Towards Durban (Total kilometers driven: 4,085).

Capetown & Bloemfontein (Friday & Saturday)

If the Dutch were second in the group they would play in Pretoria (1/8 final) and Johannsburg (1/4 final); cities where we still have lots of friends. ‘Unfortunately’ we won everything so this Monday we play Slovakia in Durban. Thus: to Bloemfontein (around 1,000 km) on Saturday and from there to Durban (around 600 km) the day after that. The preparation for the trip was rather bad. On Friday evening Kathryn threw us a party at Marcus and Laura’s place; Marcus (from Finland) works at UCT and Laura (from the UK) studies there. After a great dinner with fresh fish we drank lots of wine and were in bed only around 330am; so we had a full three hours to sleep before driving. We had such a nice time with Kathryn and friends in Capetown, though.

FLTR: Marcus, Laura, Roy, me, Kathryn, Kevin.

We drove through the beautiful winelands of the Cape and through the Karoo Desert – While listening to Mafikizolo, Johny Clegg, Papa Wemba, Freshly Ground, Daby Toure, etc. – and after 1,017 kilometer arrived around 8pm in the Afrikaner stronghold Bloemfontein. Bloemfontein is the capital of the Free State province and also South Africa's judicial capital (administrative capital is Pretoria and the legislative capital is Capetown). Free State used to be the Orange Free State: one of two independent Boer republics during the second half of the 19th century.

Because Germany played the UK in Bloemfontein on Sunday it was difficult to find accommodation. However, via via we found a place at a very nice Afrikaner family that lived in a large house with a swimming pool, bar, several hectares of land around his house, etc. He used to be a rugby player for one of the big national teams. While sitting with him, his wife, and his son and daughter at the bar we talked until late about politics, the state of the country, etc. They were proper Afrikaners and for people naïve about the country's histories, clearly racist. However it was impressive to see the effects of the World Cup in a country where there is still so much animosity between black and white, and where the whites play rugby and cricket, and where soccer is a sport for the black people. The family was telling that they got interested in soccer due to the World Cup and actually watch some games on the television. The son (around 25 years old) was telling how he went to a match of Nigeria and sat next to black people and went partying with them in the evening... and actually had a good time.

Durban & Amanzitoti (Sunday)

Because accommodation in Durban is either booked or very expensive and because it is not a nice town we booked a hostel in Amanzitoti; around 20 kilometers south of Durban. I know this area quite well as six years ago I obtained my PADI diving degree in Umkomaas – another town around 10 kilometers south of here. In front of these cities in the ocean lies the Aliwal Shoal; one of the best dive places in the world. After yet again a very comfortable ride and picking up the tickets for the next matches of the Dutch at Durban’s King Shaka international airport we arrived around 7pm in the hostel; we unfortunately had to listen on the radio how Germany beat England.

The Dutch mobile.

Towards a victory (Monday)

It’s now early Monday morning. I’ll be dressing up in orange in a bit as the Dutch have to play at 4pm against Slovakia. I woke up this morning opened my curtains and looked out on the hostel’s swimming pool in the front and the Indian ocean in the back: awesome!

Those are the views.

Random

• There are so many speeding lights on the road and everybody consistently speeds, so much money is collected. In first instance we were cursing at them (and we still do) but we also see their benefit. First, of course, it (hopefully) makes people less willing to speed. Second, especially for developing countries it is difficult to collect taxes (see here for something I wrote on this years ago); money collected from speeding tickets could a good way to contribute to tax revenue: people choose themselves whether to speed or not, and while crude its very progressive because especially the rich drive cars. Anyhow, I’m sure Roy and I already contributed our fair share to South Africa’s the national budget.
• Roy and I ate the best burger in the world! Place to be found: Mama’s Foodcorner in Hanover, a city only 821 kilometers outside on the N1 from Capetown to Bloemfontein on the N2. Well worth the trip.
• Because I’m heading to the Congo on July 5th for 6 months and visit some other countries on the way my wallet is filled with Kenyan Shillings, Congolese Francs, Rwandan Francs, euros, dollars and South African rands. Yesterday after dinner the waiter ran after our car because I left shillings instead of rands. Sorry (that was already the second time I did that)!

Wallet.

• I really dislike shopping so I randomly grabbed two jeans out of my closet when I was packing for the Congo; assuming they would survive six months there. Unfortunately one of them didn't even survive three weeks in South Africa. I wish I was trendy then holes in one's trousers is cool. Now I have to go to the shop. :(

Trousers.