They exchanged pleasantries as they made a bee-line for the food; that is, they took many unnecessary turns and side routes in order to avoid the early morning traffic.
Unnecessary and poorly phrased detail. If you're trying to say that the most direct route to the food was a tortuous one, then you need to be more clear about that, rather than contradicting yourself within a single sentence. As it is this is a confusing detail. "They exchanged pleasantries as they headed to straight to breakfast, though the maze of tents, vendor stalls, midden heaps, and mud pits forced them to take a circuitous route that almost doubled back on itself in places."
