The coach journey

8 :00 AM. Alarm right on time, shower at Doc’s place and ready to go. Packed with about 12 suitcases to carry around everywhere, direction Park Station in Johannesburg to take a bus which leads us to our final destination in Africa, Manica, Mozambique. After about an hour spend on traffic jams, we finally arrive at Park Station.

11:30 AM. As Doc and Alec, our guide through the journey, are telling us stories about this place, I’m starting to have a bad feeling for the day. And unfortunately, when you feel that way, it usually happens. “keep your heads down”, “don’t talk to anyone”, “keep moving”, we took the advices and made low profile while we were inside the Station. In our Arsenal red top easily identifiable for anyone, we walked into Park Station with a palpable tension in the air.

13:40 PM. Beginning of the trip with about an hour to reach Pretoria, South African Capital, and fill up the bus. As we all resting, rocked to sleep by the African music, especially the British lad, James Banathy, we are all thinking that the trip is not so bad in the end. As I feel the need for music, my Iphone decided to do its own thing and let me down badly by dying every time I tried to turn it back on. It is always when you need something the most that you cannot count on it. Always.

22.30 PM. Five minutes away from the Zimbabwe border, first ID control by the South African authorities for about an hour. As we arrived at the border, still in the South African side, a second ID control. Great. Then, we spent an hour off the bus to get the stamp saying we actually left South Africa. On of the control, the bus drivers went crazy about some passengers legal situations. Trying to get out of trouble, they asked for bribes to balance risks.

1:00 AM. Stuck at the border, Alec took us at the administration to get our Zimbabwe visas. This is the moment we find out that one of us, Ams, has to go back to Johannesburg because of his Turkish passport. Not able to continue the trip with us, Alec and him took a bus back to sort out everything in South Africa. James, Armando and I kept going for the rest of the journey on our own.

6:00 AM. Stuck at the border since 22:30 PM now, waiting for the authorities to check our suitcases, we finally took off into Zimbabwe to join Mozambique. Absolutely exhausted by the wait, we slept the entire time we were in Zimbabwe.

15:00 PM. Trip over, border in front of us. As we unpack our suitcases from the bus, we went through an army of taxi drivers asking to take us because of the Arsenal top on. Unfortunately for them, we already had someone to pick us up.

16:00 PM. Final step of the journey, the Mozambican border which took us approximately one more hour to cross. As we go through the ID check and visas, Armando found out that his visa is only suitable for 30 days in a row inside the country instead of 90 days like James and I.

The final moment of a journey full of issues and stories and far away from being smooth. Such an incredible experience that we would carry all along our lives.

#Mozambique