BBC here for the World Cup in big double decker bus

The BBC is using a white double decker bus to help bring its coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa to life.

BBC television, radio and online journalists are travelling up to 4,000 miles on the bus across South Africa - finding out what the tournament means to South Africans and visiting tourist destinations and unusual locations along the way.

While the BBC’s Match of The Day team is based in Cape Town, the bus aims to travel via every World Cup venue city during its journey - visiting each host city on a match day to immerse itself in the live 2010 FIFA World Cup experience.

The bus departed from Cape Town on the opening day of the World Cup on 11 June and after travelling the length and breadth of the country – will arrive in Johannesburg for the final one month later. Equipped with a mobile television studio on the top deck, the bus will enable the journalists on board to broadcast into programme highlights and at half-time during live games from a range of interesting locations. Dan Walker, who presents the BBC’s Saturday lunchtime football show Football Focus, and TV presenter Rob Walker are on the bus presenting for television, while Scottish journalist and broadcaster Colin Paterson will report for Radio 5 Live.

The bus has been showcasing many of South Africa’s stunning sights and tourist attractions. With Hermanus being one of it's many high-lights, by going and viewing Great White Shark cage diving, Whale watching and enjoying wine tasting at the Hermanus Wine Valley.

Earlier this week Dan Walker visited Addo Elephant National Park, near Port Elizabeth - a popular tourist attraction in the Eastern Cape. Home to more than 450 elephants, the park boasts one of the densest African elephant populations on earth.

BBC sports journalist Paul Fletcher, who is also travelling on the bus, said: “From influential charity projects, regenerated townships and out-of-the way villages to wildlife parks, sites of historical importance and FIFA fan fests, the bus will enable us to search for the soul of the nation as Africa hosts its first World Cup.”

Courtesy of Percy Tours - www.percytours.com

and it's associated sites - www.hermanusactivities.net / and www.xploratours.co.za

World Cup - what a fab first few days of action :-))

The excitement just keeps getting bigger and bigger by the day (if thats possible, cos i thought it was already at fever-pitch :-))))

Yes, ladies and gents South Africa is completely boiling over with football excitement

The first 3 days have been amazing and a huge carnival atmosphere has gripped the whole country - the opening music festival on the 10th June was enjoyed and attended by over 30,000 people, while being broadcast live on SA tv; the opening scenes and match have been very positively reported in the SA media (and I hope the same is true for the worlds media :-))

South Africa (Bafana Bafana) against Mexico was a rip roarer - with SA scoring the 1st goal after 59 minutes and what a screamingly excellent goal is was too; we thought we had it in the bag, with loads of JOY, but Mexico came back with an equaliser after about 79 minutes; the rest of the game was frantic, with each team trying to get another goal - but it ended up 1-1.

France vs. Uruguay game was a non-event and ended 0-0; which places both SA and Mexico TOP of this group - interesting.....Korea did a great job of beating Greece 2-0; Argentina gave Nigeria the run-around winning 1-0; meaning Korea are top of this group, Argentina are 2nd

England started very fast against USA but were unlucky to draw after a silly goaly fluffer 1-1.

Slovenia beat Algeria 1-0 in a good paced match; Ghana beat Serbia 1-0, meaning that Ghana are the only African country to have won their 1st match (Cameroon play against Japan on 14th June, so lets see what happens there) - and Germany gave Australia a right royal whopping, by winning 4-0.

FAMOUS people arriving in SA to watch the football grows by the minute - reportedly here already are - Roman Abramovich, Donald Trump, Prince Albert of Monaco, Naomi Campbell and John Travolta jetted here in his own 747 with wife Kelly Preston.

More World Cup info, when we have it - enjoy the games......we sure are :-))

Cheers - Percy and Ronel from Percy Tours - www.percytours.com - Designer Tours of Hermanus, Cape Town and the Western Cape province, South Africa.

Schedule of ALL the World Cup matches

Here is the list of ALL the football games for the World Cup, when, where and who -

Happy reading and enjoy every second of it - we will be :-)))

1 -11-06 16:00 - Johannesburg - Soccer City Stadium - South Africa v Mexico
2 -11-06 20:30 - Cape Town - Green Point Stadium - Uruguay v France
3 -12-06 16:00 - Johannesburg - Ellis Park Stadium - Argentina v Nigeria
4 - 12-06 13:30 - Nelson Mandela Bay - Port Elizabeth - Korea Republic v Greece
5 - 12-06 20:30 - Rustenburg - Royal Bafokeng Stadium - England v USA
6 - 13-06 13:30 - Polokwane - Peter Mokaba Stadium - Algeria v Slovenia
7 - 13-06 20:30 - Durban - Durban Stadium - Germany v Australia
8 - 13-06 16:00 - Tshwane / Pretoria - Loftus Versfeld - Serbia v Ghana
9 - 14-06 13:30 - Johannesburg - Soccer City Stadium - Netherlands v Denmark
10 - 14-06 16:00 - Mangaung / Bloemfontein - Free State - Japan v Cameroon
11 - 14-06 20:30 - Cape Town - Green Point Stadium - Italy v Paraguay
12 - 15-06 13:30 - Rustenburg - Royal Bafokeng Stadium - New Zealand v Slovakia
13 - 15-06 16:00 - Nelson Mandela Bay / Port Elizabeth - Côte d Ivoire v Portugal
14 - 15-06 20:30 - Johannesburg - Ellis Park Stadium - Brazil v Korea DPR
15 - 16-06 13:30 - Nelspruit - Mbombela Stadium - Honduras v Chile
16 - 16-06 16:00 - Durban - Durban Stadium - Spain v Switzerland
17 - 16-06 20:30 - Tshwane / Pretoria - Loftus Versfeld - South Africa v Uruguay
18 - 17-06 20:30 - Polokwane - Peter Mokaba Stadium - France v Mexico
19 - 17-06 16:00 - Mangaung / Bloemfontein - Free State - Greece v Nigeria
20 - 17-06 13:30 - Johannesburg - Soccer City Stadium - Argentina v Korea Republic
21 - 18-06 13:30 - Nelson Mandela Bay / Port Elizabeth - Germany v Serbia
22 - 18-06 16:00 - Johannesburg - Ellis Park Stadium - Slovenia v USA
23 - 18-06 20:30 - Cape Town - Green Point Stadium - England v Algeria
24 - 19-06 16:00 - Rustenburg - Royal Bafokeng Stadium - Ghana v Australia
25 - 19-06 13:30 - Durban - Durban Stadium - Netherlands v Japan
26 - 19-06 20:30 - Tshwane / Pretoria - Loftus Versfeld - Cameroon v Denmark
27 - 20-06 13:30 - Mangaung / Bloemfontein - Free State - Slovakia v Paraguay
28 - 20-06 16:00 - Nelspruit - Mbombela Stadium - Italy v New Zealand
29 - 20-06 20:30 - Johannesburg - Soccer City Stadium - Brazil v Côte d Ivoire
30 - 21-06 13:30 - Cape Town - Green Point Stadium - Portugal v Korea DPR
31 - 21-06 16:00 - Nelson Mandela Bay / Port Elizabeth - Chile v Switzerland
32 - 21-06 20:30 - Johannesburg - Ellis Park Stadium - Spain v Honduras
33 - 22-06 16:00 - Rustenburg - Royal Bafokeng Stadium - Mexico v Uruguay
34 - 22-06 16:00 - Mangaung / Bloemfontein - Free State - France v South Africa
35 - 22-06 20:30 - Durban - Durban Stadium - Nigeria v Korea Republic
36 - 22-06 20:30 - Polokwane - Peter Mokaba Stadium - Greece v Argentina
37 - 23-06 16:00 - Nelson Mandela Bay / Port Elizabeth - Slovenia v England
38 - 23-06 16:00 - Tshwane / Pretoria - Loftus Versfeld - USA v Algeria
39 - 23-06 20:30 - Johannesburg - Soccer City Stadium - Ghana v Germany
40 - 23-06 20:30 - Nelspruit - Mbombela Stadium - Australia v Serbia
41 - 24-06 16:00 - Johannesburg - Ellis Park Stadium - Slovakia v Italy
42 - 24-06 16:00 - Polokwane - Peter Mokaba Stadium - Paraguay v New Zealand
43 - 24-06 20:30 - Rustenburg - Royal Bafokeng Stadium - Denmark v Japan
44 - 24-06 20:30 - Cape Town - Green Point Stadium - Cameroon v Netherlands
45 - 25-06 16:00 - Durban - Durban Stadium - Portugal v Brazil
46 - 25-06 16:00 - Nelspruit - Mbombela Stadium - Korea DPR v Côte d Ivoire
47 - 25-06 20:30 - Tshwane / Pretoria - Loftus Versfeld - Chile v Spain
48 - 25-06 20:30 - Mangaung / Bloemfontein - Free State - Switzerland v Honduras

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

49 - 26-06 16:00 - Nelson Mandela Bay / Port Elizabeth - R16 - 1A v 2B
50 - 26-06 20:30 - Rustenburg - Royal Bafokeng Stadium - R16 - 1C v 2D
51 - 27-06 16:00 - Mangaung / Bloemfontein - Free State - R16 - 1D v 2C
52 - 27-06 20:30 - Johannesburg - Soccer City Stadium - R16 - 1B v 2A
53 - 28-06 16:00 - Durban - Durban Stadium - R16 - 1E v 2F
54 - 28-06 20:30 - Johannesburg - Ellis Park Stadium - R16 - 1G v 2H
55 - 29-06 16:00 - Tshwane / Pretoria - Loftus Versfeld - R16 - 1F v 2E
56 - 29-06 20:30 - Cape Town - Green Point Stadium - R16 - 1H v 2G

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

57 - 02-07 16:00 - Nelson Mandela Bay / Port Elizabeth - QF - W53 v W54
58 - 02-07 20:30 - Johannesburg - Soccer City Stadium - QF - W49 v W50
59 - 03-07 16:00 - Cape Town - Green Point Stadium - QF - W52 v W51
60 - 03-07 20:30 - Johannesburg - Ellis Park Stadium - QF - W55 v W56

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

61 - 06-07 20:30 - Cape Town - Green Point Stadium - SF- W58 v W57
62 - 07-07 20:30 - Durban - Durban Stadium - SF - W59 v W60

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

63 - 10-07 20:30 - Nelson Mandela Bay / Port Elizabeth - 3rd/4th Place

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

64 - 11-07 20:30 - Johannesburg - Soccer City Stadium - Final

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arrivals for the World Cup 2010 South Africa

Today - 3rd June 2010

Arriving today, are the England national football side for their Rustenberg base-camp for the World Cup.

They are, so far, the 8th national team to arrive in South Africa.

More info when we have it :-)) :-)))

World Cup update - with less than 2 weeks to go...

WORLD CUP - 2010 - SOUTH AFRICA - UPDATE -

With less than 2 weeks before the kick-off of the highly anticipated World Cup in South Africa, then i think its about time for an update on whats happening down here.

Are we ready for the biggest fanfare and festival of football in the world to descend upon South Africa – the 2010 World Cup -

YOU BET WE ARE!! :-))))

All the stadiums are finished; all having staged dress rehearsal matches on their pitches. Monumental improvements and building work is now completed at Airports, 100's of major roads and all sorts of infra-structure are finished. So bring on the football games!!

Even tho’ there have been mixed reports afew months ago of slow ticket sales, expensive flight tickets and over-priced accommodation, there is now thankfully price-cutting in all areas so that a much more realistic pricing structure has appeared. Which is a huge relief, as the South African World Cup is now easily affordable to ALL fans. (Plus all those doom-sayers afew years ago saying that SA could never pull it off, can now certainly eat a ton of humble pie.)

Airlines are organising more flights to South Africa than their normal scheduled flights - Air France has an extra 15 planes booked from Paris to Jo'burg and SAA has over 43,000 extra flight tickets available.

To say that the excitement has reached fever-pitch is the under-statement of the year - it is literally football, football, football all over South Africa - EVERY newspaper, every TV show, every TV advert, every car (covered in flags), every person (wearing football shirts), every street in every village, town and city is completely football mad.......it's bonkers and we are all totally enjoying the madness too. Complete strangers just keep smiling at each other - it's like we are all 10 year old kids at Christmas Eve, about to receive a fab shiny present from Santa Claus.

And (nearly) every famous person on the planet will be here to soak up the excitement too - so far confirmed are - Prince Harry and Prince William, Paris Hilton, multi-billionaires such as Roman Abramovich (he will have his 138metre ship anchoured here in Cape Town - which only has a helicopter pad, 2 swimming pools, 24 gold plated rooms and a submarine - yeah right :-)); loads of international music mega-stars and Hollywood film stars; the famous WAGs going on mega shopping sprees; heads of state from every corner of the globe; media moguls; captains of industry and high-flying A-listed stars will be glittering all over South Africa.

Then theres over 3 million seats - including half a million foreign ticket holders coming to visit South Africa - 130,000 from the USA, 100,000 from the UK, 43,000 Australia, 40,000 Germany, 36,000 Mexico, 22,000 Japan, 18,000 Brazil, 17,000 Canada, 16,000 Switzerland and many more from all corners of the globe.

The amassed international media will be here in huge numbers - for example, the BBC has a massive TV studio in a double decker bus travelling 6,000 kms to film every corner of the country over 8 weeks; TV sports commentators; newspaper journalists; camera and documentary film crews; photographers; freelance writers and bloggers and everyone thats anyone is coming to join in the party.

Across the country, 100’s of Fan Parks have been organised, mostly at large indoor halls where massive visual sound systems will broadcast all the games live. These Fan Parks are a fantastic idea, as they allow the non-ticket holders from all social back-grounds of the world to totally soak up the atmosphere and get into the football party fever. Some of the German 2006 Fan Parks had over 100,000 people at each one, that’s more than any stadium could hold.

This will also be the first ever World Cup (or world class event) where ALL the action will be broadcast in HD vision, making the TV viewing an utter pleasure to be behold - HD TV sets are selling like hot cakes the world over, so that every household will be a surround-sound visual high entertainment master-piece. The high technology that is to be used to broadcast all the action is utterly gob-smacking - 25 of the matches will be broadcast in 3D - yes 3D - outrageously excellent - the state-of-the-art 30,000m sq media centre took 6 years to build, has 2,500 full-time staff and cost a whopping R1Billion - each stadium has 32 HD cameras (some in helicopters) and will beam their footage to 2 hi-tech studios at each stadium, yes 2 studios, not 1. The data transfer rate is outstanding - at 20Gbps down fibre-optic cables, thats equal to a full length Hollywood movie being downloaded in less than 2 seconds. Most impressive!!!

World Cup merchandise is selling so fast off South African shelves that manufacturers and shops can not keep up with supplies - Edgers (a large department chain store) has already sold 1/2 million SA football shirts retailing at R600; 300,000 footballs and 152,000 vuvuzelas - while other retail chains like Makro and Game report equally high demand for all items World Cup related. TV sets and satellite dishes are in high demand and flat screen HD TV sales are up by 20%.

Oh and I nearly forgot - what about the football itself - 64 massive matches, held over 4 weeks, in 10 gleaming brand new stadiums each able to hold 55,000 to 95,000 screaming enthusiastic fans, 32 countries with squads of 24 players each, including international super-stars like Messi, Rooney, Ronaldo, Kaka, Drogba, Henry, Torres and 100's more, plus their management teams, trainers, physios; then theres all the FIFA officials, the event sponsors corporate hospitality groups like - Sony, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Visa card, Mcdonalds, Hyundai, Vodacom, Emirates, Budweiser etc.....

Music - International music stars will be performing at the Kick-off concert on the 10th June at the Orlando stadium in Soweto, Jo’burg, with – Black Eyed Peas, Shakira, Alicia Keys, John Legend, The Parlotones, Freshly Ground, Vusi Mahlasela, Juanes, Angelique Kidjo, Amaduo & Mariam, Tinariwen, Vieux Farka Toure, Soweto Gospel Choir.......

What to see and do when you are not watching a match??

Thankfully South Africa has literally 1000's of amazing activities, sights to see and experience and is an incredible adventure playground - Whale watching and Great White Shark cage diving at Hermanus, near Cape Town; Wine Tours of our 600 wine estates offering over 10,000 different award winning wines to sample; Safari parks to meet our African animals (18% of SA is a nature reserve); 1000's of sandy beaches along a stunning 2,700 km coastline; 100's of massive mountain ranges; gigantic open pretty countryside with no-one for miles; vast History and Culture; Township tours; African art, crafts and colourful imaginative creations; mouth-watering cuisine - try Springbok steaks, Ostrich, Warthog, Crocodile, Wilderbeest, Kudu, Impala, Cape Malay curries, huge lobsters and prawns, Malva pudding, Milk Tart - yummy.......; Quad Biking thro vineyards; Cessna plane flights over fantastic scenery; Kayaking and Canoeing; Horse Riding; Cape Floral Kingdom; Penguin colonies; Fishing; Scuba Diving; Tree Top canopy rope slides; Worlds highest bridge Bungee jump; luxury yachts and power-boating; World Heritage sights; Table Mountain, Robben Island, Cradle of Mankind; diamonds and gold; tropical/semi-arid deserts/Mediterranean climates; and above all it's marvelously friendly and loving people.......

Welcome to the Rainbow nation of South Africa :-))))

So let the whole country (and world) UNITE behind what is going to ultimately be the biggest marketing campaign (and party) that South Africa has ever had, with well over 4 BILLION people on the planet watching 1 whole month of non-stop SOUTH AFRICA on their TVs.

Enjoy the football, we sure will be :-)))))
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Authored by Percy from Percy Tours, based in Hermanus, South Africa (only an hour from Cape Town) -

www.percytours.com / +27 (0) 72-062-8500

Designer tours of Hermanus, Cape Town and the Western Cape

also check out our other gorgeous and informative websites -

www.hermanusactivities.net - for 100's of things to see + do

www.xploratours.co.za - for loads of info on Whale Watching and Great White Shark cage diving etc...

see you in amazing South Africa........