Pretoria, South Africa - Day 265

Drove back from Kruger the same route we had taken to it from Jo’burg, except heading north at the last minute beore entering the mammoth city. About halfway between Jo’burg and Pretoria where the slums are, had signs up everywhere to be cautious as we were in a “Hijacking Zone”. Checked into the backpacker which had a bunch of seemingly rowdy Indian guys staying there all playing on a touring cricket team (turned out to be really nice guys, actually).

We had read that Pretoria was quite a nice university town with plenty of good student hangouts, safe streets at night, etc (hard to believe since it was SA’s capital city during the apartheid years); headed down the main drag in the Hatfield district where our hostel was (which turns out to be where the University of Pretoria is) and managed to find the main, bar-filled square where apparently everyone hangs out (coincidently it happened to be a Friday night too!). Had my first, genuine pint of Guinness at the Irish pub (I think on the entire trip!).

Next day we had breakfast at the square (felt similar to being back in Italy again), walked over to a mall in the neighbouring district of Brooklyn, then back to Hatfield again. Was a good 30min walk each way through a residential area; neat looking at all the old houses everywhere (as well as lawn bowling, tennis courts student houses, churches) but had an oddly quiet feeling, us being pretty much the only people on foot.

Ended up buying flights to England on August 23rd (still don’t know when or how we’re getting home though). Kinda sad actually having a definitive date when it all ends. Boo.

Back to the square again for dinner and drinks, off to bed later than we wanted for the next morning’s early(ish) rise.

Since we haven’t seen any cheetah’s on the trip so far (and the way things are going, likely won’t), we booked an early morning tour at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust (1971) that started at 8:30am, about an hour out of Pretoria (hence the early(ish) rise). The tour took around 3 hours, and was so jam-packed full of facts that I can hardly remember anything. Aparently the Trust is a big reason cheetahs and African wild dogs have not become extinct. Saw all sorts of animals including badgers, wild cats (look exactly like tabby house cats, except they might rip your face off), wild dogs, vultures, ostrich, hyenas, etc, etc. My favorite fact was that children under 6 aren’t allowed, not because it’s dangerous for them, but because cheetahs’ skulls are incredibly thin (they become fixated on the kid, pace around, and can hit there head on the fence and die).

Was SO cool driving into the cheetah area, being surrounded by them, purring, pawing the ground, growling, then watching them feed out of a dish, just like a cat at home would. I just wanted to go hug them and pet them! (they actually have a tame one named Byron you can pet… for a fee of course) What a great organization, and a great experience (one of the few worth a 6am rise).

From the cheetah park, started heading as far west as possible (hopefully a town called Kuruman), bound for the Namibian border.

A note on our health: since entering Botswana we’ve switched form bottled water to tap water (SO nice to not have to buy water all the time), as of Jo’burg we’ve stopped taking Malaria tablets (6 months on antibiotics CAN’T be good for the body… if I had to do it again, I would do it differently) and I STILL have the same ringworm on my forearm that I got in Egypt last January (after 3 different types of creams, I’ve succumbed to the fact that it’s there for life… or at least until I get home I suppose).

Made it!!! About an hour after sundown pulled into the medium-sized town of Kuruman. Drive from Pretoria was around 7 hours or so (average speed of 130kph to keep up with everyone else) passed through I believe 2 towns en route, scenery was pretty much nothing but absolutely mammoth farms (seriously… these farms go beyond what your eye can see – I don’t know how they can possibly manage something that size). The last hour or so melded into what was obviously the south end of the Kalahari desert which expands northward into Botswana. Settled on “De Oog” B&B (“The Eye” in Afrikaans), headed out to Spurs Steakhouse for dinner.

These northern, small towns have a really strange vibe to them (kinda like outback Australia, or Northern Canada); not sure why but I really dig it! EVERYONE eats steak for dinner, Biltong for lunch (or at least every corner store is full of it), people wear cowboy hats, many don’t speak English (Afrikaans only); I think it’s very obvious to everyone that we’re “not from these parts”.

Up at a decent hour again to make it through Upington (the capital of the Northern Cape) and across the Namibian border…