We left Sofia, Bulgaria at 8:45am on August 28th.
It is currently 12:30pm on August 30th and we’re in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
We’ve officially hit our longest travel day and it’s not over yet.
Leaving our hostel in Sofia we walked the 3 blocks to the subway station with our big packs on our backs and day packs held close to our chests. From there we had a 35 min ride to the airport.
We boarded our first flight of the “day”; a 5 hour flight to Doha, Qatar. Qatar Airways doesn’t want people waiting around in the airport; therefore, any layover 8 hours or more is given a complimentary hotel room. By the time we went through customs and got a ride to the hotel we only had a little over an hour before we needed to head back to catch our next flight. With just enough time for a shower and a quick nap we were waiting to board at 1:30am on August 29th.
We landed in Johannesburg, South Africa around 11:00am. Setting up “camp” in a corner of the airport we took turns napping, getting food, and exchanging money. Around 3:30pm we headed to the tram that would take us to the bus station for the next portion of our travels.
Our journey across the border to Zimbabwe began at 6:00pm. We had a snack and bathroom break around 1:30am and then hit the border about 2:30am on August 30th. Getting stamped out of South Africa was a pretty quick and simple process. It was 30 mins later at the Zimbabwe immigration that took the longest.
In order to enter the country you need an invitation letter and a visa. We had our letters from our hosts but, had to wait for each of our visas to be processed and put into our passports. With 40 people you can imagine how quickly we took over a small immigration office. The whole process took about 2 hours, the temperature was slowly dropping into the 50s none of us had really slept or ate but we were excited to be in Africa and attitudes were still positive.
A little over 15 hours after our departure in Johannesburg we arrived in Bulawayo at 9:30am. My team is currently waiting at the bus station for our connection at 2:00pm for another 4 hour bus ride to Kadoma, Zimbabwe.
It’s been a long 3 days and there’s still some more ahead of us. World Race travel days are not for the weak that’s for sure.
Please keep our team in your prayers as we start ministry tomorrow morning.
