South Africa

The logistics of getting to Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg were much simpler than with Rustenburg. The stadium is near the city center, and about an hour and fifteen minutes drive from our lodge. Again we had the lodge owners shuttle us to and from, and this time we chose a bar called Pete's Pub as the rendezvous point.

Pete's is within a few blocks of the stadium. It turned out to be the location of choice for a lot of US fans. The place was packed and the parking lot out front was also full.

Kruger National Park is home to many of the exotic African animal species I can think of. It almost seems too exotic to real to think that I would ever be in a place where they live in the wild. Driving through the park in our rental Renault, we saw giraffes, hippos, rhinos, elephants, sable antelope, buffalo, wildebeast, warthogs, zebras, kudus, eagles, storks, and guinea hens. The big cats--lions, cheetahs, and leopards--were more elusive and we were not fortunate to see them. But driving the paved roads through the park made it seem all too easy.

Just a quick note that I will be blogging from South Africa starting next week. I am leaving on Wednesday, 6/9 so watch for new posts then!