Getting from Cool Runnings to our next location in Goodwood was a bit of a mission.
Firstly we wrongly assumed the building in front of the slide was a hotel and we could get a taxi from there. It's not, it's a residential complex. Asking a local where to catch a taxi he said we had to head to a main road on the other side of the stadium nearby. Only a 600 metre walk but when you have no idea where you its a little hesitant.
We waited to look for taxis but saw none. This location isn't on the normally heavily populated route between the city and the airport. Then a white bus pulled up the side door slid open, and a rough looking local inside said "where to", on saying "Goodwood" he quickly ushered us in and before we knew what we had signed up to we were in, the door was slammed shut and it was on its way.
Now to the uninitiated, this seemed to be a rather silly idea and a recipe for an abduction but I remembered riding one of these in Cape Town before so was sure we were ok, if unsure it was going to take us where we wanted. It was heading in the right direction which was a start. I was speaking to the driver who told me he wasn't going all the way to Goodwood but we could ride this to Bellville bus station and catch a bus from there.
Belleville bus station was a heaving market but after a little language confusion we were able to get onto the right bus to take us to Goodwood. Golden Arrows runs the municipal bus services which is more organised and less risky sounding than the white mini buses.
After a short drive we disembarked at Goodwood station. We had our asked our driver to tell us when it was time to get off, which he failed to do. Fortunately I'd decided to burn a fortune using the data roaming on my phone to track where we were with its GPS.
We eventually found ourselves at The Grandwest Casino, which has a small amusement park inside it called Magic Castle.
A rather nice carousel.
and for the coaster credit counters another little rollercoaster to ride. Like shongololo, I chose to give this one a miss and instead watched as the others rode.
The troll wasn't there on my last trip.
These rides usually have 3 laps before you're kicked off. Today it went way beyond that, but nowhere near the number of laps I had to endure on my last trip when it almost felt like the operator was keeping us on it for her own amusement.
The go-kart track wasn't open last time, it was today.
As well as the rides there is a fairly decent arcade hall.
which included this rather cool installation of Connect 4. I've not seen this before.
So a bit of haphazard journey to get here, and I'm glad I holiday with friends who trust me with the randomness of the journey. There are a lot of people who would have jumped out of the mini bus or given me a really hard time for not organising something more safer. In fact I got some good feedback that it was good to get into the community and see the real people, which in hindsight is a good point. Sometimes it's good to not overly plan every detail and throw caution to the wind.
That aside, the next leg was much easier. There was a taxi sat idle outside the casino which took us to the next location.
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