After wildlife watching in Chobe national park,Victoria falls viewing from both the Zimbabwe and Zambian side and 'bungy induced adrenaline rush' it was time to head back to Windhoek again. We had actually planned this ahead of time and booked bus tickets online two weeks earlier. Mostly because we had to be back in Windhoek on a specific date and also because it was busy times in southern Africa. Never before had I seen so many people travelling on the plentiful "safari-trucks", (wittily called 'the mother-truckers' by us:)) a phenomenon I don't remember encountering when I was in Africa last time.....14 years ago:) Travelling has obviously been taken to a new level and dimension. Even if we didn't have to compete for the bus tickets with the truck-tourists, we had more than once heard of hostels and campsites being booked out, so to avoid being stuck in Livingstone, we opted to be on the safe side for once.
The bus we had booked was based on the information that we had received while in Namibia and once again that information had been very selective. We had been told that there was only one bus company which serviced travel from Livingstone to Windhoek, but we soon realized that there were in fact two other companies as well and they seemed to be cheaper. But it was too late to worry about that and our bus was in fact quite nice. We looked forward to a comfy bus ride (or as comfortable as possible on a bus) and judging by the advertisement on the TV on the bus, this company was reliable, friendly and had resourceful drivers (a bit of self-praise is only good for the staff moral I guess). The 'pro-company ad' had just finished when the bus suddenly screeched to a halt! Hmmmm not a good sign and definitely not after that "we-are-so-bloody-awesome" ad! We were told that a fan belt had broken, but that it would only take 5 minutes to fix. Three hours later we were still standing at the roadside taking turns staring at the complex engine structure of the bus while our resourceful drivers were frantically trying to fix the problem with a tree branch and a hammer? I'm sure they knew what they were doing, but can't help if I was a bit skeptical. Just as we were discussing with a few other co-passengers whether we would actually reach the border before they closed at 6pm, the bus from another company came by and stopped. We were pretty much ushered onto that bus and rushed to the border which we reached just before closing. Relief! At least we were in the right country and even if we ended up being 10 hrs late we would make it back to Windhoek! However, things were looking up since miraculously 'our' bus had now caught up with us, apparently patched up and functional and we were able to continue our trip without further delays.
We settled back in and listened as the bus hostess finished the (what seems to be) compulsory road prayer. The TV started up and we were ready for some relaxing time. To our surprise the "entertainment" consisted of hardcore Gospel spreading movies involving extremely poor acting skills. I'm all for religious freedom, but this was a bit too much 'Christian propaganda' and I tried to close my eyes and tune out. This would've been successful, if Dan hadn't been so fired up about how disturbingly bad the quality and contents of the movie was and kept telling me what was happening on the screen. He also kept muttering Insha' Allah, just to be annoying (one of his many special talents:)) and to exert his "freedom of religion"! Sigh! What was the point in even trying to sleep. I endured 3, what seemed to be, never ending movies about: 1) Bad boy meets girl and changes into nice boy while finding God, 2) Jesus serving food in a diner, trying to convince bad guy to eat his delicious food (=salvation) before heading off with officer 'Devile' and 3) Angry widower lost his faith in God but was shown the right way back into the light...or something like that. As if the movies were not bad enough, it was also stinking hot in the bus. I tried my best to cool down by pressing my face and arms tightly against the window, still being able to watch the movie in the reflection of course:) Finally kind of passed out either from heat stroke or mental exhaustion. It felt like one of the loooooongest bus rides ever (and there have been many in the past, record = 46 hrs in Argentina), but we finally made it to Windhoek. We were only 3 hours late which was not bad going considering the chaotic start, but in the future I much rather go on the local "chicken bus". At least then you get what you pay for!
The bus we had booked was based on the information that we had received while in Namibia and once again that information had been very selective. We had been told that there was only one bus company which serviced travel from Livingstone to Windhoek, but we soon realized that there were in fact two other companies as well and they seemed to be cheaper. But it was too late to worry about that and our bus was in fact quite nice. We looked forward to a comfy bus ride (or as comfortable as possible on a bus) and judging by the advertisement on the TV on the bus, this company was reliable, friendly and had resourceful drivers (a bit of self-praise is only good for the staff moral I guess). The 'pro-company ad' had just finished when the bus suddenly screeched to a halt! Hmmmm not a good sign and definitely not after that "we-are-so-bloody-awesome" ad! We were told that a fan belt had broken, but that it would only take 5 minutes to fix. Three hours later we were still standing at the roadside taking turns staring at the complex engine structure of the bus while our resourceful drivers were frantically trying to fix the problem with a tree branch and a hammer? I'm sure they knew what they were doing, but can't help if I was a bit skeptical. Just as we were discussing with a few other co-passengers whether we would actually reach the border before they closed at 6pm, the bus from another company came by and stopped. We were pretty much ushered onto that bus and rushed to the border which we reached just before closing. Relief! At least we were in the right country and even if we ended up being 10 hrs late we would make it back to Windhoek! However, things were looking up since miraculously 'our' bus had now caught up with us, apparently patched up and functional and we were able to continue our trip without further delays.
We settled back in and listened as the bus hostess finished the (what seems to be) compulsory road prayer. The TV started up and we were ready for some relaxing time. To our surprise the "entertainment" consisted of hardcore Gospel spreading movies involving extremely poor acting skills. I'm all for religious freedom, but this was a bit too much 'Christian propaganda' and I tried to close my eyes and tune out. This would've been successful, if Dan hadn't been so fired up about how disturbingly bad the quality and contents of the movie was and kept telling me what was happening on the screen. He also kept muttering Insha' Allah, just to be annoying (one of his many special talents:)) and to exert his "freedom of religion"! Sigh! What was the point in even trying to sleep. I endured 3, what seemed to be, never ending movies about: 1) Bad boy meets girl and changes into nice boy while finding God, 2) Jesus serving food in a diner, trying to convince bad guy to eat his delicious food (=salvation) before heading off with officer 'Devile' and 3) Angry widower lost his faith in God but was shown the right way back into the light...or something like that. As if the movies were not bad enough, it was also stinking hot in the bus. I tried my best to cool down by pressing my face and arms tightly against the window, still being able to watch the movie in the reflection of course:) Finally kind of passed out either from heat stroke or mental exhaustion. It felt like one of the loooooongest bus rides ever (and there have been many in the past, record = 46 hrs in Argentina), but we finally made it to Windhoek. We were only 3 hours late which was not bad going considering the chaotic start, but in the future I much rather go on the local "chicken bus". At least then you get what you pay for!
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