags, so I told her that I had the 4 bottles of wine... She said, that I need to check that bag in separately at the oversized check in... Cape Town airport is not that big, but the walk to the oversized check in was about 3 and a half miles... Once that was done, boarded the extraordinarily uneventful flight...

Got off at Joburg, took the Gautrain... The Gautrain is a brand new high speed train that runs from the airport to Sandton (near where I was staying and a 40 minute drive away) in about 15 minutes... Then from there I planned to get a cab to the guest house... I have only been there once and don't know my way around the city, so I needed a cab driver that knew where I wanted to go...

There were no cabs anywhere to be found... I waited in the cold for about 45 minutes and I decided that something needed to be done... I saw that there was a hotel across the road and thought that there must be a taxi rank or similar at the hotel... No such luck... I asked the guy behind the desk if he could help out and the guy said that he could arrange transport... Now, in South Africa speak, a taxi was 100 Rand and arrange transport was 200 Rand... As there was no other option, I agreed and took the transport, but committed to getting a taxi number from now on so I wouldn't be stuck like that again...

Finally got home, had some dinner, and relaxed... Watched the late World Cup game and went to bed...