Pretoria/rugby
I had one more day in Pretoria before the bazbus (hop on hop off backpacker bus, my mode of long distance transit here) left for the Drakensburg mtns, I used it to get supplies for my time there, it’s pretty remote and I didn’t want to get stuck paying for meals at the hostel.
I discovered that my hostel here in Pretoria is very close to the main rugby stadium in the city and today was game day. Roads blocked off, security people and police all over the streets watching peoples parked cars and people “brai”ing all over the place wearing the team colours, in the road, on the sidewalks, in their driveways. It resembled the outside of a stadium before a American college football game, just spread out all over town. I ate lunch in the main square of one of the suburbs here which had a live band warming up the crowd of people for the game and a massive projecter for everyone to watch the game on. The Pretoria team won, apparently the super14 semi final and they’ve been celebrating ever since, I can hear the 2 local sports bars from my hostel and there’s been cars driving like mad honking their horns all evening. They sure do love their rugby here, I can’t imagine what it was like when the Springboks won the world cup in 2007!
I left Pretoria early the next morning, via Joburg on the bazbus for the Drakensberg mountains. The bus, 16 seater minibus, only had 4 of us on it and only me and one other guy were going to the Drakensberg. When we arrived at the hostel in the gateway to the Northern mountains there was hardly anyone else staying there either. It’s low season in this part of the country for tourism but I expected a few more people around!
Tags: South Africa, Travel
Adam
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