Driving

As you may remember, we have been given a new vehicle to help us reach our far distances. Bearing in mind that this is a big 4x4 truck type thing with an attached canopy roof over the truck part we thought that we’d be having no problems with only 800kms on the clock. Oh yes, the truck is also white – the bog standard NGO colour in Malawi! While I was at home, Sue has already had to take it to the dealers in Mzuzu as there was something wrong with the oil pipe – apparently it hadn’t been screwed on properly.

So off we went on a long journey up to one of our far away TDCs on the dusty, bumpy road. We got there fine and were heading back up a really steep part so I was driving in first gear when we went over a few bumps. Nothing new and at least the path was dry. Suddenly I looked out of the rear view mirror and saw the roof jumping into the air and flying off, literally landing with a thump. We got out and there was the canopy lying in the middle of the road.

Thankfully 2 men were passing in their truck and stopped to help us. There was no way that we would have been able to lift the roof up, far less put it back in place. Unfortunately we weren’t able to secure the roof, which was not dented and missing all its screws so the men asked if we had rope. Of course we didn’t – it was a brand new truck! Thankfully Malawians are resourceful and they appeared from the bushes brandishing trees which were then stripped of their bark and the insides used as ropes. Very clever! Carefully they secured the roof into the truck part and told us to drive carefully – yeah right we still had miles left of the bumpy road. We continued on and had to stop a few times to re-tie the trees. Much to the amusement of the locals who all suddenly appear in their millions!

Thankfully we made it back without injuring anyone and with the roof still in place. We bought proper rope from the market and re-tied the roof in place. It just so happened that we were going to Mzuzu the next day as the car was due its first service. A local mechanic said that they hadn’t tightened the bolts properly and we should have told them that we were driving on bad roads – I mean for goodness sake if you are driving anywhere in Malawi then you are guaranteed to be driving on bad roads!!

We handed it in to the garage but I have to go back to get it refitted on Monday. I was going back anyway as I need to update my drivers licence so I can officially drive a bike and car with the Malawi licence. I was told it would only take a couple of hours to do but again I have to go back for that several days later but that is a whole different story…….

One other great bit of news is it is the mango season so they are everywhere. Much nicer and fresher than the ones you get at home and they only cost about 2p each!!