or...
Friday 2004-06-11, day 8, in which Wouter's HiLift gets used in anger and not much progress is made
Ina's proposed route was Chokwe - Nalazi - Chigubu - Machaila - Massangena and then down the Save river to Macovane. But the long fuel stop caused things to go wrong, because in our hurry to find a camping spot, we took the wrong turnoff, and we were now stuck in a maze of tiny little dirt tracks, all alike.
Ina's Russian maps were useless, well, worse than useless really -- all the towns were exactly where the map said they would be, but none of the tracks were. The maps were either made before the last big flood (a good possibility) or falsified and leaked from the KGB to confuse people (a definite maybe :-).
And along the way, looking for Nalazi, we came across a bit of mud in the road. Terry looked at the road, and decided to go around... big mistake, he sunk the caboose to its diffs.
Neither Pim in the Forward Control, or Jochem and Pim hooked up in tandem, could pull the caboose out forward.
They also tried to pull the caboose out backwards, using the Forward Control, no joy.
In the end, Terry had to jack up the rear, put branches under the wheels, jack up the front, push the caboose off the jack onto more branches, and then only could they pull him out of the mud.
At 1300 we stopped for lunch. The roads keep on turning towards the east, and we want to go north.
Joy: "Do you think there will be a QuickSPAR in Vilanculo? I want to buy frozen chicken" I offer to by a fresh chicken at one of the villages and freeze it in the Minus 40... the idea did not go down well...
We decide to turn around. This road can't be right.
After backtracking 1km, we meet some guys going the other (i.e. our original) way. No, we were right, apparently. Turn around again. Eventually reach a village, go through the village, and I notice John & Joy are not behind me any more. I go back.
Turns out that we missed the turn, our guide caught up with Jochem, he stopped, and off course eventually we all stopped... except for Terry & Ina, they're gone. Jochem goes off to find him.
Now we're the best entertainment this village has had in ages. Everybody crowds around talking, not that we understand much of what they're saying.
Pim is sitting in the 101, and one woman drags another up to his window. I tell Thandie that they're proposing that Pim takes the draggee as a second wife. No, says Thandie, she prefers this one over here, the young one... No, says Pim, too young. He'd rather have the girl from the petrol station in Chokwe...
Bush Camp #4
1600, and we stop, make camp. I have a shower, life's good. Braai a vacpac, make couscous with red, green and yellow peppers. Thandie has scratches all over her legs -- her modelling career over.
A local walks up to us, doesn't speak much english, Jochem gives him a smoke. Later another local comes up, sits by the fire, very shy-like... turns out the local people can't figure out what TF we're doing here, and are afraid that we're going to live here. Terry assures them that we're not...
Saturday morning: Someone asks how many bush camps we've had so far. Terry: "This is the fourth camp. There was one outside Pafuri, one in the Game Reserve, then the one where they thought we were cattle rustlers and the one where they thought we were squatters..."
"I'd rather wash with beer than drink water" -- Wouter, earlier, on making sure that you have enough beer
I manage to leave the tap open and pump most of my drinking water out the back door. I might have to wash with beer...
There's a blowby on the manifold, but then again, I've had blowbys before, and it's not serious, will last 'till I get home.
My notes read "0830. At crossroads. All we need is a tree. Consensus seems to be to turn right"
1015, Nalazi: There's a shop here... I buy a tin of viennas, take 10 sweets for "change", Mt 40000 for the viennas and Mt 1000 each for the sweets. They have South African beer, Portuguese wine. Thandie buys wine, flour for bread.