When life hands you lemons… Make lemonade. Or a VERY strong Gin & Tonic.

For the past three years, our Moms Group has enjoyed a girls weekend away in Mozambique in the last weekend of February. Three years ago, we planned our first trip – a friend has a holiday home in Ponta, we would pack a car with bikinis and snacks and head to Mozam for some fun in the sun with a bunch of special girls (and a well-deserved break from mom life!)

Unfortunately, the day before the first trip in 2015, I got Bronchitis and was confined to my bed for the weekend and not the sandy shores of Mozam. In 2016, five of us had the best weekend of R&R’s, red stained lips, delicious peri peri prawns and dancing in the rain. Last year, my pretty large 35 week pregnant belly kept me at home again, but this year was my year!

And then it was not.

On Friday morning, I set my alarm for 3am, hit the road at 3.45am to collect my entourage of passengers and with the car packed to the brim, we drove in convoy with another car to Mozambique. After a quick breakfast stop and a 5,5 hours drive, we found ourselves at the Kosi Bay border in a very sticky 34’C sunshine. The first car of girls scanned their passports and hopped over the border, I stepped up to do the same and…. NO!

“Sorry ma’am, your passport has been cancelled, you may no longer travel on this passport. Please step aside.”

Are you kidding?

Cancelled? How? Who? When?

Side note: A passport is cancelled when you report your original passport lost or stolen and you send in an application for a new passport. The old passport is then cancelled and is no longer valid to travel on. BUT… My passport expires at the end of 2020, I’ve been traveling on it for the past seven years, all over the world and I most definitely did not report it lost or stolen or apply for a new one. So how??

Regardless of how, after 3,5 hours in the blazing heat with no food or drinks (they really do need a vending machine at the border), trying desperately to call Home Affairs around the country to find out how or why this had happened and if someone could help me get across the border – we were told a big fat, computer says no.

Trip cancelled.

Time to turn around and go home.

After chatting amongst us girls, we decided that the first car would go ahead and enjoy their weekend in Mozambique (the one we had been planning for a whole year!) and my car would find the closest hotel to spend the night before returning home.

Insert BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD. 

After letting him in on our plans, he called around and phoned back wth the most delightful news – he had booked us into a local game/safari lodge for the weekend. The four of us were going on safari – and still managing to enjoy a break away from mom life and some time out – in the quiet African bush. And that is what we did…

We enjoyed two game drives a day – with the most incredible sightings of elephant, white rhino, giraffe, buck, zebra, lion and cheetah. We sipped on way too many G&T’s, we laughed until our tummies ached, we celebrated the wrong friends birthday, we lazed in splash pools – and we shocked the whole lodge with our very colorful, beach outfits – too many swim suits and no camouflage safari gear.

We had the weekend of a lifetime, and we made the most of it.

x

P.S. I will be at Home Affairs this week applying for a new passport and getting this sorted. Current investigation underway. 

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