Harry Herbert, from Brighton, is in South Africa for the whole tournament and was in the stadium for the opening match of the tournament between South Africa and Mexico.

After the slight disappointment of England’s first game at The Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg; I’m about to embark on a 20-hour, overnight bus ride to Cape Town in preparation for the mighty Algeria on Friday.

I will be travelling to all of England’s games with a mate, however far they progress, and hope to see them at Soccer City, Johannesburg, on July 11.

We arrived in Rustenburg on Thursday, eagerly awaiting Friday’s game with Bafana Bafana (South Africa) and Mexico.

All of the locals were very excited, aggressively blowing on their vuvuzelas and performing a dance I am yet to master. South African flags were hung at every other window and sold at every traffic light junction.

The fever had arrived – with the modest prediction of a semi-final place for the Bafana.

So, we arrived at the carnival atmospher which was Rustenburg Fan Fest on Saturday.

Foreigners were a minority as the park filled with yellow shirts and the resonant sound of the vuvuzela.

We asked some young kids what they thought the score would be in the game. We got an arrogant stare from them followed by a confident shout of ‘7-0 to Bafana!’ This was no joke.

With our England flags, my mate and I stood in the middle of the sea of home fans and linked arms to sing the national anthems.

Strangely the crowd then took their seats, although pockets of wild dancing could still be seen, and heard.

South Africa scored the first goal of the World Cup and I have never have I felt such a buzz.

Beer, hats, and vuvuzelas (anything to hand) were thrown to the air.

The sound was deafening as I felt a huge thud on my back.

Quite a large guy I was sitting near had bear hugged me to the air, squeezing the air out of me whilst screaming in my ear.

A woman near us had fallen flat on her back due to the madness, frantically trying to get up to join in, once more, with the celebrations. Having taken my shoes off, my socks were wet through from the spilt beer; and we had found ourselves 20 yards from where we were originally sitting.

Even though the Mexicans scored late on , the party continued long into the night.

None of the fans were disappointed about the result. I don’t even think a lot of them knew the score line at the end.

A great start to what I hope will be a fantastic World Cup 2010.