Shortcut's in Africa

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Shortcut's in Africa. What NOT to do

Just thought I'd give a quick account of a great idea we had, when travelling from the Drakensberg mountains south east of Johannesburg, to Rustenburg, north west of Johannesburg.

It was a Friday, and to avoid the renowned hectic traffic jams that stop the city everyday, we thought we'd drive along the R24, a national highway that cuts around the city. When we turned off the major highway, there was a sign that said 'Potholes, next 5km'. If you ever see this sign, please take it seriously. There were a couple holes in the road, but nothing too major. Not straight away at least. We stopped and swapped drivers, so I was behind the wheel, and as we cruised along, the road kind of fell away in front of us. Luckily there wasn't much traffic, because both sides of the road were needed as I swerved around axle breaking holes in the road at 100km/h. This continued on for quite a while, and it was actually a bit draining, but being stubborn and not wanting to turn around, I kept going. More often than not, it was actually smoother and faster, to leave the tarmac, and drive on the dirt shoulder, at least the corrugation won't throw you off course.

Eventually, the road got better, or, more accurately, we turned onto a different one, and had smooth sailing for a while. Finally, not long left before we got to the highway that led to Rustenburg, there was just one more bit. If you know what swiss cheese is, then you can understand what the road was like. There's no other comparison. I've never seen the moons' crater's up close, but the crater's in this stretch of road could've compared. I'm sure that if we looked inside, there would've been kid's playing around in them. There was definately no going over 35km/h here, and to our relief, we saw another car of Australians, who'd also had a great idea of shortcutting around the city. Not many locals though... So, lesson learnt, there will be no more clever short cuts in Africa. Not in a Nissan Micra anyway...

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