Destination: South Africa

(Photo by Anjali Nayar)

Cape Town, South Africa.

I was accosted by the Oranje supporters more than a kilometre from the stadium. Despite my green, red and yellow gear (and obvious allegiance to Cameroon), women in orange frocks and pigtails smeared my cheeks with white, blue and red stripes (their flag).

There was an overdose of everything Dutch - orange clothes, tulips and beer, as thousands of Holland supporters left the Cape Town Fanfest to walk the Fan mile to the city's new Green Point stadium.

A specialized orange double-decker bus led the way, flanked by orange scooters, and orange-clad supporters in their wake. At every intersection there was a new swell of Oranje supporters - singing, dancing and drinking. You can check out my photo essay of the walk to the stadium here and take a look at this video of the walk.



It was difficult to keep up with the Oranje supporters' drunken enthusiasm. But these guys are clearly well-rehearsed. The most serious few hundred started their party around three months ago in a convoy of 22 orange vehicles -- Beetles, VW vans, motorbikes and a truck. Across South Africa, the group grew to around 175 vehicles. You can see a video of the original convoy here.

Why travel to South Africa? Why not, seems to be the Oranje camp's  philosophy. "One thing is for sure, every night a big party takes place," they say in their official handout.

The group has been traveling to the side's major competitions since 2004 and never without a healthy supply of Heineken beer.
 
"We have another big tent waiting for us at the next venues so we don't have to pack up the tents," organizer Jokko de Wit told Reuters. "But we do have to pack up the bar and transport that and it takes a surprisingly long time to pack up a bar."

A whole lotta SuperFans

The Oranje aren't the only SuperFans at this year's event in South Africa. Every few days it seems like I meet another fan who drove, biked or walked to the games.  Here are some of their stories.

The Ball

I noticed the ball before I noticed them. It was blue and black with a thousand signatures smeared over it.

It bounced amoung the crowd of the Bafana Bafana parade on June 9th before it ended atop a lorry where macho construction workers alternately juggled the ball and ripped off their shirts in celebration of South Africa's debut in the 2010 World Cup.

After the striptease, the ball bounced back into the crowd and onto the foot of a lanky guy with messy hair called Phil Wake. Around him were a couple other guys juggling and clearly having a great time. I moved in for a quick chat.

According to the group, they (and their ball) had travelled through Europe Morocco, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, before reaching South Africa. 

They arrived in Johannesburg just before the World Cup opening ceremony, after their ball had been signed, kicked, headed, kissed or licked by over 17,000 people.

It's not the group's first Cup - they epically travelled 8,000 miles with a ball by bus, train, foot and plane to Korea for the World Cup finals in 2002.  The team travelled again to Germany in 2006, before coming around 16,000 miles to South Africa this year.

It doesn't matter if you are black, white, orange or red.... it doesn't matter if you are old or young," they say on their website. "The Ball is for everyone."

You won't find Phil loitering around fan parks anymore though. Shortly after kickoff, the he headed home to save his marriage.

Amateurs in Africa

This jovial pair of Australians embarked on their trip through North, West, Southern and Eastern Africa from Berlin, one of the main venues of the last World Cup.  

Benny and Harty, both in their early 20s, have a list of strengths they felt would help them along their journey, such as  "drinking Jagermeister" and being able to "stomach foods that shouldn't even be looked at."

They say it best themselves:

"Why were are amateurs: In a nut shell we are two pretty average lads, both of whom currently lead incredibly unhealthy lifestyles with excessive drinking/partying, are ridiculously unfit, don't really have much money, can't speak other languages, haven't booked anything, hate to spend a cent and don't know anyone in Africa but we thought we would attempt to travel from Berlin to Cape Town, backpacking West Africa to get to the World Cup overland through deserts, jungle and whatever else is out there."

"Basically 70% of people we told about our trip said we were crazy and 30% said we would have the time of our lives," said Benny. "Those 30% were all people who had been to Africa."

The 30 percent were right.

"We hallucinated in the heat, bashed bongos on sandy beaches, sat on live crocodiles, toured Togo, mixed it  with UN officials on dance floors, visited the home of Voodoo in Benin, followed the slave trade in Ghana, rocked it with reggae, hitchhiked at night to Ouagadougou and of course we've bounced to the African beats," said Benny.  

"We've seen that no matter where you are in West Africa, there's football fever. It's like no other in this part of the World and we've followed it from the back alleys of Burkina, through the streets of Senegal and across the mud flats of Mali on route to the World Cup. It might sound unbelievable but that's just West Africa and that's why we've loved every minute," he added.

Their trip quickly became about breaking the misconceptions about the continent.  "People said we wouldn't have place to stay, we would get malaria, we wouldn't be able to eat anything," said Benny. "The worst thing people assumed is that we would get HIV."

In fact the boys had little to no trouble (besides a serious lack of French skills), especially concerning security. "I've been robbed five times on four continents and never in West Africa," said Benny.

The boys had a number of adventures including jumping on an empty cargo train through the Northern Sahara the middle of a sandstorm. When they got aboard (helped in by a police officer), they realized they weren't alone. There were 18 Mauritanians already huddled in for the ride. "Within five minutes we were sharing food and talking about football players," said Benny. "It was one of the best trips we'd had."
 
You can check out more of their adventures on their website and see a photo essay of their travels.

Joinmecycle2sa

So I never actually managed to hook up with these guys, but still get a kick out of their story. At the age of 27, Lindsey Cole, a recent Masters graduate in journalism, found herself unemployed, single, and still living at home. She bet her friend if she didn't get the latest job for which she was applying, she would cycle to the World Cup and write about it.

"I read the following article about a girl who grew her armpit hair, wrote about it, and got a job. Is this really what you need to do to get a job nowadays?" she says on her website.

With no friends willing to come along, she advertised in the Metro, the free paper that is distributed on the London subway system, and got around 400 replies. From failing time after time to get an interview, she found herself on the other side of the panel.
 
She selected three guys for the trip: one who had planned to cycle the Americas until a friend pulled out, another who'd taken part in a Channel Swim and had been targeted by a bull, and a third who cycled from London to Taiwan for a £1 bet, she writes on her blog.

All three cyclists are raising money for charities along the way and according to their locator are currently somewhere around Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

The Indomitable Algerian

OK best for last. This is the stuff that legends are made of. A couple weeks ago, just before the World Cup, I heard about an Algerian coffee shop worker named Fateh Salah who was walking to South Africa for the games The press in Algeria reported his departure on January 1, 2010.

At a speed of around 80 km/day, it was reported that he would make it in time for the first game. They said he'd done walks to Tunisia before to raise awareness about the situation in Gaza, but none as long as this one, which starts with a 400km trek through the Sahara desert. Here's a clip of him walking.

Salah hasn't shown up yet in South Africa to my knowledge and with Algeria already out of the Cup, let's hope he can share his SuperLove for the game with another team.


Next up: Vuvuzelas in depth.

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