A terrible journey

My journey back into Tanzania was not a pleasant one. The transport – all pick up trucks – left from a little town four hours south of the boarder. The vehicles only left when they were full and so to be sure of getting one you needed to set off at 2 in the morning. Fortunately they picked you up where you were staying, so you didn’t have to wonder around in the dark trying to find one.

Everywhere in Mozambique had been really hot and my last night, well what little I had of it, was no exception. I lay in bed trying to get a bit of sleep before the journey, so hot that I had to fan myself with a piece of paper. Still very hot when it was time to set off I foolishly packed both my jumpers unreachably in my big rucksack.

As we drove around the town picking people up all was fine. But when the truck was full and we set off, all was not fine at all. We sped ridiculously fast down the dirt/sand roads, which resulted in two things – cold and pain, both of which were pretty extreme. I had a little shirt handy for cover my shoulders, but even with this wrapped around me it was still completely freezing. The immense pain was due to hitting all the many bumps in the road at such speed, that at each one you flew into the air and then smashed back down onto the bare metal. To try and reduce the impact and also to avoid accidentally flying off the back, I clung onto the side as tightly as I could. This however left my arm with cuts and scratches from the plants that ripped at them as we passed. I was not in the best state when we arrived at our destination!

One good thing about the journey was that as we drove in the pitch dark through the countryside in conditions which made sleeping not an option, the sky was absolutely beautiful and so full of stars that you really had to look to spot the constellations.

When we got to the boarder it was light. Unsurprisingly we’d made good time and so had a two hour wait before the boarder opened! After eventually being stamped out of Mozambique, myself and the other people from the pickup I was in, along with all the people from another pick up, had to squeeze rather scarily into one vehicle to get taken to the river which formed the boarder. Here we were punted across in boats until the water became too shallow to go any further and then we had to get out and walk. On the other side mini buses were waiting to take us to the Tanzanian boarder post and on into Tanzania. It was so good to arrive!