Finding Moksha: Warm Heart of Africa

Being a fanatical soccer supporter, I remember vividly Australia's first game at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Every Aussie will remember it, the one against Japan where we scored 3 goals in the last 7 minutes for a come from behind 3-1 victory. I remember there and then saying to my mates who were watching it "We are going to South Africa no matter what!"

Four years later, Heerey, Scott, Nathan and myself were at Brisbane Airport getting ready for 5 weeks of madness in Africa.

A two day stop over in Dubai on the way was a nice little warm up, water slides, Arabian Gulf swims, Desert Safaris, as well as the world's tallest building and biggest shopping mall were made the more easier with my old work mate Rob driving us around.

After the warm up it was on to the main event, landing in Durban and meeting Nathan's girlfriend Lou at the airport who was to join us for the next 5 weeks. The next 10 days was spent in a camper van driving from Durban to Cape Town, swimming with Great White Sharks, cruising game parks looking for lions and other wildlife, surfing, campfires and of course the odd bottle of scotch.

Staying at a friends backpackers in Cape Town for a week allowed us to meet some awesome people and I think the scrabble board at 33 South is quite a popular legacy that we left behind. Highlights were climbing Table Mountain (hungover and totally unprepared), our Stellenbosch wine tour, the house party at 33 South's new Loft (just don't trust Scott's electrical prowess there!).

Leaving our friends in Cape Town behind, it was off to Johannesburg for the night before going north and into Zambia and Zimbabwe. Seeing the Victoria Falls were amazing, I was lucky enough to see them on foot, from the air in a Microlight plane, as well as whilst I was bouncing around on the end of a bungee chord. However one of the coolest views was during my pre-dawn lone trek to the falls for sunrise (you will see the photo below). A sunset cruise on the Zambezi River, as well as morning fishing trip up the river also rounded out a week where I celebrated my 25th birthday in unforgettable fashion.

From Zimbabwe, it was back to Joburg, and then a bus trip back to Durban for the start of the World Cup. Going into the Fanatics camp at Kingsmead Cricket Ground, our home for the next 3 weeks was celebrated with 3am arrival beers with our new friends. Cheap drinks, 2000 like minded individuals, and a bar in our compound that was impossible to get kicked out of meant a lot of hangovers and amazing memories (a lot which are fuzzy!). Throw into the mix gigs by Powderfinger and Fatboy Slim, as well as hanging out with Mark Bosnich and a heap of other Socceroos legends, and Foxsports commentators it was worth every penny.

The typical Durban day involved wake up around 9, free breakfast, walk to the beach and play beach soccer with the locals, hang at Joe Cool's Bar for lunch and the first World Cup game of the day before going back to camp for dinner and a few, or a lot of drinks into the night whilst watching the rest of the games. Of course when Durban was hosting a game, the town was a buzz and the live sites were definitely an experience. Other activities included more game park tours, zulu village tours, Shaka Marine World, as well as hanging out at Gateway and getting pummelled by the Gateway Wave House.

Following the Socceroos took us to Rustenberg, which involved a car park party with the locals in the middle of nowhere, as well as checking out Sun City Casino. For our trip to Nelspruit for the last game, we decided to drive our own car for the 12hour each way journey. However a broken GPS meant we did get lost, ending up in Swaziland for the night where a flat tyre in the desert was not the most desirable situation to be in. We did go through Kruger for our third and final game park, and coming home with a Socceroos win under the belt was a pretty good feeling.

Media attention was one thing we could not avoid, thanks to our now infamous Koala Hats. News crews from far and wide would come up to us pre and post game due to this, and at last count we had interviews by crews from, Australia, Argentina, Spain, France, Nigeria, as well as some Asian country, it was hilarious and we soon developed a competition of who could say the most outrageous thing, often on a live feed to millions of people.

This trip really couldn't have gone any better, and in our debrief the four of us still can't believe that after 5 weeks of close quarter living there was not even a hint of blow up at all. It definitely was a great time, with a great group of mates, and it set a stupidly high precedent for all future trips away.