27th to 29th July, 2018.
I plan on going to C.s’ house (my other CS) next day, so I do not make any plans of going to town. Abrie has an appointment so he cannot drive me there but he ask to his very nice constructor to drive me there. In opposite of what C. said, his house it is quite far from Abrie’s. We have to look for quite a long time until we finally find it.
At the beginning I really like him. We start to talk and realize we have a lot of in common. But then, he starts to say that it is because we are both Aries and Horses (in Chinese Astrology). According to him, everything is like that. He truly believe on that and in the moon stuff. I prefer not tell him that I do not but just let him keep talking about it. We buy some wine and food and I offer to share the expenses.
So after a lot of talking and some wine, C. believe that just because we are quite similar in so many things, we are similar in everything, and when he invites me to come and sleep in his bedroom, he is pretty sure I would just do it. And even that he “explains” how he is not a boy anymore so he could understand if I do not want to, he insists in why I should come, just for a while, until he finally give up. You see, is all that stuff about “We do not need to do anything, is just two people sleeping beside each other in the same bed”. Oh, yeah, aham! I do not go for that crap anymore, man, sorry. I get quite disappointed with him after that. He probably did too. But probably more with the fact that an Aries Horse did not want to have sex just to have sex. That probably shake his bases a little.
But next day everything is fine. He makes us a traditional American breakfast and he decide to join me in a trip to Freedom Park. We take the motorcycle. In the way, I try to exchanged my money but there are just banks around and they are charging me a fortune to exchange my miserable twenty Euros. After a while I just give up.
At Freedom Park, we figure out there is a fee to enter. I was stupid enough to not have checked before. Fifty five Rands. With the extra one hundred and fifty bucks for being a foreign. According to the nice attendant, they do not ask for any proof or anything, so I could pass as a South African. I tell C. I am sorry but I don’t pay for attractions. He does not look upset and we gently explain to the attendant. He is really nice and tell us that, if we had called before, he could have arranged some free tickets. But how the hell could we know that? He actually asked if we would come back in the following days because then he could do it. I don’t want to tell him I was leaving next morning so I just say a shy – maybe.
We try other two places but they also charge a fee. I am feeling a little bad about the fact we could not go anywhere basically because of me. But now I do not feel bad anymore because this is just how things are. Not everybody in the world has money and not every single traveler in the world can pay for the attractions. I already pass through this before, why I am still talking about it? Anyway, we end up in a simple park behind a nice restaurant. We spend some time and then come back.
I wake up before C., I have some cereal and before seven we leave. Going to the car, he realizes that it might not start because of some problem with the battery. We first try to fit on the motorbike: disaster. Then we finally talk with the guy who takes care of the building and they start to work on the battery. After a while it finally works and we leave. He drops me in the motorway. It is the closest place where I could hitchhike but it sucks! The cars are coming too fast and I am getting concerned. But after a few minutes a guy in a small truck stops. He is going just to Centurion, the next town, but according to him there is a gas station where my chances would be better. I have to walk for a while and it is when I notice that my backpack is broken again, at the clippers again. How is that possible?
At the gas station I rather stay in the exit and not in the motorway just to keep safe. After something around one hour, a lady stopped and she was going just until after Joburg but front the circumstances I decided take my chances. Me and Louise ended up going along very well and she also thought my travels interesting and surprisingly different. She insisted in stopping in a Pick and Pay and bought me a energy juice and some protein bars. Louise drop me in the motorway again but at least now the rush was smaller so the cars could stop easily. Thank you so much for your kindness, Louise!
Just two minutes after Louise leave a guy stop. I think he has some second thoughts about given me a lift. You see, he does not say anything but I just feel something is wrong. He drives me until the next gas station so at least my chances would be increased. When he parks the car I do not give him time to say anything inappropriate, I take my stuff and left while saying thanks.
There are cars leaving the gas station all the time. Really a lot. And they could read my sign and see me very well because they have to drive pretty slow. So why after over one hour nobody is stopping? I am quite sad now. Apart of some few people showing me that they are going just nearby and a very nice old couple who stop and say: “We are not going to Durban but I want you to have this juice and this sandwich” (who cute was that?), most of people are just passing by. So I go to the toilet and decide to increase my chances even more going to the highway.
After a few minutes, Joe stops. He put my backpack in the back of his pick up and we take our way to Durban. While talking, he asks me if I have a place to stay in Durban, so I ask him to use his phone and send a message to the guy who I supposedly will stay. Between a lot of misunderstandings, he gives me his address: he is staying very close to the marine. Unfortunately, Joe is passing far away from there so I have two options: make my camping somewhere out of town and next morning start to hitchhike again (the only problem with that is that I want to go to the Yacht Club very early in the morning) or get out in the next good spot for hitchhiking but this time find someone who is actually going to town.
The wind is incredible strong. I am really almost being cared even with the backpacks. I am in the highway again, the sun is in my face and it is after four o’clock. I am really hopeless and already looking around to find a place to put my tent, when a car which is leaving the gas station call me in. I go to check and they are father and son and instead of asking where in Durban they are going (I know right, stupidity) I am so excited with their “jump in!”
They are actually going to town. Yay! The lovely father, 57 years old and Maverick, his miracle son. At the beginning I do not understood why the father keeps treating Maverick in such caring way, but later on, once Maverick go pee, he tells me how he and his wife had some troubles to have a kid before, so when Maverick finally came, he was received as a miracle. But anyway, they are very nice, the father tells me some nice facts about Durban, and he is actually staying just one block from Janete and Gordon’s house. Maverick even know the Clinton and guys because he used to pass there to buy their stuff. So Maverick drives me exactly to the building where I should go, because he even know where is it, he used to live nearby. On the way he calls his mom, who has a guest house, and tell her about me and in case when I come back, I get stuck in some how, I could do a volunteer work with her. So kind of him!
Before leaving, he insists on giving me 100 Rands. I try to refuse but he doesn’t let me.
At the reception, P. is waiting for me. What a crap.