Fog of War - Lead the Way Tank, I'll Heal You**
Trip Start
Nov 14, 2007
1
15
20
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
Hazyview,
South Africa
Sunday, November 25, 2007
When: November 24th, 2007 - right before midnight.
Point of Entry: At Blue Jay Lodge, a cozy B&B in the Mpumulanga province of SA
Holy Shit! WE MADE IT!! I can't believe we made it through the African Gauntlet unscathed. We got thru the 4 hour drive from Jo'berg to our destination. I normally write one entry a day... But this was the craziest drive I've ever had to deal with. An achievement that deserves more than an honorable mention on tomorrow's entry.
First of all, we didn't get on the road to Nelspruit from Jo'berg until a quarter past 8pm. Yikes!! Its already dark out. Angela and I have both read many blogs and articles about traveling in the middle of the night in South Africa. To sum it up - beware of bandits and things that go bump in the night. Especially traveling thru the provincial areas of the Eastern Cape. I, for one, believe that these kinds of places never really live up to their reputation - good or bad. Its like how a person from Belfast will have had all these crazy images of how Compton and South Central will be before having had stepped one foot on said locations. Now, I'm not saying the CPT or South Central is Disneyland but it ain't as bad as someone from Belfast might think.
Back to my story - well, after driving pass the Jo'berg city limits, we enter the thicket. We are on a small highway that's surrounded by jungle brush. The further and further we get away from Jo'berg, the darker it gets. There are some rest stops but are few and very far between.
And then we enter the Thunderdome, aka Mpumulunga District, where we meet the thickest fog I've ever encountered in my life and a wild and unpredictable African thunderstorm. No wonder our flight was canceled. Now, that doesn't so sound bad, right? A little fog and roaring thunder never hurt nobody. You are so sadly mistaken, my friend. The highways are not lit well like our highways back home are. Street lamps are absent and the lane reflectors don't do their jobs very well. I turned off my headlights just to see how dark it is, and it's pitch black. Of course Angela got super pissed at me for doing that. She's already on pins and needles and playing around with the lights like that didn't make her feel any better. To add to an already stressful experience, there were hardly any warning signs of any pending hairpin turns up ahead. You have to drive cautiously and extremely slow just to make sure you don't go off a cliff. Try doing that whilst driving on the other side of the street. And then, tell me if that shit ain't scary.
Enter our hero of the night - a "leet tank" to run me through this "instance". Woohoo!! There was this random white truck that pulled up behind us right when we were starting to doubt our decision to drive to Hazyview. We didn't know who he was but whoever he was, he was my hero. I steered our red Corolla slightly to the shoulder to give enough room for this "leet tank" to squeeze by and get in front of us. In South Africa, it's customary for the locals to flash their hazard lights in appreciation when a friendly driver gives way. This was the very first time I ever veered to the side shoulder to let someone go through. So, when he flashed those bright amber lights, I felt a rush of excitement come through me. I'm one of them!!! Double Woohoo!!
I quickly grew fond of this truck - he became our escort through this one lane highway insanity. I don't know if I was becoming delusional but it really felt like he was looking out for us. Every turn, he would flash his amber lights so that we would know where the turn was. Every time the fog grew thicker, again, he would flash his amber lights. I love this dude!!! I was so caught up in this follow the leader game that I mistakenly followed him to his exit... He probably thought I was some psycho serial murderer tailing him. But I didn't care, White Truck FTW!!!
Anyway - after a few miscalculations given to us by our useless GPS navi system and a few wrongs turns here and there, we finally made it to our destination - Blue Jay Lodge. Philip Nichols, the guy who runs the establishment and eerily reminiscent of an older Alan Rickman, stayed up to wait for us. He greeted us with a warm smile and said, "I admire your fortitude for making such a trek in this unforgiving inclimate weather. Welcome." Ahh, "Welcome" indeed - a very under appreciated word. Well and Come, two words that describe how one has arrived. And we have arrived well.
** If you don't know what this is referencing, then you're missing out on the most addicting thing since crack. World of Wacraft - google it.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
