Heroes of the dunes

We were travelling along the dune road between Mata-Mata and Nossob in the Kgalagadi when we heard a loud crash. Despite the park rules, we jumped out of the vehicle. I climbed onto the back of the bakkie to scan the veld for lions while my husband George – who knows little to nothing about mechanical stuff – slid under the vehicle to see what was going on. One of the rear wheels was facing in the wrong direction and it was clear the bakkie wasn’t going anywhere. We got back inside and asked some other tourists to alert the park officials. We played cards for five hours while we waited for help. The whole time, we only saw a mouse and a few birds. Finally, a cloud of dust came down the road. It was Willem Strauss (pictured left) and Jannie Bok, our heroes in a SANParks bakkie. “It’s a broken leaf spring. Happens here all the time,” Willem told us. They worked on the bakkie for an hour, using galvanised wire, wood and rope to patch us up so we could drive the 60 km to Nossob. This happened on a weekend and cellphone reception was poor – we could only order spare parts from Upington two days later, and it took three days for those parts to arrive in Nossob. A few days later, as we were heading home, we came across Willem by the side of the road. He had been grading that section with a tractor and was stranded with a flat tyre. This time we came to the rescue with a compressor and our emergency tyre repair kit. It felt great being able to repay the favour. BETH FERREIRA, Cape Town