Two days, 43 hours on the road, and one night in Johannesburg later…
I have arrived in Chokwe, Mozambique! Every time I tell someone that I traveled here from Lusaka by land, they look at me as if I am slightly insane but, truth be told, the trip was quite enjoyable.
Monday, however, was the most hectic, stressful day I have had since arriving in Zambia. As the hours passed, all my travel plans proceeded to crumble before my eyes: the bus I planned on taking from Lusaka to Joburg was not running the next day due to congestion at the border, all the others I found were fully booked, and as I went online to book the last available night bus from Joburg to Maputo, it filled up as I was in the process of making the reservation!! I felt utterly defeated and ready to give up and stay in Lusaka, but eventually I managed to find a seat on a “non-luxury” (meaning there was no toilet and even my little knees were jammed up against the seat in front of me) bus to Joburg and figured the rest could be sorted out once I arrived there.
I set out from the chaos of the Lusaka Intercity Bus Station at noon on Tuesday. Sam accompanied me to the station and waited for my bus to leave, which helped reduce the nerves I was feeling about the long journey ahead. The nerves returned quickly, however as the bus proceeded to stop twice within the first 30 minutes on the road. Ten minutes after leaving the centre of town we stopped to get gas, which meant everyone get off the bus, apparently because the current President’s mother was killed when a bus exploded while refueling at a gas station. The next stop was a flat tire, which took 40 minutes to change and convinced me that I was never going to make it anywhere. In between, the bus was led in prayer by an Evangelical priest who sweated his way through a lengthy and enthusiastic sermon on maintaining the “lighteousness of God” and was then dropped off on the side of the highway…
We arrived at the border with Zimbabwe at around 15:00. Borders always make me a bit nervous, for no good reason, but once the official on the Zambian side realized I was living in Lusaka he was extremely friendly. After exiting Zambia, we walked across a long bridge to the Zimbabwe side of the border. As I was walking along and chatting with a fellow passenger, I noticed a very large dog walking along the rail of the bridge. Then it dawned on me that it isn’t exactly normal for dogs to walk along rails…That’s when I took a closer look and realized that the large dog was actually a large monkey!! On the other side of the bridge there were monkey’s everywhere: sitting on the side of the road, climbing on cars, walking around with their babies on their backs… It was surreal.
The drive through Zimbabwe was beautiful while the daylight lasted, but unfortunately that was only a couple of hours. Fortunately, the onset of darkness brought with it a spectacular display of fork lightening, which made up for missing the incredible vistas we must have been passing. The hours of darkness also passed quickly thanks to my neighbour, Charity, a Swazi traveling from Tanzania where she is studying anesthesiology. She began by asking me what Church I went to, and my attempts to explain that I “don’t pray” (as they say here) led us into long and lovely conversations about religion, culture, HIV/AIDS and life in general.
We stopped in Harare at 22:00 to refuel and, for those who hadn’t brought food (everyone but me), to get some dinner. I took the opportunity to stretch my legs and get some exercise by doing some laps of the gas station, afraid to venture too far out into the streets of Harare at night. Eventually, eeryone got back on the bus, dinner in hand, which made the bus smell rather like a big roasted chicken. Charity insisted on sharing hers with me, “her sister.” Even though I had shared my food with her earlier, I was still blown away by the incredible generosity of someone who didn’t even know if she was going to be able to afford the return journey to University after Christmas.
At 04:45 we reached the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Leaving Zimbabwe was a matter of minutes, but as we trekked up to the S.A. side the long line of cars gave me a bit of an uneasy feeling. We lined up in a hallway, where it was difficult to see what was going on, so I snuck up ahead to take a peek, only to find the hallway opened up into an enormous courtyard with a labyrinth-like queue that looked like it belonged outside the most popular ride at Disneyland. Getting through immigration and customs took 3 hours, and 2 more were spent standing on the side of the road in the rain waiting for the bus, which was apparently held up by the dried fish someone was transporting.
When we finally hit the road again, I was astonished by the striking contrast between S.A. and Zambia or Zimbabwe. S.A. is like Europe with the occasional zebra on the side of the road. I was impressed by the first town we passed, which had a Woolworths and a beautiful park, but it was when we reached Pretoria that my jaw officially dropped. Pretoria is beautiful, pristine, modern, wealthy… everything you don’t expect to see in Africa, especially if your only point of reference in Lusaka!
As we pulled into Park Station in Joburg at 17:00 on Wednesday, the feeling of carefree adventure I had maintained throughout the previous 29 hours started to slip away. But I managed to keep my cool and, after finding out there was no possibility of getting the night bus to Maputo, I called a hostel and had them pick me up at the station and prayed that the reservation Xavi had made for a bus to Maputo the following day would work out.
Fortunately, it did. This time it was a “luxury” bus, which meant I got to watch Die Another Day and The Best of Seal: 1991-2004, and drink 2 cups of coffee. The journey was more or less uneventful, except for the border crossing where, just as I reached the front of the long, hot queue, a Mozambican cut in front of me with a pile of 6 passports for a white South African family that decided they didn’t feel like standing in line and would rather pay someone to cut to the front for them. Grrrrr… To top it off, after the immigration official spent 30 minutes getting through their passports he up and left without a word. When I finally got through, my bus was (fortunately) waiting impatiently for me on the side of the highway…
Taquidir, the driver for Medicus Mundi, the NGO Xavi works for, was waiting for me when the bus arrived in Maputo and we headed off on the 3 hour drive to Chokwe. The last 2 days here have been quiet, but very nice. I’m enjoying listening to the beautiful rhythms of Portuguese, not being hassled by the very timid locals, and sweating my yearly quota in a matter of days. It’s absolutely impossible to believe that tomorrow is Christmas, but then I think being so far away from my family and so many friends, it’s almost best. We are going to the beach for a relaxed Christmas tomorrow, then heading to Maputo for a day before taking off to Swaziland! We’re taking Xavi’s work vehicle, which is a huge luxury, so it should be an excellent adventure. I have another week after we come back, which I plan to spend on the coast of Mozambique, perhaps doing some diving, who knows…?
Well, I’m sure only my mother has made it to the end of this blog, if that. As is always the way, being precise with one’s words is much more difficult than being prolific… I do apologize.
Merry Christmas to all – may it be a day of much laughter, much love, and much eggnog!
Monday, however, was the most hectic, stressful day I have had since arriving in Zambia. As the hours passed, all my travel plans proceeded to crumble before my eyes: the bus I planned on taking from Lusaka to Joburg was not running the next day due to congestion at the border, all the others I found were fully booked, and as I went online to book the last available night bus from Joburg to Maputo, it filled up as I was in the process of making the reservation!! I felt utterly defeated and ready to give up and stay in Lusaka, but eventually I managed to find a seat on a “non-luxury” (meaning there was no toilet and even my little knees were jammed up against the seat in front of me) bus to Joburg and figured the rest could be sorted out once I arrived there.
I set out from the chaos of the Lusaka Intercity Bus Station at noon on Tuesday. Sam accompanied me to the station and waited for my bus to leave, which helped reduce the nerves I was feeling about the long journey ahead. The nerves returned quickly, however as the bus proceeded to stop twice within the first 30 minutes on the road. Ten minutes after leaving the centre of town we stopped to get gas, which meant everyone get off the bus, apparently because the current President’s mother was killed when a bus exploded while refueling at a gas station. The next stop was a flat tire, which took 40 minutes to change and convinced me that I was never going to make it anywhere. In between, the bus was led in prayer by an Evangelical priest who sweated his way through a lengthy and enthusiastic sermon on maintaining the “lighteousness of God” and was then dropped off on the side of the highway…
We arrived at the border with Zimbabwe at around 15:00. Borders always make me a bit nervous, for no good reason, but once the official on the Zambian side realized I was living in Lusaka he was extremely friendly. After exiting Zambia, we walked across a long bridge to the Zimbabwe side of the border. As I was walking along and chatting with a fellow passenger, I noticed a very large dog walking along the rail of the bridge. Then it dawned on me that it isn’t exactly normal for dogs to walk along rails…That’s when I took a closer look and realized that the large dog was actually a large monkey!! On the other side of the bridge there were monkey’s everywhere: sitting on the side of the road, climbing on cars, walking around with their babies on their backs… It was surreal.
The drive through Zimbabwe was beautiful while the daylight lasted, but unfortunately that was only a couple of hours. Fortunately, the onset of darkness brought with it a spectacular display of fork lightening, which made up for missing the incredible vistas we must have been passing. The hours of darkness also passed quickly thanks to my neighbour, Charity, a Swazi traveling from Tanzania where she is studying anesthesiology. She began by asking me what Church I went to, and my attempts to explain that I “don’t pray” (as they say here) led us into long and lovely conversations about religion, culture, HIV/AIDS and life in general.
We stopped in Harare at 22:00 to refuel and, for those who hadn’t brought food (everyone but me), to get some dinner. I took the opportunity to stretch my legs and get some exercise by doing some laps of the gas station, afraid to venture too far out into the streets of Harare at night. Eventually, eeryone got back on the bus, dinner in hand, which made the bus smell rather like a big roasted chicken. Charity insisted on sharing hers with me, “her sister.” Even though I had shared my food with her earlier, I was still blown away by the incredible generosity of someone who didn’t even know if she was going to be able to afford the return journey to University after Christmas.
At 04:45 we reached the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Leaving Zimbabwe was a matter of minutes, but as we trekked up to the S.A. side the long line of cars gave me a bit of an uneasy feeling. We lined up in a hallway, where it was difficult to see what was going on, so I snuck up ahead to take a peek, only to find the hallway opened up into an enormous courtyard with a labyrinth-like queue that looked like it belonged outside the most popular ride at Disneyland. Getting through immigration and customs took 3 hours, and 2 more were spent standing on the side of the road in the rain waiting for the bus, which was apparently held up by the dried fish someone was transporting.
When we finally hit the road again, I was astonished by the striking contrast between S.A. and Zambia or Zimbabwe. S.A. is like Europe with the occasional zebra on the side of the road. I was impressed by the first town we passed, which had a Woolworths and a beautiful park, but it was when we reached Pretoria that my jaw officially dropped. Pretoria is beautiful, pristine, modern, wealthy… everything you don’t expect to see in Africa, especially if your only point of reference in Lusaka!
As we pulled into Park Station in Joburg at 17:00 on Wednesday, the feeling of carefree adventure I had maintained throughout the previous 29 hours started to slip away. But I managed to keep my cool and, after finding out there was no possibility of getting the night bus to Maputo, I called a hostel and had them pick me up at the station and prayed that the reservation Xavi had made for a bus to Maputo the following day would work out.
Fortunately, it did. This time it was a “luxury” bus, which meant I got to watch Die Another Day and The Best of Seal: 1991-2004, and drink 2 cups of coffee. The journey was more or less uneventful, except for the border crossing where, just as I reached the front of the long, hot queue, a Mozambican cut in front of me with a pile of 6 passports for a white South African family that decided they didn’t feel like standing in line and would rather pay someone to cut to the front for them. Grrrrr… To top it off, after the immigration official spent 30 minutes getting through their passports he up and left without a word. When I finally got through, my bus was (fortunately) waiting impatiently for me on the side of the highway…
Taquidir, the driver for Medicus Mundi, the NGO Xavi works for, was waiting for me when the bus arrived in Maputo and we headed off on the 3 hour drive to Chokwe. The last 2 days here have been quiet, but very nice. I’m enjoying listening to the beautiful rhythms of Portuguese, not being hassled by the very timid locals, and sweating my yearly quota in a matter of days. It’s absolutely impossible to believe that tomorrow is Christmas, but then I think being so far away from my family and so many friends, it’s almost best. We are going to the beach for a relaxed Christmas tomorrow, then heading to Maputo for a day before taking off to Swaziland! We’re taking Xavi’s work vehicle, which is a huge luxury, so it should be an excellent adventure. I have another week after we come back, which I plan to spend on the coast of Mozambique, perhaps doing some diving, who knows…?
Well, I’m sure only my mother has made it to the end of this blog, if that. As is always the way, being precise with one’s words is much more difficult than being prolific… I do apologize.
Merry Christmas to all – may it be a day of much laughter, much love, and much eggnog!
posted by ash at 8:31 PM
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