Back in the Pag

Made it back to Pagak after two nights across the border in Gambella, Ethiopia.  The trip there wasn'tt terribly eventful--an hour and a half quad-bike ride to Kuergen across the border and then another hour and a half drive from Kuergen to Gambella.  

We arranged to buy two drums of diesel from some lady on a weird side.  Our order wouldn't be ready until the following day so we extended what was to be an overnight stay.  Gambella wasn't too exciting but it was sure nice to get out of the compound and have some fresh food.  Bread totally rocks my world.  Hardcore.  Unfortunately Wandera was sick most of the time with some sort of pneumonia so after dinner we didn't really do much.

On our final morning we hit each shop that we needed to visit to buy supplies--disinfectant, rope, and the like.  We also cleaned out the market buying up as many fresh(ish) tomatoes, cabbage, oranges, and lentils as we could fit on the bikes.  We loaded up the LandCruiser, sort of slipped past the bored looking policeman on the road to Kuergan (who could cause problems for anyone trying to bring goods out of the country).

While we were unloading the LandCruiser at the police station in Kuergan where we had stashed the quad-bikes, some nasty looking rain clouds started in on us.  You could see where it was just pounding the trees and grass off in the distance.  The foreground was nice and clear but the trees about 500 yards away were obscured by a grey black veil of heavy rain.  We started off about two minutes before the rain caught up with us.  And when it did catch us, things became tough, real fast.  The dirt road from Pagak to Kuergan normally passable by quadbike started to flood so we had to race through the bush where the grass would grind into the mud to provide more traction.  The hot humid air transformed into a vicious cold wind as we barreled through it on the bikes.  And then we started loosing the food.  Every few minutes a cabbage, tomato, or some other precious piece of produce would fly off the back and sink beneath the muck somewhere behind us.  I had already lost my sandals, headphones, and lens cap on the previous journey and now the delicious food was now going overboard.  A giant hole in the cheap plastic bag holding our lentils opened up behind me and I could feel kilogram after kilogram of tiny beans filling the back of my pants and subsequently became a mushy ersatz turd.  The cardboard box on the other quad-bike melted in the rain dumping out the disinfectant and other random things all over the place.  We hit a bad spot and the bike started to sink down in the mud and despite much coaxing rolled over on its side dumping passenger and produce into a huge pool of mud and feces.  Some kids though, watching with amusement our slo-mo disaster, were kind enough to come help us right the bike and retrieve the lost goodies.

We made it back to Pagak without further incident.  Pagak bridge was not yet flooded so we were able to just roll on over.  In another week though it will become impassable and the bikes will have to be floated across on an oil drum raft.  But for now, we have another few weeks worth of fresh food and two months of gas!