An Eventful Journey

There is an old sailing saying that goes something like it is a bad omen if the weather is calm at the beginning of the voyage. Matthew and a few friends had booked a bungalow at Rocky Bay for their end of Matric getaway and when Matthew’s lift fell through, I offered to take him down instead of him going by public transport. Most of the friends flew down but 2 came with me along with all their food for the next 10 days.

I have this blessing that I give all my friends to fly out to Europe, Americas, or Asia, may you have an un-eventful flight, as events in a flight is not what anyone wants. So began my eventful journey as no-one blessed our journey.

I left home at 08H30, stopped at the nearest garage, filled up with fuel, checked my tyres. Thank God I did as my spare tyre was flat. I asked them to check water and oil too, but the serviceman must have forgotten, as I paid and drove off. A few kilometres down the road I realise that my bonnet was still open, and it was then that it dawned on me that the oil and water was not checked. So I stopped at the next service station to check water and oil. Oil was fine but engine coolant was below low. Then it was onto the highway to Benoni to pick up the 2 boys and all the food. We left Benoni at at 10:30 and it was not long into the journey, like 30mins when we hit this 5km backup. At the end of the backup was a police roadblock. Sigh!

About 100km before Harrismith, I started hearing a noise from the front right hand side. It sounded like bearings, but it can’t be as I had the car serviced a month ago, they did my brakes, replaced my front wheel bearings and the front wheel hubs. So it simply can’t be but it was getting loader and loader. On top of that I started getting automated calls from my bank stating that there is a possibility of fraudulent activity on one of my bank cards. By the time I got to Harrismith, I was a wreck with worry.

We had a bite to eat at the fuelling stop at Harrismith because the boys were hungry. I tried to eat but couldn’t even eat with all the worries. I phoned my insurance about getting a hired car but they informed me that they can only give me a hired car if I was involved in a crash or hijacking. Bugger that, where is the nearest wall that I can drive into.

I slowly drove to the car hire place in Harrismith, booked a car, and asked directions to the nearest, reliable, and reasonable mechanic. Yes it is my wheel bearings which means that my wheel bearings have been replaced 3 times this year alone. Something is not right. The last service with the brakes, hubs, and bearings cost me a little over R2000, this mechanic saw me coming a mile off because he managed to replace the bearings but at a whopping cost of R1280. But good news 2 hours later we were back on the road and didn’t need the hired car.

By the time we got to Mooiriver, it was raining and cold. In the rain somewhere near Howick, my one globe popped. Now I had 1 light in dims, and brights only. Because of the 2 hour delay at Harrismith and the rain we started driving slower, by the time we got to Pietermaritzburg it was dark. And the rain got harder, and the driving conditions got progressively worse that I only got to Park Rynie at 21:50. With the boys dropped off at Rocky Bay, I was now traveling back to Durban to were I am staying for the weekend. I ended my eventful journey at 22:38, that is 14 hours later.