45 min. away from our destination, 6+ hours from Kampala, first day of Safari to Murchison Falls national Park, my car just died. No warnings, nada.
And we were on a VERY lonely stretch of road, complete with HOT equatorial sun and MANY MANY tse tse (biting) flies. Hmmm. It was not a time for photos. Instead I sprayed on the insect repellant (it worked SOME) and went to take a look. I had NO idea what was wrong.
VERY kind men from the forestry authority came along and instead of passing (like others were doing), they helped us and stayed for the 2 hours it took to get the car (some starting and going 10 feet, some pulling the car on a jump-rope sized rope!!!, some pushing, some coasting) 6 km. (4 miles?) to the closest hotel/lodge. These men could have ignored us or someone else could have happened along and caused us harm, but God kept us safe. Had this happened on the other side of the river (see above blog), I think we could have been charged by Cape buffalo or left stranded for hours. As it was, we had no cell service till 7 that night (this happened at 11:30 a.m.).
The 2 men pictured are mechanics from the Sambia River Lodge (about 40 min. from the Nile River and our hotel). The employees of that lodge were very kind and if we sat just right and only in a certain place, we were able to call Kampala and have my field director work on things from that end. It felt better just having someone else know the problem we were in!
The Forestry men sent their mechanic and for about 3-4 hours, the lodge men and the forestry men tried in vain to fix the car. At some points the battery would work, others not. Sometimes the fuel pump worked, sometimes not. 2 wires seemed loose, etc.
So at about 5:30 we just started towing the car to the forestry mechanic's site. It should take maybe 30 min., but towing (they had a cable but nothing to tow WITH- no S hooks or anything, and my little ropes were useless-lesson learned) took about 1.5 hours. After several breaks with the ropes, wire and even at once point a t-shirt wrapped around the cable to connect to their truck... and after cracking my wind shield with a pebble from the cable grazing the ground... and sparks flying from the cable as it dragged along the dirt and pebble road... we finally got to the mechanic's area, exhausted, sweaty, frustrated, and not sure when or if my car could be repaired. We arrived at our safari camp hotel at about 7:15 (from 11:30 that morning!). The hotel is called Red Chili; a "backpackers" camp which is rustic, but was perfect after the end of the rough day.
Jonathan Mayo, my field director, called and had worked it out for our Kampala mechanic to send a guy with a proper tow truck (the kind where they lift the car on the bed and haul it out), but not till the next day, of course. They all figured (in Kampala) that it was the computer chip in the car. Makes sense, since several things just shut down all at once. He and others had also worked out for a "rescue" to take place, so Mom and I could try to do some of the safari. See above entry...