We just wanted to go eat!

Everything becomes a bit of an adventure around here, even just going to try out the new local restaurant becomes fodder for the blog!

I must admit, the roads around these parts are getting SO much better. The main road near our house now has pavement (or, as they call it around here, "tarmac"). Unfortunately, it's becoming known in the town as "the narrow tarmac" road. So you can imagine what it's like - a bit frightening, actually, as there's hardly space for two SUVs to pass, not to mention all the shops and motorbikes on the edges. And then when someone decides to stop the car to pick up something in the shop, or to say hello to his buddy drinking tea on the side of the road... well... it causes a bit of difficulty. But I digress.

Anyways, Annamarie, Richard and I were off to meet some other friends at a new restaurant called "Panache". It's always an adventure going somewhere completely new - never sure what you're going to get and how much it's going to cost! The challenge today, though, was just getting there!

We all knew where it was - right on the main road to the airport. Unfortunately, this main road to the airport has literally been under construction since I arrived here. 3 years ago. Yes, it's been in various stages of construction for over 3 years. Continually. But normally you can do some fancy driving and somehow make your way through. Tonight, however... no can do.

So we went around the back way. In the dark. Fortunately, on the way, we got a teensy-bit stuck going down and up through a ditch, so while backing up and choosing a new path through the ditch, we realized that the Landcruiser on the other side of the ditch waiting for us to pass was our friends who we were meant to meet at the restaurant. We informed them of the closed road, and they decided to follow us along the back streets of town.

I only did a teensy-bit of backseat driving (mostly because, I have to admit, my sense of direction is pretty darn good - I don't easily get lost, and I normally just follow my nose and I know that I'm heading in the right direction!). But I did defer to the driver, who happens to have grown up in this town, so he, too, knows his way around - however, there are a few extra challenges when navigating the backstreets... especially in the dark. For one, the backstreets certainly aren't paved! And they're not even graded, most of them. So they are literally dirt tracks - many of which have had some seriously huge trucks making some seriously huge ruts and ditches in the mud. You never quite know if a road is going to end up in an impassible mud pit, in an insurmountable ditch, or just a dead-end into someone's compound.

With not too much effort, though, we found the road we wanted to be on... but when we surveyed the way ahead, we decided that perhaps 4WD was in order. Since we were leading the way, Richard jumped out, locked the hubs, and away we went through some deliciously creamy mud holes.

Our friends followed right behind us in their Landcruiser. Unfortunately, just before passing through the last of the mud, their Landcruiser got a bit hung up in a hole. Luckily enough, we had a tow rope in the truck (never before used!), so I learned how to attach a tow-rope to a Landcruiser and our Nissan. And we pulled. And pulled. And without too much effort, got the Landcruiser out of the hole. And I got a lesson in attaching tow ropes to vehicles!

The rest of our evening was pretty non-eventful, which is generally a good thing around these parts!