Bulls, balls, biltong and boerwors

We had a few restful days allowing my jetlag to settle, and for me to acclimatise. Johannesburg sits on a plateau known as the Highveld, at an elevation of a 1,750 metres. This makes it a lot colder than Sydney, and overnight temperatures had been plummeting below zero.

After shaking off our third freezing morning, we headed off in the direction of Pretoria. It had been a while since I'd visited South Africa, and the drive itself was quite an eye-opener. Pretoria is about 60km away from the centre of Johannesburg, but there didn't seem to be any noticeable change in cities; Johannesburg seemed to have expanded to fill the entire gap!

Our first stop for the day was the Voortrekker Monument. It was built to commemorate the early European explorers making inroads into the north of the country. The car park may not have been full of pickup trucks with gun racks, but you did get the feeling that this place was probably not the flavour of the month in the new age of reconciliation. Despite this, I had to admit that it was quite an impressive monument, though.

After this, we managed to have a quick stop at the Union Buildings (parliament house). For those who have watched the movie Invictus, this is where Nelson Mandela met with the South African rugby captain (or Morgan Freeman met with Matt Damon if you were struggling with the characters).

Finally, it was time for our main attraction that day, which was attending a critical Super 14's game between the Bulls and the Sharks. The two teams were deadlocked at 5th and 6th on the ladder and this was the last chance to make it into the finals. We parked on a local street, with about 50,000 other people, and headed for the stadium.

South Africans seem to take their rugby very seriously...and socially. There were people lounging around next to their cars in camp chairs and every second car seemed to be having their own bbq on the street. Hilariously my Dad got offered a suck on a kid's bong in return for some dried boerwors that we were carrying. He politely declined, but handed over the snacks anyway.

It was a home game for the Bulls and the stands were a sea of blue amidst a cloud of smoke. Amazingly it seemed that smoking had yet to be banned in South Africa, so fans could smoke in the stands, but they weren't allowed to drink. This was bizarre to an Australian, where our rules were exactly the opposite. Despite the toxic smog, suffered in sobriety, it was a sell-out game and the atmosphere was fantastic.

We were backing the Sharks since they represented the region I was born in.
Plus, everyone loves an underdog, right? The match was a nail biter with the Sharks eventually winning 26-23...talk about intense!

About 10 minutes from the end of the match we were entertained by a streaker from the crowd. Amazingly, he managed to waddle the full way across the field with his pants down without being molested (excuse the pun) by security or the players. This was another thing that wouldn't have happened in Australia, where those brave/drunk enough to streak are usually crash-tackled within seconds of leaping onto the pitch. This streaker seemed equally shocked at his ease of passage so, upon reaching the other side, he pulled up his pants and waited patiently to be removed. Eventually, a pair of guards came over and politely escorted him away.

After such an amazing Saturday, we spent Sunday at home celebrating South African Father's Day. Our next stop was going to be South Africa's premier national park, and we wanted to be well rested.

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