African Bus Travel

Firstly, many apologies for my mid-season blog posting slump. In my defense, internet in Africa ranges from non-existent to hair-pulling slow. So instead of aging myself in internet cafes we have been out exploring.
As anyone who has traveled on the African continent bus travel and more specifically mini-bus travel is a life altering experience. Our initiation into the ways and means of getting from A to B has been interesting to say the least. The first thing you notice is that the idea of personal space has never entered the mind of any African. If there is space, however miniscual, someone or something can fit in there. Our highest people count reached 26 in a standard mini-bus, which is only supposed to hold 14 people and thats at a push. The picture above gives a fairly accurate view you get from the back seat, which is generally where Leighanne and I end up.
The next glaring difference in public transport is that it does not only apply to the public. Farm animals, food products, mattresses, baskets, etc... are stuffed in. Probably to most unusual thing we saw was on a journey to Cape Maclear in Malawi. We decided to be organised and catch a 'real' bus instead of the painful mini-bus. I had a little old lady, who was the African equivalent of my nana, sitting beside me. For the entire 8 hour duration of the trip she happily knitted a lime green cardigan. She had her handbag perched on her lap and periodically would undo the clasp and open it up, just to give the chicken sitting inside some much needed air. After the chicken had gotten a full good lung fulls, it was shoved back into the bad and the clasp done up again. This sequence continued every 10-15 minutes until we arrived at our destination.
The best part of bus travel in Africa is the food stops. As soon as the bus stops, regardless of where, swarms of food sellers flood towards the bus. You can get anything from pan roasted peanuts, roasted maize, full pineapples, meat kebabs, grilled mouse kebabs, soda, biscuits, etc... Leighanne is a firm supporter of roasted maize and I'm sure we will be adding it to any BBQ we have in Australia.
As the vast majority of people living in Africa have no personal form of transport, buses and mini-buses act as people and produce carriers. You see some really strange things that are totally alien to Western ideas. Travel can be very painful for tall people, but the suffering is over-shadowed by the experience.