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Published: January 2nd 2006
I am alive and well in the beautiful town of Plettenberg Bay. Six intrepid pioneers set off from Pinelands, Cape Town at 5am for our New Years holiday along the east coast. We were about 160 KMs outside of Cape Town going down a hill at 110 km/hr when our back right tyre burst. Ryan pretty much lost control after both left tyres proceeded to blow as well. We went into the oncoming traffic s lane and then slid one way and then the next before cascading into a metal barrier on the side of the road. I honestly thought we were going to roll, I still do not know how we didn't. As this was all happening there was a stunned silence amongst all of us until the car came to rest. If the tyre had blown literally 10 M earlier we would have missed the barrier all together and would have rolled into the ditch on the left hand side. And none of us in the back had seat belts. It was so terrifying. No one was hurt at all. The car is a complete right off. The exhaust came off and it is smashed on both sides. People
On our way
5am in the mornusually say that these things happen so fast, but it seemed an eternity from the time our tyre blew until we smashed into that barrier. It was certainly a near death experience.
The next few hours were a bit of a disaster. Some cops stopped and gave Adam, Dave and myself a ride to the nearest town which was Riveirsonderend. Ha, the ride in the back of the cop van was almost as scary as the actual accident. He got up to 150kms/hr at one stage, then started driving in the emergency lane. At one stage the newspaper blew up all over the front windscreen and he swerved a bit. Well we got there and went to the restaurant there, BJ's and spoke to Pietman Piet about a ride to Plett. All the buses were full so he organised to Faghmed to come and pick us up at 5pm in a black taxi. Stephen and James were driving to Plett as well so they picked us up and took us to the crash site. We were just going to drive to Plett with them and meet the others in Plett, so we stopped to see how things were going. We
Skid marks
Scary stuff chatted for a while and then got back into the car. You would not believe it, Stephens car could not start. So his car was then towed away to Swellendam where it had to be fixed. Unbelievable. We then got into a massive argument with the towing company because we were completely misquoted by AA. They then wanted to charge us 1600 rand for no reason. So we got fed up with them and they just took the car off the tow truck and left it there. Ryan then organised someone he knew to drive all the way from CT to come and tow it back. When all of us managed to hitch hike back to Riviersonderend we went straight to the pub, then had some spiced gold and coke and then bought another 3 bottles of brandy which went oh so well with the coke and ice. I passed out on the grass (the night before I stayed up until 345 am watching cricket and woke up at 430 am) When I woke up Ryan and I started cleaning cars windscreens out of sheer boredom and drunkdom. Met some interesting characters. We ate all three of our meals at
Mike and I taking some pics
We skidded for over 100 Meters BJ's, I think I can honestly say that I have never eaten worse in a single 24 hour period. Breakfast, double thick choc milkshake, followed by some blitong, lunch toasted cheese sandwhich, dinner a steak pie. I also ate 3 of my favourite Damascus nougat bars, consumed way too much brandy and coke as well as an entire large portion of fries. The taxi did not come at 5 it came at 915 Pm. We were the only whites on board, he drove like a mad man. We dropped every damn person off at there bloody house's. We arrived mentally scarred at 310 am. After 22 hours we finally arrived in Plett. Party time!
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Robbie
non-member comment
Never thought a blow could be so harrowing
Wow bro, that sure is a harrowing tale. You've had 1st hand experience of the reasons SAs'national road death tolls are so high over the festive season (1 000+ since Decemeber). Unroadworthy vehicles (why should the vehicle you were travelling in have had a blow out?) and minibus taxis (those guys wanna get in as many runs per day as possible, and apparently if you complain of the high speeds they stop on the highway and make you get off, nice hey?) And the tow truck drivers are just vultures. You thought driver on the left was scary enough. Hope the rest of your trip in SA is not as eventful. Sincerely yours One of the Locals