Good Things Come To Those That Wait!
Trip Start
Dec 29, 2011
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Trip End
Jan 02, 2012
Swaziland, Swaziland
Thursday, December 29, 2011
We arrived in Swaziland in the early evening. We promptly checked into our hotel and feeling slightly ravenous, we went for dinner at Calabash http://goodwebmarketing.com/restaurant-calabash (great food by the way and reasonably priced), after which we went for a few drinks at a local drinking establishment before calling it a day!
We woke up reasonably early the next morning to make our way to Mozambique and arrived at the Swaziland/Mozambique border around 1.30pm! After getting our passports stamped we returned to the car to drive through to the next border, but were told that we need an official letter from the bank, verifying that the car belongs to the driver. Not a problem I thought....oh how wrong was I!! Now, a couple of things you realise after being here for a while is that people generally work at their own pace and that something which would normally get done in about 30 minutes in the UK, can take hours! Bearing that in mind, by this time it was about 2pm and the banks close at 3.30pm, so time was against us!
Anyway, the designated driver called the bank and they said it's fine, they'll fax over the required letter! Perfect! Just as a precaution, a few other calls were made, as a back up, if things fell through with the bank ...I'm beginning to realise that no matter where you are in the world, it's all about who you know! Anyway, by 3.30pm we had received nothing...in my mind I'm beginning to get slightly worried as time was running out! Finally at 3.40pm we receive word that a fax has been sent...whoo hoo! My joy was short lived! They had faxed over a document we already had, which had not been accepted! We immediately called back the bank and thankfully we managed to speak to someone, but were told that due to certain legal/legislation reasons, they were unable to fax through the specific letter of verification we required! To put it bluntly, we were screwed! The other contacts weren't able to follow through and by this time it was around 4pm and the realisation that we actually won't be making it over to Mozambique finally dawned! I was gutted, to say the least! The rest of the entourage were deflated and had also given up hope and it was suggested that we try again tomorrow, but one of my friends refused to give up and was adamant that we would get through, by hook or by crook!
My heart sank! I started visualizing myself on a beautiful sandy beach, cocktail in hand, watching the sun set. I actually got lost in my thoughts and within about 15 minutes,my friend reappeared, saying everything was sorted! Now, whether it was the look of desperation in his eyes, the fact that he pleaded, or maybe even the fact that I visualised us being there (maybe there is some truth in 'The Secret' after all!), one will never know....but four hours later and R673/£67 (required for a visa) poorer, we entered Mozambique! All's well that ends well!
