Johannesburg, at last

18.06.2010 - 19.06.2010 0 °C

Our home for the first night is the Airport Game Lodge. Thomas the driver entertained us with his theories about soccer on the 10 minute drive from the airport. A cold snap has Jo-berg in its grip. Ice on the lawn, and ground frost has damaged some of the new train tracks. It’s winter here, with nighttime temps near freezing, then warms quickly to 55 or 60 F.
The Lodge is, well, a little more Spartan than we hoped for—tiny double room, not much heat, no light bulb larger than 25 watts. But—true to its name—it’s got game! A herd of Springbok (small deer-like animals with gracefully curved horns) wander around a few yards from our door. A single ostrich presides over a flock of Guinea hens.

We caught the train to Sandton to try to find a big-screen TV in an outdoor viewing area. We never found it, and so went to a Radisson hotel and settled into the very American-style bar. (Josh will comment later on the game, and the US’s stirring comeback). Comfy setting, but it felt more like Minneapolis than South Africa. Food and drink prices are very reasonable. Jo-burg people are friendly, very helpful. They’re disappointed in their team (named Bafana Bafana—the boys) performance. But expectations were surely too high—their draw with Mexico was probably as good a result as they should have hoped for.

Still haven’t seen Jo-burg, but jet-lagged and exhausted. Following 10 solid hours sleep, we headed back to the airport, to fly to Bloemfontein. The landscape below, on this central plain, is as flat as Kansas, and seems far less populated. Our propeller aircraft was full of celebrating Slovaks, confident of a victory and starting the party early. Again, all decked out in their national colors. A large group of Koreans also flew with us. On deplaning, they snapped scores of photos of each other, the plane, us.

Hard-partying east Europeans and picture-taking Asians—gotta love it when folks confirm ethnic stereotypes.

Posted by jfarq 20.06.2010 01:29 Archived in South Africa Tagged air_travel