World Cup Road Trip

The Cast: PCV’s Justin, Kelsey, Jenneffer and yours truly, plus an import from the States, Kyle.

Part I: In which we freeze our bums off

Ok, so all I knew going into this trip was that I would be in Port Elizabeth during the dates of the 18th-21st of June and that I would see two soccer matches. I was informed on the day of the trip by Kelsey that we had three nights booked at a backpackers in a little town nestled in the Drakensburg mountains of the Eastern Free State called Clarens. We were coming from Pretoria where the weather was probably hovering between 60 and 70 Fahrenheit mid-afternoon- a very pleasant winter’s day. Little did we know that after about 6 hours in the car (at least 2 of these were spent in rush hour Jo’burg traffic) we would see the car thermometer drop to -5 Celsius, or about 23 degrees Fahrenheit. This would be fine if there were indoor heating ANYWHERE in South Africa (okay fine, I did see it once at a posh hotel in Cape Town where I took mad advantage of it…but Cape Town doesn’t really count as South Africa anyway), but as it was our backpackers provided each of us an extra blanket on top of the single duvet covering each mattress of the bunk beds. Even with my long johns on, two shirts, and a sweatshirt, I was still freezing. Layers don’t prevent you from seeing your breath even when buried under covers. Although the backdrop of mountains and Cyprus trees was gorgeous, it didn’t make up for the fact that we couldn’t stop shivering and that the backpackers didn’t have much in the way of hot water. We were all in agreement- we cut our three nights to two and booked it out of there before we lost appendages to frostbite.

Part II: The Shack at the end of the Road

Our priorities were thus: a significant drop in elevation, beds to sleep in, and to be closer to Port Elizabeth. Hence, fitting our criteria, we headed south towards the little town of New Bethesda in the northern part of the Eastern Cape. We trusted our handy-dandy GPS to get us to this random little town but as we got closer it set us on the path of a winding dirt road through a Mordor-esque mountain pass complete with snow and gave us the directions “follow road until end”. Our guidebook said we should be in the Valley of Desolation at this point. Not so comforting at night when the bumpy, unlit road with no signage starts to look a little sketch. We were fearing the worst: A dead end with a single shack with a little light on the front where the proprietors were ready to eat us alive. Turns out we were pleasantly surprised. After successfully not careening over the edge of the mountain pass, nor getting eaten alive, we were all smiling and snapping out of our driving-induced soporific states. Bury me in New Bethesda. This is the cutest little town EVER! And trust me on this; I come from a state replete with cute little towns. But this place, a secret of the Karoo of South Africa, wins the prize. The backpackers is owned by the same people who own the local pub that is approximately a 30-second walk away, and the local restaurant the Karoo Lamb, that is literally right around the corner. After checking in at the Karoo Lamb they told us to just walk right in because they don’t keep it locked. And they apologized that the pipes had frozen and there wouldn’t be any hot water. This really didn’t make a damn difference as were just so glad that the temperature had risen about 10 degrees since Clarens. After dropping our stuff we went straight to the pub, which lucky for us sells the most delicious beer any of us had ever had in South Africa. The local, and only, brew master makes a fantastic ale that’s only sold locally (as in within this town of 960 people). The pub was probably only the size of a large bedroom or dining room but had a fantastic coal stove and an adorable black Labrador lying by the entrance. The pub owner is a big burly man with a gray beard and gray hair and checked apron who looks like he couldn’t possibly belong anywhere but right where he is. After a fantastic meal of local fare including some agave nectar margaritas we hit the sack. I was very grateful for the extra warmth provided by the backpackers’ cat that slept under the covers with me the entire night.

Part III: Questions we have about Elephants, or Mind the Dung Beetle

One shorter day of driving and we finally arrived at our destination. Port Elizabeth was sunny and warm and geared up for soccer. Our first match was the day we arrived. Germany vs. Serbia. It was completely awesome to be there. The vibe at the games was totally uplifting and gave me the sense that South Africa really pulled it together for this. I honestly felt safer than I ever have in South Africa, which is really saying something. Everyone was in good spirits (even the Germans who lost), free shuttles were provided, police where everywhere, traffic was directed, and all was good. Aside from the game we took advantage of our location to go check out the Addo Elephant Park. All I have to say is that we saw so many damn elephants that day that I started to groan every time someone spotted another one. Justin, however, became very curious about elephants, stating vociferously, “I have so many questions about elephants now!” He hit up Wikipeida to get his answers. We also witnessed a very movie-like moment on our game drive. Nothing to do with big mammals but rather the Dung Beetle. There are signs all over the park that warn you to give right-of-way to the dung beetles who, as their name would suggest, love to feast upon the elephant dung left in the middle of the roads. We certainly wanted to be good patrons of the park so Justin, who was driving, would carefully swerve or slow down to avoid any dung beetles we pointed out to him. At one point we came upon one crossing the road. Appropriately we stopped for the little guy. Just as he was almost across a car comes speeding down the road from the other side. CRUNCH. A collective gasp from the car. Silence.

Part IV: Don’t Stop Believin’

I haven’t yet had the chance to make note of how incredibly fulfilling this road trip was from a music standpoint. From start to finish at probably any given hour in the car, the five of us were singing something or other, and more often than not it was “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey. A friend introduced me to the show “Glee”. On said show they sing said Journey song. The song is pretty catchy. It got stuck in my head. I got it stuck in everyone else’s head. We were pretty much always off-key, but gosh darnit we had that song memorized by the end of the trip. We stopped back in New Bethesda on the road back to Pretoria. We couldn’t get enough of the place! This time I had not one, but two cats sleep with me. We also made a point of stopping by the Owl House, which is a little difficult to describe. There was this woman in the ‘60’s who was probably a little crazy. She decided to “bring more light into her life” by commissioning all these odd gravestone-like statues of owls and camels and religious figures in her yard. Inside, she used shards of colored glass to decorate the floors and windows and covered the place with owl figures. It was a little creepy but a very unique tourist attraction. Our last stop was a town called Kestel. The only thing to mention here is that the owner gave us each hot water bottles for our beds. This was my first experience and man, those things really heat up the bed and stay warm the entire night! I was quite impressed.

Part IV: Luxurious much?

Some of us who didn’t really have a clue what the plan was for the trip were dumb enough not to book a place to stay overnight in Pretoria. Last minute on a game day, the only place left to stay was at The Rose, the guesthouse where Peace Corps sends all the volunteer invalids from all over the continent. They give some great discounts to volunteers. At the last, last minute they ended up not having room for us so they sent us over to their friend’s guesthouse, who only had room left in a 5-star, 3-bedroom, 2-bath cottage complete with a laundry room, dining room, lounge, and backyard/patio. Suffice it to say this was the perfect place to end the trip.