The true giants of football
Scotch Farm, South Africa (CNN) - The bright morning sun lights up the children's faces as they watch the large trucks and buses maneuver through the narrow streets of the township of Scotch Farm on the outskirts of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape.
Their eyes are a mix of bemusement and delight as they watch the band of strange, but enthusiastic adults pour out of the vehicles with a vast array of cardboard boxes and lumpy bags.
Watch my report on the giant puppets with a penchant for soccer.
The people of Scotch Farm have benefited very little from the World Cup being hosted in their country. Poverty and unemployment are massive problems in this community and opportunities are scarce.
That is exactly why this collective of French and South African artists has come here. The show is called "The Giant Match" and it aims at creating an artistic spectacle to match the excitement of the world's biggest soccer tournament.
Elephants are soccer giants
Knysna Elephant Park, South Africa - The real giant of soccer isn't Ronaldo, Kaka or Messi - it's Namibia, a four-ton orphaned elephant with serious dribbling skills and a placid temperament unlike many of the stars on the human fields.
At the Knysna Elephant Park in South Africa, orphaned elephants have been kicking a soccer ball for years. This year the playing pachyderms have gotten into the spirit of the World Cup.
It's not just fun and games, though. "It's cognitive development therapy for them," says park manager Greg Vogt. "Soccer and playing with the soccer ball brings in an element in the relationship between each of the handlers and the elephants. Every elephant is an individual, a specific personality and every handler has his own personality."
Kids play most southerly World Cup
Struisbaai, South Africa - Struisbaai seems as long way from gleaming stadiums of the World Cup. The Southern tip of Africa is known as the Cape of Storms and its living up to its name.
Icy rain cuts into the skin and waves pound the rock outcroppings of this bleak and beautiful coast. But here, at the foot of the continent, the World Cup spirit is alive.
Red or white? The World Cup of wine
CNN's David McKenzie will spend the entire month of the World Cup traveling around South Africa in a Winnebago and taking the pulse of the host country, the first nation on the continent to stage sport's most illustrious occasion.
Paarl, South Africa - "I've got the best commute in the world," Fairview Estate's chief wine maker Anthony De Jager says with a smile as he watches his amiable pack of dogs run excitedly through the vineyards.
The sound of dried leaves crunching underfoot follows him as he wanders down the straight rows of vines. It is winter now and harvesting has come to a halt, giving the vines a rest and following a cycle of cultivation that has endured in this valley near the Western Cape town of Paarl for more than 300 years.
Not much has changed in the view of the stately mountains and picturesque vineyards, but football fever is running as high here as in the rest of the country and De Jager has seen a spike in wine sales to countries whose teams are playing in the World Cup.
The impossibility of the World Cup
CNN’s David McKenzie will spend the entire month of the World Cup traveling around South Africa in a Winnebago and taking the pulse of the host country, the first nation on the continent to stage sport’s most illustrious occasion.
Cape Town, South Africa - Chief Petty Officer Dudley Malgas’ job is to tell the time - and he does it using the world’s oldest muzzle-loading cannon still firing. Every working day, the South African navy has fired the noonday gun at exactly midday over Cape Town as it has done for more than 200 years. It is so accurate that people still set their watches by it.
South Africa’s moment as it hosts the first African World Cup isn’t lost on this timekeeper.
“Cape Town is alive,” he says as he stands on the slopes of Signal Hill looking out over the wide vista of Cape Town spread out in front of him, “by hosting the World Cup 2010.”
