This is Africa– part two
on Sally in Namibia (Namibia), 12/Mar/2009 08:11, 34 days ago
We arrived back to a rain soaked Maun and a dead car. The pressure was on– we had to get back to Windhoek by the next evening so that Andrew could catch his flight to the UK. We put in a call to our friendly mechanic who told us he would come to our rescue so we waited, and waited, and called again and he said he was still coming. Western minds were in over driving planning alternatives and deciding that if we did not have function car by 1pm then Andrew would have to catch a flight from Maun to Windhoek. The mechanic finally arrived and then decided that he needed his tools so disappeared again. For another hour. By the time he came back Andrew was packed and ready to go and we decided that although our mechanic was confident he could get us going it was better to be safe than sorry so we headed back in to Maun to book the flight.The people in the office were very helpful and understanding and reserved a place on the flight and said that we wouldn't need to pay until just before check in so we went and had a cup of tea and watched the world go by. Progress with the car was slow so Andrew went and paid for his flight, we headed over to the airport and said our fond farewells. Two minutes later he was trudging glumly back towards me– the flight had left without him, 30 minutes early!! Only in Africa, land of Africa time where everything happens late is it possible for a flight to decide to leave early. Things were understandably a bit stressful by this point and there ensued a mad dash back to the travel agent who rapidlystarted trying to investigate other alternatives – another flight? No, a bus? Next one not leaving until Thursday, a hike? Good luck with that, there's not a lot of traffic between Maun and Windhoek. In the end she suggested trying the local charter companies to see if they had any flights goingto Windhoek. We went to ask the charter companies – no they didn't have any flights unless we wanted to actually charter a plane ourselves. We sent a message to JJ and the mechanic to tell them to get busy, they were our only hope and were told not to worry and to come back bearing food. We gave Andrew's bag to some Swiss tourists who were staying at out campsite and set off in search of food and the town centre.Town centre turned out to be quite a long way and it wasn't that smart walking along in the heat of the African sun but we finally found Spar and were just about to head in when we received a call from JJ to say stay put, the car was fixed and he was coming! Much delight followed by slight panic about retrieving Andrew's bag– fortunately we could see the Swiss people's car in the car park so he went and stood guard until they returned and safely retrieved his bag.It was with much relief that we set off on the long drive to Windhoek, making it to Ghanzi for an overnight stop before the final push got us to Windhoek by lunchtime the following day. We narrowly avoided a further problem when Andrew inspected the tyres in ghanzi and found that one of them was so worn there were bits of wire poking through the rubber! Clearly all the bouncing through potholes and seriously thrown the tracking out and four new tyres were duly bought in Windhoek.The lesson from this experience? In Africa there is always a plan and however much you try to impose a western plan Africa will prevail but it will turn out alright in the end. The trick is learning to ride the problem rather than trying to push things along– it's a lot less stressful and the end result is the same.It was very sad to say goodbye to Andrew at the end of a wonderful holiday and lots of adventures and new experiences. I seized the opportunity of being in Windhoek to buy armloads of books and JJ and I headed off on the final 8 hour drive home.End of holiday and back to real life!