s were full!) before anyone else had actually woke up. So we found ourselves with an extra day in Harare, but we made best of the situation, and actually had quite a good day. So, the next morning after breakfasting on a huge bowl of deja vu, we tried again. This time the bus was there but because of the cancellation yesterday the bus was absolutely packed. And it was a long trip. We were heading into Malawi, but as Zimbabwe doesn't have border with Malawi, we had to cut through a section of neighbouring Mozambique. Of course you can't just 'nip' through a country to get to another, so a fair bit of time was taken up while we and our fellow sardines on the cramped bus obtained transit visas. For a few other reasons we were running extremely late and the passengers were trying to let their annoyances be heard via a chorus of extra loud and irate classical African tuts. So, after leaving Harare at 8am, we eventually found ourselves at the Malawian border at 7.30 pm, but still with an hour and a half left before the border post shut. This would have been true on most days, but today, we were told, the custom officials, following a " very busy day'' were " extremely tired" and they "wanted to go home", and that's what they did. So, even though we had had our passports stamped, all of the vehicles that had arrived at the border would have to stay there during the night until the officials came back on duty the following morning in order to inspect the passengers' luggage! So there was a lot of confusion about what to do next. Amazingly not a lot of the passengers on our bus seemed particularly put out by this news! In fact many of them just got back on the bus and 'bedded' down for the night. The African spirit never ceases to amaze me, they can be bombarded with a whole lot of doom and gloom and general bad luck, but they seem to take it on their chin and shrug it off with a "Oh well, these things happen from time to time." We, on the other hand, didn't fancy another minute on this over crowded, uncomfortable bus, and we certainly weren't going to spend the night on it. So we walked over to the Malawian side of the gate and organised some onward transport, as we still were 100km from our destination of Blantyre. Then we simply took our packs from under the bus and walked, bold as brass, past the lazy officials, through the gate and into Malawi. I don't think they even noticed us slip out. We jumped into our over priced 'chartered' minibus taxi and sped on through to Blantyre, avoiding the occasional nocturnal goat. That was our unconventional arrival into Malawi.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Harare (Zimbabwe)
We spent a few days in the capital, relaxing and doing a bit of cooking which was a welcome break from eating out three times a day. Our departure from Zimbabwe was delayed slightly when we checked out of our hostel at the crack of dawn, took a taxi into the center to catch our pre-booked and pre-paid bus, only to be told that the bus had broken down somewhere in Mozambique and wouldn't be leaving until the same time the following morning! And this was the only company running buses straight through to Malawi. So, another taxi back to the hostel,reoccupied our room ( which in this case was a campervan as all the other room
s were full!) before anyone else had actually woke up. So we found ourselves with an extra day in Harare, but we made best of the situation, and actually had quite a good day. So, the next morning after breakfasting on a huge bowl of deja vu, we tried again. This time the bus was there but because of the cancellation yesterday the bus was absolutely packed. And it was a long trip. We were heading into Malawi, but as Zimbabwe doesn't have border with Malawi, we had to cut through a section of neighbouring Mozambique. Of course you can't just 'nip' through a country to get to another, so a fair bit of time was taken up while we and our fellow sardines on the cramped bus obtained transit visas. For a few other reasons we were running extremely late and the passengers were trying to let their annoyances be heard via a chorus of extra loud and irate classical African tuts. So, after leaving Harare at 8am, we eventually found ourselves at the Malawian border at 7.30 pm, but still with an hour and a half left before the border post shut. This would have been true on most days, but today, we were told, the custom officials, following a " very busy day'' were " extremely tired" and they "wanted to go home", and that's what they did. So, even though we had had our passports stamped, all of the vehicles that had arrived at the border would have to stay there during the night until the officials came back on duty the following morning in order to inspect the passengers' luggage! So there was a lot of confusion about what to do next. Amazingly not a lot of the passengers on our bus seemed particularly put out by this news! In fact many of them just got back on the bus and 'bedded' down for the night. The African spirit never ceases to amaze me, they can be bombarded with a whole lot of doom and gloom and general bad luck, but they seem to take it on their chin and shrug it off with a "Oh well, these things happen from time to time." We, on the other hand, didn't fancy another minute on this over crowded, uncomfortable bus, and we certainly weren't going to spend the night on it. So we walked over to the Malawian side of the gate and organised some onward transport, as we still were 100km from our destination of Blantyre. Then we simply took our packs from under the bus and walked, bold as brass, past the lazy officials, through the gate and into Malawi. I don't think they even noticed us slip out. We jumped into our over priced 'chartered' minibus taxi and sped on through to Blantyre, avoiding the occasional nocturnal goat. That was our unconventional arrival into Malawi.
s were full!) before anyone else had actually woke up. So we found ourselves with an extra day in Harare, but we made best of the situation, and actually had quite a good day. So, the next morning after breakfasting on a huge bowl of deja vu, we tried again. This time the bus was there but because of the cancellation yesterday the bus was absolutely packed. And it was a long trip. We were heading into Malawi, but as Zimbabwe doesn't have border with Malawi, we had to cut through a section of neighbouring Mozambique. Of course you can't just 'nip' through a country to get to another, so a fair bit of time was taken up while we and our fellow sardines on the cramped bus obtained transit visas. For a few other reasons we were running extremely late and the passengers were trying to let their annoyances be heard via a chorus of extra loud and irate classical African tuts. So, after leaving Harare at 8am, we eventually found ourselves at the Malawian border at 7.30 pm, but still with an hour and a half left before the border post shut. This would have been true on most days, but today, we were told, the custom officials, following a " very busy day'' were " extremely tired" and they "wanted to go home", and that's what they did. So, even though we had had our passports stamped, all of the vehicles that had arrived at the border would have to stay there during the night until the officials came back on duty the following morning in order to inspect the passengers' luggage! So there was a lot of confusion about what to do next. Amazingly not a lot of the passengers on our bus seemed particularly put out by this news! In fact many of them just got back on the bus and 'bedded' down for the night. The African spirit never ceases to amaze me, they can be bombarded with a whole lot of doom and gloom and general bad luck, but they seem to take it on their chin and shrug it off with a "Oh well, these things happen from time to time." We, on the other hand, didn't fancy another minute on this over crowded, uncomfortable bus, and we certainly weren't going to spend the night on it. So we walked over to the Malawian side of the gate and organised some onward transport, as we still were 100km from our destination of Blantyre. Then we simply took our packs from under the bus and walked, bold as brass, past the lazy officials, through the gate and into Malawi. I don't think they even noticed us slip out. We jumped into our over priced 'chartered' minibus taxi and sped on through to Blantyre, avoiding the occasional nocturnal goat. That was our unconventional arrival into Malawi.
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