PUG (Palio Users Group) Meet

It had to be just Finney and me from Bangalore. My 2 friends Rachana and Ashith (both married, and the best part is, to each other) accompanied me in my car. We decided to meet up with Finney at Attibele, which is at the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, because it is close to where to I stay. We 3 started from my house in my Palio Multijet and Finney met us near the toll booth at the Attibele in his Palio 1.2 NV.

Till Hosur, the road was full of trucks, but once I crossed it, it was easy to cruise at 80 KMPH. Finney was cruising at around 100 KMPH, so he went much ahead of us. I still don’t confident to go too much above 80 KMPH in IndiaL. Later we stopped for breakfast at Adyar Anand Bhavan, and then continued towards our destination, Yercaud. We crossed Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri and reached Salem, crossing many toll booths on the way. The roads are maintained well. They are painted well and have no potholes. There are flower plants along the median which increase the beauty of the road, and also block the high beams of irresponsible motorists. But at one stretch, the road is somewhat winding and goes downhill, so there are 8 speed-breakers. This stretch is tricky. Due to daytime heat, the asphalt melts and when huge trucks go over these roads, the melted asphalt shifts towards the lane dividers and so the road is uneven. At the speed-breakers, the road is worse!

But the biggest problem all along was the villagers who don’t understand the difference between a village road and a highway. Some of them drive their motorbikes on the rightmost lane. Some of them drive their motorbikes on the rightmost lane, in the OPPOSITE direction! And of course, some stray dogs here and there also test your driving skills. And then there are tractors whose birthright it is to drive only in the rightmost lane.

After catching up with Finney at Salem, we continued towards Yercaud. The road is uphill and winding. There are 20 hairpin bends. At the bottom of the hill, Finney offered me his car. Ashith drove mine. It was fun to drive the car on hairpin bends. There is no question about the ride and handling of European cars. They drive so beautifully. Having never driven a petrol car on an uphill road, I understood the difference between petrol and diesel. I don’t mean the engine, but the fuel itself. Diesel being much denser, gives a much higher torque. So a diesel car goes uphill without struggling too much. But not a car with petrol engine L. Perhaps a petrol car would also go easily, if the engine is much bigger. But our silly government rules ask for high taxes for cars with more than 1.2 litre petrol engines L.

It was easy to find Star Holiday Resorts, where I had booked rooms for us. We reached there at 2.30 PM. After freshening up, we went for lunch to Shevaroy hotel. This is apparently the best place to stay in or dine at Yercaud. Unfortunately, it was fully booked for the weekend, so I hadn’t got rooms there for us. We had an Indian lunch at the Silver Oak restaurant there and went back to our hotel. Mahesh Natarajan too arrived at the same time with his family in his GTX.

Then we all went to the Yercaud lake. Rachana had already grown fondness to MN’s children (son Uttam Kumar, and daughter Sri Meenakshi), so the children went with Rachana and Ashith in their boat. We went in another boat. By the time we were out of the lake, it was dark already. We also met up with Srinivas PS and his friend Alex, who had driven from Chennai in Srinivas’s 1.2 NV. They were also staying in Star Holidays, and were there since noon, and we had no clue!

We also met Thyagarajan and his family who had come to Yercaud from Chennai in his MJD (and also a Swift Dzire). We decided to meet up the next morning at 8.30 at the same place and we went our ways. Finney joined MN and family for dinner. We went back to the hotel. I had brought some beer in a Styrofoam box from Bangalore and it was still ice cold. As we had no more drives until the next day, we could have some beer to chill out. No drinking and driving, but always driving and then drinking ;-).

So Rachana, Ashith, Srinivas, Alex and I sat in Ashith’s room and shared a lot of stories. Later Finney too joined us for more stories. We probably spent 3 hours just chatting like that! And then we all headed to our rooms for a good night’s sleep. There were power cuts in between, but luckily the hotel provided backup power.

On Sunday morning, MN knocked on our doors exactly at 8.30 AM. By 9, we checked out of the hotel and went for breakfast to a vegetarian restaurant in Shevaroy. Thyagarajan and his family too joined us there. And also a couple of guys in a grey MJD. I forgot their names L.

It was raining all the time, in contrast to the bright Saturday. Yet, we went to Rose Garden and Ladies’ Seat. By this time, the guys in grey MJD had already left.

By the time we reached our next destination, Kiliyur Falls, it was not raining much. We had a Palio photo session there. We didn’t go till the falls, because of the slushy pathway and slippery rocks. From here, we went to the Shervaroyan temple, which is at a higher point. We had drive through the clouds and that was beautiful experience. It was cold but not enough to chill us. We parked our cars near the temple and some of us visited the temple.

This was our last point of visit, so we said goodbyes to each other. As told to us by Finney later, he sat in his car and wondered that nothing out-of-the-ordinary had happened. And within moments, MN and he reversed their cars together and that gave a broken tail lamp and a dislocated rear bumper to Finney’s NV and a dented door and a broker right rear view mirror to MN’s GTX L.

Then we went for lunch at Shevaroy. Few of us went to the non-vegetarian restaurant and a few us to the vegetarian one. After lunch, we met up at the lake again. MN gave us DVD copies of his recordings of his Leh trip at the beginning of the year. Then we said goodbye to each other and departed to our respective home locations.

FIFA World Cup matches that I watched in stadiums

1. Brazil vs Ivory Coast - I got a seat directly opposite the camera that records the match and telecasts to you all. The Soccer City stadium is HUGE. It can seat 90,000 people! So it has quite a big number of rows and my row was 3rd from the last. This gave me a panoramic view of the stadium. The drawback of this is, it is hard to recognize any player. I was surrounded by thousands of Brazilian fans. Believe me, Brazilian girls look hotter than they look on TV or photos!!

And I could see how dirty the Brazil team plays (apologies to Brazil fans). Whenever there was an attack by Ivory Coast with more strikers than the Brazilian defenders, the defenders would simply fake an injury. Sometimes the referee would signal to continue play because the Ivory Coast striker wouldn’t be at fault. That’s when the Brazilian would not get up and pretend as if he is hurt. Then other Brazilians would stop playing and point the fallen guy to the referee. Now Ivory Coast has no option but to stop their attack and kick the ball out.

Sometimes, the Ivory Coast guys would get distracted and stop. Then a Brazilian defender would sneak in and take the ball in his control. Then the fallen defender would suddenly come back to life and the game would resume with Brazil attacking!!!

This happened so many times that it was frustrating to watch. I was happy to see Kaka sent off (although I didn’t know why, because the ball was elsewhere and you tend to watch where the ball is, and Kaka's so called foul took place elsewhere on the field). Later I found out that it wasn't entirely Kaka's fault. Yet, Brazil got a taste of their own medicine. But it was already late. Brazil needs an opposition that can give them this treatment right from the beginning.

And the sound of vuvuzelas isn't a problem in the stadium at all. When you hear the sound on TV, it is monotonous buzzing sound (like a bee's buzz). But in the stadium, the frequency and amplitude keeps varying. Frequency variation because of different sizes/shapes of vuvuzelas and amplitude variation depending on how far from you a vuvuzela is being blown.

Also, there was only one Mexican wave. It had 3 iterations before it died down. The problem with it was, the seats would fold back the moment you got up, so you have to turn yourself after the wave passes you and open the seat again.

My seat was between two old men and they were boring. Luckily there was one empty seat next to my one German colleague, so i joined him. Most people didn’t bother to sit and they stood on the aisles, so there were many empty seats.

The travel arrangements to the stadium are excellent. There is no car parking in the stadium. But there are many options: one option is to take one of those special buses to the stadium directly from certain points in the city. They drop you to one common point called west gate (common between Ellis Park and soccer city stadiums of Johannesburg). From there are dedicated buses to the stadium. Costs 50 Rands per person.

Another option is to park and ride. There are some places within 5 km radius of each stadium and you can park your car there and take a bus. This is cheaper, costing 50 Rands a car. So if you are 5 people, it is just 10 rands per person. But driving to park and ride facilities is a pain. It is bumper to bumper traffic everywhere and the jam even affects the motorways.

For this match, we (my 3 German colleagues and me) took the first option. But while coming back, the bus went through the city roads and not on the motorway, as it had to drop people. The match got over at 10.15 pm and we reached our hotel at 12.15 am!!

2. Spain vs Honduras: this was in Ellis park stadium. An old stadium and much smaller (60k capacity). Fortunately, my seat was on the 14th row from the arena, and again directly opposite the camera. And exactly on the midfield line. This means, I am sure I came on TV. But u sure can't spot me when i am surrounded by Spanish fans and a few Honduran fans here and there.

It was a do or die match for both teams, but Honduras hardly gave any fight. The players' body language showed that they had given up hope already.

On my left were a few oriental men and they just sat there and watched. But on my right were a few Spanish men who didn’t seem to speak English. And the guy sitting next to me would scream 'ole' every now and then in different tones. The tone varied depending on whether he was happy, angry, sad, delighted and all, but the word remained the same.

When Spain got a penalty, everyone stood up and an old lady behind me tapped on my shoulder and told me to sit down so that she could sit and watch. I told her to stand up, because people in front of me were standing and I didn’t want to miss the penalty kick.

But David Villa missed it. After scoring 2 field goals, he could easily have converted this and had a hat trick against his name. Dumb guy!

For this match, I had to go alone, because my German colleagues' boss had plans to take them and he had no place in his car. I opted for the park and ride option, so I had to go back to my hotel to collect the parking entry ticket (it is a silly thing, to buy the ticket online, and go to their shop and actually receive the ticket and their closest shop was near my hotel). While leaving from the hotel, I met another guest, a Spaniard looking for a ride. He joined me, and we left from my hotel at 4.45 pm. by the time we parked the car, took the bus and reached the stadium, it was 7.30 pm. and the stadium is just 9 km away from the hotel!!!

The return trip was easy. It took only an hour to exit the stadium and drive and reach the hotel.

3. Ghana vs Germany: This time I took the option of park and ride, and parked the car in a place called Gold Reef city. It is a mall with casino and Fun Park and all, and is built over an abandoned gold mine. It is in a place called Soweto (short for South Western Township, as it lies in the south west of Jo’burg).

I left from office at 4.45, changed my clothes from business formals to sportswear in the car and it took me an hour and 45 minutes to go to gold reef city that is 3 km away from office!!!

And from Gold Reef City to soccer city stadium, another half an hour. So I was at the stadium more than an hour before the proceedings could begin. The food, drinks and beer at the stadiums are expensive. Coke costs 15R, sandwiches cost 30R and Budweiser beer costs 30R. A rand is 6 Rs. For the lifestyle and economy here, perhaps a multiplication factor of 3 seems good. That is, multiply any rand value by 3 and see if the price makes sense in rupees, go for it. Well, to me, Budweiser didn't make sense at 90 Rs. I would rather pay 15R for sparkling water which tastes the same!!

There is nothing much to say about the match. The match began in a lame way and continued in that fashion and ended in that fashion. It seemed like both teams were looking for a draw. There were hardly any fouls. Germans play clean and Ghanaians are strong men who don't give a crap for small or medium injuries and continue their play as if nothing happened.

There were probably six or seven fouls in the whole match. And yet, one player from each team did receive yellow cards. I am sure the referee was bored, that's why he gave those yellow cards.

My one observation about the way the Germans play. Whenever there are a few defenders and one defender is controlling the ball and is attacked by opposition, he immediately passes the ball to the goalie. As no attacker can go close to the goalie (because he is the last in line, and any pass to the attacker by his teammate results in off side), the ball remains in Germany’s possession. But there was one close call for Manuel Bauer when a pass to him almost resulted in a Ghana striker stealing the ball. Luckily, Manuel managed to clear it before there was any risk.

And it didn’t seem like any German or Ghanaian played to their potential. The Ghana striker Gyan had to be replaced. German mid fielder Schweinsteiger (funny name, I think it means someone who jumps over a pig) also had to be replaced.

4. Brazil vs Chile (pre-QF): A friend of mine gave me a call and said he'll buy tickets. I didn't ask him which countries would be playing :-D

Somehow, Brazil seemed to play a much fairer game. There were very few drama incidents, and also the referee seemed to know Brazil's tactics, so he chose to ignore the fallen drama queens writhing in pain.

Yet, Brazil won the match. So, they can still win without cheating!!

The night was colder than usual. I had worn an extra t shirt than usual. So, even with 3 t shirts and a sports jacket, it was quite chilling. My seat was close to an open area from where wind blew into the stadium.

I borrowed a vuvuzela from the friend who bought my ticket. I am really proud of my lungs. I had blown about 25 balloons while 3 other guys could manage another 25. That was to welcome the newlywed friends to their house.

Well, I could blow the vuvuzela throughout the match. The guys around me (quite a few Brazilian fans) had given up already.

I will next try to inflate a car tyre.. HAHAHAHAHAHA..

Kalahari

I had to change to a different hotel that weekend, and I thought, why not save some money of Standard Bank? Why not check out from the current hotel on Friday and not check into the other hotel not until Sunday? So where am I going to spend the weekend? How about Kalahari? There is a colleague (Arindam) who is ready to join me. So be the plan.
Fine Friday morning. I check out from the hotel and move all my stuff into the car and head to office. After a series of meetings, Arindam and I start for the city of Upington (on the edge of Kalahari desert, but on the shores of Orange river). The GPS shows an arrival time of 2 AM for 796 km. But no toll roads for the whole stretch. That’s not a good sign. The roads could be bad. Let’s find out!
After taking a few motorways and exits, we reach N14, which goes from Johannesburg to I don’t know where. But I know that it goes through Kalahari green area (the southernmost part of Kalahari where there is lot of vegetation, thanks to Orange river). The road is a 2 lane road just like our Indian highways, but is very well marked with no-ovetake zones and turns indicated clearly. Moreover, the speed limit is 120 kmph and where you need to reduce speed (at curves, or when the road goes through towns), there are too many road signs that you can’t miss. And no road bumps, obviously.
But within a few tens of kilometers, we were greeted with a signal. The next 5 km were one-way, as one part of the road was still being built. While cars and HUGE trucks waited on one side, workers from the other side would let the other side traffic to go through. It was well managed. But the arrival time shown in the GPS was only increasing. And it was getting dark too.
After 5 such stretches, we were literally flying (cruising at 180 kmph). The road had sparse traffic, and I was sure that there would be no cops, as it was quite dark already. After a short stop for loading the car tank and emptying our tanks, we continued through the straight roads. We could see head lamps of vehicles from far, and by the time we would pass that vehicle, at least 10 minutes would have passed. If I consider my speed as 150 kmph and the opposite cars as 100 kmph (I am sure I am underestimating here), the relative speed of 250 kmph would take me 10 minutes to cross the car. So you can imagine how straight the road is. And the road got only straighter, as we approached our destination. Thanks to constant overspeeding, we realized that we would reach our destination by 11 PM. And the car was quite stable at around 170 kmph. The only problem was of having to stop for refueling frequently.
When we were cruising at about 175 kmph near a town called Kuruman, a Mercedes Benz C class simply overtook us and disappeared. It was the first car to overtake us when we were driving (not counting the times when we slowed down to look around for fuel stations). We tried to catch up with him, but could not. At Kuruman, he went straight while we had to take a turn. So he won :-D.
Arindam had booked a room in Upington and when we reached the place, I really liked it. The lady greeted us warmly and showed us the room. It was SHOCKING! A beautiful room with a small kitchen and an attached bathroom. And PINK ROSE PETALS SPREAD ON THE BED. WHAT THE ****!!!! Because Arindam had just told her “two adults” she had assumed a couple would be visiting them. And thank heavens, there was a single bed besides the decorated double bed, and I immediately went and sat on it, to show her that we aren’t what she thought we are :-D
We didn’t wait for long to hit the beds, and next thing I remember is checking the time. it was 7 AM. It was very cold in the morning. After freshening up quickly, we had the breakfast that the lady served us. It was quite delicious. Bacon, fried eggs, toast, butter, jam, mushrooms, cheese and orange juice. Bed and breakfast for 360 Rands for two. Quite inexpensive.
We started the car soon after breakfast and discovered that the GPS wasn’t programmed to take us to our next destination, Twee Rivieren (two rivers in Afrikaans). That is the entrance to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park which spans across South Africa, Botswana and Namibia.
The landlady offered us to guide us to the road from Upington. There are a lot of intersections and she said we would not be able to figure out without her help. She drove for about 5 km in front of us and got us to the road we had to take. After thanking her, we started the next leg of our road trip, through the Kalahari desert. Now we could see the beauty of the desert. Hardly any trees, but a lot of dry grass on both sides of the road. Some shrubs here and there. Once in a while, a lone tree. And some small windmills. I am not very sure why they are there. It was exactly like the way you see it in the film “The Gods Must Be Crazy”. The sky was clear, without a hint of a cloud. The weather was pleasant. There were birds on the road, feasting on the flesh of the small animals killed by speeding vehicles. And one of those birds hit my windshield and crapped a truckload on it. As I was doing 160 kmph easily, I don’t think the bird survived. Fortunately, the windshield took the impact without cracking. I was careful enough to look for animals on the road and managed to escape without their blood on my hands all the time. But the birds weren’t so fortunate. I saw another bird just coming swooping towards my car from the left and then I didn’t see it. I would see it only a day later. You will read about it when I reach that section.
The fuel level was going down and there was no village in sight. When the fuel level had reached the red mark, we came across a village called Askham. When we took the turn, we were greeted with a rough road. After some 300 meters, there was sand and no road. Luckily it wasn’t for a long stretch and then there was asphalt road. There were kids playing on the road wearing South African national football team’s uniforms. Even in the remotest of the South African villages, there still was so much spirit in them!
From the Kgalagadi entrance in Twee Rivieren, we could either drive to Namibia or Botswana (by taking necessary permits) or just roam around the park for a few hours. We chose to drive around the park. The roads we went on had some vegetation and some small ponds of water. There were wildebeests, bisons and springboks. But no predators. After driving for a while, we got bored, and decided to get out of the park. Arindam was driving during this time. Unfortunately, we drove over a small rock that bent the wheel rim enough to drain the air from the tubeless tyre. We drove it with a punctured tyre on the mud road for some 20 km to the park entry point and got it fixed by the mechanic there. And we had beer while he did his work. People there wondered what made us drive the car all the way with a punctured tyre and damage it. I had one reply to them all, “rented car”.
Our next destination was a falls called Augrabies. This place is actually some 150 km from Twee Rivieren. But this shortest route is through Namibia. We had to come down south all the way to Upington (250 km) and then go west for another 100 km. We took nearly 3 hours to cover this distance, including a long break. Here Arindam had booked a room for us in a hotel. This place was nice too, and had a pub and a restaurant.
I hit the pub the moment we landed there, and soon Arindam too joined me. By the time we left the pub at 10.30 or so, I had downed six beers, two shots of Jägermeister and a bunch of snails in butter and garlic. There was only one bed in the room, so I slept on the sofa. Bad idea, because I had no blanket, and it was quite cold. I woke up somewhere in the middle of the night with a splitting headache. So I slept on the bed. It was quite comforting, but I didn’t get sleep for a quite a while, thanks to the headache.
The headache hadn’t gone down even a bit till morning. I tried drinking black tea and that prompted all my stomach contents to come out. I felt much better and we headed to the restaurant for breakfast. Half way through the breakfast, I had to barf again :-D. Then we checked out of the hotel and headed to Augrabies Falls and National Park. At the entrance there, the guard stopped the car, bent in front of it, and removed some feathers from the car’s grille. Then he removed the whole dead bird.
At the falls, I had to pay 88 rands to enter because I am here on business visa. Arindam had to pay only 22, as he is on work permit. But it is better than India where all foreigners are charged in dollars.
The falls was beautiful. Somewhat like Mekedatu near Bangalore, but well maintained. There were a lot of rabbit like animals called dassies around, basking in the sun. They are so lucky. They do nothing but eat the grass, crap, bask and sometimes mate. Some unlucky ones end up as food for eagles though.
After Augrabies, it was time to head to Johannesburg. My headache hadn’t gone yet, so I had some orange juice there and we left from Augrabies at 11.10 am. The arrival time showed by the GPS was 11 PM for a distance of 916 km. We continued at moderate speeds up to Upington, because it was broad daylight, and there could be cops (Upington seemed like a well developed city). After Upington, we continued our journey through the desert, overspeeding all the time. On the way, some oncoming vehicles blinked their head lights. Although my headlights are always switched on when I drive, it was unlikely that it was bothering them. So there is only one explanation, they are warning me of something hideous waiting for us on the way. What could that be? A speed trap, obviously. So we drove at just about 120 to 125 kmph and after some 30 km, we found a cop hiding under a tree with a speed gun. He had hid his BMW quite well behind the bushes. First of all it is so hard to find a bush around there, and it is nearly impossible to find a bush to hide the car and a tree for his own shade, and yet the cop had managed. And he was at least 30 km away from any nearest town!
After the cop disappeared in my rear view mirrors, it was time to fly again. And on the way, we saw a Volvo S80 pulling onto the road. After a while, he overtook us and he probably was doing 180 kmph. My blood boiled. Damn, just the 2nd guy to overtake me and that too in a car that’s at least twice as powerful as mine. Who cares? I started trailing him. Obviously, I didn’t go closer to him than 200 meters, so I could not see where he was headed to (a clue from his car registration) or the engine he had in his car. And then all of a sudden, two cops appeared in from of him and stopped him. Whew, missed by a whisker. They didn’t bother to stop me, and I braked hard to get below 120 kmph and continued we continued our journey. And after a while, the same Volvo guy overtook us again. But this time I didn’t try to provoke him. But he ran out of luck in a different way this time. He had to stop at a signal at road work, and behind him were a Tata Indica, then a big truck and then me. He surely was frustrated because he came out of the car, looked around, spoke to the workers and came and sat in the car. The moment the signal opened, he overtook the cars in front of him by going over the under-construction side of the road and disappeared. I didn’t bother to chase him, although I did go on the under-construction road to overtake the truck in front of me. These trucks are so irritating. They slowly cruise on the road (at around 100 to 120 kmph) and block all vehicles.
At the next signal, it was green when I reached and so I could continue without stopping. And there was the Volvo guy in front of us. He probably was stuck at that signal for a while. And he would not give up overspeeding. I didn’t bother much to trail him. But the road went through a town and he had to slow down, and so did I. the last I saw him was when he pulled into a fuel station.
As we went further, cops stopped us and told me that I was doing 135 kmph in 80 kmph zone. That’s quite unlikely because when I saw the 80 kmph sign, I had slowed down to 100 kmph. He had no proof because what was being shown in the radar was the speed of the car behind us (which was also overspeeding). But he said we have to pay a fine and all that. Saw my passport, and asked how much a fine of 1000 rands would be in rupees. I said 6000 Rs. He himself said that is huge, and asked where I work here and all. When I said Standard Bank, he told me to drive carefully and let me go. Whew! This is the second time a cop was letting me go without having to pay up. I guess I won’t be lucky next time.
We never saw the Volvo again. It was unlikely that he took a different route, because there weren’t any. May be he passed us by when we were speaking to the cop. If that happened, I am sure he had the last laugh.
We entered Johannesburg at around 8, and reached Arindam’s house at 9. After dropping him, I went to my new hotel, checked in, and hit the bed by 10. The distance of about 2200 km in 2.5 days had really drained me. I still am drained, and it is Monday afternoon already.
And most of the South Africans here who I tell about my weekend, tell me that they have never been to wherever I went!!!!

Johannesburg to Durban and back, within a day

Saturday morning. I wake up at 5.30 and pack my stuff to go to Durban, stay for a day and return on Sunday evening. After breakfast, and some delays, I finally leave the hotel at 7. My GPS says I have to travel 583 km and I would reach at 12.51 pm. So I start. Just about half a km later, I see a police car and an ambulance, and dead man by the side of the road. Seems like a murder. A bad way to start a trip.
After taking different motorways, I reach N3. That’s the motorway from Johannesburg to Durban. Straight 500+ kms. Time to put my Polo (Mk IV, 1.4 petrol, 85 PS) to the test. I keep pushing the limits. On some toll roads, I even hit 180 kmph. I feel proud when BMWs and Mercs switch on their indicators and move to the left lane to give me way. Muahahahaha.
The car can cruise easily at around 170 kmph, but after that, it is a bit difficult to control. So I start cruising at about 160 kmph. And then, the dreaded moment. A cop signals me to stop. Damn.. Caught! No wonder these powerful cars were giving me way. They were just sending on the path of Hell!!!
The cop tells me that I was doing 147 kmph in 120 kmph zone, so I should pay 800 Rand fine. I try to act innocent, saying I am new to the country, and this is my first drive outside Johannesburg and I badly want to pee. And I ask her if she can reduce the fine. She keeps asking me how much I wanna pay. I say I don’t know how things work in South Africa, so she should tell me. Finally she says, “ok, give me 200”. I open my wallet, and there are some 300R. I say, “how about 50?”. Typical Indian bargaining. I think that pisses her off. She says, “that’s ok. Go. Drive safe”. I say, “this 50?”. She says, “no, that’s ok”.. whew!! I saved a big amount!
After that I keep cruising at 120 – 125 kmph when I have no company on the road. But when there are many other speeding vehicles, I try to keep up with them. First I find 2 BMW X5s. One of them gives me company all the way. For a while I lead and he trails me. After a while, he leads and I trail. Constantly doing 140 to 150 kmph. Luckily, no cops after that. I don’t know about automatic cameras. But in a country where theft is very common, I don’t think cops would risk planting such a camera!
And then I stop to reload the car’s tank and unload my tank. Time is 9.30 am. I have come only about 250 km. I now have lost the company of the X5. But now the scenery is getting better. Drakenberg mountains. I am so close to the border of Lesotho, and yet I can’t go. I see the mountains from far. So beautiful! The mountain that I am driving on, hardly has any vegetation, other than the elephant grass. The grass is brown and you can spot an occasional bush or a tree. Typical African savannah they show in national geographic. But drakenberg mountains are different. They are either rocky, or are full of flora.
As I continue, I get another company. A GTI. So two VWs racing. Well, not really racing. But trying to confuse the cops ;-). Now I am getting closer to Durban. The air is getting warmer. And now I have just about 5 km to reach the first place I want to visit, Ushaka Marine World. So I switch on the left indicator, and expect the guy behind to give me way. Stupid mistake. Because that is a city taxi (kinda car pooling taxi, used only by low income people. Usually full of people). I hear a thud and left mirror has turned inwards. That guy swerves left and right and then comes to a halt. I too stop the car by the road side. And then 3 black guys come rushing to my car. And start demanding money and my license. I tell them that I have no license, and I am driving illegally, so I tell them to call cops and that I’d surrender. I don’t get out of the car and I don’t get the window down more than an inch. So they really can’t do anything. After some abuses, they leave. Once their vehicle disappears, I come out and see. Whew!!! No damage to my car at all!
Then I go to the marine world. I didn’t expect it to be an amusement park. There are different water rides and all. Ha! Why would I want to do all that alone? So I roam around a mall there, and take a walk on the beach, and eat some Pasta and drink Peroni (Italian beer) at an Italian restaurant, and go to my next destination, Anstey’s beach. This place is a bit far from the other popular places, so no crowd. The weather is extremely pleasing. And the beach is beautiful too. About 30 feet sand on the shore that gradually goes up. And then some 15 feet of lawn. Then road. On the other side of the road, row houses. Beautiful beach houses. And the temperature is just about 15 degree C, and the breeze is chilling. I stand there for some 10 minutes, staring at the sea. Then I feel cold, so I sit in the car. The time now is about 3.15 pm. And I fall asleep. When I wake up, it is 4. The sun has almost gone down, but still not many people at the beach. So I go out and stand. I stand there for an hour, without even realizing it! When I see the time is 5, and still there are very few people, I decide to go. Go where? One option is to find a hotel to stay, and come to the beach again next day. Nah! Why spend on a hotel? I already had spent 160R on the toll (which meant another 160R while going back). Let me go back to my hotel, to Johannesburg!
So I leave from Anstey. My car’s windshield is hazy. The car’s wipers can’t clean it. They only make it worse. I hope that the haze disappears as I go on, so I continue. By the time I hit N3, it is 6 pm and is totally dark. And my windshield is still hazy. I can only see the tail lights of the vehicles behind me. And some vehicles don’t even have functioning tail lights. This is recipe for disaster and I am not on a suicide mission. I have to find a petrol bunk now. I need to take a leak too. I see a few petrol bunks by the motorway, but by the time I see them, I have already crossed the exit. I am getting more and more irritated, so I simply take an exit into some town and drive around. No petrol bunks. Heck! Then it strikes me. OH! GPS can show me petrol bunks! I find one, and get all the things done, and get back on the motorway.
I am convinced that the cops here don’t have night radars to track overspeeding vehicles. So I keep a constant speed of 140 to 160 kmph. As a toll booth approaches, I forget to slow down. And there is a lightning. Oh, no. that’ wasn’t lightning. That was a camera flash. Someone took my photo. Hehehe. So there are automated cameras, at least near toll booths (where there always are people). I want to get hold of that photo. That is my only photo from this trip!
Then I see a crashed city taxi. This one seems to have toppled multiple times. It is totally damaged and is being loaded into a tow truck. There are a few ambulances, which means there were many people inside.
Then I stop for dinner near Drakenburg. I walk out of the car wearing my t shirt. All the people there are wearing sweaters, mufflers and all. It is very cold. Like a big shot, I walk into the restaurant, and place my order. Now I realize how cold it is. I start to shiver. Still, I wait till my food comes (grilled prawns and rice), eat and then leave.
The moment I get in the car, I switch on the heater and wait till I am warm again, before I even move the car. After that, I drive non-stop and reach my hotel at 11. I had travelled 1195 km in less than 16 hours, and yet I had so much energy left within me. so, I start writing this travelogue within a few minutes of reaching my room…