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Published: November 3rd 2005
Sorry...another transportation story.
We've just crossed the Zambian border and switched to a smaller bus bound for Mfuwe and South Luangwa National Park. After three and a half hours of sitting at th terminal, the bus is finally packed solid. Time to get gas. (Who could have predicted we'd need it?) A guy runs off with a huge jerry can. We wait. A long time. It's hot. It's crowded. Finally, we are rumbing along the 120km washboard dirt road that will take us to South Luangwa. Though the road is terrible, the driver is worse. The passengers are pissed. A lot of people are yelling. We are just confused. But still, everything feels pretty normal.
But then, heading down a hill into a little ravine, we see three bikes lying eerily across the middle of the road. One still has a huge sack of something tied to the back of it. It lies there looking, for a moment, almost like a lifeless body. The driver slows, as anyone would. No clue. No sounds. No bicyclists anywhere. And then....pandemonium! Thousands and thousands of bees come pouring in the windows. They bounce off the walls and ceiling. They get angrier and angrier as passengers flail to keep them away. People are screaming, children are crying, a chicken is squawking, a woman is crouched over her 2-week old child, and the driver is just trying to drive.
Jonathon, sitting right next to a window, is getting pumelled. He finally decides to jump out the window and I follow right behind, as do the bees. For about a kilometer up the road they keep buzzing after us, getting caught in my hair and trapped in Jonathon's shirt.
After much head swinging, arm flapping, zig zag running and dirt road disco dancing, we are finally free of them. We stop to assess the damage. I get off nearly scott-free. One bite on my head. But I am pulling stingers the size of 2X4s out of Jonathon for a good ten minutes. Ouch.
We all pile back on the bus, shaken, bitten, but feeling a certain sense of camaraderie. Then the trip continues pretty much as normal. Packages tumbling off the roof, people screaming at the driver, dust pouring in the windows...but we are quite content, knowing just how much worse it can be. -stl
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Tony Kopetchny
non-member comment
Incredible!!
Man, I hope you guys are alright, while reading this story I kept thinking of 2 things: 1. The movie attack of the killer bees and 2. I am allergic to bee stings and this story really freaked me out! hope all is well, keep rockin'!