Day 1 (11 November 2010)
What a day. the day started with obvious excitement but the start was much later than expected. Due to some financial issues and the bank thinking adam was an international criminal, they had frozen our accounts. So the first destination of the trip was Nedbank. After much negotiations they realized that we were not criminals and returned our money on two new Visa and Master cards. We hit the BP for some much needed fuel and then had to wait for Gareth’s bk card to arrive as it was taken by his girlfriend, Michelle. Finally it was time to leave but as we merged onto the highway it was into a huge traffic jam. The day definitely had a “One of those days” feel. But once the traffic was clear we hit the open road, N4 heading East.
Due to the late start we didn’t know whether we would make it across the border and there was a mad scrabble to try organize another place to stay for the night. Even though there was a rush, we still managed to squeeze in little bit of fun, which helped decrease the excitement we were all feeling. We stopped and had a drink with Nicky’s grandparents, stopped to get some fresh fruit in Nelspruit and arrived in Komatipoort at around 3pm. Luck the person we were corresponding with at the veterinary faculty, Oswaldo, was amazing and organized us place to stay at the faculty. I think that was the point where the excitement peaked and with South Africa disappearing in our rear view mirror it was off to Maputo.
The drive to Maputo was uneventful and listening to the voice of the GPS (Betty), we managed to find our way as close to the varsity as we could, then Osvaldo guided us in. Being all weak South Africans, due to the heat at the varsity we decided to sleep in an air conditions office. But before sleep, it was time for dinner. Our hosts took us on a quick tour of the city and then to a yatch club where we had the best peri-peri chicken and chips (Mozam style) and had many laughs (at the barbie) and made some great friends. Following dinner we returned to the varsity and just managed to squeeze our camp beds into the air conditioned room and laughed till we fell asleep (rather close to each other). The group was in high spirits and looking forward to day 2.
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