Keeping it tight with Magnite
TOUGH: EXCELLED AT EVERYTHING THROWN AT IT
Road tripping without vehicular frills.
About 100km out of Johannesburg, I began to question my wisdom in embarking on a long road trip to the lowveld in a Nissan Magnite, when I hit a three-hour deluge of biblical intensity and was skating across the N12, trying desperately to avoid Sunday afternoon traffic and roadworks bollards.
To put it in perspective: earlier in the day, I’d been driving (of all things) an ambulance, the day before a Ranger Raptor and, for a few days before that, the new Ford Everest Limited, all of which inspired a lot more confidence than the 999cc, 1 460 kilogram Magnite.
The two-litre Everest, by comparison, weighs 3 100kg and features permanent four-wheel drive. It also featured a 10-speed automatic transmission, whereas the Nissan sported a five-speed manual gearbox, which meant lots of shifting at lower speeds.
The rationale for the trip, however, was that not everyone can afford such a luxurious vehicle, and why should those who own much smaller cars be denied the pleasure of seeing the country?
At just under R278 000, the dinky Nissan Magnite 1.0 Acenta 5-DR (to spell it out in full) definitely fits the bill.
Inexpensive doesn’t necessarily mean cheap and nasty, though, and the windscreen wipers and steering were more than a match for the conditions. I arrived at Kaapschehoop much less perturbed than expected.
I’d never heard of the village – I’d describe it as the Hogsback of the lowveld – until an old newspaper colleague, De Wet Potgieter, opened a pub called Nagkantoor after retiring from journalism.
A nagkantoor was the newsroom populated by night-owl reporters and sub-editors on the Afrikaans-speaking publications of yore. Their antics (as well as those of their rooinek counterparts) were legendary.
“It’s long been a dream of mine to open a pub where I could display the memorabilia acquired during my long career in newspapers, especially all the historic photographs.
“This place was a part of the Silver Mist Country Inn but only used occasionally. I asked the owner whether I could take over its running and she gave me the thumbs up,” he told me.
Kaapschehoop, 320km from Jozi on the way to Mbombela (Nelspruit), is probably best known for its wild horses, which are so habituated that they wander calmly through the village, singly or in groups, day and night.
While the origins of the wild horses remains something of a mystery, Potgieter says Kaapschehoop was garrisoned by a British Army unit during the Anglo-Boer war. It’s quite likely that some of these horses escaped and formed the basis of the herd.
“The lowveld gold rush began in Kaapschehoop in 1882, before moving on to Barberton and Pilgrim’s Rest,” says Potgieter. “At its peak, there were about 2 000 miners camped out in the area.
“There are currently about 80 permanent residents but there’s accommodation for between 120 and 130 travellers. The place is especially popular with bikers over weekends.”
Following my friend’s advice, I took the R37/R352 Sabie-Graskop road over the Abel Erasmus Pass to Ohrigstad, before heading towards the Orpen Gate entrance to the Kruger National Park.
This, he said, was the “scenic” route that would take me past the Mac-Mac Falls, God’s Window and the Blyde River Canyon, rather than the more direct road through Bushbuckridge.
The only time the game little Nissan showed signs of struggling was when it was caught behind trucks labouring up the pass. It’s marginal distress would have been much less had I not been using the air-conditioner full blast to combat the fierce heat.
The presence of a turbo helped immensely with overtaking.
Conditions notwithstanding (and with a top speed of just over 170km per hour, it was a particularly gas-guzzling run), I achieved a fuel economy of 6.71l per 100km after covering 553km before I pumped a smidgen over 37l into the 40l tank just after the JG Strijdom tunnel.
The Magnite had its first taste of dirt in the Manyeleti Game Reserve and we headed to Tintswalo Safari Lodge, 8km in.
The car’s 205mm ground clearance meant there was no scraping on the middelmannetjie. Its light weight meant there was little chance of getting stuck in the odd sandy patch, providing momentum was maintained.
The combination of size (3 994mm), high ground clearance, light weight and nippiness was to prove particularly useful on my way back to Jo’burg.
I decided to take the R36 through Lydenburg back to the N4 and the first 40km compares with the worst roads I’ve driven on anywhere in the world.
Overall assessment? I wouldn’t think twice about loading two adults and their luggage – boot space amounts to 336l– and heading to the boonies.