The horror, the horror - Germany vs England

I'll start off by saying I haven't actually watched the replay of last nights game as I haven't been able to face it. I'm also hoping that I'll fall through a worm hole into a parallel universe where we thrashed Germany 4-1, although I'm not hopeful on that one.

The day started with a fairly tense 500km drive from Cradock to Bloemfontein, which as we managed to leave late (the breakfast was a bit too good) was taken at several times the South African speed limit. Our little Toyota Corolla - or Dolly as she will be referred to from now on - is totally gutless so some of the lorry overtaking was hairy to say the least. South Africans are, contrary to what we had heard, really considerate drivers and seemed happy enough to get out of the way as Dolly careered towards them on the wrong side of the road at terminal velocity.

Arriving in Bloemfontein an hour after we wanted to get there, we checked into the media centre choose our positions and tried to find a desk to work at. The media center was packed and bizarrely the only seats left were sat directly next to Mark Lawrenson.. yep him off of the telly. Before long we were joined by Gabby Logan and Harry Rednap too which was a little surreal.

The tension inside the stadium was palpable and for once the English fans were outshone by the opposing fans enthusiasm. The Germans were there to party whereas the English fans looked like they were there to take their driving test.

I won't go into too much detail about the match as you all probably know more than me about it. I didn't see Lampards ball cross the line, I didn't see Rooneys offside but I did see 4 classy German goals and that was a bloody painful experience.

Today was the epic drive back from Bloemfontein to Cape Town - 1000km all in - which was surprisingly painless. South of Bloemfontein is the Karoo which is a massive plain of tedious scrubland which was a fairly dull and seemingly endless drive (see photo below taken mid-Karoo as the madness set in) but this changes into the stunning winelands area as you approach Cape Town and holy crap is that picturesque. If we hadn't been rushing to get back it would have been a landscape photographers wet dream.

*A big thanks to Paul "The Maltese Falcon" Zammit Cutajar for being an excellent co-pilot and road trip companion*

Anyway, here's a few pics that hopefully illustrate the night a little. I won't pain anyone with German goal or celebration pics, I'll save them for another time.. or never.