Origins & Endings......

On Saturday we completed our trilogy of ‘Cradle of Humankind’ experiences by driving in to Johannesburg to the Origins Centre at Wits University, an innovative museum where art installations alongside museum exhibits, tell the story of human development in Southern Africa. As an extra bonus, the museum is also showing for a short time the near complete fossilised skeleton of a previously unknown branch of the hominid family tree. The ‘Sediba’ remains of a 1.9 million year old distant cousin to the Homo sapiens, were only announced to the world in May 2010, and were only on display in Johannesburg during the period of the World Cup, before being shipped off for more research and various presentations. We took the audio tour of the museum and watched a presentation on the Sediba discovery before having to get one of the local anthropology students to unlock the room with the skeleton in it. The young student was obviously very proud of being part of this discovery and was eager to answer any questions we may have had, but our somewhat limited understanding of the world of paleo-anthropology and evolutionary science meant that we had soon exhausted ourselves of any deep probing questions.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in one of Jo’burgs many shopping complexes, and while Fiona went in search of clothing bargains, Yates and I had a few beers after lunch, meandered slowly around this huge outdoor shopping centre, before meeting back at the car later that afternoon. We headed home to chill out for a few hours before reconvening in Yates’s suite to watch the 3rd/4th place final between Germany & Uruguay. This was one of the best matches at this year’s tournament, with a highly entertaining, end-to-end epic between two teams that did not want the indignity of finishing 4th.... Germany came out on top, although it was a ding-dong battle right to the end that the Uruguayans could have easily have snatched away. I was hoping against hope that the next day’s World Cup final would be as good as this match, but didn’t really hold out much hope of that wish coming true...

We had made plans with Carmen and Louie, our excellent hosts at Abloom, to return to the ‘Holland House’ Dutch bar once again, to watch the World Cup Final on their big screen, along with a huge crowd of those ‘crazy Dutchies’. Our plans started to awry when both Carmen and Louie’s cars broke down, and we found out that the local authorities were closing down the main motorways between Pretoria & Johannesburg from 2:30pm until 5:00pm, in some bizarre plan to ease traffic...?? Always adaptable, we agreed to drive our hire car down to the bar in Fourways, and leave the lodge at 1:00pm to avoid the road closures.

This worked out quite well as it meant that we arrived in the vicinity of the bar in time to sit and have a nice lunch in the sunshine, before staking our place at the venue when it opened at 4pm. Even better, I had driven in to Jo’berg and Fiona would be driving home, so I could start drinking early and pace it out through the rest of the day, in hope of not getting absolutely ‘smashed’ as I did on our previous visit. We were some of the first people into the bar and staked out a whole bunch of chairs directly in front of the big screen, ensuring we would have a prime position for the game that would start in just over four hours time. We stood around chatting and drinking for a while and the time seemed to slip by quite quickly, and before too long Carmen’s friends arrived and after eating a couple of plate loads of some traditional Dutch food, it was almost time for the closing ceremony to start. We all enjoyed the entertainment and the reflections of the 2010 World Cup that was now nearly at its end, and I was warmed to see what a great reception Nelson Mandela received from the patrons in the bar and at the stadium when he was ‘wheeled’ across the pitch.

What can I say about the Final itself that has probably not been said before...? Well, I enjoyed it..., but this probably more to do with the 6 hours of drinking that preceded the kick-off. I was expecting a tight and nervous match with limited opportunities, and the lack of flair or skill on display did not disappoint. I was somewhat surprised that the Dutch team were taking such a negative approach to the game, and that kicking the Spanish off the park was one way of trying to beat them, but really had little to do with the style of ‘Total Football’ that Holland had the capacity to play on occasion. It really was a terrible advertisement for the beautiful game, and was not a fitting end to what had been a great tournament here in South Africa.

As the game wore on, I kept reminding anyone that would listen that my prediction of a 1-nil score line was looking good, but at that point I didn’t really much care who got the goal. Obviously being in a bar with hundreds & hundreds of orange clad Dutch fans, and wearing a Dutch emblazoned t-shirt myself, I was cheering for the Dutch and booing the referee.... But secretly deep down inside, I was hoping that maybe the Spanish would sneak a late goal and go on to be the more than deserving winners of the trophy. Unfortunately I had to wait until the last few minutes of extra time to get my secret wish granted, when Iniesta had the ball slid to him in the box and he neatly lifted it over the keeper to sneak the aforementioned goal. With the sending off of Van Bommel the Dutch seemed to capitulate and minutes later, Spain were home and dry and the deserving winners of the 2010 World Cup.

The atmosphere in the bar dipped a little when the goal went in and as the final whistle blew, but you know those crazy dutchies, they just cleared back the chairs and pulled away the tables and started dancing. For us it had been a long day so we did not stay at the bar too long before we hit the motorway home, and with surprising only a single stop for a nature break, we slipped into bed around 1am. It was the end of another World Cup and thoughts about matches and teams would be have to put away for another 4 years, or at least until we start the planning stages of our trip to Brazil for 2014.

The last couple of days have been rest & unwind days for us around the lodge, in which have planned little and done even less. We had talked earlier about taking some time out after the Final so that Yates could go to a proper game reserve and see some of the animals that Africa is so famous for. But when it came down to it he was so indecisive and non committal, and surprisingly apathetic, that in the end it just never happened. Fiona & I saw more animals than you could shake a stick at when we were in Namibia, so we were not missing out, but I think when Yates gets home and reflects on his time here, he will regret not doing a safari which is what most people do when they come to South Africa....

Just another day or so before we each head to the airport and go our separate ways once again. Yates has a lot of personal stuff to sort out with work and living arrangements and he will be heading back to the USA via Frankfurt. Fiona & I on the other hand will be heading for a 5 day stop-over in Singapore, to soak up a little of the tropical heat before making our way back to the cold & wet of New Zealand. All good things must come to an end.....