Ballito/Durban and driving across SA

Good morning from Cape Town,
As I write this I'm about to fall asleep on the keyboard, so forgive me if this post doesn't make much sense.

When we got to our hostel (Monkey Bay Backpackers) in Ballito (North of Durban) four days ago, we were very impressed by how nice the guys there were.  We got a nice little tour of Ballito, which is a small little surfing/vacation town right on the beach.  Our hostel was fantastic with one major highlight: a huge outdoor shower.  Possibly the best shower I have ever been in.  We spent three nights there, and went to see the Dutch beat Slovakia, hung out around the beach, went to an aquarium, and enjoyed the shorts weather.  The beach was fantastic, with little areas of sharp rocks breaking the nice sand beaches every now and then.  We got some sweet pictures on the rocks as the waves crashed into them (I'm planning on posting some pics in the next day or two, so y'all should get a look at some of the places I've been).  Also, the Durban stadium (Moses Mabhida) has to be the coolest stadium I have ever been in.  If you've never seen it, look up some pictures of it...it is absolutely beautiful.  Furthermore, the game was a lot of fun and all of the Dutch fans were great to hang out with.  If you watched the match you saw Dirk Kuyt further show how classy of a player he is by not being greedy and sealing the win for his team.  Seriously, that man is 2000% class.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to pick up any cool Dutch gear, as there weren't any street vendors at this game for some reason.  Maybe they were trying to make Durban look nicer than all of the other cities.

Oh, by the way:  Going to the Germany vs. Argentina game this weekend.  No big deal.

Yesterday we drove from Durban to Mossel Bay, which is around halfway between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.  This was a 15 hour drive, besides the fact that you drive about 140 km/hr most of the way (around 87 mph).  Though, a lot of it was 2 lanes, so there were plenty of trucks to pass.  It was really strange driving through this area, as a lot of it just had tiny little country towns, spaced out about 1 or 2 km apart in every direction that the eye can see.  Just little towns of just houses, no stores, no streets.  It seemed like most of the lifestyle out there was in livestock, as nothing really grows in that thick red clay.  Every once in a while you would come across a larger town with a few stores and markets, and they were PACKED with people everywhere.  It was rather odd, especially as we seemed to be the only non-locals around.  We very inappropriately called them little Mogadishus, as that is what they looked like and we really felt out of place.  But, the countryside was very beautiful and all of the people that we met along the way were extremely nice.  Jim and I wanted to stop at one of the tiny bars/stores/post offices that you saw along the way in the middle of nowhere, as we felt that would be a great cultural experience.  Tyler and Scott were not so thrilled about the idea.  We got into Mossel Bay around 11 or 11:30, and then left at 5:30 this morning, so we never saw it in the daylight.  But, the little beach house we stayed at seemed awesome; I would definitely like to go back there sometime.  We then got into Cape Town, showered up, Jim went to work, and we've been exploring around.  It is time for the Cape of Good Hope this afternoon.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: I was drinking with Rob Green's sister two nights ago.  The Rob Green that let in the USA's infamous goal a couple of weeks ago.  She totally verified it as well, I have absolutely no doubt that it was his sister.  She was traveling around now that her family had headed back to England, so we hung out with her all evening and night.  Definitely a random highlight of the trip.  We didn't know it was her and were just hanging out with her until somebody made a Rob Green joke (we make at least 5-10 a day).  It definitely made me feel bad about all of the previous jokes, as Rob is never going to live that goal down.  But, I'm still glad that the US got a point out of that match...

Ok, I'll try to post one more time before I head to Thailand.  Let me know if there is anything about my trip y'all want to know about.
-Andy