Our match today is not until the evening so we have the whole day free. We headed to an area known as ‘The Cradle of Humankind’ which is about an hour outside Johannesburg. It is a UN designated area of special significance since many fossils, skeletons and other ancient relics from millions of years ago have been found within an area of about 500 km2. There are two visitor points here, an excellent exhibition and interpretation centre and a cave system where many of the remains have been found. The main prognosis underlying the area is that humankind began in Africa and spread from here around the world through changing land mass movements known as the Continental Drift.
First we headed to the museum area at Maropeng which we both found to be really excellent, displaying anthropological, archaeological, sociological and geographic information in a really interesting and accessible way. As everywhere here, football fans from around the world dominated the visitation - we must have noted at least 20 nationalities. Initially there is a brief explanation about the exhibits from and eloquent and enthusiastic guide. The initial exhibit was by way of a 4-minute boat trip going back in time over billions of years, the four person boat going back through fire, ice, volcanoes, tectonic plate movements all going on around us while we sailed through. Then there was a series of interactive exhibits which were self-guiding, highly informative and ‘made you think’. The visitors of all ages and nationalities were enthralled by the place, which was really interesting and excellently put together and shown, and we stayed for a couple of hours when we were told it would last for about one hour. Well worth a visit. For more information visit www.maropeng.co.za.
Then we visited the Sterkfontein Caves, about 10 minutes drive away. This was well explained cave system, another excellent guide, although the caves are largely of interest for what has been found there rather than being exception caves in themselves. But it was interesting to be reminded of the cave structures of stalactites and stalagmites, and especially to prove how nimble we are by finding our way through some very narrow and low accessways! Wouldn’t have met with UK health and safety standards. Overall the whole area was worth a visit but we preferred the visitor exhibit to the caves.Then we headed back to Johannesburg for the match.
On the way back we needed to stop at a petrol station for top up refreshments. John went in and did deal of the century – he bought a diet coke, a bottle of water, a large bag of crisps and a bar of chocolate and he got free gifts of a shoulder bag and a full size football. It cost £4 for the lot!
We followed the signs to Ellis Park Stadium through downtown Johannesburg – pretty awful in look and feel as we had been told – and we kept the doors and windows locked like good boys! But there were police everywhere covering for the match so no real risk. We had some trouble navigating to the Park and Walk that we had booked, partly because we didn’t believe the directions that the police were giving us. But yes, it was actually quite a walk to the ground – we just didn’t think it could be that far!It was a round 1.5 miles away and took us around half hour to reach the ground. We thought the whole experience outside the stadium was better than Soccer City. Firstly there was a whole street of local people selling their wares – everything from food to souvenirs. Interesting anyone selling food was wearing a bib stating that they had attended a food handlers course put on by the City of Jo’burg which was reassuring – a win-win for everyone I think. When inside we found a fan area where there were lots of activities put on by the various sponsors, and better stocked souvenir shops than at Soccer City.
The atmosphere was terrific once again with the red and yellow of Spain contrasting with the blue and white of Honduras but actually red and yellow dominated. We even met some Scots in kilts and one was wearing an England flag round his shoulders – he will be tried for treason when he returns home!Our seats were good again, lower down this time, no Vuvuzelas especially close but there was a Vuvezela troupe a short distance away – I think this had been organised by Fifa as there was similar the previous day, except they weren’t so close to us.
We had four Hondurans sitting behind – one had a remarkably knowledge of English swear words! We also learned that the Spanish for yellow card is.....yellow card! Two Japanese guys sat next to John, they had official Japanese team accreditation on and took lots of notes all the way through – I have no idea why, I don’ t think they are scheduled to play these teams. I had a South African next to me whose main contribution to the evening was spilling beer over my seat! I think he apologised.Spain dominated the game and we were excellently positioned to see David Villa’s fantastic first goal of the evening. He should have had more than just two and
deserved his hat-trick but missed the penalty by a distance. Despite their win, I still have a feeling that Spain could struggle to qualify for the next round. Chile are doing well and if they draw with Spain the Spain could depart depending on Switzerland’s result. We are seeing Spain v Chile on Friday and it should be a cracker! Portugal’s 7 goals earlier in the day show that at least one European team is waking up, and they probably put Ivory Coast out of the running now.The car park was well organised and we got back to it very quickly, I never knew John was such a fast walker but I just about kept up. I drove through the car park again, not as adventurously at the previous night, and we got out quickly. I drove away from the traffic even though it was the wrong direction as the city is surrounded by Ring Road/Motorways and I knew we would eventually hit one of those, from then on we got home quickly.
Another great day and so much more to come!
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