Day 82 - Farewells & Ajax Cape Town Training Ground

Well this is it. 82 days completed. 82 days done. 82 days ago we started out little journey here in South Africa. It's been absolutely incredible. The fact that we've been able to say something about every day in this blog shows how amazing the experience has been, and how much we've enjoyed ourselves.

We started the day at the Head Office, in town, to say goodbye to all the staff that were there. We hadn't really spent much time with any of the staff at the Head Office, except for Wasima and Danielle, so they were the 2 hardest goodbyes. Everyone else it was more of a thank you for helping set up for our time out here, instead of an emotional goodbye. So it wasn't too bad. But as we were leaving, Danielle asked for a hug, and started to tear up, so it got a bit emotional, but I managed to keep it together.

After that was done, we grabbed some lunch with Lourens, Joe and Wasima, we stopped by this salady place in town, and I filled up my bowl to the brim, so as to eat as much as possible. It was beautiful. 

When we were done, Joe drove us to the Ajax Cape Town training ground. They're the only professional club in Cape Town, and have a direct link with Ajax Amsterdam. So to go and visit their training ground was pretty cool. Our tour guide took the 3 of us round all the different parts of the training ground, reeling off facts and info about Ajax Cape Town, which was all quite interesting. On the way to the pitches, Ajax Cape Town striker, Nathan Paulse, walked past us, and once he heard we were from Arsenal, gave us a big hello and shook our hands. He's an Arsena fan apparently, but was nice to be appreciated by a professional player, even if I had no idea who he was before then. He was a lanky guy though, and towered over all of us. 

The tour didn't take long, as it was only a relatively small facility, but the best in South Africa. So after we were done, Joe took us to the Learning Centre, where we chilled for a bit, before seeing Densel, at the Ruyterwacht training. It was quality to see him, and as we were saying our goodbyes, he offered to take Joe, Martin, Yonick and I out to grab a burger, as a farewell treat. As it was the last time seeing him we couldn't turn him down, and happily accepted. So we headed home, got ready, and came back out to meet them. 

We went to a place called Ashley's, which had a special deal on burgers that night, so we all had a burger. It was a decent burger, except it had butter on. What kind of restaurant puts butter on a burger?! I was mortified. If you know me, you'll know that there's 2 things I can't stand eating. Butter and cheese. So to see butter on a burger, I was distraught. Couldn't waste Densels money though, so I threw a heap load of tomato sauce on the burger, stuffed it with chips, and scoffed it. Kept thinking about the butter inside, but I managed to do it before I rinsed my mouth out with water. What an achievement, I'd survived.

Densel thought it'd be a right laugh to get all the staff to sing happy birthday for me, too. I wasn't impressed. I'm not a fan for big birthday things, and restaurant staff singing at you just isn't my thing. So I was a tad embarrassed when they came up, sang their song and handed me a tiny lolly pop. Oh well, the lolly pop tasted good.

We stayed at the restaurant a bit longer, just chatting, before heading back to Joe's. We stopped off at McDonald's on the way to grab some ice cream for Vinolia, Jodi and Jaden. When we got there, they were all still awake, to say goodbye to us. This was the last time we'd see the Africa family, barring Joe, so it got a bit emotional as we said our goodbyes. It was sad. They'd been there for us all through the 3 months, and knowing it would be a very long time, if ever,that we'd see them again, it was hard to take. They're such a lovely family, and they're all such a laugh to be around, so I honestly wish them all the best in their future. To the 2 gappers going there next year, if you're reading this, you'll love them. They're brilliant. Was a sad moment when we drove off, but we knew that day had to come.

This is my last official post, as our days are over. However I will post a couple more times, just to let you all know how the journey home was, and a bit more info for if the next lot of gappers read this. Luke's blog last year certainly helped us, so hopefully I can give some sort of help to the next gappers! I'll be traveling to Singapore in just over a weeks time, so if you want to know how that's going, head over to www.agpsingapore.blogspot.com, and from the 25th April, I'll be posting the daily events from mine and Dan Openshaw's experience in Singapore!

Harry