Malawi, Africa: African Vehicles

Bishops Truck Rescue

Way up a rugged dirt and gravel road, going towards some quarries and old mines. Our dear friend Bishops truck died. The spring broke on the back and we needed to rig, and chain it out of the way. He did not have any brakes , it could not start because the battery was 100 years old and was on a very steep hill with no way to turn it around and hook onto it ( did I mention no power steering fluid either). This was about an hour drive of the main 2 lane highway ( dare I call it a road) going through some of the steepest craziest paths, the turain was full of rocks and debree all the way to the truck. We had to push it with the big truck and spin it around. Well it spun, it spun all the way around and into the ditch on the other side almost flipping the truck ( photo included) We had a 12 foot metal bar that we chained and strapped( with strips of rubber torn from tires) to Bishops truck and then to the 5 ton. I wish I had pictures of the rig job, it was crazy and I cant bielive it worked. It did work and we did tow this truck for an hour through these canyons to the main road. We arrived in the light and it gets dark at 5:00, we did not pull out till 9:30 by the time we chained the spring . spun it around almost rolling the truck with no brakes through the old mine roads. I hope the pictures can give you a bit of a feel for what it was like.