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I don’t think that I had slept more than two hours, before the alarm
clock went off and told us that it was time to leave for Mupulungu. The
day before we had bought our tickets and ordered a cap to the bus
central, and we arrived here in complete darkness. Our luggage was
stored on the bus and we were shown to two reserved double seats. The
smell in the bus was hideous, and though it was cold, we stood outside
to postpone meeting the stench. We were soon intruded upon, by a boy
with a scrounged pocketbook, who made it clear to us that we had to pay
extra for the luggage. It never dawned on me what the problem was till
the boy, after having acting like nothing for an hour or so, got it
together to write us a receipt for 30.000 of the local currency.
 Perhaps
it is worth noting that we had ordered our bus ticket from Germins
Motorways, despite Toby having told us explicitly not to use Germins,
and he had furthermore told the people in the reception of the hotel.
They of course first told us this after we had purchased the tickets. At
any rate, at a little bit to five in the a.m. the bus left the terminal,
and the second part of our journey had commenced. For those of you who
haven’t experienced sitting in an African bus for 1200 km, I can only
say; If you can avoid it?, then do so! A person like me, with a height
of 180 cm, can under no circumstances be seated normally, and I had to
press my knees up in the back of the person sitting in front. It is cold
at night, and f…… hot in the day. The air is choking, and don’t get me
started on the smell. Like I said we had gotten our hands on a double
seat for each of us, so every time the bus stopped we would look away
and pretend we were sleeping in order to keep the seats for ourselves.
It worked, except for with one man, who luckily was only on the bus for
about half an hour. It was notably obvious that the locals didn’t like
sitting with a white man. The children would look puzzled at us, and
then walk around. I wonder what they are threatened with, when they
misbehave. I was actually pretty amazed by the African children. Even
when they are only three years old they can sit quietly for fourteen
hours without being heard. No running up and down the isle, no fighting,
and no one screaming for candy and soda pop. Speaking of soda pop, there
were three boys looking intensively at us, and since we still had soda
left over we gave each of them one. They sat for a long time looking at
them, till one of them gave it to his mother. She then asked us, after
having looked at it for a while, how it was opened. Would you believe,
that there are still people who don’t know how to open a can of pop?
This was only the beginning. One boy was so intrigued by the can that he
put it in his little bag, along with a notebook.
 The
bus kept constantly stopping, and every time prices were argued. This
was actually intense to the point, that there at one time was a little
scuffle, and four men (boys) were thrown off the bus. It appeared to me
that the bus fare was calculated without taxes, when the bus was out of
the major cities. For the last 400 km, the road was VERY rough and the
bus drove for the most with two wheels in the ditch. It felt like a
hundred degrees.
An ad along the way was quite explanatory, of the road situation out
here. It displayed a man sitting, with a fishing pole, fishing in a hole
in the street. It read: It is the weight that ruins our roads. Well, we
made it to Mupulungu as darkness crept in, and while we tried keeping
“helpful” people away from out suitcases, Toby arrived in his new
Toyota. The luggage was picked up, and after a stop in something they
called a coffee shop???, we drove to the harbor and unloaded our bags in
Toby’s boat, that would take us the final 45 minutes of the travel. To
finally see the lake, and ride through it with about 45 knots in total
darkness and with the hot wind in our faces, made all the traveling
worthwhile. Finally we were at our destination. After unloading our
luggage, we headed for the eating house and had a really nice meal. I
have unfortunately forgotten what it was, but I clearly remember it
being good. After the long trip, we had one beer at the bar and headed
for bed. |
