Bye bye GVI

Friday 2nd April 2010

We set off quite early for the long drive back to Johannesburg. At the start of our journey, Manie (who was driving) stated "we don't have seatbelts. If you want a seatbelt, tie your own belt to the arm of your seat." We stopped once again at Polokwane to change vehicles. At Polokwane we left Sophia and Manie, who was "happy to be my hero."

We saw some interesting sights on the drive. In the opposite direction I noticed a large number of orange buses. John informed us that these were filled with Zionist Christians and I assumed they were on their way to a large church event as this is Easter weekend. On occasions we would see one stopped on the hard shoulder and its passengers milling about, sometimes sleeping actually on the hard shoulder! Passing townships we noticed some modest brick-built buildings of an obvious higher quality to the tin shacks around them. The Government has constructed many of these for the residents of the townships to improve conditions and prevent the spread of informal settlements. Unfortunately the residents simply rent these out to gain capital whilst continuing to live in their poorer dwellings.

The drama of the GVI expedition was not yet over. North of Pretoria it began to rain quite hard. After some time the windscreen wiper on the driver's side sheered clean off. This has happened to me before and it is quite scary. We were in the fast lane and instead of pulling onto the hard shoulder, the driver stopped on the grassy and muddy central reservation, beaching the van in the process. We all had to get out in order to reduce the weight of the van and then we had to push it back onto the fast lane! Covered in mud from the spinning of the rear wheels, we had to all scramble back onto the van...via the fast lane! An apt ending to a safety-ignorant two weeks.

We arrived back at Johannesburg airport and had drinks and said goodbye to John. Several people left to get flights and the remaining 6 of us had a meal with Gary, Carina and Richard joining me back at Bob's Bunkhouse. They had flights on the Saturday and I had earlier suggested Bob's to them. It was sad to say goodbye to more people but I'm getting used to this now - that's the life of a nomadic hobo!