Wicked Campers Africa Blog

Flight – check, Campervan – check, England tickets – check, off I go on my World Cup adventure…

After hearing the horror stories and having travelled to many dodgy countries before, I am bracing myself for hoards of people offering all sorts of rubbish while also tricking me out of my valuables, but the OR Tambo Airport experience is a pleasant surprise. There are hoards of people but they are there to help and assist free of charge, a refreshing welcome to South Africa. There’s a slight glitch getting the football tickets but that is mainly due to the internet line going down sporadically, and there are plenty of people around to deal with the problem.
I have a pick up from the airport to the wicked campers campsite, the campervan is brilliant! By day it has table and chairs, by night it converts to a huge bed, plenty long enough too. The boot opens to reveal the kitchen which is equipped with sink, cool box, gas burner and utensils.
Steven Hawkins arrives about 3pm after I’ve had a nap and am slightly alive again. First test of the camper on the road, first stop petrol, next stop food! Luckily I had already befriended some Aussie blokes who have started the fire while we’re gone, perfect for barbq-ing our steaks. The meat here is so cheap; I will be feasting on it daily!! After a completely dry flight with stopover in Cairo with a dry lounge, the SA beer goes down a treat!

Flight – check, Campervan – check, England tickets – check, off I go Flight – check, Campervan – check, England tickets – check, off I go on my World Cup adventure…

After hearing the horror stories and having travelled to many dodgy countries before, I am bracing myself for hoards of people offering all sorts of rubbish while also tricking me out of my valuables, but the OR Tambo Airport experience is a pleasant surprise. There are hoards of people but they are there to help and assist free of charge, a refreshing welcome to South Africa. There’s a slight glitch getting the football tickets but that is mainly due to the internet line going down sporadically, and there are plenty of people around to deal with the problem. I have a pick up from the airport to the wicked campers campsite, the campervan is brilliant! By day it has table and chairs, by night it converts to a huge bed, plenty long enough too. The boot opens to reveal the kitchen which is equipped with sink, cool box, gas burner and utensils. Steven Hawkins arrives about 3pm after I’ve had a nap and am slightly alive again. First test of the camper on the road, first stop petrol, next stop food! Luckily I had already befriended some Aussie blokes who have started the fire while we’re gone, perfect for barbq-ing our steaks. The meat here is so cheap; I will be feasting on it daily!! After a completely dry flight with stopover in Cairo with a dry lounge, the SA beer goes down a treat! on my World Cup adventure… After hearing the horror stories and having travelled to many dodgy countries before, I am bracing myself for hoards of people offering all sorts of rubbish while also tricking me out of my valuables, but the OR Tambo Airport experience is a pleasant surprise. There are hoards of people but they are there to help and assist free of charge, a refreshing welcome to South Africa. There’s a slight glitch getting the football tickets but that is mainly due to the internet line going down sporadically, and there are plenty of people around to deal with the problem. I have a pick up from the airport to the wicked campers campsite, the campervan is brilliant! By day it has table and chairs, by night it converts to a huge bed, plenty long enough too. The boot opens to reveal the kitchen which is equipped with sink, cool box, gas burner and utensils. Steven Hawkins arrives about 3pm after I’ve had a nap and am slightly alive again. First test of the camper on the road, first stop petrol, next stop food! Luckily I had already befriended some Aussie blokes who have started the fire while we’re gone, perfect for barbq-ing our steaks. The meat here is so cheap; I will be feasting on it daily!! After a completely dry flight with stopover in Cairo with a dry lounge, the SA beer goes down a treat!

The Apartheid Museum is a 30min drive, Soweto is right next door, you can’t go wrong, the hostel owner says. But he doesn’t know I have Steven Hawkins with me…

I drive again as SH is nervous of an automatic, so he takes lead navigator role. We leave the campsite at 10:30, for the easy-highway all the way- 30min drive. Somehow we don’t manage to find the very first road R24, this is where the alarm bells should have been ringing, your navigator could not find his way out of a paper bag!! After a 90min-standard road-stressful journey we rock up at the Apartheid Museum. The noise was deafening, the car park is filled with hundreds of school children all screaming and blowing horns, buses full of more arrive and the screaming and horn blowing increases. It’s mayhem! Unbeknownst to us, there is a South Africa, noon, planned 5minute noise making. Similar to a planned one minute silence, but much noisier!

The Apartheid Museum is excellent, very well done, but slightly ad hoc on chronology, mainly due to its winding layout. You could spend many hours in there, reading all of the information and looking at the exhibits. To make the experience more real you get given a card for entry, this is a random selection or either white or non-white, you then have to enter through different doors and the segregation begins. There is a temporary Nelson Mandela exhibition which is quite emotional, especially with the background videos, one of him on the Rugby pitch shaking hands with the South African captain and one of the tears in his eyes at the Nelson Mandela concert while the numerous bands and singers sing Free Nelson Mandela. A great, but moving day out.

The plan was to continue from here to Soweto, the South Western Township, the most touristy township but probably a good starting place for our culture trip. Unfortunately I was still driving so the navigation went awry and we ended up in central Jo’Burg, miles away from our intended destination. I called time out and took over directions from that point, we still didn’t get home until after dark but at least we took a direct route! More barbq in the campsite, even more campers have turned up so it’s a lively night. I had to down some red wine after the trauma of the day so was distraught when that ran out quickly and there was no-one sober to drive and get more. Then by some kind of miracle I meet a bloke on the way to the hostel toilets, he is running an overland truck group and has a whole truck full of quality red wine. I buy two more bottles and shock the camp fire crew with my new purchase. Brilliant!!

Right first things first, shop to buy a sat nav!! Phew, one Hawkins issue sorted…

Next test the camping skills with a boy scout style chili cooked on the gas burner. Success! I deserve a badge for that one.

Highlight of the day, the opening concert. We manage to scam our way onto an Aussie tour bus to the park and ride near Soccar City. Then we get a shuttle to the Orlando Stadium in Soweto. i have managed to wwangle an outer circle ticket instead of my nose bleed section seating, tuurns out though it wasn’t needed. To get into the standing area you must have a wrist band, but the bloke giving them out, not only doesn’t check your ticket he also doesn’t take it away so everyone around us gets the wrist band and continues to the front of the stadium. I have purchased a brilliant, huge England flag complete with pole so wavve this in a frenzy attracting English supporters from all around the stadium. Also helps me to get onto the TV, as my crazy wig doesn’t seem to be enough… Before 8 there are a number of African singers and bands, then when the TV coverage begins the local acts are separated by US stars, Black Eyed Peas, John Legend, Alicia Keyes and the finale Shakira, waca waca!! I manage the usual trick of getting a bloke to put me on his shoulders, this nearly ends with the death of me and the Aussie though as he staggers backwards with me unbalanced flying my flag, maybe we should have tried this earlier in the evening when more sober… Leaving the stadoum is where the night turns into chaos, we seem to get a different shuttle each! I find Hawkins at the park and ride but can’t find our Aussie tour coach. We wairt for an hour in the freezing colsd but no sight of anyone, the fact that South African’s also wear green and gold does not help matters at all. Finally I find the coach but have lost Hawkins… The Auusies slowly find the coach over the next hour but no-one can find Hawkins so we have to leave. After the bus to the hotel and then a taxi to our campsite we finally sneak in at 3am, cold and tired. No sign of Hawkins, but he appears at 8am from some night escapade with numerous taxis and a wait in the airport…

I have a hangover, Hawkins has been up all night, good job Rustenburg is only 2 hours away and we have a sat nav!

The drive is pretty uneventful, changing scenery though, more mountainous and then a great single lane road across a lake, we could have easily been in Italy. We get to the camp site, based in Kgawse National Park just after 4, perfect for the opening game kick off but the TVs can’t find reception since some genius tried perfecting the satelite dishes… So We listen to the game on the BBC World Service with the Brits camped next to us. Football on the radio is a strange concept, the African commentators get over excited and take ages to explain what has actually just happened to create that excitement, usually nothing. After the Bufana Bufana goal the camp site is excited, South Africa could actually justify their place in the World Cup, rather than defend their automatic qualification, but Mexico manage to equalise, boo!!!
Luckily the TVs are fixed by the evening so we can watch France draw, a loss would have been better of course

The day of the first England match, the excitement is too much! I have my face painted by midday, even though the match isn’t until 20:30! The campsite is full of English and American fans, and people interviewing. Even some of the wicked campers are doing interviews for x-box. I should be able to get on the TV or in a newspaper with thee amount of cameras catching me in my crazy regalia…

The fan fest is a great warm up to our game. Argentina beat Nigeria one nil, but the place is buzzing with England and American fans. We also meet many odd characters. When leaving no-one is authority knows how to get to the stadium, so luckily some friendly locals offr us a lift. Another awful park and ride system so it takes us over an hour to make a 15min journey, then over 30mins to get beer which looks like it’s going to run out before kick off! Great seats behind the goal and the vibe is electric. We’re in front of the band so constantly have a chant to join in with. 5Minutes in and Gerrard has scored, the crowd go wild. There are no working screens in the stadium so we’re still unsure if it was a goal and was in fact Gerrard, but we cheer anyway. The thought of winning the world cup is closer to reality!!! Unfortunately Robert Green quashes our dreams with his awful miss of the ball letting the US score. We leave the game with the elation faded, but at least it wasn’t a loss, so we still have one point.

South African organisation is lacking to say the least… We find the park and ride buses and a police woman tells me the bus in front of me goes to the N4 park and ride so I hop on, obviously Hawkins misses it. I get to the car park in record time but no-one knows where pick ups happen from so I stand between the 2 most likely areas. A few women feel nervous of me stood on my own so they get the police to try and help me, they want no part of that so walk off and leave me on my own. I walk to the Police Hut and ask about maps or how to get a taxi to my camp site but none of them have even heard of the national park which is xxx square kilometres! I wander for a bit more but find no-one I know, then the police woman shouts that I have missed my ride and should stay stood by a lamp post. The car park is almost empty now, so luckily a Brit from the Zimbabwean High Commision gets off the shuttle and asks if I need help. Turns out that this is not the N4 car park at all, even after 5 police men have told me that it is, so I get a bus back to the stadium and then ask again from there. Once again the police tell me to find the right bus for myself, so I eventually find a woman to help me. Back at the right car park I find some campers I recognise and breathe a sigh of relief, all too soon though as they have been stodd there 2 hours waiting for the national park shuttle!!! By this stage I’m freezing, note to self, must buy down jacket. After another 30mins waiting we give up and hail a taxi, he takes us all for 50rand each, we just want to be in the warm. After a few wrong stops he finally finds our camp but taxis are not allowed inside so we then wait another 30mins for the safari vans to arrive at the gate with the keys. Finally back to camp at 3am, imagine if there was no coordination at all…