Mozambique & Lake Malawi: Lichinga - Metangula Part 3

Finally, full to crushing capacity, the truck headed out of town along a wide dirt road, sided by grass roofed huts and maize fields. As the truck sped along, I clung dearly on to the side, where I was perched, bouncing off the hard edge. It was a good thing a woman had provided her ample buttocks for me to wedge my feet under. The conductor had earlier made the manoeuvre of swapping places with me, so that truck's aerial continually slapped me in the face. Now he gave me a look of camaraderie, and because his smile was that of a wise oriental, it made me laugh, and I was glad to be able to see the funny side. Clouds trailing dark fringes moved towards the road, and soon spits of rain were stinging my face. The truck pulled over, and a large black plastic sheet was unrolled and spread over us, and tucked under the bottoms of people sitting around the side; being at the front I was obliged to hold on to it with my hands also. The rain crackled on the plastic like static electricity, and with little ventilation the temperature underneath soon soared. As the rain eased up the truck pulled over and the cover was removed. We passed through a number of heavy showers and the whole process was repeated each time.