road trip (from hell)

I went to the capital Kampala to get a visa for South Sudan, where I travel fairly often.  It is possible to cross the border without one; you simply pay.  A lot.  So I took the overnight bus (I want to say never again, but really you should ‘never say never’) from the town close by, Yumbe.  Thirteen hours of hell.  Not just the seats were properly upright like those on an airplane (though didnt recline), or that they were covered in a thick plastic, to help keep them clean / keep you sweaty (*delete as appropriate), or the roads are so bad, that maybe only 3 hours of this journey was on a passable tarmac surface, but the driving.

 

It is dark, completely dark.  Only the moonlight.  They don’t have ‘cat’s eyes’ on the (small) stretches of tarmac either.  So, it is just the headlights of the bus, which are understandably ‘upgraded’ to help the driver, who thinks he is the lovechild of Mad Max, Lewis Hamilton and the Stig.  He owns the road.

 

The bus was configured with a single seat right at the front, adjacent to the driver.  “Excellent”, I thought, a tiny bit of extra legroom, nobody leaning on me, using my shoulder as their pillow, oblivious to the environment.  But I am ringside, literally a front row seat to the unfolding game of ‘chicken’ in an 8-tonne coach with 72 people on board, I have to say it is pretty terrifying; the speed, the over-taking, the bumps, the dazzling lights of oncoming coaches and lorries.  He owns the road.  I saw a moto rider being run off the road (by someone else).  I saw a petrol tanker at 90° to the road.  Its cab just about on the ‘road’, the rest in the field.  I begin to think that sitting up front, at least it will be quick…

 

It’s a relief to get off.  Maybe I should not have opted for the ‘box seat’. 

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One thought on “road trip (from hell)

  1. Karen Fletcher

    In Marrakech, I ended up in the front seat, my precious 5 Lady friends in the back. I had fogrotten Arab/French driving. OMG, held onto my seat and my belief in a local driver. Glad you survived!!

    Reply

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