Race # 4 – Here’s the low down: We were dropped off on Sunday morning at a park in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. Our first task was to find someone who spoke Afrikaans and have them translate two sentences for us. After much asking and searching, we found someone to translate. The deciphered clue said to go to the Union Building where another WR rep would give us our next clue. In the midst of our excitement and competetiveness, we went sprinting in the directions we thought the building was at. If we would have continued to read the clues, we would have realized we were supposed to go to the bus station and then take a combi (van) to the Union Building. So, by missing these instructions, we ran an extra 25 minutes that we did not need to. We quickly realized that S. Africans just want to be of help because each person we asked “how much farther to the Union Building?” They responded with “its close, just two more blocks.”
Already exhausted, we made it to the Union Building, got our next clue, and headed back to the bus station. This time by combi. We shared a combi with Team Nessa. We were to book a train headed for Johannesburg. We were the 3rd Squad A team to the station, but the next train didn’t leave until 10:43am, putting all teams on a level playing field again. We got our tickets and while in line we met a man named Alfred who told us what the colors of the S. African flag mean and what the “Big 5” African animals were.
10:43am finally came around and the expected half hour bus ride was really over two hours. We were definitely the minority as we were the only white people on the train. I had made a friend with a man named Bufala. Talking to him made the time pass. As we stepped off the train looking where to go, we saw a mob of 30+ white, World Racers, running to the steps hooting and hollering. I don’t think we can go anywhere without being loud an being noticed. It was definitely a humorous sight!
Our next task was to find a combi to the Johannesburg zoo. We were having lots of trouble finding one that would take us for cheap. We finally ran into two police men who escorted us to the combi because they didn’t think it was safe for us to be there. We shared a combi with Team LO (against their will). We got to the zoo and literally RAN through the zoo. We had to take pictures in front of four of the “Big 5” animals, we chose the lion, buffalo, rhino, and elephant. We had to take a few more pictures and off we were to find Moyo Restaurant.
After LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of running, we made it to the restaurant. It was one of the coolest restaurants I’ve seen. It was outside, there were men playing the drums, women walking around painting faces, and other fun things. We had to order the “mixed platter” and eat it in its entirety. It consisted of chicken, salmon, duck, lamb, falafal, and other stuff. It was surprisingly not bad. We got our faces painted and off we went.
We flagged down a combi, negotiated a price and then he took us to the Apartheid Museum. It was actually a really cool musuem, but of course, we practically ran through it as we were set on finding the answers to the 10 questions we were given. Next, we had to make it to the Carlton Tower in downtown Joberg. The Apartheid Museum was next to an amusement park. When we were leaving the musuem, there was a young couple bumping to the Beach Boys. We decided to ask them for a ride. We flagged them down, explained the race, and asked if they were heading that way. They were! So, we hopped in, all four of us squeezed in the back. As we drove, we jammed to the Beach Boys and the song, “Hey Mickey.” It was so loud, I think my inner, inner, inner ear was effected, but it was an amazingly nice jesture of them to take us.
We got to the tower, took the elevator to the 50th floor observatory, took the correct picture and checked in. We had a few penalties for not following directions and answering some questions wrong, but in the end we earned 2nd place being only 8 minutes behind the first team, Team YEDI. We were satisfied with our placing. My body is still feeling the effects of all the running today.
(I wish I had pictures, but they are on Andrew and Morgan’s cameras, check their blogs for pictures or I wil hope to post some of the race soon)
