I bought a post card with this quote on it a long time ago. And it has been on display in all my rooms I have had since. I have, in fact, spent quite some time mulling that statement over: does it mean, you should always have a dream, any dream? Or does it mean you should always have at least one dream that just is your dream, but which you never actually realise?
I also renamed this blog ‘live your dreams’ when I came to Africa; after all, living and working in Africa had been a dream of mine for a really long time before I actually did it. And I managed to realise it – and have loved every minute of it.
I do believe that you should not just dream, but that you should put all your efforts towards realising your dreams. Only, this is often easier said than done. Dreams are these things that you think about in your quiet time – not unlike fantasies. And making them reality is not always easy, for one, is there ever a right time to realise your dream? When do you decide it’s the right time? It feels to me a bit like the decision to have children – is there ever a good time for that? I don’t think so – but people do it anyway. And then you deal with the situation, when you’re in it.
Ever since I got my car I have been dreaming about one day just taking off and driving down to Cape Town – an adventure on the African roads. Exploring the continent whilst driving through it. In short, the adventure of a lifetime.
And I talk about these things – but always with the kind of attitude that is distant from actually doing it, actually just driving off into the sunset. After all, you need to plan this carefully, need a good car, need money, need time, need the person to do it with. A million obstacles and reasons why right now is not the time for such a thing; apart from the fact that to most people this might sound like a stark raving mad idea.
A long time ago a friend of mine said to me, when I was telling him about this dream of driving to South Africa and then writing a book about the journey: ‘just make sure you do it. Don’t be another one of those people who only talk about it, and never do it.’ This has stuck with me, because it is true. It is so easy to dream, and never act on the dream. It’s only a dream after all, right? And there are a million reasons why the time isn’t right, the car isn’t right, the money isn’t right – you name it.
At this point in time I am at a bit of crossroads in terms of work, where to live, what to do with life. And when my friend announced he was driving to South Africa on his motorbike and was looking for companions – and started bugging me about it, I made the decision to put all my eggs in one basket and go for it. It seems like the right time, if there ever is one, the right person to do it with, and the making my dream come true.
Of course the rational part of my brain and personality spent a long time contemplating it, having these conversations in my head about why I this was mad, crazy, irresponsible. Driving to South Africa from Rwanda in my 21 year old jeep – insane. But even after hours of silent conversations and debates in my head I could really not find a good enough reason not to follow my heart, my desire. The worst that can happen is that my engine block will melt and that the car becomes unfixable. So what? I can sell it for parts, get to the next biggest city and call it a trip. And besides, the car will be sold at the end of the trip anyways – so what have I got to lose? Not really anything. Except the regret twenty years from now about the fact that I never did the trip when I had the chance.
And because I don’t want to be the person who only talks, and doesn’t act on it, I am going to drive my samurai from Kigali to Cape Town, round about a month from now. And I am going to write a book about the trip. And just for kicks, I’m planning on driving the whole way barefoot.
Monday, 13 September 2010
Saturday, 22 May 2010
chadventures
this is possibly the first post in literally years that will not focus on a car melt-down - but everything else is pretty much melting down, or simply melting.
I have arrived in chad almost a week ago. nine years after my first visit to this country; and my first ever setting foot on african soil. it was then that I fell in love, forever and always with africa. even though the experience then was overwhelming and in many ways upsetting it was also amazing, and unforgettable. it made me want to go to africa - to live and work on this continent of which I still know so little.
after two and a half years in rwanda I have to admit I am getting ready to leave that country; have even been considering moving back to europe because I feel I have reached saturation point - for now.
when I was offered a consultancy in chad I accepted, excitedly so. once again I was going to go back to a country I had already visited nearly 1o years ago; my first african country. the place where my love story with this continent started for real.
I borded the plane out of rwanda without looking back - a thing I've gotten good at by now (and since I'm going back there it was neither a very sad affair). upon arrival in addis the feeling of a churning stomach and fluttering nerves - not unlike the feeling of being in love started to slowly grab a hold of me.
I had a window seat from addis to n'djamena and was looking forward to watching the landscape change as we got closer and closer to our destination. I love looking out the window trying to guess where we might be - looking at the landscape and imagining what it must be like to be walking down there, what it might look like standing on that hill, or walking through this valley, what kinds of plants there are, what animals might roam the areas, what the air feels like on the skin? the closer we got to n'djamena the more yellow the landscape became; I started imagining the heat down there, the dryness, the wind, the dust - and the heat. I tried to remember what it felt like all those years ago - and surprisingly my memory, particularly of the city, is very vague. I only seemed to remember the heat. and the dust. and the heat.
finally, the plane touched down at n'djamena international airport, which was still as I remembered it. small and not like the typical international airport one is used to. I made my way towards the plane door and upon taking the step across the threshold and onto the stairs leading down to the ground it was like walking through a wall and into a different universe. a wall of heat that is so total it is hard to describe it. first it hits you on the front of your body, your face, your ears, your hair, but also the arms, the chest, the legs, even the toes. and immediately it closes in around you and covers every single fibre of your body. it is not an evil sort of heat, but it is total. that is the best word I can find to describe it.
after taking the bus for the remaining 100 metres from the plane to the immigration 'hall' I stood in line with my letter requesting to grant me entry into the country. when it was my turn I was sent to the police post. a small room on the side of the immigration hall. there I had to help the officer look into his file and fish out my approved authorisation. filling in a form followed, a bit more waiting and finally he handed me the paper which would allow me to enter the country. the passport had to stay behind.
I stood by the luggage belt and waited for my suitcase, somewhat sceptical if it would arrive. it did. then you have to put it through a scanner before you are allowed to exit. there was no order; people just shoving themselves to the belt which would transport your bag through the machine. lots of chinese people with hundreds of cardboard boxes and a few stunned europeans who are used to queuing the english way... well - welcome to africa! unless you push and shove yourself, you will get left behind. I managed to get my suitcase through the machine, grabbed it on the other side and made for the exit where I was met by a driver who deposited me in my hotel.
the first thing I did was open the window to let in the fresh air - which is not actually that fresh as it is laden with heat - and drank a sparkling cold perrier and just smiled stupidly, euphoric about being back chad.
I have arrived in chad almost a week ago. nine years after my first visit to this country; and my first ever setting foot on african soil. it was then that I fell in love, forever and always with africa. even though the experience then was overwhelming and in many ways upsetting it was also amazing, and unforgettable. it made me want to go to africa - to live and work on this continent of which I still know so little.
after two and a half years in rwanda I have to admit I am getting ready to leave that country; have even been considering moving back to europe because I feel I have reached saturation point - for now.
when I was offered a consultancy in chad I accepted, excitedly so. once again I was going to go back to a country I had already visited nearly 1o years ago; my first african country. the place where my love story with this continent started for real.
I borded the plane out of rwanda without looking back - a thing I've gotten good at by now (and since I'm going back there it was neither a very sad affair). upon arrival in addis the feeling of a churning stomach and fluttering nerves - not unlike the feeling of being in love started to slowly grab a hold of me.
finally, the plane touched down at n'djamena international airport, which was still as I remembered it. small and not like the typical international airport one is used to. I made my way towards the plane door and upon taking the step across the threshold and onto the stairs leading down to the ground it was like walking through a wall and into a different universe. a wall of heat that is so total it is hard to describe it. first it hits you on the front of your body, your face, your ears, your hair, but also the arms, the chest, the legs, even the toes. and immediately it closes in around you and covers every single fibre of your body. it is not an evil sort of heat, but it is total. that is the best word I can find to describe it.
after taking the bus for the remaining 100 metres from the plane to the immigration 'hall' I stood in line with my letter requesting to grant me entry into the country. when it was my turn I was sent to the police post. a small room on the side of the immigration hall. there I had to help the officer look into his file and fish out my approved authorisation. filling in a form followed, a bit more waiting and finally he handed me the paper which would allow me to enter the country. the passport had to stay behind.
I stood by the luggage belt and waited for my suitcase, somewhat sceptical if it would arrive. it did. then you have to put it through a scanner before you are allowed to exit. there was no order; people just shoving themselves to the belt which would transport your bag through the machine. lots of chinese people with hundreds of cardboard boxes and a few stunned europeans who are used to queuing the english way... well - welcome to africa! unless you push and shove yourself, you will get left behind. I managed to get my suitcase through the machine, grabbed it on the other side and made for the exit where I was met by a driver who deposited me in my hotel.
the first thing I did was open the window to let in the fresh air - which is not actually that fresh as it is laden with heat - and drank a sparkling cold perrier and just smiled stupidly, euphoric about being back chad.
Monday, 19 April 2010
you can't.make.this.shit.up.
there are people who pay a lot of money to go through adventures like the ones we seem to attract. and you are most probably not going to believe this story; but seriously: you can't make this shit up.
it was to be another weekend in akagera national park - it's our favourite place to go to; for me personally it's the most relaxing place in rwanda where the world stops, anything which is not immediately related to the people in the park with you, the fire, the food and of course the cars somehow never makes it up the hill. and since our neighbour has some friends visiting, akagera is the place to go to, after all, there's wildlife there too.
so - as usual we planned our trip well, organised the shopping and the preparation and had everything ready on thursday evening so we could take off smoothly around 2pm on friday; it was going to be 'team lima charlie' in the rented landcruiser vs. 'team uranus foxtrott' in my recently overhauled samurai. we set off on time and by the time team uranus foxtrott arrived the captain of team lima charlie had already negotiated the price and paid everything. we were good to go; well, almost.
there are a lot of tse tse flies in the park and we have been stung badly by them before, so I got out the mosquito net fabric which we promptly taped to the windows so we wouldn't need to drive up the hill in a sauna box. and we were off.
creative solutions against tse tse flies
since it's the rainy season the park was lush and thick with vegetation, the roads wet and muddy - just how I like it. we were driving through mudpools with the water splashing out to the sides, sliding on muddy patches and at one point even bumped the back of the car slightly into a tree - the kind of adventure I simply love. we started the ascent on the steep rocky road in the fading daylight, I put my 4WD in and urai managed the road no problem. there was one point at which something hit the car from underneath - my guess would be a stone - and made a big clonking noise somewhere in the vicinity of the gear box. but when you're driving on that stretch there's not time to think of what this could have been. and the engine kept running just fine, so I didn't give it much importance. after the worst part I stopped to take out the 4WD - and after what happened at christmas 2 years ago this is always a moment of slight nervosity for me - I moved the shift to put it back into normal, but it only moved out of 4L into neutral. no further, and not back anymore either... ARGH! the landcruiser's rear lights had already disappeared into the impending darkness and mobile reception is sketchy up in that area. I called nonetheless - all I managed to say in the 3 seconds of connection we had: 'problem, problem, turn round!'
before anything else it was announced that 'this is a mutzig moment' - mutzig is the local beer of preference. we opened a beer and toasted to the first adventure of the trip. then we tried moving the 4WD gear stick, which of course simply didn't budge. now - just so you understand the problematic of the 4WD being stuck in neutral: when you put the normal gears in and accelerate they transmit the power of the engine onto the axle which makes the wheel turn and permits you to drive the car. in normal mode the power gets transmitted onto the back wheels, when in 4WD mode it gets transmitted onto all four wheels, meaning you have more power and stability in difficult terrain. when it's stuck in neutral there is no power going onto any axle, so even though the engine was still working, the wheels would simply not turn... and that, is a problem.
after a quick assessment of the situation we decided that since the camp site was another 20 minutes away we should tow the car to the camp and sort stuff out in the daylight. we got the 'car box' out and attached the towing cable - which has saved us many-a-times already - to the cars. and off we go as the day fades into the night, the stars come out and the moon is a tiny slither in the sky. my co-pilot says to me: 'you know, sometimes the sky is reward enough' - how very true. we hadn't been going 5 minutes when I hear a strange noise coming in through the window. the front left tyre has gone flat. F***!
we stop, we open another beer - after all if there's ever been a mutzig moment, this is it. luckily I have had my fair share of flat tyres in the past and so in 10 minutes the tyre is changed. we finish the beers and get back in the cars. captain charlie lima turns the key and all he gets from his battery is a pathetic stutter. and since the car's an automatic there's no way of bumpstarting it... ooops!
luckily my co-pilot had brought back jumper cables from her recent trip to europe. but the problem we have now is that we have two cars that can't be moved except by human force. add to this narrow rocky, muddy roads with steep falls to one side and solid walls to the other; the grass on the road is as high as a 12 year old kid - overall not exactly an easy situation. luckily we were on a relatively flat stretch. so we pushed the big car to one side, and tried to push the little car next to it. in the process we very nearly scratched them together and damaged the paint, but we managed to avoid that disaster. as the two cars were standing next to each other someone noted that normally it's the big cars that should jump start the little ones, particularly considering that urai's battery is 12V, the landcruiser's 16V. I start my engine - glad that in all this mess my car comes in handy too - and rev up the engine. the landcruiser springs to life. and we open another beer, after all you have to let the engine running a bit so that the battery can charge for a little while. rather buzzed after that many mutzig moments we commence the final leg of the journey and arrive at our beloved mutumba hill around 8.30 - a journey that should have taken us approximately 4 hours took us 6.5...
what's wrong with this picture?
once at the camp we all got down to business as usual: start the fire, prepare the brochettes, wrap the spuds, open another beer - this time we call it the 'beer for winners' :-) and finally we settled around the camp fire and gosh - those brochettes tasted GOOD. nothing in life is free, right?
waking up to this compensates just about everything!
the next morning we get up around 5ish for a game drive - apparently dawn is when you see most animals. we all squeeze into the LC and are mildly surprised when the battery does nothing but it's pathetic stutter again. ok - out we get, and we start pushing the cars into position again. I pray that urai will start; when it's cold in the morning he's sometimes a bit lazy. but I guess he wanted to prove that he's a good car after all and after a couple of tries the engine comes to life beautifully. once again, we jump the big car - which springs to life too. and we set off down the road for the lake tour. on the way there we see exactly no animals.
eventually we reach the valley, a.k.a. tse tse hell. before we left we had taped the veils onto the window as the car doesn't have AC and it gets hot in the sun. but somehow the buggers still make it into the car. at first we grab them with pieces of toilet paper and crush them to death; it's really quite ugly as you have to hear the 'crrrrunch' to make sure they are no more. at one point we start using strips of duct tape (very versatile by the way!) and just tape them down. so there's points at which we are wildly chasing tse tse flies behind each other's ears whilst the car is bumping over stones and sliding through puddles. we kill most of them, but not before some of them managed to bite us. animals we see very little on this trip; except for said tse tse flies of course.
action shot from the game drive (how gutted was I about not being able to drive my car!)
3 hours later we arrive back at the camp site, sweating, hungry and tse tse'd out. time for a breakfast for champions: cappuccino (yes, we are that decadent and bring our milk foamer to an adventure weekend in the wilderness), baked beans, fruit salad, bread, cheese, reindeer sausage, boiled eggs, honey and avocado. and after breakfast a general lazyness sets in, but when you've reached a certain age you somehow don't sleep so easily anymore after 3 cups of coffee so we end up looking at the car. we lie underneath it and establish which gearbox the problem's in. one person's lying underneath, the other one tries to move the gear stick - nothing happens. we even hammer against the gearbox mildly to see if we can un-block the problem. nope. we call the ninja, he tells us to lift the front of the car, turn the wheels and put the shift into place. doesn't work. we call again - and try the same thing this time lifting the car on the back wheels. still no luck. we call again - and get some more tips. none that lead to a change in status. and so we just settle in the hammocks admiring the view, dozing and lazying around.
the hamburgers that night are exquisite even though we had to move all the stuff from round the fire into the gazebo several times because of impending rain. after we'd enjoyed dinner the rain finally comes for real. so we move the two tents which have doors that don't close properly anymore into the gazebo and settle down with cups of wine and music and funny talks. and turn in for the night a couple of hours later. I wake up around 6ish because my weird insect bites have doubled in size and are permanently itching. lying in bed is no longer an option. so I re-kindle the fire which still has hot embers despite the rain and start making coffee. as I'm sitting by the fire enjoying my cappuccino I notice a herd of buffaloes about 100m away, and one lone one which is even closer to the camp site. my friend's still sleeping in his tent which is between the fire and the buffaloes. I wonder briefly whether I should make him come out of his tent, but decide against it as the buffalo has not reached the imaginary demarcation line yet.
we take it easy that morning, chill out, drink coffee, eventually prepare another breakfast for champions and try not to think about the trip back. we decide eventually that we should aim for take off around 1pm since it will take time to tow the car back. we try one more time to shift the gear stick into place; to no avail. so we start packing up and just as everything is dried and packed and ready to be put in the car the rain starts falling in biblical proportions. it is raining sideways and into the gazebo - there is not a single spot where we could stay dry, so we simply choose the spot furthest to where the rain hits the hut and wait it out. we start singing 'hey jude' and 'yesterdaaaaay, all my troubles seemed so far away; now it looks as though they're here to stay... lalalala'.
the rain...
eventually the rain stops, we jump start the big car, and then load all our stuff into its back, tow the two cars together and set off. the mud is overwhelming. the big car has trouble in some spots to get enough grip in the mud and as a result the wheels spin which sends showers of mud backwards and straight onto my windscreen to the point where I literally can't see anything anymore. the screen is brown. the first bit is fairly ok - muddy but fine. the challenge starts as we get to the steep, rocky, and now also muddy, descent which involves hairpin turns and many possibilities to fall over the edge. all passengers get out and walk whilst we try to somehow make it down the road. at one point both cars are so tilted I'm beginning to wonder how much more slant they can take before they topple over and roll down the hill. and when two cars are towed together it only takes one to tip and you're both gone. it didn't happen. but I did feel like I was kitesurfing in a car at points as the front car had to pull there had to be a certain speed and my car was being bumped around in the back as a result. add to that the kind of mud which is like soap, i.e. no matter which way you turn the wheels they don't really respond, it's so soapy that even though your wheels are turned all the way to the left you still go straight and the wheels simply slide through the mud. anyway - after we got through the worst part another mutzig moment presented itself; but there was no mutzig left. we did however have amazing sandwiches which had been prepared in the morning. and it's true what they say about food - when you're in a difficult situation there's nothing to lift your mood like good food.
mudshower (NB: the fuzzy dice... )
never change a winning team!
(in fact over half of the team is not in the picture)
another winning team - one could not have done without the other
the last part is at least no longer strewn with rocks, but it's still muddy as a swamp and also tse tse territory. we have one window closed, the other one veiled and mud keeps splashing up on the windscreen from the car in front; vision becomes less and less and I just keep praying that there will remain enough free space in the vision for me not to have to get out of the car... my wish is granted. by the time we get to the reception the front of my car is CAKED in mud; in fact it looks like a chocolate car.
don't you just want to take a bite?
at the reception one of the guards walks up to me, looks at the car and concludes: 'cette voiture n'a pas de chance' - he had been there the time we had to get a refund and return without entering the park :-) some guy washes off the worst of the dirt and we continue our journey towards kayonza - another at least 70kms but at least on a paved road. interestingly it's more exhausting than the offroad part. you can't see anything, people drive like idiots and I feel thoroughly hypnotised after hours of staring at the towing cable making sure it remains straight but without using the brakes too much (as they had started smoking earlier).
we finally make it to kayonza and leave it at the petrol station for the ninja to go and have a look at it. it's still there. I hope. and the last thing that dies in africa is hope!
it was to be another weekend in akagera national park - it's our favourite place to go to; for me personally it's the most relaxing place in rwanda where the world stops, anything which is not immediately related to the people in the park with you, the fire, the food and of course the cars somehow never makes it up the hill. and since our neighbour has some friends visiting, akagera is the place to go to, after all, there's wildlife there too.
so - as usual we planned our trip well, organised the shopping and the preparation and had everything ready on thursday evening so we could take off smoothly around 2pm on friday; it was going to be 'team lima charlie' in the rented landcruiser vs. 'team uranus foxtrott' in my recently overhauled samurai. we set off on time and by the time team uranus foxtrott arrived the captain of team lima charlie had already negotiated the price and paid everything. we were good to go; well, almost.
there are a lot of tse tse flies in the park and we have been stung badly by them before, so I got out the mosquito net fabric which we promptly taped to the windows so we wouldn't need to drive up the hill in a sauna box. and we were off.
creative solutions against tse tse flies
since it's the rainy season the park was lush and thick with vegetation, the roads wet and muddy - just how I like it. we were driving through mudpools with the water splashing out to the sides, sliding on muddy patches and at one point even bumped the back of the car slightly into a tree - the kind of adventure I simply love. we started the ascent on the steep rocky road in the fading daylight, I put my 4WD in and urai managed the road no problem. there was one point at which something hit the car from underneath - my guess would be a stone - and made a big clonking noise somewhere in the vicinity of the gear box. but when you're driving on that stretch there's not time to think of what this could have been. and the engine kept running just fine, so I didn't give it much importance. after the worst part I stopped to take out the 4WD - and after what happened at christmas 2 years ago this is always a moment of slight nervosity for me - I moved the shift to put it back into normal, but it only moved out of 4L into neutral. no further, and not back anymore either... ARGH! the landcruiser's rear lights had already disappeared into the impending darkness and mobile reception is sketchy up in that area. I called nonetheless - all I managed to say in the 3 seconds of connection we had: 'problem, problem, turn round!'
before anything else it was announced that 'this is a mutzig moment' - mutzig is the local beer of preference. we opened a beer and toasted to the first adventure of the trip. then we tried moving the 4WD gear stick, which of course simply didn't budge. now - just so you understand the problematic of the 4WD being stuck in neutral: when you put the normal gears in and accelerate they transmit the power of the engine onto the axle which makes the wheel turn and permits you to drive the car. in normal mode the power gets transmitted onto the back wheels, when in 4WD mode it gets transmitted onto all four wheels, meaning you have more power and stability in difficult terrain. when it's stuck in neutral there is no power going onto any axle, so even though the engine was still working, the wheels would simply not turn... and that, is a problem.
after a quick assessment of the situation we decided that since the camp site was another 20 minutes away we should tow the car to the camp and sort stuff out in the daylight. we got the 'car box' out and attached the towing cable - which has saved us many-a-times already - to the cars. and off we go as the day fades into the night, the stars come out and the moon is a tiny slither in the sky. my co-pilot says to me: 'you know, sometimes the sky is reward enough' - how very true. we hadn't been going 5 minutes when I hear a strange noise coming in through the window. the front left tyre has gone flat. F***!
we stop, we open another beer - after all if there's ever been a mutzig moment, this is it. luckily I have had my fair share of flat tyres in the past and so in 10 minutes the tyre is changed. we finish the beers and get back in the cars. captain charlie lima turns the key and all he gets from his battery is a pathetic stutter. and since the car's an automatic there's no way of bumpstarting it... ooops!
luckily my co-pilot had brought back jumper cables from her recent trip to europe. but the problem we have now is that we have two cars that can't be moved except by human force. add to this narrow rocky, muddy roads with steep falls to one side and solid walls to the other; the grass on the road is as high as a 12 year old kid - overall not exactly an easy situation. luckily we were on a relatively flat stretch. so we pushed the big car to one side, and tried to push the little car next to it. in the process we very nearly scratched them together and damaged the paint, but we managed to avoid that disaster. as the two cars were standing next to each other someone noted that normally it's the big cars that should jump start the little ones, particularly considering that urai's battery is 12V, the landcruiser's 16V. I start my engine - glad that in all this mess my car comes in handy too - and rev up the engine. the landcruiser springs to life. and we open another beer, after all you have to let the engine running a bit so that the battery can charge for a little while. rather buzzed after that many mutzig moments we commence the final leg of the journey and arrive at our beloved mutumba hill around 8.30 - a journey that should have taken us approximately 4 hours took us 6.5...
what's wrong with this picture?
once at the camp we all got down to business as usual: start the fire, prepare the brochettes, wrap the spuds, open another beer - this time we call it the 'beer for winners' :-) and finally we settled around the camp fire and gosh - those brochettes tasted GOOD. nothing in life is free, right?
waking up to this compensates just about everything!
the next morning we get up around 5ish for a game drive - apparently dawn is when you see most animals. we all squeeze into the LC and are mildly surprised when the battery does nothing but it's pathetic stutter again. ok - out we get, and we start pushing the cars into position again. I pray that urai will start; when it's cold in the morning he's sometimes a bit lazy. but I guess he wanted to prove that he's a good car after all and after a couple of tries the engine comes to life beautifully. once again, we jump the big car - which springs to life too. and we set off down the road for the lake tour. on the way there we see exactly no animals.
eventually we reach the valley, a.k.a. tse tse hell. before we left we had taped the veils onto the window as the car doesn't have AC and it gets hot in the sun. but somehow the buggers still make it into the car. at first we grab them with pieces of toilet paper and crush them to death; it's really quite ugly as you have to hear the 'crrrrunch' to make sure they are no more. at one point we start using strips of duct tape (very versatile by the way!) and just tape them down. so there's points at which we are wildly chasing tse tse flies behind each other's ears whilst the car is bumping over stones and sliding through puddles. we kill most of them, but not before some of them managed to bite us. animals we see very little on this trip; except for said tse tse flies of course.
action shot from the game drive (how gutted was I about not being able to drive my car!)
3 hours later we arrive back at the camp site, sweating, hungry and tse tse'd out. time for a breakfast for champions: cappuccino (yes, we are that decadent and bring our milk foamer to an adventure weekend in the wilderness), baked beans, fruit salad, bread, cheese, reindeer sausage, boiled eggs, honey and avocado. and after breakfast a general lazyness sets in, but when you've reached a certain age you somehow don't sleep so easily anymore after 3 cups of coffee so we end up looking at the car. we lie underneath it and establish which gearbox the problem's in. one person's lying underneath, the other one tries to move the gear stick - nothing happens. we even hammer against the gearbox mildly to see if we can un-block the problem. nope. we call the ninja, he tells us to lift the front of the car, turn the wheels and put the shift into place. doesn't work. we call again - and try the same thing this time lifting the car on the back wheels. still no luck. we call again - and get some more tips. none that lead to a change in status. and so we just settle in the hammocks admiring the view, dozing and lazying around.
the hamburgers that night are exquisite even though we had to move all the stuff from round the fire into the gazebo several times because of impending rain. after we'd enjoyed dinner the rain finally comes for real. so we move the two tents which have doors that don't close properly anymore into the gazebo and settle down with cups of wine and music and funny talks. and turn in for the night a couple of hours later. I wake up around 6ish because my weird insect bites have doubled in size and are permanently itching. lying in bed is no longer an option. so I re-kindle the fire which still has hot embers despite the rain and start making coffee. as I'm sitting by the fire enjoying my cappuccino I notice a herd of buffaloes about 100m away, and one lone one which is even closer to the camp site. my friend's still sleeping in his tent which is between the fire and the buffaloes. I wonder briefly whether I should make him come out of his tent, but decide against it as the buffalo has not reached the imaginary demarcation line yet.
we take it easy that morning, chill out, drink coffee, eventually prepare another breakfast for champions and try not to think about the trip back. we decide eventually that we should aim for take off around 1pm since it will take time to tow the car back. we try one more time to shift the gear stick into place; to no avail. so we start packing up and just as everything is dried and packed and ready to be put in the car the rain starts falling in biblical proportions. it is raining sideways and into the gazebo - there is not a single spot where we could stay dry, so we simply choose the spot furthest to where the rain hits the hut and wait it out. we start singing 'hey jude' and 'yesterdaaaaay, all my troubles seemed so far away; now it looks as though they're here to stay... lalalala'.
the rain...
eventually the rain stops, we jump start the big car, and then load all our stuff into its back, tow the two cars together and set off. the mud is overwhelming. the big car has trouble in some spots to get enough grip in the mud and as a result the wheels spin which sends showers of mud backwards and straight onto my windscreen to the point where I literally can't see anything anymore. the screen is brown. the first bit is fairly ok - muddy but fine. the challenge starts as we get to the steep, rocky, and now also muddy, descent which involves hairpin turns and many possibilities to fall over the edge. all passengers get out and walk whilst we try to somehow make it down the road. at one point both cars are so tilted I'm beginning to wonder how much more slant they can take before they topple over and roll down the hill. and when two cars are towed together it only takes one to tip and you're both gone. it didn't happen. but I did feel like I was kitesurfing in a car at points as the front car had to pull there had to be a certain speed and my car was being bumped around in the back as a result. add to that the kind of mud which is like soap, i.e. no matter which way you turn the wheels they don't really respond, it's so soapy that even though your wheels are turned all the way to the left you still go straight and the wheels simply slide through the mud. anyway - after we got through the worst part another mutzig moment presented itself; but there was no mutzig left. we did however have amazing sandwiches which had been prepared in the morning. and it's true what they say about food - when you're in a difficult situation there's nothing to lift your mood like good food.
mudshower (NB: the fuzzy dice... )
never change a winning team!
(in fact over half of the team is not in the picture)
another winning team - one could not have done without the other
the last part is at least no longer strewn with rocks, but it's still muddy as a swamp and also tse tse territory. we have one window closed, the other one veiled and mud keeps splashing up on the windscreen from the car in front; vision becomes less and less and I just keep praying that there will remain enough free space in the vision for me not to have to get out of the car... my wish is granted. by the time we get to the reception the front of my car is CAKED in mud; in fact it looks like a chocolate car.
don't you just want to take a bite?
at the reception one of the guards walks up to me, looks at the car and concludes: 'cette voiture n'a pas de chance' - he had been there the time we had to get a refund and return without entering the park :-) some guy washes off the worst of the dirt and we continue our journey towards kayonza - another at least 70kms but at least on a paved road. interestingly it's more exhausting than the offroad part. you can't see anything, people drive like idiots and I feel thoroughly hypnotised after hours of staring at the towing cable making sure it remains straight but without using the brakes too much (as they had started smoking earlier).
we finally make it to kayonza and leave it at the petrol station for the ninja to go and have a look at it. it's still there. I hope. and the last thing that dies in africa is hope!
Monday, 22 March 2010
drama queen!
just the other day I was thinking about my last 2 years in kigali - and really, the place is boring. there aren't any of the usual distractions available to the inhabitants. and although cultural events are cropping up there is still very little to do here. when a friend recently asked me what to do with visitors to offer them some sightseeing in town all I could do was suggest nice restaurants - she mentioned that all of my suggestions involved eating and drinking - but that she wanted to do something. well, there is little to do - and yet I can't say I have been bored in the last 2 years. maybe because adventure always finds me... take any story you want - as boring as can be - add a car meltdown and you get the idea of what my life is like :-)
so - this weekend we went to gisenyi as a friend was organising a party there. and because it's good to get away a party on the beach sounded right up our street. we set off saturday - and already on the way there I noticed that the timing of my car was off; this is not surprising since I've just had the spark plugs changed and that usually throws the car's timing off track. but it wouldn't be a regular gisenyi trip if urai didn't backfire every now and again - after all this seems to be happening every time I drive up there. and I'm getting good at ignoring these little inconveniences...
the party was great fun - dancing on the beach, whilst the waves roll onto the shore in the background... in the dark it felt like we were actually by the sea. and I miss the sea.
when we got home I went to get some water from the car - and in the pitch dark stumbled over a volcanic rock. as I was walking back to the house I thought - why is my flip flop suddenly so wet? turns out I'd really cut my toe and blood was gushing out. so we settled in the bathroom where I nursed my toe, washing it, pouring ludicrous amounts of antiseptic into the wound and finally dressing it with gauze, attaching it with duct tape.
yesterday we drove home, and again, the timing of my car was causing me headaches. half way I stopped at a petrol station in the hope that the guys there would know 5 things about engines; turned out I had to explain to them what I wanted them to do. we fiddled with the distributor and it seemed to work - for 3 minutes. but the result was still a better timing than before and I decided to just get on with the road and have the ninja figure it out today when suddenly the battery light flashed on on my dashboard. I vaguely remembered that i'd had that before but couldn't, for the life of it, remember what the cause was.
I caught up with my friends who were travelling in the other car at the mythical truck stop about an hour outside of kigali and told them. 'have you checked your fanbelt?' - low and behold the fan belt was torn to shreds.... great - that can really overheat the engine! luckily I've had enough car trouble in my life to carry such essential spare parts as fanbelts by the dozens whenever I leave town. the problem was that we didn't have the right key to open the screws on the alternator. and being at the truck stop where some traditional dancing was going on we immediately had a rather large crowd of self-proclaimed mechanics around the car who all wanted to fix the problem. I get very edgy when random people just take the wench and start working on my engine. so more than once I had to take the tools out of someone's hand and inform them that my two friends were the only ones with the right to do anything to my car. we eventually localised the right key and with a lot of pulling, turning and sweating managed to securely fasten the new fanbelt. luckily I have the friends I have!
on I drove back to kigali - with my bandaged toe - planning on going to the hospital to have a doctor look at it. we dropped our stuff off at home and my housemate took me to A&E where I registered and then we sat down to await our turn. I do not like hospitals; and to see a young girl being carried on unconscious and then being ferreted into the re-animation room made me feel positively sick. the mother was pacing the corridor praying out loud, clearly in distress. later I saw her walk her girl to the bathroom - so luckily the girl made it. but it's not a nice scene to witness.
eventually it was my turn - after basically harrassing pretty much anyone around - nothing happens unless you do it yourself. the doctor ordered me into the procedure room and opened a dressing pack. now, I am not someone who finds it difficult to see blood or to dress wounds either on myself or on other people - however, when someone dresses my wounds I turn into a whining child. the doctor started washing the toe with water and I kept twitching and winging as though he was amputating my leg. I apologised and told him I was a drama queen, but I'd get over it. after 5 minutes he opened the door and motioned to my two friends that he needed someone to come and calm me down; he couldn' t work like this. so my housemate held my hand and my other friend sat in the wheelchair next to the bed.
just as he was starting the rinsing process his phone rang but he'd already put on his gloves - so he asked my housemate to please take the phone out of his breast pocket for him. she did and asked whether she should answer it too? he put it on speaker and told the caller that he was in the middle of an intervention and would get back to him later.
the wound-washing commenced and at first I was lying down thinking that was a good idea; my foot kept twitching and it was overall an uncomfortable process. the doctor kept muttering 'drama queen' to me. and I kept cracking up laughing. once I decided to watch the operation closely I managed to hold still. once the skin was all softened and the wound clean he had to cut off the dead skin with a scalpel blade - he told me that I now had to hold still unless I wanted him to chop further into my toe. I managed to hold still. seems that I have to see what's going on to be able to hold out. he then scrubbed off the remainder of the dead skin and bandaged up the toe - done.
once I had been attended to he took me to the triage room and took my blood pressure and temperature and the second the triage nurse re-appeared he dropped the file into her lap, got up and said: hasta la vista!
so - this weekend we went to gisenyi as a friend was organising a party there. and because it's good to get away a party on the beach sounded right up our street. we set off saturday - and already on the way there I noticed that the timing of my car was off; this is not surprising since I've just had the spark plugs changed and that usually throws the car's timing off track. but it wouldn't be a regular gisenyi trip if urai didn't backfire every now and again - after all this seems to be happening every time I drive up there. and I'm getting good at ignoring these little inconveniences...
the party was great fun - dancing on the beach, whilst the waves roll onto the shore in the background... in the dark it felt like we were actually by the sea. and I miss the sea.
when we got home I went to get some water from the car - and in the pitch dark stumbled over a volcanic rock. as I was walking back to the house I thought - why is my flip flop suddenly so wet? turns out I'd really cut my toe and blood was gushing out. so we settled in the bathroom where I nursed my toe, washing it, pouring ludicrous amounts of antiseptic into the wound and finally dressing it with gauze, attaching it with duct tape.
yesterday we drove home, and again, the timing of my car was causing me headaches. half way I stopped at a petrol station in the hope that the guys there would know 5 things about engines; turned out I had to explain to them what I wanted them to do. we fiddled with the distributor and it seemed to work - for 3 minutes. but the result was still a better timing than before and I decided to just get on with the road and have the ninja figure it out today when suddenly the battery light flashed on on my dashboard. I vaguely remembered that i'd had that before but couldn't, for the life of it, remember what the cause was.
I caught up with my friends who were travelling in the other car at the mythical truck stop about an hour outside of kigali and told them. 'have you checked your fanbelt?' - low and behold the fan belt was torn to shreds.... great - that can really overheat the engine! luckily I've had enough car trouble in my life to carry such essential spare parts as fanbelts by the dozens whenever I leave town. the problem was that we didn't have the right key to open the screws on the alternator. and being at the truck stop where some traditional dancing was going on we immediately had a rather large crowd of self-proclaimed mechanics around the car who all wanted to fix the problem. I get very edgy when random people just take the wench and start working on my engine. so more than once I had to take the tools out of someone's hand and inform them that my two friends were the only ones with the right to do anything to my car. we eventually localised the right key and with a lot of pulling, turning and sweating managed to securely fasten the new fanbelt. luckily I have the friends I have!
on I drove back to kigali - with my bandaged toe - planning on going to the hospital to have a doctor look at it. we dropped our stuff off at home and my housemate took me to A&E where I registered and then we sat down to await our turn. I do not like hospitals; and to see a young girl being carried on unconscious and then being ferreted into the re-animation room made me feel positively sick. the mother was pacing the corridor praying out loud, clearly in distress. later I saw her walk her girl to the bathroom - so luckily the girl made it. but it's not a nice scene to witness.
eventually it was my turn - after basically harrassing pretty much anyone around - nothing happens unless you do it yourself. the doctor ordered me into the procedure room and opened a dressing pack. now, I am not someone who finds it difficult to see blood or to dress wounds either on myself or on other people - however, when someone dresses my wounds I turn into a whining child. the doctor started washing the toe with water and I kept twitching and winging as though he was amputating my leg. I apologised and told him I was a drama queen, but I'd get over it. after 5 minutes he opened the door and motioned to my two friends that he needed someone to come and calm me down; he couldn' t work like this. so my housemate held my hand and my other friend sat in the wheelchair next to the bed.
just as he was starting the rinsing process his phone rang but he'd already put on his gloves - so he asked my housemate to please take the phone out of his breast pocket for him. she did and asked whether she should answer it too? he put it on speaker and told the caller that he was in the middle of an intervention and would get back to him later.
the wound-washing commenced and at first I was lying down thinking that was a good idea; my foot kept twitching and it was overall an uncomfortable process. the doctor kept muttering 'drama queen' to me. and I kept cracking up laughing. once I decided to watch the operation closely I managed to hold still. once the skin was all softened and the wound clean he had to cut off the dead skin with a scalpel blade - he told me that I now had to hold still unless I wanted him to chop further into my toe. I managed to hold still. seems that I have to see what's going on to be able to hold out. he then scrubbed off the remainder of the dead skin and bandaged up the toe - done.
once I had been attended to he took me to the triage room and took my blood pressure and temperature and the second the triage nurse re-appeared he dropped the file into her lap, got up and said: hasta la vista!
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
mzungu - amafaranga!
I think I must have mentioned before that as a mzungu (foreigner) you get stared at a lot, and people usually ask you for 'amafaranga!' (money) - it's one of the things I struggle with most. and this weekend I finally turned the tables on that matter - and oh what joy!
so many things happened before and after this particular incident, but I won't go into details. on friday we set off direction akagera, the north, in two cars, fully loaded with anything and everything you need for a fun filled perfect weekend in the african wilderness. the spirit was high, the sun was shining, the weatherforecast amazing and both cars working. we left kigali early afternoon and were making good headway; stopped in kayonza to top up on fuel and then continued our journey along the shores of lake muhazi which was glistening in the sun, winding our way towards the northern part of the country from where we would enter the park and mission it up to the legendary mutumba hill, a.k.a. campsite no. 19 to set up home for the weekend. I was already daydreaming about a cold beer on the hill whilst watching the sunset over the lake, the full moon rising and the canopy of stars that I would enjoy, the fire-grilled brochettes and just the general peace and quiet which dominates akagera when my phone started ringing... 'do you mind turning back quickly, I've just totalled my car' - slam brakes on, screech tyres, take u-turn and bomb back up the road... heart pounding, adrenaline rushing, and yet, the mind surprisingly clear - it seems I am actually learning patience here after all!
I see vast amounts of people gathering round the sides of the road, I see a big bus by the side of the road and then I see the car of my friend lying on its side, on top of the ditch. I find a spot to park my car, get out and run over to the accident site, shit scared that my friend is stuck in his car. I knew he was lucid enough to call me, so at least he wasn't unconscious. but when he approaches me unscathed with not a scratch or a bruise on him I do send a little prayer upwards... I can deal with everything else.
the police is there, the car is loosing petrol, fast. we are worried that it might ignite and the car needed to be brought into an upright position as quickly as possible. but how do you lift a fully loaded samurai out of the ditch? I remembered that I had the towing cable, and so I suggested to the police that we try and at least put the car in an upright position. this was greeted with enthusiam; albeit not before a policeman marked the place where the car had lain with a banana. yes. a banana. you see, this is africa and resources are scarce and not every police officer carries chalk with him/her at all times, and when things have to happen fast, you have to be creative - and banana juice/gew leaves a temporary mark on the road until you can get your hands on a piece of chalk.
we pulled the car up and away from the road. it was a sorry sight to see brave and reliable annie that bruised and battered and broken. it made me sad. we lost a core family member. just like that. boom. on the other hand, apart from the total damage of the car, nothing bad happened. nobody got injured. and believe me, there were so many things that could've gone so wrong - it was really, really lucky!
anyway - the police then got on to measuring everything, taking notes, investigating the scene. in the meantime I pulled out one of the stools and sat down next to annie, chainsmoking and trying to get to grips with what had just ocurred. it's a bizarre situation. I held my phone in my hand and thought, now is the time where I'd have time to call people, let them know what happened. and although I wanted to talk to people, tell them, I felt incapable of doing so; wouldn't have known quite what to say, wasn't prepared for all the 'oh. my. god. are you ok?' exclamations. didn't want people to worry back home and most certainly didn't want half of kigali to get into their cars and rush out to where we were. instead I started manicuring my nails. because that's the kind of thing you do when your good friend's just had an accident and totalled his car - you need very simple, banal things to occupy your mind - the complicated stuff just overwhelms you.
we sat and waited, paced a bit, sat down again, drank warm water, I chainsmoked some more, then we'd exchange random comments; I think it was round about that point where I figured out that I would at least be able to get some good spare parts for my car. looking back I think, how could I? I guess you could call it optimism. at the wrong point in time.
eventually the police had finished with their measurments and handed over the documents to us; we were free to go home. we loaded urai with all the contents of annie - miraculously they fit! and still, people laugh about samurais... pfffff.
I sat in the car whilst my friend was finding a guy to look after annie until he could find a rescue truck to come pick her up; and of course I was being stared at by dozens of people. it makes me angry - there's nothing to see - someone's had an accident and hence two people are sitting by the side of the road, stunned, and waiting for the police - that's not really that special. anyway - I started to have had enough after a while and so I just looked at the nearest one and said: 'you have been staring at me for the last two hours, now, give me some amafaranga!' (usually it's the other way round and I am being asked to give money). to my great disbelief the boy sticks his hand in his pocket and pulls out a coin and drops it in my palm. *stunned* again... and within a fraction of a second all my anger and frustration just evaporated and I released some of the stress in a good, long and heartfelt laugh. that a rwandan would give a mzungu money... I'd have never thought that would happen! I gave him a mandazi in return and we all had a laugh together.
so many things happened before and after this particular incident, but I won't go into details. on friday we set off direction akagera, the north, in two cars, fully loaded with anything and everything you need for a fun filled perfect weekend in the african wilderness. the spirit was high, the sun was shining, the weatherforecast amazing and both cars working. we left kigali early afternoon and were making good headway; stopped in kayonza to top up on fuel and then continued our journey along the shores of lake muhazi which was glistening in the sun, winding our way towards the northern part of the country from where we would enter the park and mission it up to the legendary mutumba hill, a.k.a. campsite no. 19 to set up home for the weekend. I was already daydreaming about a cold beer on the hill whilst watching the sunset over the lake, the full moon rising and the canopy of stars that I would enjoy, the fire-grilled brochettes and just the general peace and quiet which dominates akagera when my phone started ringing... 'do you mind turning back quickly, I've just totalled my car' - slam brakes on, screech tyres, take u-turn and bomb back up the road... heart pounding, adrenaline rushing, and yet, the mind surprisingly clear - it seems I am actually learning patience here after all!
I see vast amounts of people gathering round the sides of the road, I see a big bus by the side of the road and then I see the car of my friend lying on its side, on top of the ditch. I find a spot to park my car, get out and run over to the accident site, shit scared that my friend is stuck in his car. I knew he was lucid enough to call me, so at least he wasn't unconscious. but when he approaches me unscathed with not a scratch or a bruise on him I do send a little prayer upwards... I can deal with everything else.
the police is there, the car is loosing petrol, fast. we are worried that it might ignite and the car needed to be brought into an upright position as quickly as possible. but how do you lift a fully loaded samurai out of the ditch? I remembered that I had the towing cable, and so I suggested to the police that we try and at least put the car in an upright position. this was greeted with enthusiam; albeit not before a policeman marked the place where the car had lain with a banana. yes. a banana. you see, this is africa and resources are scarce and not every police officer carries chalk with him/her at all times, and when things have to happen fast, you have to be creative - and banana juice/gew leaves a temporary mark on the road until you can get your hands on a piece of chalk.
we pulled the car up and away from the road. it was a sorry sight to see brave and reliable annie that bruised and battered and broken. it made me sad. we lost a core family member. just like that. boom. on the other hand, apart from the total damage of the car, nothing bad happened. nobody got injured. and believe me, there were so many things that could've gone so wrong - it was really, really lucky!
anyway - the police then got on to measuring everything, taking notes, investigating the scene. in the meantime I pulled out one of the stools and sat down next to annie, chainsmoking and trying to get to grips with what had just ocurred. it's a bizarre situation. I held my phone in my hand and thought, now is the time where I'd have time to call people, let them know what happened. and although I wanted to talk to people, tell them, I felt incapable of doing so; wouldn't have known quite what to say, wasn't prepared for all the 'oh. my. god. are you ok?' exclamations. didn't want people to worry back home and most certainly didn't want half of kigali to get into their cars and rush out to where we were. instead I started manicuring my nails. because that's the kind of thing you do when your good friend's just had an accident and totalled his car - you need very simple, banal things to occupy your mind - the complicated stuff just overwhelms you.
we sat and waited, paced a bit, sat down again, drank warm water, I chainsmoked some more, then we'd exchange random comments; I think it was round about that point where I figured out that I would at least be able to get some good spare parts for my car. looking back I think, how could I? I guess you could call it optimism. at the wrong point in time.
eventually the police had finished with their measurments and handed over the documents to us; we were free to go home. we loaded urai with all the contents of annie - miraculously they fit! and still, people laugh about samurais... pfffff.
I sat in the car whilst my friend was finding a guy to look after annie until he could find a rescue truck to come pick her up; and of course I was being stared at by dozens of people. it makes me angry - there's nothing to see - someone's had an accident and hence two people are sitting by the side of the road, stunned, and waiting for the police - that's not really that special. anyway - I started to have had enough after a while and so I just looked at the nearest one and said: 'you have been staring at me for the last two hours, now, give me some amafaranga!' (usually it's the other way round and I am being asked to give money). to my great disbelief the boy sticks his hand in his pocket and pulls out a coin and drops it in my palm. *stunned* again... and within a fraction of a second all my anger and frustration just evaporated and I released some of the stress in a good, long and heartfelt laugh. that a rwandan would give a mzungu money... I'd have never thought that would happen! I gave him a mandazi in return and we all had a laugh together.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)
