Day 1 – Settling in

An overnight flight punctuated by the surprising and very disappointing news that England had only managed a draw with Algeria. At least we didn’t have to watch it!

All went smoothly on arrival with the many things that we had to do, including, most importantly picking up our match tickets which we printed out by automated machines. A short queue, pop in your credit card and out popped 14 tickets for the World Cup. Fantastic!

Picked up the hire car, a small Hyundai. While doing that, in talking to the man at the rental company he told us that loads of people have been making booking for rental cars and not arriving. Apparently 150 no shows last Monday alone, but if they had all arrived then maybe there wouldn’t have been enough cars anyway so it was probably for the best. Still surprising though.

Then we drove directly to our guest house. The satnav worked perfectly except it turned out that I had forgotten the recharging lead so that was a problem we had to resolve. We were warmly welcomed at Northcliff Manor Guest House by the owners, Ilse and Johnny, their staff and three dogs. A quick check-in and a welcoming cup of tea and then we chatted for a while with Ilse, making plans, getting recommendations and finding more about this wonderful house. They have owned it for 23 years but only operated it as a business for the past 8 months.

After settling in to our comfortable rooms and a walk around the grounds we went into Sandton, the modern business area of Johannesberg, in search of a satnav lead. Sandton City, which claims to be the largest shopping mall in Africa, is indeed very impressive. It would be a credit to any city in the world. We toured the electrical and mobile phone shops and eventually found something that would work. Problem solved.

We took a stroll in Nelson Mandela Square which is just to the rear of the mall and saw the famous statue of the man himself. Very big with very shiny feet, tradition is that you should touch his foot for luck. The square itself has been taken over by a large Sony exhibit which makes it hard to envisage its normal appearance. There were also football fans everywhere from every country, and media all over the place.

Then we grabbed a coffee and watched the end of the Ghana v Australia match. We shared a table with a Canadian guy who had been to several matches and so we learned a bit from him. Match ended in a draw, but more of that later.

We headed back to the hotel, a quick change and then out to a local pub/restaurant that Ilse and Johnny had recommended. Great meal and a fantastic atmosphere, although it was just a local place it had attracted fans from all over the world somehow. Many languages spoken around the place, many experiences shared over dinner. After our main course we managed to change tables and got one so that we could see the TV for the second half of Denmark v Cameroon. Denmark won, but the interesting thing (which we also noted while watching the Ghana match in the afternoon) was how much the South Africans are getting behind the African teams in the competition. They support them almost as much as the Bafaana Bafaana (South Africa) team. We were talking to the staff in the restaurant about it and they explained that the whole of Africa has united for this World Cup and they see it as an opportunity for the whole of Africa and not just SA. It was interesting and they enjoyed watching the end of the match (as we did) since there were many close chances. In the end Cameroon lost and was effectively eliminated from the tournament. Sadness among the staff for that, but we had a great first evening and a memorable first day in South Africa. Things really get going for us tomorrow though, with our first match scheduled!