The title of this post sets out maybe a more ambitious plan than I can actually complete. But I have a few things I want to write about this trip, and I don't want to bore anyone. This post will be about the travel to Cape Town.
I crossed the border from Maseru, which is Lesotho's capital (as you should well know by now!). The level of security to enter South Africa from Lesotho was about on par with the level of security to enter a Macy's store, though there are generally more people entering Macy's.
After winding through a few long chain-link fenced sidewalk tunnel things, I exited into a taxi rank. Please play this song as you read the next sequence:
click here. I went to a small concrete building and asked for a ticket to Bloemfontein, which is the South African city where I could catch a long-distance bus. The woman took my money and pointed me to a bus. I entered that bus. No one was on it. I sat there for a few minutes until a man came and told me I was on the wrong bus, and I followed him to another one. "Koloi e ea Bloemfontein?" I asked. He nodded. I sat on this bus for 45 minutes, and then more out of boredom than genuine concern, I asked a 'm'e (woman/mother/madam/lady et al.) if this koloi (car/van/bus) was indeed ea-ing (go-ing) to Bloemfontein. No, she shook her head. I thanked her, and went out. I went around to some of the other twelve buses asking if they were going to Bloemfontein. Finally, someone nodded, and I got on. I sat there for maybe fifteen minutes, and then a man came to the door and said that we needed to get off this bus (for the record, bus three), and go to another that was going to Bloemfontein. We all exchanged glances in a sort of
ha-ha-ha-my-isn't-this-tedious-and-inconvenient way. We followed the man to bus four and found seats. This bus was almost full, which I was excited about, because buses leave only when they have a full load. But we were only on bus four for five minutes before another man came and told everyone (maybe 19 people at this point) that we needed to get onto another bus. Those of you who read thriller novels will have correctly predicted that the bus he led us to (bus five) was, in fact, bus three, the one we had just left. I looked around for someone to make a Grover Cleveland joke to and, finding no one, used my Kindle to wipe the sweat off my forehead.
Once we got to Bloemfontein, I needed to get to the Intercape Office, the departure point for my bus. I showed a fellow in the taxi rank my ticket with the address on it, and he said, "Oh, yes! The bus station! That is at what we call the tourism centre. Just go to that taxi over there and ask for the tourism centre." Of course, like any tourist, my fondest dream is that no one will think I'm a tourist, so asking someone to take me to the
tourism centre was decidedly out of the question. I got into the taxi and, in a loud, clear voice so that the other 14 passengers could hear me, said to the driver, "Excuse me, please take me to the most dangerous part of town, where I am a feared and respected resident." I then quietly slipped him the ticket and pointed to the address of the Intercape Office in a manner I would describe as not at all panicked.
Once at the Intercape Office I saw, emblazoned above the wall over the ticket counter: NOTICE: INTERCAPE NOW PLAYING MATERIALS WHICH PROMOTE THE GOSPEL ON ALL ROUTES. Now friends, I will let you read into that whatever you think and create your own expectations. As for me, I can tell you that I had no idea what to expect. But I suppose I was not expecting certain things, and definitely not expecting
The Blind Side and
Shark Tale (must be this new anything-goes Pope). The third film, a shorter one that cut between clips of guys stand-up paddle boarding and clips of those same stand-up paddle boarders talking about the influence of Jesus on their lives. At first, this seemed a little odd, but upon recalling Matthew 14:25, the connection became more apparent. Incidentally, I cannot recommend Intercape highly enough, and I insist that you look to them for your Southern Africa travel needs.
