Winter in Africa

Did you think that we have had more than enough snow last winter, think again. Now on our way to Durban (where it suppose to be 26C) we just ran in to some snow! The last night in Pretoria was by far the coldest one, a couple degrees below 0. I had flashbacks to Mongolia. The worst of all is that I didn’t bring that many warm clothes. I thought hey winter in Africa can’t be that bad, it’s always hot there anyway. Next time I should probably prepare myself better.

Let’s first go back to a couple of days ago. Monday the 14th, finally the first match of the Orange Lion’s. I actually didn’t have a ticket but I managed to get one about 5 minutes before we had to leave for Jo’burg. As you can imagine I was delighted! The whole Orange Camping walked from the camp site to the railway station. After a nerve-racking train trip where two mechanics saved our lives and fixed the train before the match was starting, there at the horizon an incredible structure… Soccer City Stadium which can host up to 97.000 people, crazyness. I had tickets for the 2nd ring. I entered… wow it’s hard to describe how big it was and how incredible it felt. The only thing that is still bothering me are those vuvuzela’s. The thing is, there is that much noise that you can’t even hear the people sing or say ooooh and ahhhh, which makes the game a lot less exciting. But we won!

Then my big day, the first 3rdHALF event. How many people will show up? Is everything prepared well? Will it not be too cold? Well, 250 Orange Camping guests showed up (eventhough the party was intense the night before). We had a great day but yet again it was a bit chilly, especially the wind made it rather cold. Overall the event appeared to be a success where Dutchies could meet with the people from Mamelodi township.

This morning we got caught up in a funny situation. I don’t know if you have seen it but I was told that it would be broadcasted on 100 TV channels all over the world, our long line of campers that was leaving all at once from Pretoria to Durban. As far as one could see, only campers. There was a helicopter flying over us and making live pictures that were send all over the world.
Clarence was driving our camper and was somewhere in the front of the line. The rest of us were selling CD singles of the band that is also staying at the Orange Camping: ‘Vanavond niet schat!’ (not tonight dear). They donated the CDs to us so we can sell them and give the money to the projects that we are supporting. What I didn’t know was that the campers wouldn’t all line up at the camp site because that wouldn’t fit (the line was 6km in total) so the first ones had to start driving. Clarence gone, us still at the camp site, oh oh. We jumped into the last camper and tried to reach Clarence to tell him to stop at the first gas station. Phone switched off. Suddenly at the side of the road our camper! We had to keep moving to not bother the rest of the campers too much, so jumping out of a riding camper running over the freeway to jump into another moving camper. But we all made it. Luckily the police was escorting us for the first 20km so all the other traffic was kept at a distance.

Almost in Durban now, 200kms left. Didn’t see any snow anymore for the last half an hour so let’s hope for the best!