Tofo, Mozambique…trouble in paradise

Tofo was amazing, as per my previous post.  The weather left a little more to be desired, but as a spoiled brat traveling around the world, I am not going to complain about 90 degree heat tainted with 15 knot winds.  The beaches, the food, the accommodation were all lovely – even the mosquitos behaved themselves. I’m malaria free, so far! (There’s a 30 day gestation period, though)

When we returned from our first failed attempt at Whale Shark diving, we were met with an oncoming vehicle crowding our single lane road.  As we were both in SUVs, we backed up slowly down the gravel-covered cement road, not realizing that there was a 2-foot drop-off to our left.  An uneven reversal left us two port side tires off the embankment, bottomed-out.

Our front axle was kissing the pavement and the entire undercarriage lay lazily on the gravel-covered cement.  Shit.  

ruh roh....

We were an hour away from the nearest “city”, which was more of a village than an actual town or city.  Plus, it was only an hour or so until nightfall.  We did not want to be stuck in that spot at night.

1. We were blocking the road for all traffic
2. There were absolutely no lights, it would very dark
3. Our car would surely be picked apart for parts overnight
4. We had no way of getting a tow truck
5. We did not want to be stranded in AFRICA at night

I got out of the car to check out the situation, as did the driver of the oncoming vehicle.  We weren’t going anywhere.  He was blocked. And, this was the result of our accommodation to his passing, so he might as well help. It wasn’t a matter of driving forward or backward; any attempt to do so resulted in spinning wheels spitting gravel at our shins.  I motioned to Shirley that this was not a good situation and she should probably get out of the car.

The Good Samaritan that joined us from the other car was actually super nice and super helpful. He suggested using the car jack to lift the car off the cement and drive backward, but I knew that would not work.  I had thought it would produce a boost to the car, but then it would get stuck again once the jack tipped, I had no idea, the jack would actually sink in the loose sand that butted up against the pavement cliff.  Regardless of why it didn’t work, it didn’t work.

Here is the embankment we accidentally drove off

Another guy walked up and watched us struggle.  He offered to call some friends and lift the truck, but asked how much money we had to pay them to do it.  What an opportunist (read: dick).

Being a retired muddin’ hillbilly’s girlfriend, I remembered that if you get stuck in the mud (or snow), you need to put traction behind the tires to get it to move.  Similarly, if you bottom-out something, lifting it 2-3 inches, releases you.  So, I convinced everyone to gather rocks and put them behind the front tire.  Shirley put the car in reverse and we all pushed. Scraaaaaaaape.  We were free!  It worked.  No significant damage was done to the car, crisis averted.  I hugged the now sweaty Good Samaritan and we climbed up the hill to our lodge.