It is one o'clock in the morning when I park my 4X4 in front of my bungalow in the Kunama Game Reserve, situated between Polokwane and Nelspruit.

It's pitch black. Fortunately I have my flashlight on. Although I’ve been driving already for three hours from Nelspruit to the lodge, the match between Australia and Serbia is still playing like a movie inside my head. Pantelic's frustration about Australia’s suspected handball, which should have given a penalty to Serbia, Lazovic’s disappointment about Serbia’s  elimination, Stankovic's tears.

Mistake
I head for the kitchen of my bungalow. To my amazement, I noticed that the door is opened. ''Strange,” I say to myself. I turn on the light. I jump in shock: an enormous havoc in the kitchen. All the cupboards were opened. The floor is littered with cookies, drinks were thrown on the ground. The muesli and cornflakes are gone. A horrible smell of urine and excrement emerges from the kitchen. I was robbed. Not by a 'violent gang', but by one or several baboons. I was stupid enough to let the food be visible to the baboons. A serious mistake in the bush!

It is winter, hence baboons have little to eat in the wild. Then I go into my room. Everything seems relatively tidy. Only my chocolate bars on my bedside table are gone. For the first time in ten days, I lock all the doors in my bungalow. At this hour of the night, I can’t reach anyone in the bush. I leave the mess in the kitchen and go to bed with the uncomfortable feeling that one or more monkeys were in my space. As if I had a visit from thieves. I manage to catch some sleep only around 3:00 in the morning.

Noises
The next morning, the sun is shining. I call reception and in no time a group of maids are there to clean the bungalow. 'Oh you had a party here, the baboons came to pay you a visit! " says Lydia, one of the maids, with a grin. Within ten minutes, the kitchen is back in its original state.

One hour later I am behind my laptop : I am doing my research for the next match in Polokwane, between Paraguay and New Zealand. Suddenly, I hear noises. I look up and I see the thief passing by the window. It is a large baboon, more than a meter tall and weighing easily a good 100 pounds. I jump!

I know that a year ago this monkey has thrown chairs and couch out the window just to grab some fruits in a bowl in the living room. This is what I just heard from the maid ... A baboon is on average four times stronger than a man ... The thief looks at me with an arrogant air. His big fangs hanging over his lower lip. I pretend not to see him ... it seems the best tactic to get rid of him. Suddenly, he jumps over the railing back into the bush. I breathe again, relieved ... I immediately rush to the kitchen to check whether the door is closed and the food is out of sight.

The following evening, I get back slightly earlier than usual after the match Paraguay - New Zealand. I saw a courageous New Zealand but it would have been too good to be true if they would have qualified for the knockout stages. On the way, I think to myself that the Kiwis would have been an ideal prey for the baboons. At the sliding gate of the Kunama Game Reserve I type the security code in. Three more kilometres before I get to my bungalow.

The real World Cup
After 500 meters, it seems like the road ends. There is something in the way. Two baby elephants appear in front of my headlights. They take the time to cross the road and peacefully eat some leaves. Shortly after a huge elephant arises twenty feet behind the car. It must be the father. The mother is on the left side of the road. It is a touching scene: a family of elephants on a winter evening in the province of Limpopo. Holman’s goal which gave Australia hope to continue for the knockout suddenly seems very far away. This is the real World Cup in South Africa!

The following morning, I go by car to the gate. On my right, in a small lake, I see a crocodile, four meters long. He is there every day in the sun. His presence does not even surprise me anymore. Apparently he is more than 80 years old. I never knew that they could get so old ... Shortly before that I turned off the engine of the jeep to watch two giraffes majestically taking their breakfast at the treetops.

This is the day of hope for Ivory Coast in Nelspruit. An Ivorian scoring machine appeared to have been turned on against North Korea, but eventually South Africa has to part with one of the greatest African soccer heroes, Didier Drogba. This is how the World Cup ends in Polokwane and Nelspruit.

I leave the Limpopo Province. At least in Johannesburg I will be safe ... What am I saying? The World Cup in South Africa is full of contrasts...