8th and 9th of August, 2018.
Hitchhiking in South Africa: Joburg to Gaborone
After two hours of waiting, I start to ask myself (again) about where are all the good people in the world. Where, Loki? Where? Why people are so mean? Laugh. Besides, my sign also sucks! I ripped the last few letters so it does not look good. Now, what I actually think is: to each shit person that there is in the world, there is another lovely amazing one, just waiting for you. And in this case specifically. No dear reader, you are not having a Dèjá Vú. Your feeling is real. You already read this somewhere else. Specifically in the Mareska and Trudy chapter. The thing is: it happened again. But this time Fred and Eben are my heroes. They are going just to Pretoria but they will drop me off at the road to Botswana.
They saw me in the morning, when they were going to a meeting in the next town and they told each other that, if I was still there when they came back, they would do something. And they did much more than that.
I start to tell them my story. They are very surprise as most of other people. Then Eben start to make some phone calls and check the time table for the buses going from Pretoria to Gaborone, in Botswana. I do not want to interrupt them and only say I could not pay for the bus.
At some point, Eben tells me this: he is in the phone with his wife and if it is OK for me, I could spend the night with them and next morning I could take the bus to Gaborone. I humbly say it is OK but unfortunately I cannot buy the bus ticket. They say I had nothing to worry about, they would take care of everything. Dear, Loki! I could not believe. They insisted on that because it would be a holiday in SA next day, it could be difficult for me to get a lift.
Before we reach their office, they stop in a Game Shop (this huge outdoor and sport shop) and buy me another bottle of camping gas and a pepper spray. What? Yeah! They say that’s for my safety, just in case I need it. Can you imagine how nice those guys are? I do not know what to do. I could just say thank you.
In their office, this amazing and fancy place, of which three floors belong to their company, Tugela Mining, I could access my email and send some CS requests to Gaborone. There, I also meet this lovely lady, their secretary, who bought me the bus ticket and made me a snack travel bag, with fruits, biscuits, chips and some protein bars. She is really nice and polite, what makes me find her very beautiful too.
Fred has to leave so I say goodbye to my first hero.
After a few minutes Eban and I go to his house.
Again, of course, his house is amazing! And not those fancy houses which make me feel bad, no. The house is big and very nice but in a sweet and welcome and welcome way. Very well decorated, even with a London telephone cabin. I would stay in the guest bedroom outside. Beautiful and smelling pretty nice.
I meet his wife and his two sons. And I swear I have a big feeling that I already had seeing those boys somewhere. They have two beautiful and lovely dogs. Before dinner, I have, for the very first time, the South African rusks with tea. And that’s when I fall in love for it! After some talking, we have a delicious dinner together, plus a glass of wine. I sleep so well, that some tears came out of my eye. You know when you have some good rest after a long day…
Next morning, after my shower, we have some eggs with toasts and coffee for breakfast.
I say goodbye to one of the boys and Eben’s wife, because Eben and the the other boy will drop me off at the bus station. Everything is fine and the bus will leave after 1 o’clock.
Still not believing in what had happened, I say goodbye to my second hero and his son.
While waiting for the bus I need to go to the toilet, but I would not bring all the bags because I want to save my good spot, and being one of the firsts to get in the bus, guaranteeing a good window seat. So I ask to this guy, who is sitting nearby, reading a book, if he could check out my big bag for a while. He has an American dress style and some tattoos in his hands. He agrees.
When I come back and sit beside him, he tells me: “You should not trust that easily in people, you know? Luckily for you I am a police officer” Laugh. I confess to him that it is the fact he was reading a book that made me do that.
In the end, I got stuck trying to put my backpack in the back of the bus so I was lucky that my new friend saved me a seat on the bus. It is not a window one but after a while the lady beside me leaves, so…
I should arrived around 7.30 p.m in Gaborone, and earlier in the morning I sent a message to my CS in there, asking him if he could pick me up. Of course I could not check his answer so once more I was playing with my possibilities and fails
At the boarder, no problem.
At the gas station where I arrived, I realize I had not written Dumi’s phone number so I could not call him to check if he would come or not. I would wait until 8 o’clock and then try to find a place to get connection. A few people tried to help me, what was nice. When I put my bags on and was almost leaving, Dumi arrives.
10 Years Around the World 