Some Down Time
As we mentioned a few days ago, we decided to move to a new backpacker since the last one was a little run down, dirty, dark and cold. What do you expect for very little money? Once we had the car we were able to strike out and look for another place to stay, which we did find. The center of the area that we would spend our time in Pretoria is a small suburb called Hatfield. This area has lots of restaurants, coffee shops (with WiFi access) and banks. The new backpacker is closer to Hatfield than the last, so we can walk.
We secured a nicer room with a bathroom that we had to only share with one other room. This was fine as we got to make some new friends with a Belgium couple who had just adopted a baby boy here in South Africa. Etienne (hope we spelled it correctly!) is the most adorable, and lucky, young man. We thoroughly enjoyed spending the week with all three. Upon leaving we insisted we be kept up to date with this young man’s growth via pictures on the Internet. Albert, if you are reading this, do not forget!!
Except for the two days that we spent to see Cheetahs and going to Soweto, we pretty much hung around the backpacker and walked into Hatfield. I think we all needed some down time and our time here helped recharge our batteries. We had to the chance to meet lots of nice people who stayed with us at the backpacker as well. Jack, the adventurer from England who had all his things stolen in a mugging in J’burg, but still insisted on pressing on to Botswana as soon as his new passport arrived. Lauren and Myra, two Irish nursing students who were planning on a side trip to Kruger until we told them they should take a day and make sure they get reservations before showing up at the gate. There also was Pete, the Scot who is learning to save the world while interning at the UN in Pretoria. We introduced him to the Hash House Harriers by taking him to the Saturday Jacaranda Hash here in Pretoria. We think we made a convert of him.
We were also treated to the chance meeting with our friend Carl. We all went to flight school together while in the Navy back in ’89. After Pensacola we all were stationed in Virginia Beach together. He was somewhat misguided and ended up flying F-14 Tomcats so he did not end up having as much fun as flying the world renowned and far too much fun A-6 Intruder, as I did. Carl ended up going to Harvard for his MBA, again the misguided thing is a thread throughout his life. He eventually settled into a consulting career in London. That is where I last seen him last and somewhat lost contact. Until we sent out our mass e-mail a week before we departed on this trip and we found out he was in Johannesburg.
So Carl drove over to Pretoria from J’burg, about a 40 minute drive that turned into the blind leading the blind as Carl had not been to Hatfield and had no map and we had a bad map and no true idea about where he was. In the end he found us and all had many beers at Herr Gunters (a great German style beer joint with really cheap and tasty dinner). The good news is that Carl will soon visit us in Cape Town and we will get to see each other one more time before he disappears into the ether once again (he has a bad habit of that).
To beat the point again, it was a relaxing week and I think we all needed it. Nobody was exhausted or depressed or anything negative, just a little on the back side of the sleep.
Tomorrow we are off to Kruger. We have no idea what to lays around the next corner but we are excited for the animals.
Tags: Down time, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Relax, South Africa, Travel
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