Three Dhows, a yoghurt tub and a prayer
The ferry sank some 18 months back and the Chinese contracted in to build a new bridge hadn’t finished yet ... something about missing parts?
And so, back in 2009 the only way to cross the Ruvuma River, which forms the northern border between Mozambique and Tanzania, was to start by negotiating a fee and that in itself was no mean feat. The price started out at US$460 if memory serves me correctly and after much haggling was finalised at an exorbitant, but way better US$200.
Then it was a simple case of tying three fishing dhows together, laying poles and planks across them, driving one’s vehicle onto this and puttering through the delta propelled slowly forward by a spluttering 25 horse-power outboard motor ... with a few extra hands on board continuously bailing out one of the leaky vessels using an empty yoghurt container - very comforting!
Getting one’s vehicle off and up the steep bank on the other side was an adrenalin spike of note, but at that stage there's no turning back.
At least that's the way I had it figured. It was either that or face the long drive all the way back to Dar es Salaam and around through Malawi ...
... and that just didn’t feel right at the time, or in keeping with the adventure.
(All photos taken by Eva Spyridis)
