In honor of our travel day from Mozambique to Swaziland commencing on Thursday here are the details of our last travel day. It was…. interesting, just as the WR warned us.
Tuesday
11:00 am- We finish saying goodbye to Mandy and all of the Volunteers at Volunteer in South Africa, load up two buses (the big one with all of our bodies, the small one with all of our bags) and drive one last time into Plett where we’re dropped off at a gas station to wait for our bus to Port Elizabeth. The sun is beating down hot on the asphalt and I become eternally grateful for AC and ice cream.
1:30 pm- Our bus pulls up and we all pile on. It was already pretty full but I lucked out and got one of only a few window seats, and once again I was eternally grateful for the AC and a bus driver that has enough sense to keep it on.
5:30- After driving NE along the coast we left the gorgeous, forested Garden Route long behind and arrived in flat, farmy Port Elizabeth half an hour late to catch our bus to Johannesburg.
5:45- After some mass confusion and intense bag guarding we learn that our bus has waited for us. We find our bus and settle on for the 15 hour overnight bus ride.
7:30- I absentmindedly packed my headphone splitter away, but Alyssa and I managed to watch all of A Knights Tale using only one set of headphones.
10:00- Found out that unlike our bus ride to Plett, which stopped every two hours, this bus was only going to stop twice during the whole journey, which, in WR terms means I might actually sleep for more than 2 hours at a time, yay!
Wednesday
6:00am- I groggoly open my eyes as our bus pulls into a gas station. With only a few exceptions where I re positioned myself, I managed to sleep through most of the night. Man, when I get home I’m going to be able to sleep anywhere!
8:15- We arrive at the Johannesburg bus station and pull our stuff inside while we wait for all the other teams to arrive. Our bus to Maputo doesn’t leave until late in the afternoon, so some people hunker down to sleep while others go to get food. There’s a restaurant in the station that has legit free refills on soda. I’ll just say I took full advantage of that! Oh, and there’s actually a law against brushing your teeth in public restrooms. Apparently they don’t want homeless people taking advantage of the facilities.
4:00pm- We head out to find our bus, which ends up being three vans with trailers hooked to the back for our bags. With 48 people, it’s gonna be cramped. At least we’ve been told the ride to Maputo is only 6 hours. Looking at the map I seriously doubt this, but hey, I’m gonna be optimistic.
6:57- We pull over for dinner at Steers in who-knows-where South Africa. Over half the squad waits in ONE line to get food, and I get one last meat pie before crossing the border. Before we head back out, we play a nice friendly game of red rover.
9:50- We arrive at the Swaziland border. Why we have to drive through Swaziland to get to Mozambique beats me, and thanks to some ridiculously mad Speed Race esq driving skills we managed to make it to the border a mere 20 minutes before it closed.
11:45- I reposition to get into a more comfortable position to snooze, and I feel something sticky all over my feet. I turn on my headlamp to find that not only has my jelly leaked but it’s exploded all over my feet/backpack/van floor. Not fun.
Thursday
12:30 am- We arrive at the Swaziland/Mozambique border. I promptly rush out and attempt to clean up the jelly mess. I put on a good show for the border guards who wondered what the heck this Mzungu (white) woman was doing running back and forth from the van to the water bucket and trash.
1:00- I finally get the mess cleaned up and through the immigration line, then we all pile into our vans and drive to the Mozambique side where the real waiting begins.
6:45- After almost 6 hours of sleeping outside, sleeping inside, chasing goats, and being told by the border people that we can’t make silly faces in our Visa pictures, we finally are done with the visas and enter Mozambique.
8:10- We get to the “bus station” in Maputo (a full 16 hours after leaving Joburg, not 6), which is actually just a busy market. Our three teams heading north to Beira expect our journey with the rest of the squad to end here. NOT. The busses end up being way too expensive so we pray for transportation and head to the ministry location where two of our teams will be spending the month.
9:07-12pm- We arrive at Angies house, a Rockstar transplant from Texas who feeds all 50 of us breakfast and lunch. After a little bit of waiting we hear that they’ve found us a bus to Beira and the team leaders leave to get money and water.
12:46 : We load in and leave for Beria with 24 people crammed into a 22 passenger bus where 4 of the seats are taken by our bags. This is going to be fun.
1:00- Stop for gas. The bus van thing starts shaking. “Why?” you ask? Well because they wanted to shake it so they could get 100 liters of gas in a 90 liter tank, of course.
1:31- We get pulled over. No worries, just pay the police off.
1:37- We stop because the luggage falls on top of the people that are sitting in the back seat. I knew this ride was going to be interesting, and we’ve only been driving for 30 minutes!
1:53- Luggage is retied. On the road again we go.
3:28- Pulled over again. No worries, just pay the police off…again.
4:24- Stop for random passport check. Insert men with big guns.
4:49-5:14- Bathroom/food stop. We wanted to stop at KFC but the driver insisted on driving 30 minutes farther down the road to stop at a gas station with nearly nothing. Hungry.
8:16- The van dies. It may or may not be due to a squadmate named Nick who unplugged the battery that was just hanging out in a hole in the floor of the van.
8:22-10:08- We stop at a gas station/hotel/restaurant. We all run out to use the bathroom but get there and find that the bathrooms smell like they haven’t been cleaned…in 50 years nor flushed… plug your nose and go. Next we hope to spend the night in the local hotel since the toll bridge 3 hours up the road closes at 9 but it’s to expensive, so after shelling out far to much money for the worst chicken sandwich of my life we get back on the road again.
Friday
1:56am- Our bus sees a rather large bus coming. It seems that our only option is to swerve off the road as they pass us. Then, my life flashes before my eyes as we hit a pothole the size of the grand canyon. With more than a dozen more to follow
2:30- We arrive at the toll. Some of us get out, some stay in. Some bring packs out of the bus to lay on. My seatmate, Natalie decided to go outside so I laid back on the seat with my feet out the window and promptly fell asleep.
3:30- Apparently I snored, Kaitlyn shoved me to wake me up, but I just rolled over and fell back asleep.
5:26- The toll is open so we wake up, pack up, and get going.
6:42- Bathroom break, yay! And this time it’s not AS stinky… although quite stinky, but TIA (this is Africa)
7:28- Another grand canyon pothole. I feel I should add that when I mention a pothole, it is because it is a particularly gigantic one. Normal potholes were a part of our adventure at least every thirty seconds.
9:15- Bus dies.
9:17- Bus is alive.
9:4-: We hear a noise that is evidence of a problem with our bus. I look out the window and can see the tailpipe scrappy along the holy pavement. This isn’t good. We pull over to tie it back up, next to a fun little village with little African huts straight out of a movie. So cool!
9:48a: Tailpipe surgery went well. Head em up move em out.
11:43a: We pull off the main highway and onto a bumpy backroad. Next thing I see is a sign that says Kedesh Sanatuario on my right, our home for the month. Boys are soon running next to the bus and Regina Spektor is blaring over speakers. It’s gonna be a good month!
