Breakdown (150km in 7 hours)

Thursday was the biannual SIM Paraguay missionary meeting where everybody meets up in Villarrica (a halfway city between Asuncion and the most southern missionaries in Yuty).  For those coming from Asuncion it’s a boring drive along freeway and a toll road, but for those south of Caazapa it’s a 3 hour adventure rally over dust roads and rickety bridges in major 4x4s!

As I’m staying with the Reiches at present, I joined them coming up from Yuty in their 4x4 alongside Hannes.  Hannes and I were given the Yuty treasure hunt sheet which listed various things to look out for along the road, including things like person herding cows on a bike, and at least 3 people on one motorbike.  Other things such as tarantula crossing the road, and cactus I am yet to see.

The road there was dry coming up, so it only took the projected 3 hours, (2 hours on dirt, one hour on tarmac -see my map of the area above), but when we were in Villarrica the heavens opened back on the dusty road turning it into a thick mud.  This wasn’t good news for the Camerons as they were taking a 4x4 and SIM trailer [a 2-wheeled trailer that has repeatedly let everybody down who leads it, but that’s another story, or 5] loaded with stuff for their new Yuty house.  Dragging the two-wheeled Judas trailer along the slick, mud course was to be a 5 hour, 25kph slog.

We overtook them a few miles south of Caazapa where the mud started, sliding the vehicle sideways and leaping over the ruts.  At about 8:30pm, an hour after sunset (and 10 minutes after passing them) we got a call and they let us in on Judas’s new act of treachery: the tow bar ball had been severed and Judas had broken loose with half their kitchen and the contents of two bedrooms!

We turned back and saw the lights of the stranded Cameronmobile on the lonely road located somewhere in a flood plain.  The trailer was leaning back, detached from the tow-bar but jammed into the back of their RV at a 45 degree angle.

We soon realised the ball hadn’t been severed, but rather it had somehow become unscrewed, so the large bolt that unscrewed was the only thing missing from getting the parade back on the road, so Hannes climbed aboard the front of a vehicle which drove up and down the road a few hundred meters to find the bolt that had to have been shorn not far before.  But there was no finding it so the search party returned.

The tow bar ball was then affixed to the back of the Reiches wagon with the few tools at disposal.

It was a 1 hour search and failed rescue and transfer, during which the 4 kids made the most of the adventure location and held various track and field events.  The whole time we were utterly overwhelmed with flying insects from the plains.  You could feel about 10 hitting your face every second as you walked around.  None of them seemed to be mosquitos, fortunately, despite the watery location (they come from still-water locations).

From there we were extra careful with the trailer, and with about 50km to cover to Yuty, it was hoped that at a steady 25kph we’d be back for 11:30, but a steady speed was impossible.  Some areas we were stuck at 10kph with the trailer sloshing back and forth behind like a pike on a fishing line.  We arrived in Yuty at 1am on the dot, 7 hours after leaving Villarrica 150km away. 

Prayer point: God provides all things and owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  Please pray that He will provide for my current needs that He knows about.