A Year In Motion

As Anoop the car rental guy at Capital Car Hire said before we left Jozi (Jo’burg, Johannesburg), the only place to fear the crime is in the big city. And despite passing one sign for a Hijacking Hotspot en route, we became a lot more at ease. It’s funny that in conversation with a few South Africans, they generally blamed the English media for creating too much hype about the risk. I have a feeling that there is sometimes a little lighthearted animosity towards the British given the history of the Boer War, so they’re generally singled out first. On the other hand, we felt very much at ease in laid back Nelspruit, a small city in north-eastern South Africa.

Very hospitable SAfricans

99 Chilean fans per Honduran fans

On the night before the match, we ended up in a bar/ restaurant venue called Jock & Java. It was packed with Chilean supporters in boisterous form, and it was a great atmosphere in the bar. After a while waving our Honduras flags, we went for some food in the restaurant. There was a large group of young South Africans sitting at a table, and when they saw us enter with all our colour, they called us over and asked us to join them for dinner. After meeting Francois on the plane, and now Alec, Roz, Brett, Gavin, Warren and all the others, we were liking South Africa more and more. What we had planned to be a quiet meal turned into a long singing session with our new mates, the Honduran minority and the crazy Chileans and a TV crew clearly enjoying the occasion. I was only 13 when I was at Ireland’s first World Cup in Italy, but I clearly remember the days and nights of singing and celebrating, and the party atmosphere where fans from all sides can share the same space, and share a great time in the right spirit. And that is what is best about the World Cup. So far we were enjoying it, and the hosts were doing an outstanding job too.

Vamos Honduras!

The giant ball signed by us

On the morning of 16 June 2010, we set off to the Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, where Honduras would play in their first World Cup match in 28 years, against Chile. We thought Chile represented Honduras’ best chance of obtaining a victory in the group, and so we were optimistic about our chances of a winning start. Neither Chile nor Honduras had a large travelling support, and of the 32 group games, admittedly the fixture was probably not the one that would catch the general public’s imagination, so we didn’t know how much of the 48,000 capacity stadium would be empty. As it happened, it was full of local South Africans, outnumbering Hondurans and Chileans by at least two to one. That meant, you guessed it, lots of vuvuzelas! The noise before kick-off was deafening. As the Chile team were based in the Nelspruit area, the local neutrals had converted to Chile en masse, or as one placard put it: “Nelspruit is hot with Chillies!”. After a freezing night before, we were now sitting in 30 degree sunshine – South African winter is summer by day, and winter by night!

Para FAFA!

But back to the action. There was a fair degree of tension and pre-match nerves on both sides of supporters which prevented us from being able to enjoy the occasion 100%. And it looked like the nerves were spilling out onto the pitch also, but unfortunately only on the Honduran side, as Chile proceeded to dominate proceedings, with Honduras’ keeper Noel proving to be the outstanding performer. But even he was unable to stop Chile taking a deserved lead on 38 minutes with a deflected goal from a well-worked move by Chile just in front of where we were seated. While the referee denied Honduras a blatant penalty straight after half-time, sadly the second half only brought more Chilean domination, and Noel worked miracles to keep Honduras just a goal behind. Despite being given a lifeline, Honduras never sparked and Chile won comfortably much to the delight of the majority of the crowd.

Fan fest! Bafana Bafana!

That night, hosts South Africa were playing Uruguay in their second group game of the tournament. We went to the 30,000 capacity Fan Fest in Nelspruit to watch the game with the South African locals. The pre-match atmosphere was great with a DJ on stage keeping the crowd warm despite the now freezing temperature. I really like the new South African anthem, so it was a special moment when the vuvuzelas finally quietened and the crowd sang out Nkosi Sikelele Africa. In fact, the national anthem almost got as enthusiastic rendition as the Coca Cola song for this World Cup (oh oh oh oh oh!) which is fast becoming the World Cup anthem, and the feelgood song synonymous with the tournament. Sadly, results weren’t going our way that day, and after Uruguay went a goal up, we decided to go back to the campsite and watch the rest of the game there from the relative comfort of our cold room, but heavily blanketed beds. Uruguay beat 10-man South Africa 3-0, leaving both South Africa and Honduras with an uphill battle to qualify for the next round.

Nelspruit welcomes us!

A bad day results-wise, but that’s football. As the oft-quoted TV slogan goes; “Feel it, it is here!”

World Cup Lingo – Lesson 2

Heita – hi, hello

Ehsh – oh damn!

Feel it, it is here – pronounced “feel eet, eet ees he-ah!” To be said at any opportunity, and preferably at least once in every conversation

Qualification for the World Cup is rarely straightforward and carries its fair share of defeats, but fortunately a greater number of victories. And so it was for us on our road from Delhi in India to Johannesburg, and World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Our flight with Ethiopian Airlines was scheduled to leave Delhi at 2am in the morning with 2 hours in Addis Ababa to connect to Johannesburg. The last kilometre in the taxi to Delhi airport took around 30 minutes but we arrived at the airport around 11:30pm. Security only let you into the airport 3 hours before your flight, so we were surprised when we were refused entry. The soldier told us our flight was delayed until 6am. Not only did this mean an uncomfortable night in the airport, but missing our connection (the one daily flight to South Africa from Ethiopia) and possibly Honduras’ first game against Chile. Having booked with Ethiopian, we knew there was an element of risk, so we had researched alternatives before we left our hotel earlier that day. So we went to the Ethiopian Airlines office and asked them if they would rebook us. They were very helpful to us, as they had received an instruction from their HQ to take the unusual step of rerouting World Cup travellers on other airlines. It took a few hours to organise as all other airlines were overbooked due to World Cup demand, but in the end we got booked on an Emirates flight through Dubai leaving at 4:15am and arriving only a few hours later than originally planned in Johannesburg.

First step: getting out of India!

Step 2: Boarding our Dubai flight

We were delighted with our new itinerary, as Emirates are renowned for comfort in all classes. Before I board a long-haul flight crossing several time-zones, I always plan to sleep, but these days the in-flight entertainment is too good to waste the journey sleeping. On our second flight to Johannesburg, we were seated beside a gentleman wearing a South Africa football shirt. We soon struck up a conversation with Francois and he proceeded to fill us in on everything to see and do in South Africa, as well as insisting that we call him anytime during our stay for advice. We took note to accept his offer as it seemed genuine.

Tony and Ninfa arrive in SA!

Coincidentally, Honduran friends in our same flight

So finally we arrived in Johannesburg, where we had arranged an airport pick-up with the same company who were renting us the campervan which we had booked for the duration of our 4 weeks in South Africa. 90 minutes later, our pick-up still hadn’t arrived. Finally, I got in touch with the company, Wicked Campers, who told us that due to a lorry-drivers strike, our campervan wasn’t ready and that the van was currently somewhere in Botswana. As we had planned to sleep in the van that night, this was obviously a slight problem. The company was so stretched for vans, that they had had to rent the airport pick-up van. After a long evening at the rental office in freezing cold temperatures (remember, we had left a 45 degree plus Delhi), we were placed in alternative accommodation and told to come back the next morning for the van. When I got back the next morning, there was still no van, so I asked for a full refund (and got it) and went to the airport to rent a new car.

Ivory Coast? NO! Ireland!!

Honduran flags everywhere in SA! Love it!

All the car rental offices at the airport are in a line one after the other, and it was in this order that I learned from each of the crowded offices, that there were no more cars for rent. Honduras were kicking off their World Cup 2010 in 28 hours time, in a city 350km away, so the tension was mounting. Finally, in the second last office, there was a car, one car left, the last in Johannesburg airport. I took it, and at a price less than 50% of what our camper van was originally going to cost. After a little phone work, we also had accommodation in Nelspruit, our first World Cup game city. In total, the car rental and self-catering accommodation were going to cost less than the daily rate of our campervan. We quickly came to realise that our van being in Botswana was a blessing in disguise, especially as camping in freezing conditions is something the most die-hard camper is bound to frown upon.

Welcome activities at airport

Vuvuzuela fever!

And so we set off eating a KFC takeaway in our stereoless VW TenaCiti (like a 1980′s VW Golf) on the road to Nelspruit trying to get there before dark in case we’d be carjacked (we had been listening to too much negative press).

The road to qualification takes many unexpected twists, and what seems like an omen of misfortune, can soon turn out to be exactly what you wished for. The important thing is getting there, and get there we did.

Thulazuelas - ear plugs!

PS We didn’t have any blog posts from our two weeks in India, a result both of the tiring heat and the amount of time needed to organise our trip around Rajasthan. We have written some posts but will publish them after the World Cup.

PPS In our World Cup posts, we will share a little bit of South African slang and World Cup lingo to help you feel a part of the events at home. So here’s lesson 1!

World Cup Lingo – Lesson 1

Makarapa – a construction-workers hat, cut up into crazy shapes and painted with your teams colours. Huge lens-less spectacles are often taped to them – essential South African football fan headgear.

Vuvuzela – if you haven’t goa a makaraka, you have to have a vuvuzela. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, it’s part of South African football, and therefore part of World Cup 2010.

Jozi – Johannesburg

Jo’burg – Johannesburg