Having the rides of our lives

Her name is Thanda iNdlovu and with more than 200 000km under the bonnet, like most Toyotas, she’s barely run in. Thanda means like or love, while ndlovu can mean a surname or, as I’ve undoubtedly mangled the isiZulu in my head, it can also mean elephant. It helps that Thanda is grey too.

If, as I suspect, I have managed to mangle the name of our beloved big grey elephant, then I do humbly apologise.

An elephant Thanda is. Not fast by any stretch of the imagination but as thirsty as any elephant sucking petrol during migration.

But what a life my partner and I have had with Thanda. We’ve been up the sides of hills on “roads” a tractor driver warned us against, gone to Kruger National Park where we spent days driving at barely more than idling speed and traversed South Africa in a trip which took four days to complete.

There was the time we had an argument and her radiator blew, which in about two years caused the cylinder head gasket to pop. Expensive lesson.

I say “argue” but, of course, I know a car is an inanimate or non-sentient thing... kinda...

After 200k plus, I know every rattle, squeak or burp she... it… makes and what it means.

And because I’ve been neglecting her by not washing her on the regular, one of the plastic whatchamacallits which wind the window up and down snapped on the passenger side. I get the message, Thanda. One valet coming up soon.

It now joins the driver’s side which is in the same pickle. Last time I tried to find out how much it would cost to replace it. The spares department never came back to me. This was just before Covid hit and then it didn’t really matter. I got one from a breakers yard, but it eventually gave up the ghost last year as well.

Thanda has taken me from Jozi just before sunset to Cape Town just after sun-up. I had to fetch some goodies and it wasn’t a joyride. Drive, load, turn around and head back. It’s still one of my most epic journeys.

Cars do come alive. To me, Thanda is more than a petrol-gurgling hunk of metal. She is the gateway to exploring this land, from the Big Hole in Kimberley to the Tsitsikamma in the Eastern Cape and the small towns along the way, to South Africa’s southernmost point.

Half the fun of a holiday is driving to your destination... and you can’t enjoy it in a car you hate.