Hi Everyone!
We had to spend 4 months in South Africa to fix the 1972 International Recovery Truck. On the 22nd of October we started to drive back to Chandame. Our first stop was Meyerton! We spent the weekend with our family. On Monday the 26th of October we hit the road again to continue on our way back to Mozambique. Our first stop for the day was Baberton and we decided to spend the night. The next day it was off to the border at Komatiepoort. At Komatiepoort we had trouble with the truck’s wheels and Jacques a very friendly mechanic helped us to fix the problem!
We spent 4 hours at the Komatipoort border. On the South African side we had no problem with the truck and bakkie on the A-frame, but on the Mozambique side it was another story. We had to take the bakkie off the A-frame and drive the bakkie through the border and then we had to load the bakkie back on the a-frame. Done and dusted we drove onwards to Maputo!!!
In Maputo one of the A-frame mounts came loose!! Thank the Lord that nothing serious happened! Jannie had to fix the prop shaft and take the bakkie off the A-frame again. I then had to drive the Ford at night in the streets of Maputo. Finally, we found the yard where we could leave the recovery truck and we then had to find a place to sleep. That night, at 12:30am the police stopped us and tried to find irregularities with our vehicle. We were really tired but with the Lord’s help we stayed calm. The police wanted bribe money, but we ignored them and after a while they gave up and sent us on our way.
In one of the small towns both the mounts of the A-frame came loose again!! Jannie had to take the bakkie off the A-frame and I had to drive the last 800km to Chandame. Before I started to drive the bakkie I asked the Lord to be with me on the last stretch of the journey. While I was driving I realized that there were not a lot of big vehicles on the road and that was just one of the signs that God was with me.
We arrived on Chandame at 02:30pm. We were tired but thankful. We thanked the Lord for being with us every step of the way!
This was one of the hardest trips that we had ever done back to Chandame. The truck was noisy and without any air conditioner! Every day we started driving at 5.00am because Jannie could only drive for 8 hours a day. We always had to look for a place where we could park the truck which was sometimes really difficult because of the truck’s size. The trip back took us 8 days to complete but every day when we found a place for the truck we thanked the Lord for guiding us on the journey.