Loading ...Lions Diary Day 16.
One interesting thing we heard last night is that Stevie Ferris is still with the tour party and according to him he still hopes to “take part” later in the tour. We’ll try and track Stevie down in port Elizabeth and have a word with him to confirm if this is true or not.
Now back to the diary – there is a lot to catch up with!
We arrived in Cape Town about 10pm local time and believe it or not the first bit of news we heard as we were waiting to collect our bags was that McLaughlin was the new Ulster Coach. My goodness, even the dogs in Cape Town are talking about it? Haven’t been able to find out anything more but it looks as the new boy at the Belfast Telegraph has been stirring things up!
Dumped our bags at the hotel and after a quick wash and brush up we headed down to the bar where we met more Lions tourists in the shape of Ulster and Ireland Lion Stewart McKinney together with London Welsh and Wales Lion John Taylor. After a quick chat we headed out into the warm muggy Cape Town night. We ended up in Club Cubana where we danced the night away with a few of the locals and made generous donations to the economies of South Africa and surprisingly Mozambique!
Woke next morning to glorious sunshine and a bit of a sore head. Had a sumptuous breakfast on hotel veranda which was awash with the colour of various Lions tour parties. After breakfast we took a stroll into town and ended up in the Victoria and Albert Waterfront where we met up with JoeB and enjoyed several bottles of the local brew. Cape Town is one of the more expensive areas of SA but even at that a round for seven was coming in at just under £10. Happy days.
As we sat in the sun, being entertained by the local street artists we noticed more and more Lions tourists from all over the UK and Ireland. There must be about fifteen thousand here at the moment with more expected next week for the first test. Thought there would have been more but it appears there have been a lot of last minute cancellations on the tour packages. The Welsh are great and they appear to be the largest group. However not one of them appears to own any official kit as everything they have of is a knock off of varying quality!
Later that evening we headed out to Camps Bay for the absolutely fantastic sunset and a few cocktails. It is the middle of winter here but it was still 26 degrees C throughout the day but as soon as the sun set it did get a little chilly so it was back to the hotel to change out of our shorts and tee-shirts and we got ready for another night on the town. We made it to Long Street this time and had an excellent meal in a Cigar Bar, the food was great but when the exceptionally good club singer started belting out a few Frank Sinatra classics what was a good night was became a brilliant one. I’m sure the singer will remember that version of New York, New York for a long time.
Met up with some Leinster guys and we all headed round to Club Cubana for another late night! We were starting to see a pattern in our behaviour!
Match day we woke to heavy rain which was disappointing given the weather the day before. Didn’t manage too much breakfast but managed to force down a croissant and a coffee before we got kitted out and headed over to Newlands for the game. Ended up in the Springboks bar just outside the ground and although there were still four hours to go to kick off it was already packed with knock off clad Welsh. With a bucket of half a dozen iced beers for about £4.50 it wasn’t a surprise that this was a popular spot. Watched a bit of the Australia Italy game, good to see big Carlo knocking around, and headed over to the stadium about an hour before kick off.
Now we’ve been to a few international matches in our time but in all honest the fun filled atmosphere of the Lions on tour is something to behold. It didn’t just meet my expectations but surpassed them 100 fold as the stadium filled up with Centurions, Gladiators, Furry Lions, Singing Elvis’s, Daffodils and Leeks in a riot of good humour leaving the locals in the crowd looking somewhat overwhelmed. Watched the re-play this morning and unfortunately the atmosphere didn’t come across but it was fantastic with singing and dancing throughout. The best chant was for local boy Tommy Bowe, who seems to be a real tour favourite. Tommy, Tommy Bowe to the tune of Daddy Cool by Boney M is a modern classic! Actually a lot of the game passed me by as I was so busy watching the shenanigans going on around us but everybody felt that massive hit by Powell about 10 minutes from the end as the stadium let out a collective “ohhh!” at the impact.
The partying in the bars around the stadium went on for hours and was all very good humoured though it did start to get a bit out of hand towards the end. Fortunately we’d already organised to go to another Cigar Bar on the far side of the Cape where our favourite club singer was appearing and what a great call that was. Not only did we get to belt out a few old classics long into the night but we met up with a great bunch of locals and before too long the liquor shots started arriving to herald the beginning of another messy night! You can always tell you’ve had a great night when the taxi driver has to waken you to get you out of the cab!
Taking a bit of a break today as my liver advised me not to go on the wine tour with the rest. Unfortunately they have the cameras away with them so there’s not too many pictures from yesterday but you can see some of the earlier ones here.
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Tags: Andy Powell, Cape Town, Stephen Ferris, The British and Irish Lions
Unfortunately some of us have to mind the shop back home!!!!
JOHN WHICH 1 IS MOZAMBEQUE SADIE ??????