Broken Bakkie

---

The news from Jannie at White River Toyota was not what we wanted to hear. Our 4x4 (or “bakkie” as they are called here) was suffering from not one but three separate issues that were culminating in some very rough running. First, and most obvious, there was a fair sized oil leak somewhere in the engine. Second, there were a number of corroded wires and points that apparently meant that of the 12 volts being provided by the battery, only 6 were getting anywhere useful. Third, dirty fuel had clogged the petrol pump (in just 500mls of petrol drained from the tank there were three clumps of stuff that looked suspiciously like the “carrots” that always surface in vomit). Since we’d arrived at 4pm on the Thursday and Friday was a public holiday we were looking at Tuesday or Wednesday before getting back on the road.

Drive Africa were mortified at the problems that we had encountered after only having the car for two weeks and were quick to make it clear that they would be picking up the tab for the repair work. They also pulled some strings with Europcar and had a rental car delivered to us (again, on their tab) at the workshop by 5.30pm, which was quite an achievement given the proximity of the public holiday. So, despite the unfortunate nature of the breakdown we felt well looked after by all involved. One thing that we have really noticed since we’ve been in South Africa is the genuine high levels of service and courtesy shown by people. People seem genuinely pleased to be doing their jobs and to take responsibility and act. If the same events had happened in the UK I think that we would have had a real fight to get even a shadow of the service and attention that we got here without even having to ask.

So, with the bakkie temporarily traded in for a more regular style car, we loaded the boot up with a portion of our gear and planned a little circuit of north-east S.A. to keep ourselves amused for the following days. After a night and a huge steak dinner in Nelspruit (man, these S.A’s know and love their meat - 600grams of prime garlic marinated steak for only £3 (and in case you think we were being greedy 600 grams was the smallest pack size) we headed into Swaziland - hey, bonus country!

Swaziland

The road into Swaziland was ironically the most hardcore off roading we had done so far - 30kms of steep and heavily rutted logging trails. Swaziland itself was a sleepy, dusty low key affair, seemingly quite content and happy to potter along a notch or two below the pace of S.A. We spent a day and night in Mlilwane Nature Reserve, which is a predator free reserve where there is no division between campers and animals. Warthogs and impala happily wander amongst the tents. There was a nice long trail that we walked, and while the wildlife wasn’t as diverse as Kruger it was great to be on foot uninsulated from all the sights, smells and sounds. The only thing we had to watch out for was the ostriches. Funny as they look, they can be quite savage; those Big Bird sized drum sticks are capable of serious kicks. In S.A. we saw lots around industrial estates and were told that they are used in the same capacity as guard dogs, with the added advantage that they keep the grass down!

Back to S.A. (briefly)

We crossed the border back into S.A. through a border post that was so relaxed we managed to miss out the entire Swaziland visa and customs section by mistake. We had to duck back under fences and unofficially re-enter Swaziland to collect the right stamps before officially (this time) leaving. Formalities complete we headed to the coast and based ourselves at the very relaxed Isinkwe backpackers to explore the St Lucia Marine Park. Conscious of our lack of recent exercise we signed up for a morning kayaking amongst the hippos and crocs. It was a good workout, although we didn’t get too close to any water beasties as our guide was keen to keep us well out of harms way (“See that thing in the distance?”, “What, that thing that looks like a rock?”, “Yes, that is a hippo lets paddle quickly the other way…”) I guess he knew what was best and he did also put as onto a good pub at the lake’s edge a little out of town where we could enjoy a “sun downer” (another delightful S.A. phrase) while watching hippos and crocs. Definitely a beer garden with a nice twist!

Other than that, the highlights of our down time were (i) mad dash around local towns to find anti-malaria tablets when we realised we’d left all of ours in the bakkie (ii) mad dash around local towns to find red wine when we realised we’d left all of ours in the bakkie; and (iii) finding a great hassle free craft market where K got to indulge her basket buying fetish (and I got a wooden guinea fowl).

A call to White River Toyota and it was all good for picking the bakkie up on Tuesday, so another good day’s drive back to Nelspruit (the place is starting to feel a bit like home - we have done a fair bit of just hanging out there, going to the supermarket etc…while waiting for things to get sorted). Back in the Beast we made a line to the Mozambique border, keen to make up some time. The crossing itself was reasonably uneventful, standard land border affair of millions of touts, loads of confusing forms to be filled in and numerous requirements to pay a little here and there for visa verification, customs verifications, vehicle insurance etc…

Mozambique

We stayed the night in the capital, Maputo, which has a reputation for being a buzzy edgy place with good food and nightlife. I’d like to say we found it so and I genuinely think with a little more time and stability it will be so, but to us Maputo was just scraping by. A barely functioning and barely standing city still clearly carrying the scars of the two wars in Mozambique’s recent past. Getting out of Maputo was an experience in itself. Our map showed three routes to go, but the first two we chose (the ones that promised to be the more scenic - which should have been a warning!) deposited us in the middle of various shanty towns encircling the capital. With much smiling, and nodding and waving and reversing of the bakkie we finally left the city and headed for Mozambique’s famed coast.

First stop on the coastal route was Tofo, a Swiss Family Robinson style thatched town hard up against a golden beach. We’d hoped to do a bit of diving there but the weather was against us on two out of our three days. We did get one dive in, and saw crayfish and octopus, which the first time we’d seen them in their pre-dinner form. We also went on an “ocean safari” to find whale sharks - there was a mighty swell at the time which made it a stomach testing time but we were lucky enough to see and swim with three of the giants. Awesome to be in a heaving ocean and to see these six meter beasties glide by, the feelings of vulnerability and exposure caused by the high seas adding a little bit of spice to it all, even if it wasn’t the most comfortable experience! K had to dust off her doctoring skills as one of the other chaps on the safari got so sea-sick people were starting to wonder whether he had something more serious. She sat him in a corner, prescribed a bottle of coke and he recovered quite nicely.

The arrival of a bus load of 50 S.A. university students keen to party clashed with, shall we say, our more settled requirements for a beach holiday so we decided to up sticks and head further north to another beach town called Vilankulos. Again, the weather was against us (hmmm….so far dry season is a bit like summer in Wellington), but it did settle enough for us to take a dhow trip across to one of the offshore islands for an afternoon in the sun. The trip back to the mainland was in the face of a strengthening wind and we nervously struggled back through growing whitecaps and waves. The only thing that stopped us freezing was that we were regularly swamped by the warm waves. One wave knocked our captain’s hat off and his mate fell in getting it back, which had the captain and his other mate roaring with laughter. It is probably a good indication of the value of people vs. possessions. The mate got his revenge closer to shore when the captain had to dive in to rescue the punting pole/oar which was washed over board - the mate thought we were close enough to shore for the captain to make it via his own steam. There was less laughter this time.

Another cloudy day so we decided to get our wiggle on and give up on this coastal stuff and head inland to Malawi - a 800km drive through some fantastic but empty landscape. On the roads we had our first run in with the Mozambique police. They are notorious for pulling over foreign vehicles and extorting bribes - you basically have to buy back off them any documentation that you put in their hands. Passports are kept well out of sight. We got pulled over for “speeding”, which anyone who knows Mozambique roads will find ironic. While roads are mostly sealed (and being rapidly upgraded) they are littered with potholes that can, without exaggeration, swallow the front end of a car. Anyway, after a little bit of gesturing and posturing (on both sides) we paid an unofficial fine of about £12, which was close to all we had, and we were let on our way. The official fine of about £20 would have got me a souvenir ticket but of course the officer wasn’t keen to issue one because then he would have had to account for the money and we weren’t keen to advertise the fact that we did in fact have a little more money. Thinking back on it maybe it would have been better to demand to pay the higher amount in the hope it would go into government coffers rather than a crooked cop’s back pocket. Then again, maybe official receipts just get lost higher up. Muddying the water is the fact that the cops are paid so poorly that they can’t survive on the government wages alone. The next time we were stopped by a cop as soon as he uttered the word fine I grabbed my licence out of his hand and drove off (he was overweight and only had a bicycle, so didn’t need the cash and could have used the exercise).

So, slightly frazzled by multiple cop encounters and tired from a long day’s driving we were looking forward to getting to Tete, near the border with Malawi. Ominously, just as the sun started to set, the car developed a slight thumping noise at the left-hand rear wheel which rapidly grew to a fingers on blackboard like squeal and - just as we were thinking “oh shit” - stopped completely. We couldn’t see any wheel wobble, or oil and it was otherwise running fine and everything where it should be, so we wrote it all off as a stone or something rubbing somewhere that had since worked its way loss. A few kilometres later we suddenly lost all gears and brakes. Luckily we were on a straight stretch of road and managed to glide to a halt on the shoulder. While neither of us has any real mechanical aptitude (if you hadn’t already guessed) it was clear to both of us that something was seriously wrong - the entire left-hand rear wheel and axle sticking out about two feet further than normal was a good hint. If we’d been going around a corner, wheel and car would have parted company completely and we could have had a very messy accident.

In the dark with massive trucks blasting by we put out our little red warning triangles, stuck on our hazard lights and thought about what to do next. Splitting up or leaving the bakkie and heading the 70k’s into Tete weren’t attractive options, but then spending a night on the side of the road isn’t something recommended in the “budget accommodation” section of the Lonely Planet. It was then we met Cardoso, a Mozambiquen who made up for all the corrupt cops of earlier and then some. Seeing our plight he stopped, assessed the situation with no small degree of technical skill and reassured us that it wasn’t as bad as it looked, that it could be fixed and that it would be OK to spend the night on the road where we were. He gave us his cell phone number and promised he’d get help sent out to us in the morning. The night passed slowly but uneventfully.

At 9.30 the next morning Cardoso returned with his cousin and another helper. It turns out that Cardoso used to be a mechanic (and has since diversified into running transport and import/export businesses) and his accompanying cousin was a mechanic. They stripped off the offending wheel (apparently the bearing had seized up in a rather dramatic fashion) and took it into town to fix, leaving us with a pile of sandwiches and drinks that they had also bought out because they were worried we would be hungry and thirsty after our long night. Five hours later they returned with the wheel/bearing all fixed and stuck everything back together. We then convoyed into town together where Cardoso sorted out accommodation for us (at a place the Lonely Planet did recommend) and then invited us to his house for dinner. Although tired we enjoyed a real feast of soup, prawns, chicken, bean and goat stew and salad (spicy piripiri sauce drizzled on all). We watched a popular soap called “Snakes and Lizards” and played some of our CDs for Cardoso’s kids (K was bemused that his son and I pretty much had an identical CD collection - hardly making a myth of “all men are the same”).

So, a real unfortunately/fortunately situation - a potentially nasty situation but one that allowed us to get to know and share with some real Mozambiquens outside of the usual tourist experience. I am beginning to think having a broken car is a bit like having a dog in that it is a great way/excuse to meet strangers.

Since then we’ve crossed the border into Malawi and have checked the bakkie into a dedicated Toyota centre for a thorough servicing to flush out any remaining gremlins - touch wood!

---

Photos

Swazi Border
This sign kind of summed up the low key nature of Swaziland - in a nice way.

Warthog!
This is a common position for these critters - they shuffle around on their knees sniffing and eating stuff.

Hair Salon in Hluhluwe
If we hadn't been so desperately racing around to get wine and drugs we might have stopped for Andrew to get an overdue haircut.

Eiffel's Iron House in Maputo
Interesting architectural concept, Monsieur Eiffel - why would a solid iron house be a good idea in the tropics?

Wheel-less
Here is the poor Beast sans wheel. Thankfully it stayed on until we'd pulled over.

The Cavalry
Our saviours; Cardoso, Agosto and Cesar.

Beast in action
Here is the bakkie in fine form on the Atlantis dunes in S.A. near Cape Town.

Cheetah in Kruger
Here is evidence of that cheetah mentioned in our last blog - the one we almost ran over.

Comments

[jon and lucy]

hello
Glad to hear that you are alive and having some awesome adventures - you've both got some bottle - I'll say that! We're enjoying our england trip - today we off to Cornwall for some surfing and chilling. Take care

[Jenny Wigley]

Great commentary - awaiting more with interest!
Sounds a fascinating trip - hope the vehicle situation improves - although, as you say, it can have some bonuses in terms of meeting people - nerve-wracking however. Life here at the moment is cold, wet and largely predictable - at least in terms of vehicles.

[leanne]

sounds like fun
sounds like an eventful start to trip. Glad Drive Africa paid for car repairs. Hopefully no more car surprises. Have been back from trip now for one week. We had an magic time with no major catastropes thank god. Some little hints learnt from our trip- In Namibia try your best to stay on the lesser roasds - they are usually gravel or hard pack lime stuff but good enough to travel 100 km/hr on. MOre scenic and less busy. From Windhoek to Swakopmund opt for the C28 rather than the more major B2 option. When you are headed down to soussusvlei there are some cool places to camp on the way if you have time as you spend half the journey within the Namib-Nauklauf national park. One site that looked pretty cool was about 30 kms out on the C14 (i think) heading south. On your right you will come across a huge boulder. There look to be a couple of cool camp sites under the overhang of the rock. Also if you do head down to Sossusvlei then you need to book a camp site a sesriem in the National Parks headquarters in Swakopmund to make sure you get inside the gates so you can try and drive the remaining 60 kms to the sand dunes to get their in time for sunrise. Beautiful! Magic photos. Remember to stay at Alternative Space in Swakopmund as fantastic place and lovely people. You will need to book in advance to ensure a place (email [e-mail]) In Botswana for the trip into the Delta you may already know that Makwena (my original recommendation) is no longer running. We went with Guma Lagoon Camp who were brilliant and they offer the same sort of trips into the Delta. We spent 1 night at the Lagoon camp then 2 nights in the delta at bush camps then spent the next night at the Lagoon camp again. Highly recommend to do it this way. We had 2 guides who were superb called Selective and Alan. If you can request them you should try as they were great. Bovu Island (book through Jungle junction in Livingstone or email them on [e-mail]) on the Zambezi is definately worth a visit even if you have to miss something else out. It is so relaxing and laid back. We spent 3 nights there and loved it. You can get a chalet for 30 usd or camp. You also get a chance to do excursions- I highly recommend the school and clinic visit. It was great. The cooking on the island is great and not very expensive and a nice break away from self catering. Perfect spot! Ive may have told you half this information before but no harm in repeating. Hope you continue to have a great time. Safe travels Leanne and Matt