Beware of the busses!

Dictionary definition:
Bus – A motor vehicle designed primarily for the transportation of persons rather than property and having a passenger-carrying capacity of 10 or more persons, other than a taxicab constructed and designed for transporting persons for commercial purposes.

Rhodes definition:
Bus – A crowded vehicle that transports you magically home on weekends. A cheaper alternative to driving home in your own car because petrol is so expensive. Although the petrol might be worth it in the end because busses are uncomfortable, creepy, always late and take ages to get home.

A word of warning for those future first years planning to make use of the bus systems (eg. Translux) for weekend trips home...beware! Ok, I'm making the busses sound like hungry monsters waiting to chomp up any students that get in their path, they are not always bad, but they can be.

I’m from East London so home isn't that far away. I went home this weekend for my sisters 21st (which was awesome). I travelled from Grahamstown to East London on the Minilux (a really nice alternative to the big busses. It is a smaller bus containing old people and other students from PE or Rhodes). This ride was comfortable and on time. But then on Sunday I was scheduled to leave with Translux at 17:00. Guess when I left?

Monday evening!!!

Ok, so here is the story. We went to the bus station 15 minutes before leaving time, as usual. Then, after waiting half an hour over the time the dumb bus was meant to get there, we decided to ask. The lady at the Translux office was very polite, and told us with a shy smile that the bus was running late. That we could deal with.

So we waited some more...and more...until eventually the lady comes up to the car window and knocks softly, "Sorry mam, but the bus seems to be leaking oil. The drivers need to get it checked out. Please go to the windmill station and wait for it there." So off we went to the windmill. By this time I was already pretty annoyed, but expecting the bus to be fixed and for us to leave within the next half an hour I was okay.

Boy was I wrong! The man at the windmill office was very unclear about what was happening, but he knew two things for sure.

1. The only spare bus they had was in Port Elizabeth (4 hours away) .
2. The only mechanics they could get to look at the bus were in Butterworth and Port Elizabeth (1 hour 30 minutes or 4 hours away respectively) .

So it was either a 4 hour wait for a working bus or at the least a 1 and a half hour wait for a mechanic that could look at the bus, but not necessarily fix it! I was not impressed!

After a lot of discussion with my mom, we decided it would be best to just go home on Monday whenever the next bus left. This also being rather problematic. The next bus with space on it left at 17:15 Monday night, meaning I would have to miss all of my lectures (again!) and miss my psychology test!

To miss a test at Rhodes you have to get an LOA (leave of absence), but considering the fact that I was still not back in Grahamstown this was also difficult. And when finding out that my make- up test was today at 17:00 I had to miss my journ tutorial as well. So irritating!

The moral of the story is...Don't trust the busses! Always plan your life expecting that the bus will either be late or break down...in fact, just don't take busses!

PS. Let me know if anyone hears about a plane service from Grahamstown to East London and back. It would make life a whole lot easier for many students! Not to mention the amount of money it could make!

Tell me about your bus experiences or ask me any questions about the busses, I'm here to help :)