The Lost Goat of Machaila

[River Rat]

This one is for DJR, Slowbee and other fellow adventurers.

 

Part 1.

 

Recently my wife and I took a trip to Vilankulos, but we wanted to take the adventurous route so we decided to do it via the Pafuri border post. We do this because it’s often the journey itself that makes the adventure and not only the destination. The first thing you have to contend with on this route is the border crossing as there have been a number of reports of military officials harassing travellers at this specific border post. We had none of this but we did have to pay an unexpected amount of R150 for a Gaza Province regional road tax but when I later checked my receipt it was marked down as 150 Metical, I think we were conned.

 

 

The next challenge is the crossing of the great Limpopo River, you see there are three possibilities either the river is full and you cross by ferry or the river is empty and you do a “dry” crossing or the river is not quite full enough for the ferry and you do a wet crossing of questionable outcomes. My research indicated that we should be good for a “dry” one but we would only know when we got there. We decided to reconnoitre the crossing at Pafuri as this would be the spot where we would be crossing also in the spring of 2019 en route to Gonarezhou National Park. When we got there it was evident that my research was correct and we did the “dry” crossing and back just to prove that we could.

 

 

The journey to Mapai took us through Fever tree forests and roads lined with the quintessential symbol of Africa, the Baobab tree which lined the roadside like sentinels guarding us as we made our way through this rugged part of Mozambique. The Mapai crossing was a lot drier than at Pafuri and we bantered a bit with the toll keeper as he tried his latest phrase in Afrikaans, anyway “Moer droog” was a reasonable enough description of the conditions and the pronunciation was passable. We paid our R100 toll and made our way to the first bottle store we could find which was in a pink building, a typical African store but they knew their business and the beers were cold and we paid for them in Rand.

 

After Mapai the road improved dramatically to a reasonably well maintained gravel road and we were maintaining a good pace when suddenly a Moz Police officer jumped into the road and indicated for us to pull over. At that stage I was not concentrating on my speed at all, you see although the road was in a reasonable condition there were a number of areas where the road was badly rutted by storm water runoff. This required some caution so I had simply adjusted my speed to what I considered safe and not necessarily to the a specific speed limit. I stopped with some concern as I was trying work out what the speed limit was and if I had exceeded it. Other than the single police officer I spotted an armed guard in military uniform sitting just behind a tree with his AK47 pointed at us, 50m to the front on the right I could see camouflaged under a tree was a light machine gun (LMG) position mounted behind a wall of sandbags. It looked like we had driven into an ambush, well laid out and I suspected there would be a stopper LMG position behind us but I couldn’t see it.

 

 

My mind raced as I suspected my worst fears were being realised, Mozambique was a lawless country (they said) and if they detained us who would know? We were in the “dark” part of our journey as far as communication goes and our family were only expecting to hear from us the next day. We were in trouble and I knew I would have to keep my wits about me to get us out of this one, but what was I to do. This looked like a well-planned military operation, if we accelerated the front LMG position would take us out and although only the barrel was visible it looked like a 7.62mm calibre, our Fortuner was no match for that. I tried scanning for the rear LMG position in my mirrors but I couldn't find it, I was almost certain that there which meant going back was also not an option. As for outside help we only saw one vehicle since Pafuri and it looked like it was transporting a goat to Mapai. I could not see a way out of this, we were in real trouble.

Edited November 24, 2019 by River Rat

[DJR]

[Rocket-Boy]

Oh no, not another River Rat story!! 

It just means heartbreak for me each time. I get so into it and then have to wait ages for the next installment!!

 

Already hooked on this one RR so keep em coming.

[ichnusa]

Bring

it

on

!

[River Rat]

Oh no, not another River Rat story!! 

It just means heartbreak for me each time. I get so into it and then have to wait ages for the next installment!!

 

Already hooked on this one RR so keep em coming.

I promise to be quicker on this one.

[Long Wheel Base]

O come on............................... Don't stop there!!!!!!!! Was it an ambush????????????

When is Part 2? This is like watching the Munga and someones dot doesn't update. F5 F5 F5.

[Slowbee]

and when in Africa, we sit and make a cup of tea with a biscuit and wait .... for part 2 .....

[TIB]

Having to wait for Part 2 amounts to torture.  Our Constitution prohibits that and I call on my Human Rights and DEMAND that Part 2 is published immediately... else I'm heading over to the Commission    

[PhilipV]

and when in Africa, we sit and make a cup of tea with a biscuit and wait .... for part 2 .....

Hey! Are you back from your bathunt yet?

[DJR]

Hey! Are you back from your bathunt yet?

Now THAT sounds like an interesting story - Slowbee?

[Slowbee]

Hey! Are you back from your bathunt yet?

You around Friday ?

 

 

Now THAT sounds like an interesting story - Slowbee?

Ummm, not really a hunt - but went to see a few of them fly around

[River Rat]

Part 2

My heart sank as the police officer walked around to the driver’s side, but there was no need, you see Alfonso (the police officer) had not seen a vehicle the whole day (it was just after 14h00) and simply wanted to chat, no need to produce any documents at all. We chatted about where we had come from, where we were going and the condition of the roads. When I complimented him and his countryman on the condition of the road we were on he beamed a smile back at me that matched his crisp white shirt as he showed his pride in his country. I think we chatted for at least 20 minutes when I bid him good bye, waved at the soldier but ignored the sandbag man. I still could not see the rear LMG position perhaps there was none.


The trip to Machaila was uneventful but the town itself was reminiscent of those towns you see in the old spaghetti westerns. The dusty streets were empty and people eyed us suspiciously over the rim of their beer glasses from the veranda of the lone pub as we rolled into town. All that was needed to complete the scene was Terence Hill’s blue eyes, Bud Spencer’s large frame and a tumble weed blowing across the road and we would be on the set of Trinity is My Name! Tracks 4 Africa guided us without a glitch to the Machaila Community Campsite, which was even signposted if you cared to glance a little higher than normal at the transmission line poles. The camp was deserted and there were no visible tyre tracks so we picked our spot for the night. As we were unpacking I noticed that we had been joined by a lone young billy goat. He made himself comfortable under our vehicle seeking respite from the hot sun, I could not see the rest of his herd nearby. After we unpacked we enjoyed our first 2M beer of the day while we waited for someone to arrive looking for payment. An hour passed and I was becoming uncomfortable with the fact that we had not paid, if you haven’t paid you are effectively squatters in a small town in a foreign country, this can’t be good. I decided to walk to the closest settlement to see if I could resolve this. I knew communication was going to be a challenge but I was ready for this. You see before we left home I loaded Google Translate - Portuguese language onto my mobile and it works like a charm. All you have to do is speak the phrase in English into the speaker, check that the responding text is correct and Google translates into the correct phrase in Portuguese which you can play back to the other party, no need to worry about bad pronunciation. We had loads of fun on our way to Punda Maria with a variety of phrases but now to test it in the real world.


I arrived at the first settlement after a walk through the veld and did the polite thing which was to draw the attention of one of the inhabitants so that they would invite me into their area. I called out until a got the attention of an old lady who invited me in. She then instructed a young girl to deal with me. Great this was obviously a young girl who had been educated and can speak English, no need for Google! The one phrase that we practiced over and over was “Can you speak English?” I was mistaken English was not being taught here, no worries I was really proud of what I thought was a perfect rendition of this phrase with little to no detectable accent. “Você pode falar em Inglês” I said with absolute conviction, the blank stare I got in return told me in no uncertain terms that I was fooling myself. No worries Google to the rescue and I spoke into my device checked the text which read “No translation available without internet connection” We could only get the text translation not the voice. Huh, now what?


We were reduced to hand signals and pointing eventually she said the word dinero and I nodded. Right we were getting somewhere, she pointed to another settlement and indicated that she would show me the way. As is the African custom I had to walk in front while she walked 5 meters behind me calling and pointing out the correct route every time I strayed off course. We arrived at the settlement and waited to be invited in which we were and my guide took over the communication and we were eventually joined by another young lady and my guide left. It took me some time to find out her name was Rose and she produced a book where other travellers had signed in. I scanned through other entries and saw that we were the first visitors they had in a month, I could also work out what the payment was R80 / vehicle and R40/person. I signed the book paid the money plus a little extra for a beaming Rose and returned back to our campsite. Great we were now legally here and under the protection of the village and their Chief.

We can now safely settle in for the night we were legal.

[River Rat]

The goat

The camp

[Shebeen]

I promise to be quicker on this one.

that was not a hard promise to make, but thanks for keeping it anyway!

[River Rat]

that was not a hard promise to make, but thanks for keeping it anyway!

You must be  lurker

[Slowbee]

And the sun rises once again on Africa. And we sit, with morning tea, while waiting for part três