World Cup Fever - catch it…and freeze

The real treat was to follow though, as we drove for quite some time before seeing our next animals. I heard one of the other rangers say something about “an extraordinary view”, but couldn’t tell what he was talking about. We soon found out, and it was well worth the wait. 4 lionesses, the same 4 we saw yesterday, were laying in the road with 6 lion cubs. I swear, I’ve never seen anything so cute and deadly at the same time. The cubs couldn’t have been more than a foot long, and were alternating between drinking milk from the mother, wrestling with each other, mewling, and just generally being pretty damn adorable. One of the cubs was 6 months old and much bigger than the other little ones, and was apparently the only cub in her litter. Normally, lions tend to ignore a single cub, but she stuck it out and became accepted in the pride. Remember, this was all happening 10-20 feet from our vehicle. I was able to get some good pictures and great videos that someday I’ll be able to upload.

Moving on from the lions, we came across a hippo hanging out in a pool getting some sun on its body to warm itself up. It decided to make itself known to us with a big thrash about in the pool before slipping back under the water. At this time, we noticed some elephants coming out of the brush into an open clearing above the pool. This was where the rhino bones that we saw yesterday were scattered about on the grass. Apparently elephants are one of the few creatures that understand death, as they mourn the loss of their own and are curious when they find bones of other creatures. In this particular instance, they were picking the bones up with their trunk, putting it in their mouths, tossing it on their heads, and breaking them with their feet. One elephant had some issues with the toss and hit itself in the face instead. Eventually they tired of the bones and moved along to eat some more trees.
We swung back around to the hippo to have some tea and attempt to get it angry again, but it was not to be, and we headed back to the lodge one final time. Packed up, said our goodbyes, checked out and away we went with my USA scarf on the dashboard, headed for some World Cup action in Polokwane.

The drive to Polokwane had to be done all on local roads, so while it took a lot longer than a highway drive would’ve taken, we got to see a whole lot of South Africa that we wouldn’t have otherwise seen. It is very interesting to see so many people just walking on the side of the road, but there are no sidewalks and people need to get around. We noticed many minibus taxis along the way that seem to be a main source of transportation, but most people tend to walk and either cart or carry their items with them. It seemed that a lot of people noticed the USA scarf and gave a wave back whenever I gave a wave to them. I’ve really yet to meet anyone in this country who isn’t extremely nice, and it’s really a great aspect. As we drew closer to Polokwane, the terrain changed to something that looked like it could belong anywhere in the southwestern US, with lots of cacti all around and very dusty soil. We eventually made it to Polokwane after only a couple minor driving errors, and found our hotel.

There were lots of Mexicans staying at our place for the Mexico-France match tonight. This would be a preview of the match itself. The hotel manager was a somewhat awkward, though nice, old Greek man, who told us that the best way to get to the match was to walk 2 miles to the stadium. Remember, it’s winter time and we’re now back up around the elevation of Denver. The weather seemed reasonable enough, so we decided we’d do the walk. Following dinner at a fast-food chicken joint called Nando’s, it was time to head to the match.

With earplugs in our pockets, my USA jersey on amidst the 3 other green shirts in our group, and a few layers beneath it including a hoodie, we ventured to the stadium on foot. The town is clearly a rather well-off town, as we passed many gated compounds and many nice cars along the way. The walk itself was nothing special, and we finally reached the stadium for our first World Cup match of 2010. We were sitting up high. Very high. There was no roof above us either, so the swirling winds found us early and often. The temperature must’ve been somewhere in the 30s, which was clearly helping my cold that has continued to get worse. Here, we suffered for the 1st half of a 0-0 match.

A note about the vuvuzuelas – the horns that make the buzzing noise on tv – in person, they’re really not that bad. The multiple microphones around the field that pick up the noise for the tv feed make it appear to be far worse than when you are at the match itself. In fact, they really add to the atmosphere and make the match a unique, South African, experience. I still need to get one of my own.

I spotted some seats at halftime in the lower level for us to move to in hopes that it would be warmer and that we’d have a better view. Both points were true, and I was much happier in the new spot. No one checks tickets at all, so once the match starts it’s basically a free-for-all. Apparently this was the same for the concessions as well. I didn’t witness this firsthand, but Ryan did, and his report was that it was a complete disaster. The stadium was only 75% full, but they ran out of food constantly, the concessionaires were yelling at each other behind the counter, the people taking the money tried to coerce people into tipping them, and they ran out of beer as well. The bathroom situation was just as bad, with Ryan mentioning that people were going 3 to a urinal. No thanks.

Mexico turned it up in the 2nd half and put 2 goals away to take the match. I was pulling for a draw in order to give South Africa a chance to move on to the next round, but after this result, it will be damn near impossible for them to do it. It’s very unfortunate for them. France looked absolutely awful, which is the karma they deserve for their cheating ways that got them into the cup to begin with. The rest of my group was thrilled to see Mexico pull out the victory, all but assuring them of a trip to the next round.

We’ve now made our way back in the freezing weather to the hotel, to get a good night’s sleep (and sleep in – for an extra hour!) so that we can head out tomorrow morning to Pretoria and the US-Slovenia match!

written by  nucappy on June 17, 2010 from Polokwane, South Africa
from the travel blog: London and South Africa - World Cup 2010!
tagged Safari, SouthAfrica, WorldCup and Polokwane
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