Rustenburg to Jeffrey's Bay

Sign at Jeffrey's

Beach Music

Supertubes, it looked like this all day

Our view from the deck

Sunset after Port Elizabeth

So after the US lost, we decided that we didn't want to hang around to watch the Uruguay/Ghana match and started making plans for the coast. We took off early and took the 12 hour trek south from Rustenburg to Jeffrey's Bay. The roads here are pretty exciting and half of the roads were being "worked on" so we had almost an hour of wait time at each point where the roads were closed. Coming into Jeffrey's at sunset was pretty epic, the coast here is beautiful and a really welcomed change from the dry, smogginess of the northern part of the country. We stayed at an awesome hostel called Beach Music that is right on the point at Supertubes, which for those who don't surf is arguably the best right pointbreak in the world. Jeffrey's is a great little town and had some good restaurants and we took alot of walks around, enjoying the fact that you can walk around there very safely. Wednesday brought in a nice swell in the 6-8ft range. The wave is incredible, I got out in the morning with only 5-6 people in the water and got some amazing waves. It's so fast and perfect and it lends itself to going as fast as you can and throwing up huge spray on your turns. Got one great barrel and an amazing vision watching the offshore wind hold up the lip as it lined up down the reef for 100 yards or so, seriously amazing. The next day the wind picked up and we decided to head to a small town called Wilderness where some of Adele's friends offered up their beach house for us to stay in. Thanks Farny and Jacami! Really nice, small town about 2.5 hours to the west of Jeffrey's. We will probably hang out here for another night and then head across to Cape Town for the last week of the trip...

Road Trip Dance Party!

We came to Africa and all we got was Ghana-rhea

"Hey that guy looks like Kobe Bryant"

"Dude, it is Kobe"

During the national anthem

What you can't see are the red lights going off on the metal detectors and the unconcerned security guards

Our ill-fated sign

So last night's game had all the makings of our great ascent to the World Cup finals. We dodged the dreaded round of 16 match against Germany had we gone 2nd out of our group and the next two games had all the potential to go our way. Despite all of our chances, it just didn't go our way and it's been a bitter pill to swallow. The three of us didn't speak for about 2 hours after the game and the first thing said was Austin telling Machine it was his fault because he wore different shoes from the first 3 games, heh heh. So the US run is over but we're stoked on watching all the rest of the great games coming up and the best part of the US losing is that we get to go to Jeffrey's Bay for the next 4 days with a possible solid swell on the way. I'm pretty stoked.

There were some highlights from the game last night despite the loss. Check out the pics, turns out Kobe Bryant is a big soccer fan and had tickets in our row...

USA USA USA!!!

Is that Diego Maradona at the afterparty?

US team at midfield after the win

Just won, John is stoked

Skugs at Loftus

Awesome Top Gun mohawk

Holy crap what a great game, hopefully most of you guys got the chance to watch it. We have all agreed that if nothing else eventful happens in the tournament, that game was worth the entire trip.

So somehow the three of us as well as our two SF buddies managed to get seats all in the same row which was about 7 rows back from the side we ended up scoring on. The first half was not only marred by our own frustrations with the US attack but in addition, we were in a section with a lot of South Africans and apparently they don't stand during soccer matches. After quite a bit of yelling and a few FIFA security officials involved, we lost the battle and had to sit for most of the first half which really killed our enthusiasm.

Going into the 2nd half we were optimistic but still feeling frustrated with so many chances on the US side not making it in the back of the net. Around the 85 min, most of us had resigned to the fact that we were going to tie and hope that we'd make it through with 3 draws to the 2nd round, but Austin didn't give up, he held out hope. Then at the 91st minute, Lannycakes stepped up and nailed the most amazing game winner I have ever witnessed. Now although we had only had about 2-3 beers apiece, the next few minutes are entirely hazy as the stands became a free for all. More yelling, high fiving, and man hugging than I have ever experienced, after a few minutes I almost keeled over from my lungs feeling like they were going to explode from all the yelling.

I really can't describe how incredible it was to see this win and how proud we are of our team. The video I'm posting gives you a good idea of the scene but it was taken after the goal was scored and the game had been finished for about 10 min but it is still pretty amazing to see. Just thinking about this game gives me chills and will probably last forever in my mind. Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we did and that everyone is stoked for the USA-Ghana match on Saturday. We keep getting shafted on seats at the Royal Bufakeng Stadium in Rustenburg so we will be higher up but we have a sign planned so keep your eyes open, heh heh.

South Africa vs France

So this is out of order but had to post this. This video was taken right after South Africa scored their 2nd goal against France. We were watching the game at Hatfield Square in Pretoria and needless to say, the rest of the night was a damn good time...

First Day in the Kruger

Warthogs

Polar Bears!

Epic Sunset Reflection

Minki

Male Kudu protecting his breezies

All the advice that was given to us pointed us in the direction of getting up around 530 and getting into the park as early as possible because the cats like to hunt in the morning or at night, that being said after a few beers watching the games the night before put our start at around 630 which is really pretty reasonable. The trip to the park took about 20 min and we were soon inside after being admitted through the gate. Now being the competitive skugs that we are, it pretty much became a game to see who could spot the best animal or in the thickest bush. This also meant that driving fast in the park was pretty much out of the question and we spent most of our time on the paved roads driving around 40k/hour and 20-30k/hour on the dirt roads. It was worthwhile though and we saw a lot of great animals and scenery but no cats. By the end of 8 hours of driving on the roads, we were pretty much sick of seeing impala as well. Judging by the amount of impala we speculated that the lions were probably pretty well fed and gigantic. We got to our camp with about an hour of daylight and kicked the soccer ball around amidst monkeys and impala, pretty awesome.

Rustenburg to Kruger National Park

3 Rondavels: Africaans for "Satan's Nipples"

Awesome Sign

Poolside at the restaurant we stopped at to watch a game

God's Window

The crew at Blyde River Canyon

Alright guys, sorry for lagging on this post. We've been through alot and seen quite a bit over the last week so I'll crop it down on this post to some of the best days we've had on trip so far.

With Adele's recommendation and help setting up arrangements to go to the Kruger, we took off from Rustenburg for the town of Dullstroom which is about 4.5 hours to the east for our first night. Driving in Africa is a total experience that rarely includes moments to relax. About 20k outside of Pretoria, we passed through a large township that was precluded with signs on the freeway warning not to stop as it was a "hijacking hotspot," good stuff. Fortunately, the daytime is relatively safe here so we passed through unharmed. As we pulled into Dullstroom we realized we had reached a much different environment from the cities we had previously stayed in, like a South African Healdsburg. Dullstroom is a flyfishing hotspot so naturally Austin and Seth were stoked and in addition our hostel was not only cheap but livable in comparison to the hell hole in Joburg we stayed at. We spent the night cruising to a couple of bars to watch the matches and met some great people in the process.

The next morning we woke up and took off for a small town called Hazy View that is just outside of the Kruger and is sort of a staging point for taking trips into the park. Adele pointed out several places to visit along the way so we had our day laid out for us. The first stop was the Blyde River Canyon to the north of where we were staying. For 5 rand entrance fee (~75 cents), the 3 of us got to see one of the most amazing views outside of the Grand Canyon I have ever witnessed. Plus the fun thing about Africa is while they build walkways to get to the viewpoints, handrails and safety restrictions are pretty much non-existent so as long as you maintain some self accountability, you can get some great shots and perspectives safely. As we snaked along the river canyon, we took in a lot of great views and awesome countryside leading up to an area called God's Window. After another 5 rand entry fee, we hiked our way up along with about 100 other tourists to check out another spectacular setting.

We made it into Hazy View around 4 to catch the middle day games and got settled at our hostel. Definitely rugged but the widescreen tv and cheap brew made it worthwhile. Got some good info and prepared for the trip into the park the next day...

Kruger's up next...

Extra Pics from the Game