Leaving Tofu: Battery Trouble from the Start
Good day. April 1st, 2026. I guess it’s time to give up a good thing and leave Tofu. Well, hmm, yeah, maybe not. I was trying to leave about 10 o’clock, and when I had gotten to the car a few times over the last few days, it had not been running at all. Then there was a beep that I couldn’t quite place, and this time I found out that beep had to do with a battery indicator that let me know when the battery is low.
I have 3 batteries, and one of them was put in new before leaving the Netherlands, so I didn’t know any of this stuff. I thought it was a matter of the radio being on for all the time, or a light, or both—I had no idea. But I tried to start it and couldn’t do it, even with the help of the extra batteries. I couldn’t jump start myself.
Friendly Neighbors to the Rescue
Sasha was helping out by approaching a neighbor, and they had a box to start the battery, but that was not fully loaded, so there wasn’t enough power to make it happen. Then somebody showed up with a Defender visiting the Peri Peri place, which is the one for the boat trips and diving, and they were friendly enough to help out. The battery in that car was located under the passenger seat, which was an interesting place. But that gave me enough power to actually get the car started, which was a really, really, really good thing.
So it took an extra hour. I wasn’t leaving until about 11 o’clock. Then I made a detour on a road that I had not yet traveled, but it all worked out. All was a sand pot—in other words, no paved roads there for the first part to get off the hill. But beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place.
Fuel Scarcity and the Quest for Diesel
Then it was a matter of going for the place where I would get some diesel again. I changed the car back to the sub-tank, my second tank. I’m trying to keep the fuel full up since there are noises of fuel not being around, and the price has gone up. But not as significantly really—it’s more a matter of scarcity. I wanted to make sure that every time I had a chance to keep my tanks full, because this situation might be even less good in Malawi, which is the direction I’m hoping to go.
It took about an hour and a quarter before I got to the main road again, and the car kept going, no issue. When I got to the Petro Moc station, they would only let me buy 20 liters. Most of the time, a 3/4 of a tank or half a tank is somewhere between 45 and 60 liters. So there wasn’t a whole lot, but it wouldn’t put me out because I still had plenty of fuel.
Stranded at the Gas Station
Since I had been running about an hour and a quarter, I had no issue with turning off the engine when I got the diesel. That was probably one of the best things I ever did. However, trying to restart it—that wasn’t working. There was no juice at all. None. Nada. Nothing. And even trying to jumpstart it this time didn’t work either.
It couldn’t have happened at a better place. The owner of the station was around, and I explained to him what was going on. I was taking a place along the pump where other people needed to be. He said, oh yeah, not a problem—he knows somebody that deals with car electronics. Before I knew it, someone had showed up to help me.
Diagnosing the Problem
In the meantime, I did speak to the guys in Groningen, the Netherlands, to see if they had any input. But from a distance, this wasn’t an issue that you could easily solve. The first car electrician started working on it, basically cleaning everything up, but it wasn’t going as well as expected.
So the owner found another person that was even more experienced, who started taking steps and using very simple testing methods like a bulb and a few wires to determine that one battery was really weak. The battery indicator had sort of mentioned that. They weren’t initially talking about exchanging the battery because they felt there was still enough going for it. We were exchanging batteries in different places and testing the whole thing.
A New Battery and Incredible Kindness
It became pretty clear to me that replacing the second battery was probably a good thing to do, especially since this particular gas station sold batteries—and they had the right kind. In talking to the owner, the battery was going to be 12,000 Meticais, which is somewhere around $200 US. Then the mechanics needed to get paid too.
The mechanics kept working on it, worked through everything, and found out that my one front light wasn’t working optimally, so they tackled that too. I happened to have an extra light bulb of the right kind. The end result was that we replaced the battery, got my light going again, and everything was cleaned up. Absolutely amazing.
When it came to paying, the owner said, “”Yeah, no worries, man, just pay me the 20,000 Meticais and I’ll pay those guys the 8,000 in cash.”” How could you wish for anything better? It was just absolutely astounding.
Pushing On to Vilankulos
That made it possible for me to decide whether I still wanted to get to Vilankulos, which was my intended destination. I had pretty much lost 3.5 hours, but I decided to give it a shot. There weren’t that many places to stay closer to Vilankulos, so it turned out to be best to go all the way there for more options.
I ended up getting there when it was already dark, and the main road was being worked on, so that was all a little challenging. But I did find a guest house for a not unreasonable price. They even had some food available even though it was late at night. I was pretty happy about all that.
Reflections on an Amazing Day
What an amazing day where things just worked out. Angels are looking out for me and things work out for the better. Thanks for coming along with this one.
