Evan’s misfortune between nothing and nowhere
It doesn’t matter how often you travel, you always need to be prepared for the unexpected. Because the moment you become too complacent is the moment that fate steps in, just like our Drive Out journalist found out.
When you spend as much time on the road as I do, it’s very easy to become lax when it comes to preparation. I’m often on assignment for a week, back home for a week, and away again for two weeks. You get used to living out of a suitcase, and preparation is often just throwing a few basics on the back seat of the bakkie the night before I leave. You don’t worry about the rest too much – you’ll figure it out on the go if need be. Until the day you can’t. I was on my way back to Cape Town from the Northern Cape and my shortest route was via the R355 through the Tankwa Karoo. This gravel road is infamous for destroying tyres, but I’ve driven it numerous times before (twice in a Corsa) without ever getting a flat tyre. As they say, however, every dog gets its day. Mine was here, and not in a good way either. Somehow my left back tyre got a cut in the sidewall. I didn’t bring any plugs, but I wasn’t too bothered about a run-of-the mill tyre change. While I’m fitting the spare, a bakkie with Brackenfell number plates stop behind me. Hein Groenewald introduces himself and can’t resist a chuckle when I tell him my predicament. “You work for Drive Out and drive the R355 without an extra spare or plugs?” I couldn’t argue with him – I should have known better. Hein helps me to plug the flat tyre and inflate it as much as possible with his compressor. He says I must drive ahead of him so he can help again if need be, but in my mind I’m thinking: “Lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice”. After twenty minutes, however, the spare is flat too with not one but two gashes in the sidewall! Shortly thereafter my guardian angel stops behind me again. Hein gives me another few plugs but the holes are too big. So we inflate the wheel as much as we can and I limp to the Tankwa Padstal. After we realise that the most obvious options won’t work (the farmstall can’t help, Hein’s spare doesn’t fit my bakkie, and none of the dealerships in Ceres have the right size tyre), we decide to leave my bakkie by the farmstall and I get a lift, two wheels and all, with Hein to Cape Town to have them repaired there. Four days later I could finally return to the Tankwa with new rubber to fetch the Amarok. It was a hard lesson, but I also learned that there are still real good Samaritans left in the world. Thanks Hein, I now know that the R355 is not to be taken lightly!