Wednesday afternoon/evening continued from blog 3 in the series…
We decided as we didn’t need to take our bikes with we would use the bus system
again. We got to Maniago in time and soon we were lining up in the athletes procession, another thing that I had never done. Four of the five athletes from South Africa were there along with Anet and Pablo. Although we could not understand most of the ceremony it was still nice to be part of it as it was much better supported than the World Championships ceremony in Pietermarizburg the year before.
Once the ceremony was done we decided to get some supper with a fellow teammate, Goldy, because we thought the last bus was leaving at a certain time and we had more than enough time to get dinner. Goldy, however, took a long time to get in touch with everyone that he wanted to invite you dinner and only an hour later did we leave for dinner.
We ended up arriving at the bus stop at the time we wanted to but we found the bus stop deserted. We then discovered that we had misread the bus schedule and the last bus left the half an hour ago! We then realized we were stranded! We had no wifi connection and no way to get home. We briefly entertained the thought of Anet pushing me in the wheelchair all the way to our hotel which was about six kilometres away but as it was getting dark and we didn’t know the area we thought that was not the best idea we had ever had. So we were left with one option, walk back to the centre of town and try to find wifi.
We were almost back in the centre of Maniago when Anet said ‘Toni, look up towards the mountain.’ There was a wall of rain heading right towards us and as we saw this the drops started to fall on us. Anet suggested that I hold on as she was going to try get us under a cover before it really came down. I remember hearing and feeling the wheels of the wheelchair shake as we ran over the cobbles. As we reached an area just outside some shops which had a roof we could take cover under, the rain started to come down like a wall. We must have stood there for close to an hour waiting, scheming how we were going to get out of our dilemma. WE had no bus, no car, and by now it was way too dark to walk the six kilometres home. We also had no Internet connection to contact anyone. We eventually decided that this was an emergency and we turn my mobile data on, something you don’t do when overseas unless you want a big bill at the end of the month. After thinking through all our options we contacted Pablo and literally begged him to take two stranded South African girls back to their hotel. He had one problem, he was also stuck where he was due to the rain. He promised to come find us as soon as he could reach his car. We took some cash and bought a bottle of water while we waited. By the time Pablo reached us we were taking turns having a sit down in my wheelchair. It has been a long time since I have been so relieved to see a car pull up in front of me to take me home!
Sitting in the car Anet and I started to giggle. How would we sneak into the hotel unnoticed? Returning at around 9:30/10pm we now felt like two teenagers who were passed their curfew. We both wanted the other to retrieve the key from the desk at reception. When we arrived the coast was clear and we were able to scramble to our welcoming room unnoticed.
An adventure that I will definitely not forget and one I think just deepened the friendship between Anet and I!
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