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| Salama after the accident on Day 27 - 27th August 2017 |
Our last day and we are feeling excited although the urge to
continue is still there, after all we have our friend Harry to look after the
house re-build side we can give Liz, Harry’s better half, to see to the interior
decorating and furnishing and we can come back in March 2018 when all is done.
We have a good breakfast and set off for Knysna, I decide
that we will do two more gravel roads although there are tar road options, the
first is to Willowmore via the R306 and the second is via Prince Alfred Pass
via Uniondale and Avontuur, so I let Denise to the first leg, as the saying
goes “ladies first”
The R306 is in good condition and has been recently graded,
then we cross the border between the Western Cape
and the Eastern Cape
into the Cacadu region and that is when we found out what Cacadu really means,
the time is 10h00.
The driver of the grader doing the Western Cape section is a bit like some
neighbours I have had in the past, when they mow the lawn on the verge and they
get to your section of the garden they will not go an inch further and
inevitably leave a big mound of cut grass in your section. Well this is what
the grader driver did on the R306, instead of dumping the excess gravel off the
road he left it piled up across the road, sufficiently so that a vehicle
hitting it will get a viscous pull on the steering wheel and that is exactly
what happened to Denise, but she regained control only for the vehicle to swerve
out of control to the right side of the road and roll across a farmers fence
into his sheep farm. We think we only rolled once but it could have been twice.
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| This was the state of the road in the Cacadu |
I was briefly knocked out by a flying Bols Brandy bottle
that was securely closed inside a cooler box and when I came to we were on our
wheels at 90 degrees to the road. We checked each other and then turned on the
ignition to roll down the windows as both front doors were jammed. Most of our
luggage was strewn across the road and whilst Denise was collecting that I was
trying to get our insurers number. A vehicle stopped and Denise managed to get
the telephone number for the nearest police station, which was in Rietbron 7kms
away. They said they would be there in half an hour and they were there in 20
minutes.
Both our phones were low on battery power and we were afraid
we would not be able to make the necessary calls, but somehow we managed. The
first name that came into our heads was our site agent and friend Harry and he
dropped everything and headed out foe Reitbron and we owe him big time for all
his assistance.
The Police say they have had several accidents along this
stretch of road and after loading all our cag into the police van he said they
were going to leave a constable there to guard it as it could be pilfered if
they did not do so. Now I am thinking maybe it was not the grader driver, but
some locals who had piled the gravel up on the road to create an opportunity,
conspiracy theory? Or maybe just the knock on the head or as the youngsters say
today “whatever”
After the event and some zooming in on the photos I see a
huge sidewall gash on the drivers front wheel so perhaps it was a combination
of piled up gravel and sharp stones that caused a blow out, we will probably
never know.
We are back in the police station waiting for Harry and
Denise says a cup of tea would be nice and asks the police constable if there
is a café or hotel in the town, the response is that there is none, but she
will try a lady who runs a B&B and we are in luck. We walk around the
corner and are well looked after by the B&B proprietor and we have her life
story, but that can wait for another time, we are very grateful.
Around 15h00 Harry arrives in his BMW, but just as he was
turning into the town he got a flat tyre warning and he has no spare, not
supplied with run on flat tyres, we load his vehicle and we look like the Patel
family going on holiday, but despite using his compressor the tyre does not
retain pressure even though we have filled it up with some sort of sealant
which was probably past its use by date by close on a decade, because it did
not work. We were to find out later that the gash in his sidewall was so big no
sealant was going to seal it.
The intrepid travellers decide to give it a go, but it was
evident that after a couple of kilometres we could be victims for a second time
in one day and Harry calls it a day. We get some assistance from two young men
on their way to PE, but it was clear that there was little they could do, but
they got the name of a breakdown company in Willowmore and the owners name and
telephone number from their father. All this time Harry is having a torrid time
on the phone to his insurers asking for roadside assistance, which they were
happy to do from either Johannesburg or Cape Town and this after spending half an
hour telling them where Beaufort West and Willowmore are he despairs and we do
not have a lot of hope.
When we get hold of the breakdown company in Willowmore we
find that he has already been contacted and he will be with us in an hour or so,
by this time the farmer near to where we are sitting on the side of the road
comes with his wife and insists that we go to the farmhouse and have some
coffee or tea while we are waiting for the flatbed to arrive.
Now I ask you if you have heard anything as silly as when
you have a puncture on a BMW just wait for a flatbed to arrive to take you into
the nearest town to have the puncture repaired, just do not have a blow out in
the middle of nowhere and two hours from the nearest town, unless it is
Willowmore where Piet Viljoen has his breakdown and recovery service business.
Piet also organised a fourth hand tyre of the right size to be ready for
fitting at the service station. Only one word of warning do not accept a lift
on the breakdown vehicle if you have a choice, because on that road with
Harry’s car on the back, Harry curled up behind the front seats, Denise and I
in the danger seats, take my word for it the next 70 kms were frightening with
Piet chatting away about the politics, his late wife’s death and many other
subjects all the time looking at Harry behind the seats or to Denise and I with
many a waving hand.
Denise and I are
thinking we cannot end up this way as his truck bounces along the road and
swerves in the loose gravel and the coup de grace comes when he is on the tar
road and bearing down on a little sedan with Denise and I looking wide eyed at
the top of the little car, bracing for the collision, when he swerves out and
overtakes it, accompanied by some sharp comments about Cape drivers.
With not a little relief we get out of the breakdown truck
and head for the toilets, cannot think why there was this dire need.
Harry decides this tyre deserves some respect and he sets
his speed control to 80km/p/hr and off we go. A big decision is made outside George
to stop at a service station and have something to eat which is the best thing
we could have done as we do not realise how hungry we are and Denise chooses a
Cornish pie and Harry and I a Steak and Onion pie, well it is arguably the best
pies we have ever eaten.
We finally get home at 22h00 exhausted, but alive if a
little grazed, battered and bruised.
We wanted to finish the trip with a bang, but not the one we
experienced and we have to thank the police at Reitbron, the kind B&B owner
in Reitbron, the farmer and his wife on the Willowmore side of Reitbron, the
two young men who stopped for us and getting Piet’s telephone number, to Piet
himself, may he get many more breakdowns in his area and a very special thanks
to our close friend Harry Cronje who has been exactly what you would want from
a friend, everything. We also thank our many other friends who
have offered us solace and support through the fire disaster and now the road
accident. We feel that we can tackle anything with friends like you and you
know who you are.
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| Our wonderful car Salama who has taken us safely on many journeys all over Africa |
I apologise for not getting more details on those good folk
that assisted us, be assured we will not forget you.
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