Going the extra mile

The biggest nightmare for any 4x4 overland enthusiast is mechanical failure of your vehicle or equipment. En route to Botswana during the past festive season, my Nissan Patrol GX 3.0D station wagon became part of this unwanted statistic.

On New Year’s Day the alternator had a bearing failure and lost its driving pulley, resulting in the batteries not charging, and around midday the vehicle came to a frustrating halt 40 kilometres from Francistown. We phoned the after-hours number and reached the friendly voice of Wikus Combrink, dealer principal of NTT Nissan in Francistown.

A friend towed my vehicle to the workshop where Wikus diagnosed and confirmed the problem. I was surprised when he rolled out a large toolbox and started working on my car himself; turns out he is a qualified technician and still enjoys fixing vehicles. The standby team was attending to a breakdown at Orapa diamond mine.

Wikus had my Patrol up and running by 3.30pm, and I was able to join the rest of the group, who had driven on to Khama Rhino Sanctuary near Serowe. I thought I’d be spending a few days in Francistown waiting for my vehicle to be fixed, but the excellent New Year’s Day service had me back on the road again in just a few hours.

– Coenie Moll, Cape Town