Race to the Border

Ok, so after a bit of wild goose chasing I found out that Lesotho no longer has the authority to issue visas or visa extensions for South Africa.  I mean, I could have probably done a bit of bribing and spent a day or two hanging out at the border making phone calls to the US Embassy in Pretoria to get them to convince South African Home Affairs to let me stay in SA longer, but that would have been ridiculous.  I have no urgent or valid reason to stay in SA longer other than "I want to."  Which sucks because that means I only got to spend 4 hours on the edge of Lesotho vs. 4 days traveling throughout.  Argh, Lesotho looked so cool and different from the rest of Africa, too, I really wanted to check it out.

Anyway, I have 2 days to get out of SA, so am booking it to Swaziland and/or Mozambique.  So far everything is going super smoothly as I got a ride from some Germans to the nearest town of Underberg where I got the last spot on the minibus to Pietermaritzburg where I transferred to a Durban minibus where I made 2 other bus transfers and made it back to the Happy Hippo backpackers by 2pm.  The whole trip only took about 4 hours!  Seeing as though I was expecting to wait for 2-3 hours in Underberg for the PMB minibus to fill up before it left, I'd say the universe is on my side today!

Tomorrow is my only shot to get out of SA before my visa expires since the 1 long-distance bus that runs from Durban to Swazi/Mozi goes on Fri, Sun and Wed.  Tomorrow is Fri and Sun is too late.  Assuming all goes well, South Africa's doors will just barely be hitting me on my way out.

Bye, SA! Love you!

(Riding a minibus with 18 of my closest friends)