The Wheels on the Bus... - 11/12/12

I'm Sexy and I Know it

GABBY -We woke up with the sun in order to catch our bus leaving from Port Elizabeth at 6:55.  My eye had gotten worse overnight and hurt to keep open.  John was convinced it was a sty and gave me some eye ointment to apply.  Ben and I said goodbye to John and got into Andries’ buggy.  I slept in the back of the truck all the way to the Greyhound station in PE.  Andries was kind enough to make sure we were sorted with our bus tickets before saying goodbye and departing for a fun-filled day of working at his photography store.  The bus rolled to a stop right outside of where we were waiting.  We loaded our backpacks into the bottom compartment of the bus and walked to the upper deck and sat down in our seats.  The bus was much like a US Greyhound bus.  Ben even commented that it was “more comfortable than our flight here”.  There were even TVs, which played movies starting with “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” starring the hilarious Jim Carrey.  Periodically, the bus would stop for 15-20 minutes, which allowed us to get our chocolate, salt and vinegar Lay’s and Coca Cola fix.  Throughout the entire bus ride, my eye was in constant pain.  Sometimes I would try and keep it open to see the movie and it would immediately tear up and start throbbing.  It wasn’t quite swollen shut, but I tried to keep it closed as much as possible.  Anything else would cause extreme pain.  At this point, it was getting pretty close to the 5:25 p.m. time that Adrian and I agreed upon.  It was about 5:00 when I saw the sign that Kokstad was 170 km away.  That’s at least 1 hour if not 2.  Since Ben was sitting in the aisle and had a normal looking face, he was the one chosen to ask to borrow someone’s phone.  He did so smoothly and with grace and managed to use a woman’s phone to call Adrian’s number that she gave me via e-mail.  Ben talked to someone who didn’t seem to speak English well, but was able to get the point across that we were going to be at least an hour later than we said.  I get really stressed out if I am making people wait, so I tried to remain calm and think that there was nothing we could do about the current situation.  

Mthatha Traffic Jam

We passed through the town of Mthatha, which was experiencing gridlock traffic while we were passing through.  I was able to snap some pretty cool pictures of the small town as we stood still for close to an hour.  We managed to get out of the town and drive through beautiful mountain ranges that highlighted the incredible sunset.  I was getting more and more concerned that Adrian was not going to be there to greet us.  It was 8:20 when we finally pulled into the Kokstad Wimpy bus stop, which translates to a 3 hour delay .  It took us 13 ½ hours to reach our destination in Kokstad from PE.  I was convinced that we were going to need to spend the night in the hotel we spotted right behind the gas station and Wimpy (fast food burger joint).  We gathered our belongings and headed towards the fluorescent lights of the Wimpy.  As we were walking, I heard a voice call out my name.  I turned and saw a well dressed white guy approaching me.  He introduced himself as Adrian.  Apparently Adrian was not Steve’s daughter, as I originally thought, but a 22 year old guy from England.  I could not have been more relieved when I heard my name.  I had convinced myself of the scenario that we were going to have to stay the night in Kokstad, call an incredibly irritated Adrian, and possibly lose our volunteering opportunity because of a late bus.  I need to start wrapping my head around the fact that we are in Africa: no stress, no stress.  He had slept in the car for 3 hours and didn’t seem the least bit upset with the situation.  We hopped into Steve’s actual daughter’s small, white car and headed for Khotso backpackers.  It was a solid hour long drive, which was spent discussing the backpackers and lodge, the characters we would meet, travel stories, and volunteer duties.  It was nice to hear some of the stuff we would be expected to do.  Ben and I were able to ask more direct and appropriate questions about the backpackers having worked at one for the past 3 weeks.  I was a bit quiet and out of it in the back of the car due to the pain on the ride side of my head and neck.  Finally, we reached Khotso, which was located 6 km past Underberg (small town, but puts Addo to shame) and down an extremely long, pot-hole ridden dirt road.  We met Lulu and Steve, who are the owners of the farm.  Steve’s wife died about 10 years ago, and he remarried Lulu.  Lulu is a warm, hospitable woman from Mexico City who originally came to Khotso as a guest and ended up marrying Steve 8 years ago.  Steve is a gangly, older man who is obsessed with running.  He ran from Khotso to Knysna because his daughter lives there.  That’s an extremely far drive, let alone run.  They had prepared us a delicious dinner and made us feel right at home.  After dinner, we set off to bed in one of the backpacker’s nicest double rooms because our actual room still smelled of paint.  I already feel very welcome and comfortable with the people we have met.  Hopefully, this sentiment continues over the next month and a half here.