A Ferry Story

You’re the tour leader in Zambia travelling in a minibus containing nine hot and somewhat tired passengers which is pulling a trailer loaded with luggage and canoes. The temperature is in the high 30’s, the dirt road is dusty and everyone just wants to reach the lunch stop for a cool drink as quickly as possible. You arrive at the river crossing to find that the pontoon ferry isn’t running because the men want to carry on mending the road and they don’t want traffic passing over what they are working on. It will add several hours to the journey if you drive to the next place where it’s possible to cross the river.

If you were the tour leader, what would you do? There’s no one you can call for help – it’s all down to you to sort out.

This is the sort of problem faced by Exodus Leaders on a regular basis. Luckily, our fantastic team of supermen and superwomen in all corners of the world are perfectly capable of rising to such challenges.

So how did our particular superheroes deal with the problem?

There were some canoes on the bank so the Head Guide (Cuthbert), the Assistant Guide (Carlos) and the driver (Tikay) got some paddles from the trailer and canoed across the river to where the roadwork was going on. We don’t know exactly what Cuthbert said to the foreman but within minutes a giant bulldozer was diverted from mending the road to giving the pontoon ferry a shove back into the water. The engines were started and the ferry was on its way, carrying a relieved set of people from the other side, both locals and tourists. Soon it was our turn to cross and we were soon on our way again. Thank you Cuthbert!

By Louisa Richardson