Ellis Park
Here is the world infamous Ellis Park in Johannesburg, South Africa. This Stadium was made popular by the hit movie “Invictus” which replays the events of the 1994 Rugby World Cup and how the springboks overcame all the controversy surrounding them and won the tournament and in essence began the healing process for the people of South Africa. Great movie, I highly recommend it.
But more often than not Hollywood (more…)
Showcase venue
The showcase venue of the 2010 FIFA world cup held in South Africa. This is soccer city which was in Johannesburg and this is the very same venue that held the world cup final only a few days later between Spain & the Netherlands. Luckily for us we saw both teams during that world cup and in this particular match it was me crossing off an item of my bucket list: watching Brazil in the world cup! It was Brazil against the Ivory Coast which Brazil won by 3-1 in emphatic fashion, couldn’t have asked for a better experience 🙂
The stairs to…
Back on our safari in 2010, while most guests at our lodge opted for a nap I decided to go for a walk around the camp and see if there were any opportunities to take some pictures. I saw these steps that led to nowhere and thought they were worth an image. Until today I can’t figure out their purpose and not until processing it a few days ago did it cross my mind that these might not be stairs but some of sort of seating stands?!?! Agree? disagree? Any ideas on the purpose of these stairs?
Lights On!
A silhouette of the stadium lights as they were coming on at Loftus Staidum in Tshwane/Pretoria. This was taken back in our trip to South Africa when they held the FIFA world cup there. I thought the lights coming on slowly would be an appropriate way to represent how some of our brains feel on Monday morning 🙂
Nightly Crawl
Going back down memory lane and revisiting South Africa again, this time its Johannesburg where we spent the majority of our time at the High View gardens which sadly has closed since then. Our room was the one up the stairs to the right, getting to it wasn’t really a problem during the day but it can be very challenging at night when the lights were out. The hotel provided us with a small pocket size flash light to use when we returned late but on a few nights we forgot to take it with us and getting back in the room was quite an adventure 🙂
Disco ball
I’ve been reminiscing over our trip to South Africa back in the summer of 2010, well it would be their winter 🙂 This is supposed to be a soccer ball but I think it looks more like a disco ball, in either case it was setup by the city of Tshwane/Pretoria to promote tourism in the city. This was outside the stadium prior to the final group stage match for the US and Algeria, what we expected to be a boring match had one memorable ending. I posted about it back in the day when this blog was in its infancy. We also happened to see former US President Clinton in the stands.
Perseverence
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”
~ Dale Carnegie
This was quote was obtained from inspirationalSpark.com
Break Area
This one is from the archives of South Africa, this was our break area at the safari where people would meet up for drinks and coffee before heading out for a drive. Our morning wake up call was at around 5 am and we wouldn’t return back to camp until around 10:30-11 am where we would be served breakfast. After that usually everyone goes for a nap until we are served lunch at 2:30pm, but I’m the type of person once I’m up, I’m up, I need to be lacking sleep over a series of days to start needing the afternoon naps. I used to walk around the camp, take pictures, mingle with the staff and just enjoy nature as some of the less dangerous animals did tend to get close to the camp. The room behind the glass doors was the “breakfast” area, dinner was served outside in a hut type of setting; it really felt like Survivor where would all sit around bonfire. Good times….
The Magic of Africa
I took this image on our last evening drive in Kruger Park, I thought its a fitting way to say goodbye to the memories of our world cup trip last year. Our experience was nothing but positive, it was really unfortunate how the security situation was blown out of proportion and I’m sure as we witnessed had its impact on attendance! We were definitely glad to see that the tournament was pulled off without any major incidents, the people of South Africa and rest of the continent deserved it.
But really there is something about Africa, its such a raw and beautiful place. This is just a glimpse of whats out there…
Croc!
This weekend I went back to playing golf for the first time in over 2.5 years, the primary focus for me was to not swing so hard and injure myself after not playing for so long. My mind thinks in a strange way and this reminded me of crocodiles 🙂 The night before I was watching a documentary about crocodiles in Northern Australia; one of the ways they break their meal into smaller digestible portions is by spinning around at a very high speed to tear the ligaments & joints of their prey.
Each animal has its own unique traits, according to wikipedia, a crocodile bite measure 5000 pounds per square inch of pressure when biting down, compared to a white shark that measures 400 punds per square inch. But with all this force Crocs don’t chew on their prey to break them into smaller portions, they take one bite to capture their prey and spin around violantly to tear them to smaller portions and in essence kill them. If they are lucky they get to eat the whole prey but more often then not they are joined by another fellow crocodile. Even with all this force they still don’t have much strength to open their jaw and thats why we see them always taped shut when captured, they just don’t have the strength to open their jaw.
This particular picture was taken of a crocodile during our Safari in South Africa. I was using my 70-200mm for this shot but it was about 50 yards away from us, we were walking on foot by then 🙂 The ranger told us not to get too close to the water because they are quite sneaky and coud jump at us, he did think that the likelihood of that happening was very low since there were only 2 crocs in the area and one of them was the one above, he doubted the second one was with him in that lake. Oh yeah, a week before we arrived in our lodge, one the two crocodiles was found in the swimming pool of our lodge!! Apparently they can “smell” water and they are always attracted to it.
Tiki Taka
June 25, 2010 was our final match of the world cup, 8 out of 8! We did it, we made it to every single game and it was almost over. We were happy to see Spain play Chile because it was two strong teams that couldn’t afford to lose specially Spain who were facing a must win match, but at the same time the mood was slightly somber, we knew it was the end. Me & my brother were flying out the next night! Our little escape from reality into football heaven was just about to end.
Chileans were by far the most festive fans that we’ve seen at this world cup. Through our stay in South Africa we heard the infamous Chi-Chi-Chi-Chile chants (made world famous by the mine rescue operation in Chile a few months later). However that day we got to see them in numbers chant and dance to their songs. They were super friendly, welcomed everyone, danced, sang, posed for pictures, just created an amazing atmosphere for our last world cup experience.
As far as the game goes Spain scored two goals in the first half, they were up 2-0 by the 38th minute after Iniesta had scored. David Villa scored the first from 40m out when the goalkeeper came out to clear the ball from Fernando Torres outside the 18 yard box but only for it to land to Villa. Chile was also reduced to ten men after one of their players received two yellow cards. Even though that Chile scored a quick conciliation goal in the 47th minute, Spain’s Tiki-Taka was its best. In a way they put us to sleep with their masterful possession of the ball, they just kept on passing the ball and creating a chance when they felt like it or at least it appeared that way. Chile never posed much of a threat to tie the match and it ended with a 2-1 scoreline. With Switzerland failing to beat Honduras, Spain ended up topping the group with Chile in 2nd place which earned them a date with Brazil in the round of 16…
We didn’t leave the stands until every player left, it was really over! From now on, its back to watching the games on TV….
Fugazy
Our 7th match of the world cup was Slovakia vs Italy, another group that was wide open but unlike yesterday’s (a year ago) matches it was a bit more complicated. Paraguay was in the driver seat only needing a tie to secure qualification, all other teams was pretty much win and you are through. The Italians being a typical favorite in every world cup just needed a win against Slovakia and not many were expecting a surprise today, as neutrals we just wanted to see a lot excitement.
Today’s match was one of the strangest in terms of fan base, there were a lot of fans supporting Italy that day; I would go as far as 80/20. However the 80 percent were probably 80/20 fugazy! Fugazy is an Italian-American slang word for fake, the reason I say that is when the Slovak players came on to the field to warm up they all started to cheer them thinking they were the Italians since they had blue training suits on!!! I grabbed my camera to zoom in and see what was going on and I was right, it was the Slovaks! The funniest was when the announcer was late and said welcome to the field: Slovakia and the cheers changed to jeers when they realized it wasn’t Italy.
Shortly after Italy came on, also with their blue training suits on 🙂
Don’t remember too much of the details of the game, for the most part it was a match played in midfield with the odd periods of excitement. Slovakia was up 1-0 at half-time and then when the news kept on coming in that Paraguay & New Zealand were tied at 0-0 the pressure increased. As the Italians stepped up their attack Slovakia ended up hitting them with another goal and they were up 2-0! A shocker was in the making, but without a lot of drama. The last 10 minutes were absolutely insane, Italy made it 2-1 in the 81st minute and then Slovakia scored to make in 3-1 in the 89th only for Italy to score a conciliation goal in stoppage time. The game ended 3-2 and Italy were out! Paraguay topped the group with Slovakia in 2nd place, and Italy exited the tournament bottom of the group. The Azzuri is going through a transitional phase and I’m sure they’ll be back with new blood in future world cups…
U-S-A!
Since the draw was announced back in December of 2009 we were not looking forward to today’s game between the US & Algeria, matter fact we even thought of trading our tickets for another game if possible. But as they say, when you least expect you get the best surprises. From a neutral’s point of view today’s match was probably the most exciting match of the tournament, but we all have our biases towards the teams we support 🙂 We made the one hour drive to Pretoria and we got there quite early so we walked around the stadium and grabbed a bite, after the constant celebrations we were quite malnutritioned and we were starting to feel it that day!
We got to the stadium and we got seated, we had the first row of the upper deck so we had rail guard in front of us. Our tickets were in the heart of the US fans, everyone around us was supporting them. The beauty of this match was that all 4 teams in the group were still in it, and Slovenia out of all teams were in the driver seat, a tie would have seen them through, a win for the US or England would also see them through. However an Algerian win required some help, which was Slovenia beating England! Remote chance but they were still in it.
The game was wide open, a treat for any neutral. Both teams attacked in numbers and left themselves open for the counter attack. If my memory serves correctly the US had the most of the chances in the first half but Algeria had the most dangerous one of the first half when the hit the crossbar. The US fans got the news they wanted to hear, England was up 1-0 by the 23rd minute so all the US had to do was win and they win the group, yes win the group that everyone thought Capello’s England would just dominate! The English were doing their part but the nerves were starting to get to the US fans as they are not getting the goal that they need.
The 2nd half was no different than the first, chance after chance but the US started to take more control of the match. They knew they had a chance, they had to go for it but for some reason they couldn’t buy a goal even if they could. Dempsey hit the post and missed his own rebound when he had an empty net, chance after chance was wasted and regular time had run out. Some of the US fans were on the verge of tears infront of us, had this result stood it would’ve been England and Slovenia that qualify. And in the first minute of extra time, Landon Donovan pounced on a rebound and placed the ball in the back of the net. I kid you not the stands shook, the crowd went ballistic, we were in the middle of the mayhem. People, beers, flags, hats, stuff was flying everywhere… it was insane! We truly enjoyed it and to be honest, they quite deserved it. They were the better team in that match.
Oh the final whistle hadn’t blown yet! There was still one last chance and it was a corner for Algeria, not really sure what happened but one of the players kept on arguing with the referee and he got his second yellow card so he got his marching orders. Shortly after that corner the referee blew the final whistle and a few “bad apples” starting to throw objects at the field. They were coming from the Algerian side, but one thing worth noting was that the Algerians were organized. They had their “leaders” in the stands that I guess led the songs and that sort of stuff, those guys immediately stood up and asked for them to stop throwing objects and they succeeded. It was nice to see how they wanted to show they were good sportsmen, they cheered their team and the US team when they walked by them. Left us with a positive impression with how well behaved they were even after the loss. There are always the few bad one that ruin it for the rest of us.
Going back to the US now, they won the group that no one expected them to. The team had gone around the stadium to salute the fans but spent most of its time in front of us, as I mentioned earlier we were in the middle of the US fan base. After seeing the passion of the US fans for their team, how they travelled in numbers to South Africa, whether you like it or not: US Soccer is here to stay….
Cycle of life
Giraffes were abundant during our stay at the Mohlabetsi Safari Lodge, they have an interesting role in the cycle of life. They primarily feed on vegetation and co-exist in packs, you seldom find one alone and if you do then its gone stray from the group.
They also rely on these birds to eat some form of insects of their skin, so in a way they are source of food for these birds.
However they could also end up as a meal to a lion or crocodile if they are not careful.
I guess every thing has its unique role in the cycle of life…
2 Rivers Photos 