Over The Hump

“It’s not getting any easier” the words spoken by my Aussie road roomie Quinn couldn’t have been any more true. We have finished game six in a nine day stretch and we have awoken from our requisite 5+ hour sleep. Last night we photographed Uruguay as they sent South Korea home in the first elimination match of the tournament. It was match #49, our 13th, and our fourth in the rain. There has been rain at four matches out of the 49 held. Get the picture? We have returned to the King Edward Hotel in Port Elizabeth for the fourth time. This has been our best experience here so far. Excluding the night they couldn’t have us and sent us to the Radisson. The room is a little humid from the wet parcels we have littered about hoping they would dry over night. We are not fans of Port Elizabeth. We have not had good luck finding good (edible) food here. Crowds have been large and loud. I guess they do have World Cup Fever. Each stay here has been unique. At least this time we were able to check in when we arrived. Everything in the room worked. We were able to order food in the bar and watch the USA game (don’t want to talk about that). The restaurant is only buffet and closes before we get a chance to get in and get settled. The best aspect about all the visits to the KEH was the night they gave us a two bedroom suite. But we didn’t really take proper advantage of it.
I was really looking forward to Friday which was hump day for the current trip within a trip, day five out of nine, knowing that the light was at the end of the tunnel on the downhill slide. But it was just as manic as all the other days and it came and went without much notice. It brought us to Saturday. This is where the hump became a bump. We arrived at the Durban airport only to find out our plane was delayed four hours. It would take off after our deadline to arrive at the stadium, so the day was looking grim, but there was nothing we could do. We went to our usual haunt for breakfast, ordered from memory, and then tried to figure out how to spend the next four hours as we had already spent the fifth hour drinking coffee. We decided to buy our way into the South African Airlines Lounge. 1050 RAND for the crew. It landed us in the not so plush but quiet and safe VIP lounge. Complete with complimentary beverage bar and prepackaged muffins and snack foods. I commenced to get a solid hour plus of sleep and awoke at least being able to see straight. It was a pleasure to not be constantly bombarded by the World Cup sound track playing over and over again in the airport (and EVERYWHERE else in South Africa) and the continued interruptions of the public address system announcing every flight departure except ours. Money well spent, thank you Getty Images. Our PE CABS driver Richard met us faithfully as always and, without stopping and with good use of the horn, we jetted the minibus and attached trailer across town and rolled right into the media entrance and headed straight for the pitch were we arrived after the teams had taken the field for warm ups 45 minutes before game time. Everything in place and ready to go with time to spare I decided to make a quick trip to the standard issue portable toilet trailer. As I briskly walked there with the sun headed for the western horizon, the sky to the south was dark! I did not have a full compliment of rain gear and I texted Carl ‘Mr Fix IT’ to deliver some trash bags to my position. Carl came through as always and saved the day as rain commenced at halftime and was quite heavy in the second half. The gloom of the rain did not match the mood of Uruguay as the rain poured as Luis Sanchez scored his second goal of the game and the game winner to advance Uruguay to the quarterfinals.

As the Koreans head home, so do the Yanks. It was a good match and a couple great goals by the Black Stars. While I would have loved to have seen USA advance, it is a good vibe here to have at least one African Nation advance. South Africa, Algeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast failed to advance to the second stage. The whole continent is behind Ghana as they have done what only two other African Nations (Senegal and Algeria)have done in advancing to the quarterfinals. I shall take up the support of Ghana which will keep the stock of the USA high as long as the Black Stars continue to win. And as team USA head home so to do my teammates Streeter and Ezra. And never got to see them here in South Africa and It seems like light years ago that we crossed paths in Heathrow. They have passed through Heathrow again today and are nearly home by now.

As the team shrinks, our squad grows. We have added Richard Heathcote and Chris McGraw for tonight’s match between Argentina and Mexico at Soccer City. Mike Hewitt and Ryan Pierce have joined our crew for the duration as two more FIFA photographers. I’ve been anxious to see Soccer City as it has been the gem stone of the venues seen over and over again in television stand ups and broadcasts around the globe. After seeing it on ever channel know to man on the global satellite TV it will be great to see in person…..but at a price...Culture Shock.

Post Script: Germany defeated England!