"Everyone gets what they want. I wanted a mission, and for my sins they gave me one."
--Captain Willard
Apocalypse Now 1979When I first came to africa I wanted an adventure, and that exactly what I got. After leaving Liza in Lusaka I travelled by bus to Livingstone where I hung out for a few days. For those of you who aren't familiar I was planning to journey back to cape town by way of an overland truck I had contacted over a month ago. I called the owner of the company about once a week to make sure he hadn't forgotten about me. Fast foreward to June 29th, I called him and he casually mentioned that the truck might be leaving the afternoon of the 30th instead of July 2nd like he told me previously. I must say I was a bit alarmed but not freaked out cause getting down to the town of vic falls by afternoon is no problem. I was supposed to meet the truck a small place called Inyathi Lodge. I took the first shuttle to the Victoria Falla national park in the morning with all my gear. Stashed it in a visitor center and went into the park. I took loads of pictures some video and generally putzed around meandering through the rainforest below and the savannah above the falls. With plenty of time to spare I went back to the center grabbed my bag and proceeded to make my exodus from Zambia. The walk from Zambia to Zimbabwe was perhaps the longest no-man's land I have ever come across and it took me a while to walk it but no biggie. I walked through the town to the arranged meeting place where upon I was informed that the overland truck had left at aproximately 4am that morning. After first laughing maniacaly for a few minutes I thanked the manager for his time and walked back out and into Victoria Falls. Because of the current political and economic situation of Zimbabwe the possibility of finding a bus to South Africa was slim so i decided to hoof it to Botswana a nice 70 klicks away. I decided to walk because the taxi drivers were offering to take me there for 200 Rand and when I said that was too much they said, "hey you're American, you have plenty of money." I responded with some very unkind words about the lack of fuel and how his taxi service was going to run dry etc etc. About 6 km down that sun baked, dust parched, misreble stretch of asphalt they called a highway I discoveredthat perhaps stocking up on food and water back in Livingstone wasn't the best idea as I was now carrying 5L of water and food for a few days. That combined with the stuff Liza wanted to send home made for a nice full and very heavy pack. I stopped outside a primary school to wait for the parents to come pick their children up and perhaps I could hitch a ride. So I put out my thumb and about an hour later a car with 4 people stopped in front on their way to Kasane, Botswana. I was lucky that they stopped in front of me cause as soon as I started thumbing a few people moved up the road from me and did likewise. Unoriginal bastards. Anyhow we made our way west dodging baboons, monkeys, and yes, Elephant. Elephants don't bother walking around dense thickets, they simply crash straight through it. After going through imigration in Botswana I was dropped off at a bus stop with instructions to catch a bus to francis town, because from there I could easily catch a bus for joburg and from there to cape town. The forseen night in Francistown was going to be interesting as someone had snaked both of my lonely planets, and the book was looking foreward to reading
A History of Warfare by John keegan, an author I have read before and admire. I asked a gentleman at the bus stop when the next bus would be passing through and he said tomorrow (the 1st of july).
Things were seriously starting to look a little bleak, but then I remembered a truck I had seen at a gas station about 1km up the road. Gathering my things I said good bye to the chaps I had conversed with and moved off with a chorus of snickers behind me. As I approached the gas station such a beautiful sight beheld mine eyes. There stood a green overland truck. Of course not the one I was looking for, and yes they were going to Cape Town, yes they could take me along. I could have hugged the man. Anyway alls well that ends well. I'm back in cape town and am enjoying myself. Climbed table mountain today by way of a difficult route. Tomorrow I plan on going on a wine tour, then on tuesday go to the botanical gardens and teusday night I fly to london. I'm coming home. I hope you all have enjoyed this blob. I'll write more when I know about plans for a party for pictures and food.
