Bloemfontein

Crossing the border back into South Africa, you stay on the high flat plane, but the rondavel disappear to be replaced by huge fields of wheat. The landscape remains featureless until the smoke stacks of the industrial east of Bloemfontein appear. This was not the most welcoming approach to a city that we've made, as we passed by some of the most dire looking townships thus far.
















Things did not improve when we got to our home for the next two nights, Navel Hill backpackers. The Lonely Planet describes the place as über cool – this is another classic from someone who most likely hasn't been near the place. The reality is a large warehouse type building, with the floor area partitioned up with sheets of corrugated metal to form 'rooms', but with no ceilings. If you're after the feeling of sleeping in a detention centre, this is the place for you. Rather than hang around, we drove down to the Waterfront (a mall with some bars by a manmade lake) with Lee, a PE teacher who'd quit his job to follow the tour.
















After a few hours of warm up drinking at the waterfront, we walked the short distance to the ground for a couple more. Apart from the mad Scottish woman a few rows behind us, we were surrounds by Cheetahs fans – so I have no idea what they were going on about; just a lot of swearing in Afrikaans I think (probably something about the Boer war). With the match narrowly won only by the luck of a missed drop goal, we filed back out to the drinking pen.
















It's still quite early in the tour, so there were only a few hundred Lions fans willing to put the full five weeks in. Among them were a bunch a Welsh school teachers, currently working in Lesotho (the young members of the group would later redecorate the ladies toilets of our hostel). There was a bloke running round naked at one point, but other than that the rest of the evening is a little hazy. This of course made the six hour drive back to Dundee the next day really fun.