Mbazwani and the safari truck

Back at Winter dodgers we drank coffees and shared stories around the table for a while and then Pete took us to Mbazwani to get steak for dinner and to a place where Ellie and I could get local sims and data. Mbazwani is the nearest town and Pete took us in the land cruiser safari truck which only has 2 front seats which Pete and Simon took and Ellie and I had to get in the back by climbing up the side and in through one of 3 windows. Then in the back were 2 bench seats one at the front facing the back and one at the very back facing the front.
Ellie sat in the front one facing me and I sat in the back. Neither seat is bolted down and all the way to Mbazwani is an off road sandy track going over sand dunes. The bench seat with me on it was airborne most of the way there and we even picked up 3 hitchhiking local ladies that got thrown around too and they thought it was great fun.
The land cruiser didn’t have a name before we got in it but I aptly named it the chuckit bucket, Chucky for short.
The return journey was exactly the same and by the time we got back to the lodge I felt as though I’d had a real good workout.
Back at the lodge it took me and Ellie hours to sort our phones out with the sim using a prehistoric text system that I got wrong first time round but managed to sort out once I had download the app, while Pete went and cut ferns off the trees to lay on the new roof he was having built.
When Pete returned around 2pm he took us next door to his old back packers lodge that has been trashed. This building was his original building that he had running with a business partner and his girlfriend 6 years ago but they kicked Pete out when he was away on a safari and he didn’t want to go back and then the Zulu tribes chased Petes business partner and his girlfriend away and tried to contact Pete but couldn’t, so rather than let someone else pitch up in the business they trashed the whole place. It’s a sorry looking state but Pete is going to start rebuilding soon.Read more