A twist in the tale

  Mwanza, Tanzania
Thursday, July 10, 2008

A twist in the tale....
 
So, there we were, on such a high after our nights at Ngorongoro, an exciting few days outside the Serengeti and all steams ahead for our drive to a new country...Rwanda. Alas, things, as we should've known in Africa, never quite go as planned and thus we have the "twist in the Dusted Adventures tale".

After Serengeti, we met up again with a couple, Kevin and Rachel Steyn from RSA, who we initially met in Northern Malawi and who Franci and Jo had travelled to Zanzibar with, and it was decided around the campfire that night to travel with them in a 3-car convoy through Mwanza, around lake Victoria and into Rwanda, since the rumour was that that road wasn't great and the area slightly notorious for Bandits. So the following morning, after doing the usual car check, filling up watertanks, having church (our Sunday morning thing), we headed off.
 
The trip to Mwanza was pretty uneventful and we were all getting quite excited for the new country that lay ahead. We pulled into the BP in Mwanza, and after all filing up, discussing last arrangement, and getting ready to leave, the event took place.....some slimy little buggers picked the lock of Rose's passenger door (with Chris standing just on the other side of the car), snuck their hand in and grabbed Chris and La's bag fill of pretty much everything from passports, money, drivers license, wallets with credit cards, to vaccination certificates...you name it!! We could not believe it, of all the worst things you imagine to go wrong in Africa, this is pretty high on the top of the list.
 
We then spent the next few days in Mwanza, racking our brains through all the options that lay ahead. Had it been only ourselves to worry about, the matter would have been slightly less complicated but with Chris's cousin(Sash) and his friend(George) flying in to meet up with us in Kigali on the 1st, nothing was that simple. After exploring all the possible options it seemed we had no other way out but to head back to Dar to apply for a new passport, so after much deliberation, cost and time calculations, the plan came down to getting Sash and George to fly to Zanzibar, while the Husted's would catch the train from Mwanza to Dar (a 38 hour ordeal that turned out to be a 48 hour ordeal), and the Dups's just decided, this is what this trip is about, we're in this together....so they're coming with!

The four days spent in Mwanza is really nothing to write home about but how ever long we think back on good old Mwanza, we will not forget San and Tom, a South African couple expiating in Mwanza! Had it not been for them, I think we would have lost all hope in Africa and turned around to come home. The night we arrived after the passport debacle, they came over to chat to us at the camp site and on telling them our dramas they went to all stops to help us over the following few days. Chris and La made and received many a phone call from their office to various embassies, they tried to make use of any connection they had, let us get our washing done at their house, and best of all, invited us to their home for a much-needed, good-old South African Braai!!! We all know Franci has a pretty healthy appetite, but that night even Chris had his teeth around a juicy piece of wors before most of us had even sat down at the table. What a feast. 
 
So Thursday, the day of the train ride, finally arrived and during our preparation for leaving (getting the fridges sorted and packing out backpacks) the Husted's got a call from a chap called Eric, or, as we have come to know him, The Negotiator. Chris played it cool and when the guy tried to smooth talk him with his kind words, acting like he was on Chris's side, he fell for none of it. How much was true at that stage we were not sure, but he was apparently a businessman from Arusha, who had some of the Husted's documents in hand and he, on behalf of the robbers, (of coarse he had nothing to do with it ;)) he requested a mere $2000 in return for the passports. Chris gave the classic police-investigator answer, just like he'd seen in the movies, and said "Only once you have all my documents, then we can talk". You'd think he had practiced it or something. The call was pretty amusing but at that stage we had lost all hope of getting the documents back, we had booked our train tickets and we were on our way, so we really thought nothing of the call and laughed off the possibility of Eric coming through for us. The train was scheduled to leave at 6, we had been advised to get there an hour earlier, but like typical Mzungus, we thought we should get there even earlier to book our cabin, so got there at 4:30.  (Can't believe we actually thought the train was going to leave on time.) I know this story is getting long, but now the plot thickens...while we were waiting for the train, Chris gets another call from The Negotiator, Eric, who is now miraculously in Mwanza and has ALL their documents. He even read them out to Chris, so that when Chris heard things like "vaccination certificate", he knew he must be for real. They made arrangements to meet, Eric requesting somewhere public, and Chris choosing the Talapia Hotel (not only because it's public but also because he was certain it was the sort of place they would have gone to in the movies). So minutes before the train was (supposed) to leave, this was getting really exciting, the boys ran off towards the hotel, while the girls stood guard at the station over the bags. Minutes after arriving, a white Toyota Lincoln pulled up next to them, the window was wound down (also just like the movies) and there they were, the documents altogether in a plastic bag being held out to Chris. On the way there the boys had decided they were not going to pay this guy money for their documents and just seemingly support the crime to get what they wanted so as confidently as possible Chris told the guy, "These are mine, but if you want them, you can keep them because I am not going to pay you for them." The guy was pretty taken aback and slightly dumbfounded by their sharp thinking and didn't really have an answer to that. So...the so-called deal was done, and off they walked, then jogged, then sprinted a little nervously all the way back to the train station, documents in hand!!!!!! With Sash and George meeting us in Zanzibar, there was, however, no turning around so at 7:30, an hour and a half late, we boarded the train and entered our 6-man, second class cabin, which we had booked out and contemplated the journey that lay ahead. The train-ride was pretty long, to say the least and hecticly bumpy. We concluded that the wheels must be square because, honestly, at times it was roller-coaster stuff it was so bad. The cabin itself was pretty cool with three beds on each side that can be converted into seats but outside the cabin and getting to the toilet was unreal. We worked out that on our train carriage there must have been more people seated in the passage and outside the toilet (!!!) then in the cabins. We had to literally stand on people to get to the toilet. Admittedly, we probably had quite romantic ideas about the train ride, but this trip turned out to be your typical African adventure. A highlight of the trip though, was the so-called eating arrangements. Around supper time, the train stops in the middle of what seems like nowhere at a stretch of dozens and dozens of food stalls, all selling locally cooked, absolutely delicious food. So we selected our stall, ordered a plate of food (mostly the best tasting rice, some spinach and tomato relish) and after cleaning our hands in the water trough, ate from the bowls provided with our hands. They know how to cook rice in Tanzania, that's for sure. Once everyone on the train has had their full (and there no rush), the hooter sounds and off we go!! Only in Africa.


So after 48 hours we arrived in one piece in Dar with yet another adventure ahead of us....but that's a story for later.