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So here's the deal with our next CCC WAPT Blog Contest:We want to know WHERE you went on your "road trip"*, WHO you went with and WHAT made it so memorable. Extra points** for details. Leave a comment on this post with your story. We'll be picking two winners on Friday, July 17th.
* no road necessary.... just tell us about your favorite trip :-)
** Points = 0 , winners will be chosen randomly
1 comments:
Laura and I were en route from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Pemba, Mozambique. The airfare was $400 rt pp for a 90 min flight and the bus was $25 pp one way for a "6-12 hour journey". We opted for the bus since we were trying to conserve funds on a four continent journey, plus we had been on long bus trips on the treacherous roads of Africa before...
July 7, 2009 at 10:15 AM40 hours into our bus ride we found ourselves exhausted from a grueling ride on a 50 seat bus that had about 75 people in it....we found ourselves without water because while we were asleep the lady in front of us "borrowed" our water supply which later her young child peed all over the floorboard because the bus wouldn't stop...and we found ourselves stuck in a swamp at midnight with wild lions surrounding us in the rural bush.
The bus was tilting like it was going to sink and possibly flip into the swamp...so many people shifted their weight until the bus was secure. Then we were stuck for hours in the bus because nobody wanted to get out (for fear of lions) and because we were in the middle of NOWHERE... A few hours later as I was sleeping on the rooftop of the bus on the pile of soft luggage tied to the roof I saw a giant truck come and it pulled us from the swamp. A few hours after that we were in the village of Mtwara, the southernmost civilized city in TZ.
I naively asked, how far is it to Mozambique? I was told it would take 6-12 hours from Dar! I was kindly informed that the rain had washed out the roads and it may take another 2-3 days journey, but that it would be best to go by sea at this point which would take 1-2 days. Laura and I decided to go back to Dar es Salaam on a commercial plan that left a few hours later...that flight took 45 minutes...yeah...and it cost $500 total.
In Dar, there were security concerns and countrywide fraud so all the ATMs were turned off and nobody would take credit cards. We needed $800 bucks to book the last available flight to Mozambique for the next two weeks...we miraculously got on the flight due to the generosity of an Australian man who observed me pleading with the airlines 45 min before the flight and loaned me eight Benjamin Franklins with no questions asked and simply saying "I think I've got what you need, mate! You're good for it, eh?"
It was a very memorable road trip on the bus and the process of getting to Mozambique was highly worth it since we assisted setting up a school of missions where when we arrived over 200 people from across the globe came to experience Africa and learn about missionary work in Mozambique.
Fine
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