Under Pressure — An African adventure!
Aaah Africa! Whether you visit it or live there- It has a way of becoming a part of you, deep down to the very roots of you, and no matter where you may go, it remains there and will call you home. An African sunset will forever live within your heart.
The heat is scorching. Somehow at 15 30, the sun seem even more relentless. We are in a car. On a dry, dusty, dirt road that snakes, in a never-ending line from one side of the Kruger Park, South Africa to the other. The grass is a wheat colour, the sky a cornflower blue, and the horizon shimmers endlessly. We have carefully calculated our journey in kilometers and time so as to be back at our camp for the night, by the cut-off time of 17 30, when the gates close.
We chat, all the while our eyes carefully scanning the bush and horizon for any movement, any flick of an ear. Suddenly, my husband feels a change in the steering of the car, like he is having to fight the steering wheel. He looks in the rear view mirror and sees flecks of black rubber bouncing out from the underneath the car as we move along. He brings the car to a careful halt, and proclaims “I think we have a flat tyre.”
“Oh shit!” is my eloquent and very helpful contribution to the crisis.
Ok so, we have both lived long enough in Africa to have a healthy wariness of what lurks beyond the car door! The first lesson I was taught by my parents, was to always respect nature and never, ever, make the foolish mistake of thinking that man is anyway superior to its forces.
We have had enough encounters with wildlife to know that firstly; you are in their environment, and secondly; they are unpredictable. We often shake our heads in disbelief at the chances that people take in the Kruger Park. Usually through a lack of understanding, totally ignoring the rules that have been put in place for their safety, and in the end it’s the animals that pay the price for human stupidity. Driving right up to an elephant to get a closer photo, getting out of the car for a better shot of the “sleeping” lion, sitting on the car roof filming a kill — we’ve seen it all.
So we sit inside the car and consider the safe options first.
- Take out the cell phone to contact the help number you are given when you arrive in the park.
Problem is — zero signal. Wave the phone around, hold it in the air, hold it out of the window — nothing, ain’t nobody home, no bars!
2. Sit in the car and wait for another motorist or ranger to come past so that they can assist or travel to fetch someone to help you.
We sit, twiddle our thumbs, sweat a lot, and 20 minutes tick by excruciatingly slowly with not so much as a breath of wind going past let alone another vehicle.
We are now out of safe options! We talk it out. The sun is starting to make its way down, we have passed no one on the road to get to this point and in 20 mins no one has come the other way. We can’t contact anyone, and we certainly don’t want to wait in our car for what could be all night alone in the middle of the park!
We are going to have to take action and change the tyre ourselves! The temperature outside is a stifling 37 degrees Celsius and the minute we open the doors we feel it. We have planned our operation and 3- 2-1 -it’s a go!
We cautiously scan the area, we have stopped in the middle of the road (the thinking is that at least we will see the animal coming!) knowing full well, that by doing so, we are also making ourselves completely visible to any predator wanting to make us their dinner!
We both carefully step out and slide along the sides of the car, all the while looking out at the bush. The problem is further exacerbated, by the fact, that all our luggage is in the boot of our car and the spare tyre is underneath that pile of luggage. This includes chairs, a gas braai(barbecue), charcoal, cooler boxes and bags, just to make it really interesting!
We survey the damaged tyre in the hopes that we could, maybe, limp our way back to the tarred road- it is non-existent. The new tyre bought a month before our journey, has literally shredded itself into little bits of black rubber! No limping to be done there!
So we begin — we place the bags with our clothes on the back seat all the while, leaving enough room so that if we have to make a mad dash for safety we can throw ourselves into the back seat and close the door (these are things you tend to tell yourself, whilst actually realizing that if a predator did decide to charge, there would be a slim to none chance of us making it into the back seat!) The rest of the luggage is put on the ground close to the car.
My husband grabs the spare tyre and hands me the umbrella and the tyre iron and says “you keep watch while I do this!”
So there he is in the dirt, sweat pouring off him, hoisting the car onto the jack and changing the tyre like a boss! There I am with my back to him, brandishing my umbrella and the tyre iron and scanning the horizon (as if I would notice a lion who is the exact colour as the grass that surrounds us.)
Punching the air like a crazy lady with an umbrella and tyre iron in the most menacing way I can think of (whilst having the audacity to pretend that the King of the Jungle would be quaking with fear at the sight of me!)
Well, as they say, fake it till you make it right?!!
It literally feels like hours standing in the heat and dust. My husband is sweating so much that the bolts keep slipping out of his hands and into the dirt, and it feels like hurry up and go slow! My nerves are shot, and by now my mind has convinced me I can hear the barking cough of a leopard, and I’m sure that was the spine tingling howl of a hyena?
The job is done, and we sling everything into the back of the car, not caring if there are eggs, or glass bottles! We close the boot and back doors and get back into the car. Unbelievable, we have managed to do all of that in under 15 minutes! Amazing what adrenalin does for you!
We congratulate ourselves on still being alive, turn the air conditioner on full, and glug down a litre of water! As we recover and continue on our journey, we travel just a short way and see dust and another motorist drives up to us! Murphy’s law, I guess!
We made it safe and sound to our destination in time, with a tale to tell!
I just can’t help wondering if there weren’t a couple of lions or a leopard lying lazily in the grass or in one of the thorn trees, having a good laugh at the ridiculous humans!
One of my favourite places to visit is the Kruger National Park which is situated in the north east of South Africa and runs alongside Mozambique. It is a wildlife reserve or as we know it in South Africa, a game reserve (game being our word for wildlife). I consider it an absolute privilege to be able to spend time in this place, and every time we visit, I send up a silent heartfelt thanks to those before us that had the foresight to sacrifice their profits and fight hard against those with wealth and power to conserve the land and animals for future generations.
In this day and age to be able to drive for miles and not see another car or human being and simply gaze upon the open bushveld (grasslands/thorn trees and bush) and come across anything from elephants and lions to a vivid green chameleon crossing the road, all living in their natural habitat and roaming free, is to stir something deep inside your soul. Speak to anyone who is born in Africa, or has lived in Africa or even has visited Africa, it has a way of becoming a part of you, deep down to the very roots of you, and no matter where you may go, it remains there and will call you home. Every African that reads this will attest to that African sunset that lives within their heart.
I urge you to experience it for yourself — you will never want to leave.
If you enjoyed this adventure in Africa; you may want to read more! Click here for the link to part two…
