Ray Sines’ journey began on a lonely stretch of South African highway. No maps, no GPS-just some spotty directions to stay straight until the next town. He was hauling a 25-ton bulldozer, but that didn’t make him nervous. He was used to pulling heavy loads on rough terrain as head mechanic and driver for Majestic Stone, a quarry and stone supplier in Dayton, Tennessee. If there was any cause for concern, it was the utter lack of knowledge about what lie ahead.
“When I landed in Johannesburg all I knew about my new boss, Ian, and the mission ahead was what I had learned through a 20-minute phone call with him three days earlier,” says Sines.
The basic gist was this: haul a Caterpillar D7H armored military bulldozer 4,000 miles to help the United Nations with land mine removal in Abyei-a particularly war-torn area in South Sudan. En route he stopped in Harare, Zimbabwe to have the front of the bulldozer outfitted with five large rollers, which safely detonate land mines while driving over them.
Remarkably Sines says he was never really worried, even though he took three days to prepare for a trip most would spend months on. Then again, he was tailor-made for the job with his hope-for-the-best attitude and experience hauling and repairing heavy equipment.
While working at Majestic he earned the nickname “SuperTrucker” for his ability to haul 80,000-plus pounds up steep grades of loose dirt and snake between trees with only inches of clearance. Not only is he comfortable driving tractor trailers, he can repair them on the fly should anything go wrong, which it did-too many times to count. Sometimes the truck would break down three and four times in one leg. Toward the end of the trip he was holding parts together with whatever he could find-even a bicycle inner tube.
During the two-month trek, he was chased by an angry mob, arrested and even hit by a drunk driver. The highlight of his trip, however, was being impounded in Tanzania. “The clearing agent was kind of a joker and failed to give me my abnormal permit-the truck is one meter too long,” he explains. “The permit is $20 but the fine for not having it is $2,000.”
Sines travels everywhere with his photo of “Rose White Thunder,” which was given to him two years ago by his friend Jean Huddleston,Store Manager of Planet Altered. “White Thunder is supposed to be my guide. Not a real guide or something worshiped, but just a object for my mind to find peace and understanding through when traveling. Similar to Pocahontas for John Smith, and Sacagawea for Lewis and Clark. I have taken White Thunder on many long journeys, and it felt right to take her to Africa. It also gave me something comforting to look at or think about that would remind me of home and my friends.”
But getting stuck almost seven days allowed Tim Freccia, world-renowned conflict photojournalist, to catch up. He was filming the road trip to produce a documentary, The Joburg to Juba Juggernaut, which is set to air on a major network and possibly even turn into a series. His riding shotgun not only meant help negotiating border crossings, it also meant access to Google maps on Tim’s iPhone.
It isn’t just Sines’ professional training that prepared him for this adventure. He comes from a long line of missionaries. His parents and both sets of grandparents were stationed in places like Burma, the Philippines, Libya, Cyprus and Tanzania. Growing up, Sines’ bedtime stories were about Africa. His father, John, lived in Tanzania as a boy then returned in 1980-two weeks after getting married-to help with construction in Juba, South Sudan. (Ray visited his father’s workshop and tukul, or thatched-roof home, at the end of the trip.)
Given this history, Sines’ mother, Linda, had actually been encouraging Ray to go to Africa for several years despite the dangers. “I trust God; so much so that if he goes on one of these crazy adventures and dies, I’m OK with it,” she says. “I know that sounds terrible, but every place is dangerous. Plus Raymond is happiest when he has a problem to solve-he thrives on that.”
Despite her urging it was actually Sines’ boss at Majestic, David Zollinger, who spurred him to take the plunge. On December 14 Sines read a Facebook post about the trip from Jared Busl, a friend he made doing relief work in Central America. He mentioned it to Zollinger, also a friend of Busl’s. Within a few hours, Zollinger told Sines he should be there and not only granted him the time off work, but also offered to pay for his ticket. An hour later, Sines messaged Busl the good news and within 10 minutes he was on a phone interview with Ian Cox, owner of Lorry Boys, LTD, the logistics company in charge of the mission. On December 17, Ray was on a plane to Johannesburg, or Joburg as the locals call it.
This isn’t the first time Sines has made a quick decision. In college he left for Central America-alone-with $200 in his pocket. It all started with a window washer at his parents’ house, who was trying to raise money for a relief work trip to Guatemala. He was planning to leave in two weeks to meet up with Busl and a few others, who were literally driving from town to town offering to do whatever the locals needed, from electrical work to basic health care.
The window washer and his friend backed out at the last minute, so Sines went alone to meet up with total strangers in a city the size of Los Angeles. He had no address, only a phone number, and didn’t speak Spanish. And as he neared Guatemala, he lost cell service. Busl had taken a bus to the border to try to meet up with Sines, but it had been delayed and they actually passed each other on the highway, completely unaware. At about 2 a.m. as Sines was trying to back track in the rain, he saw a head pop up from a ditch on the side of the road. Busl had curled up there to catch a wink, knowing any headlights would wake him up.
Their antics have continued in Africa. While Sines was on his way over, he got word that Busl was leaving the country just as he was arriving. The two reunited later in the trip, just in time to deliver the ‘dozer and take a few weeks off to climb Mt. Kenya, as both are avid mountain climbers.
Sines returned to the states in late February. His future plans remain to be seen. For now he’ll return to Majestic Stone, but he’s already talking about another sabbatical later this year-this time to help Busl with a well-drilling venture on the border of Somalia and Ethiopia. And while his game plan is about as open as when he started this epic journey, one thing’s for certain-if there are mountains left to climb, he’ll want to tackle them. And he probably won’t waste any time getting started.
To learn more about Sines epic journey visit his Facebook page, Ray SuperTrucker, where he chronicles his entire time in Africa. To learn more about the movie, visit The Joburg to Juba Juggernaut, also on Facebook.