22 October 2007

the harrowing journey to Harrismith...

20/09-2007
So we were done with our safari and had plans to drive to Harrismith (in the Free State) this evening. Getting the car at Avis went smoothly; we got a nice shiny new Volkswagen Polo. Not a bad car, but for boyfriend of feitpingvin's sake it was not a good one either. No cruise control for one. And most certainly not the Mercedes we got last year ;-)

It was kind of a pain in the ass getting out of Johannesburg, but we managed to get out and properly on our way on N3. I called the B&B we had booked to say we were on our way. That way, they could call out the troops if we didn't show up within a certain amount of time :)

As we drove along, we finally understood why they say you should never drive at night/when it's dark in South Africa. The roads are lit poorly. All the big transport vehicles are out, and they drive like madmen. There's crap on the road, and you don't see it until you're about to drive over it... Yep. We were driving past a big truck, and suddenly there was something on the road. Probably tire scraps though it looked like a rock at first. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had no choice but to drive over it; there was no way we could switch quickly to the other lane or swing anywhere else, or brake without causing the truck behind us to ram into the car...

*KA-THUD*

The rest of the drive over was spent recovering from the shakes and from worrying about the state of the chassis...

We finally arrived at The View, shaken and stirred, and hungry. Fortunately, we had booked dinner. We were fed with a fantastic home-cooked meal of chicken, lots of yummy vegetables, and a tasty Greek salad with a fantastic vinaigrette of South African olive oil and orange balsamico (if I remember correctly). The vegetables were especially appreciated, as we had nearly no vegetables at all during the safari. We had a nice Rosendal rosé wine (Summer Blush) to wash it all down with. This was a very pleasant end to a somewhat stressful evening...



I wish I had taken more notes about this meal, and at least wine notes, but I was just too tired and frazzled I think. At least boyfriend of feitpingvin remembered to take a photo... ;-)

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