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

Day 81 - Cheetah Farm

Today was our last day where we could go full tourist before we headed home, and we decided to spend the day at Cheetah Outreach, an enclosure for endangered, ill and under-cared-for cheetah's.

We started off the day clearing everything out of the company car we were given, so it was ready to be taken away tomorrow, before getting almost everything packed, with just clothes for the last 2 days and wash stuff being left out. Our rooms look so bare, its so weird. After 3 months of stuffing everything into a tiny room, it's strange to see it almost empty, with a full up suitcase in the corner. It's a good feeling, though, as we know that home is just around the corner.

After we were packed, we got in the car and headed off. We made a quick stop at the Italian Club, to see if Selwyn was there so we could say goodbye to him, but he wasn't. It's a shame, because Selwyn was probably my favourite out of all of the coaches we worked with. He was always available, reliable, and was such a laugh, too. He gave us a call later on to say goodbye, which was nice. But I do hope to keep in contact with him, cause he was a good laugh. As he wasn't there, though, we headed straight to the Cheetah Outreach park.

The Cheetah Outreach park was based in Somerset West, literally the road after the turnoff we took to get to De Beers on Friday. So we were fairly confident getting there by ourselves, despite the fact that its a good 45 minute drive away from where we were staying.  We got there in good time, though, and paid the fiver it costs to get into the park.

It wasn't a big park. It had quite a few enclosures with meerkats, these big earred cat things, and some other animals. But we were done looking at those 10 minutes after getting in. The main attraction? Getting up close and personal with a big cheetah!

With our tickets, we paid the extra to be able to go into the cheetah enclosure and stroke a cheetah. So when we were done looking at all the other animals, we spoke to one of the keepers, and she took us straight in. Quick and simple.

We followed her down a couple of enclosures, and she took us into one where a big cheetah was laying, looking nice and cosy and ready to doze off any second. This was one of the oldest cheetah's in the park, aged 13 years old. Cheetahs only live til around 14-16 years old so this was a golden oldie. The keeper that took us in said that the cheetah we were with is one of the ambassadors for the park, and has been in quite a few South African movies, though their name I forget. She then reeled off some other facts about cheetah's, like how they sleep for 18 hours a day, and can reach top speeds of up to 120km/h (around 60mph), but only for 30 seconds, before needing a 40 minute rest, as it goes all out for that fast sprint.

After having plenty of photos taken with the cheetah, time was up, and we headed out. It was pretty cool seeing the cheetah up close and being able to stroke it, while it lay there, so I'm glad we came and did this.

We then headed to Somerset beach to see if there were any cafe's to grab some lunch. But as soon as we started to drive past the beach, the weather got horrible and foggy, plus there was no cafe's, so we turned round and left. Oddly enough when we got away from the beach, the weather picked up again. Spooky.

We headed to Somerset West mall, where we grabbed a Burger King for lunch, and had a little look around, before heading home. Had a whopper meal. It was lush, of course. Love a whopper meal.

We decided to watch the Chelsea-QPR game at Berghof, but after George unplugged the wifi box to plug it into an extension lead, going to another plug, as a way of stopping the load-shedding affecting the TV, the wifi wouldn't work, so we headed to Mixas to watch the Manchester Derby.

Half way through the derby, Joe gave us a text and invited us over for tea, cakes and a movie. As wifi was down, I couldn't skype the family, so thought why not. So after getting back from Mixas we headed straight to theirs, to chill out with the Africa family. It was a really nice evening. Despite Yonick putting on one of his gangster movies (Get Rich or Die Young), chilling out with them, eating cakes and drinking tea, while having a laugh was quite nice. I've said it before, but the Africa family have really made it easier for me (and I'm sure Martin too) being out here and away from my family for so long. So it'll be sad to say goodbye to them. Hopefully not for long as they plan to come to England in a few years, so hopefully a reunion is on the cards. We'll see.

After the film was over, we headed home. Got a day of saying goodbye's tomorrow, before visiting the Ajax Cape Town training ground, which should be a busy, and emotional day. Had to come some time, though. Not a big fan of goodbyes, me. One full day left, though, before we come back home!

Harry