The End

So the trip of life time is over, our last day is Jozi was spent half the day recovering, half the day with a flying visit to Soweto (Nelson's house, Valikazi Street, Hector Pietersen memorial) with Angus and then getting on the chop again...by accident, the cocktails were $6-7 enzed so it would have been rude not to. So we left Africa on Saturday, via HK (another large one out in Lan Kwai Fong, a great way to finish the tour and my best night's sleep, 7 hours!) and have just arrived home, the perfect time to reflect on the highlights and lowlights, in no particular order...

Highlights

• Winston Reid's unlikely "winner" in Rustenburg,
• The bus rides all over the Gauteng and Mpumalanga,
• The killer buffet breakfasts,
• Leading against Italy,
• The people of South Africa,
• The cheap cost of essentials on tour (food and booze),
• Leading against Italy,
• Celebrating as one after the Slovakia and Italy games,
• Finding out that South Africa wasn't really that dangerous,
• The shebeen in Rustenburg,
• The banter with the Aussies before their game with Ghana,
• Getting a local's view of Jozi with Angus, and
• The thrill of the chase in Kruger Park.

Lowlights

• The perpetuated myth that lions exist in Africa, they don't,
• The bus rides all over the Gauteng and Mpumalanga,
• A vuvuzela in my ear during the Ghana v Germany game,
• Soft penalty for Italy's equaliser,
• The fact there were no rumbles on tour, everyone got on, wtf?
• Lack of sleep,
• Budweiser headaches,
• My makarapa being flogged iff my head in the Paraguay game, and
• I just realised I never ate one of the famed SA steaks.

All in all the highlights easilt outweigh the lowlights and after this trip I am really considering Brazil in 2014, Tas will be seven then so I'll take her along so she can look after me )and maybe her mum) and the All Whites will be ranked in the top 10 in the world with a real shot of winning it all. Sounds like a plan.