The Weary Traveller: The Long and Winding Road

Ah, ye mighty Landcruiser! You indomitable driving machine. Your name is just not fitting. It is too calm and serene. You should be called the Road Warrior...for you firmly the kick the ass of any pothole, washboard, divet, ditch, protruding rock, river bed, trench, crater, sinkhole, or silly goat or chicken that happens to get in your way.

Over the past 13 months I have spent countless hours in a Landcruiser. Sometimes packed in the back on a bench seat while my internal organs play bumper cars as we bounce along the dirt roads and sometimes, like last Friday, crammed in the middle front “seat” with my arms all pins and needles as I try to steady myself with my hand against the roof and my legs all twisted up to avoid my thigh from impeding the gear shift.

Every Friday in Liberia is our STS (Staff Transport System) where vehicles from each of the main regions set out in the morning to converge on a central-ish meeting spot to swap passengers and cargo. The meeting point is a town called Gbarnga (pronounced Bonga) which is 4 hours away from where I am living in Voinjama. I am working on some initiatives with our suppliers and two of our main ones happen to be in Gbarnga, so, I thought it might be worthwhile to ride on the STS and meet with them. Turns out these businesses are Lebanese owned (like many of the good restaurants and shops in Liberia) and the owners were pretty astute businessmen. My meetings lasted about 5 minutes each. So, 8 hours of driving through the crazy, bumpy jungle roads for 10 minutes of work.

But driving in Liberia is always an interesting adventure. I never feel bored as there are endless things to see along the way. Whether marveling at the solid walls of jungle that sometimes line either side of the road, or staring off in wonder at the sweeping vistas of rolling jungle hills, or waving back at all the little children who smile and call to you as you pass by, or wondering how that lady can carry such a huge bundle of firewood on her head, with a baby on her back and a bucket in one hand and a machete in the other. Watching the other cars and motorbikes is interesting as well because they cram as much cargo and as many people on board as they physically can. The only thing that is not so fun about these long road trips is having to make a pit stop. No matter how hard you try, jostling over the potholes and washboards makes it impossible to just hold it. So, we pulled over by the side of the road and a few of the men went about their business and I proceeded to make my way down a tiny little path I found through the tall grass into the jungle. I was pretty freaked about the possibility of a Bush Viper biting me in the ass as I…ahem…”checked the tire” as my coworkers laughingly put it. But you’re not a real African explorer until you’ve peed in the jungle, in the grasslands, in the desert and in a cockroach and fly infested squat latrine…done, done, done and done. You may now call me Dora. (How sad is it that the only female explorer's name that calls to mind right now is Dora the Exlporer? And it’s not like she ever has to go to the bathroom when she’s hiking through the Spooky Forest. You never hear her call for backpack, map AND latrine. But she should. It would make the show much more authentic. LOL. What the hell am I even talking about?)

(Sorry about the large HF radio antenna in the shots above. Funny thing is, the vehicle doesn’t even have an HF radio in it…don’t ask me. I have long since learned that in Africa there is no sense in trying to make sense out of things that just don’t make sense.)

Despite how awesome Landcruisers are, they are not impervious to flat tires and you have to change their filters and stuff to keep them purring smoothly. Our fuel filter was way passed its useful life so we wound up stopping at a little mechanics hut on the outskirts of a tiny town called Konia so they could try and wash it out again, or something to that effect. My Canadian colleague, Darius, and I walked up the hill into the town center to get some tea and find something to eat. Friday is market day there so the town was bustling. We found a little tea shop that had some bread and coffee and tea and sat and watched all the market action while we waited for the car. When the vehicle finally pulled up to collect us, we noticed we had a flat tire, so we waited some more while they changed it (that was the first flat tire of two we had that day). All in all it was a pretty fun day at work, if a little exhausting. We left the compound at 6:30am and got back at 7pm, just before dark.

Changing the tire in Konia town center

The tea shop where we got some drinks and ate some bread

Part of the Konia market

How adorable are these little girls?!

Selling some chickens. It makes me sad to see little kids in the market selling stuff instead of being in school.

I had to take a picture with this awesome, old, broken down Mitsubishi minibus. I want to buy it and live out hippie dreams of caravanning around the world.