A clever coffee plan

This is a story you’ve heard many times but never seen. Until recently I’ve also only heard about it, but now I can say I’ve experienced it too. Not too long ago we were in the Kgalagadi. Every morning starts with proper filter coffee from the plunger. The first few mornings everything is hunkydory, but then the plunger’s shaft breaks off right at the strainer. Graham Jones, who was travelling with us, says he has two spare batteries in his vehicle and that we should use these to weld the shaft to the strainer. As they say, no harm in trying. We’re still in the bush for another week and we don’t want to go without our morning coffee. We connect the batteries with the jumper cables, press the one pole against the strainer, and Jan Brand – also part of our group – presses the other pole against the shaft. And so we melt the two together. The weld job kept the plunger intact the whole holiday and we enjoyed our filter coffee every morning.