Of course we had every intention of getting there in time, Groenkloof Nature Reserve is about an hour away, we needed to get petrol, buy braai stuff and get there at around 9.30 so we left at 9.30 (of course)
Things didn't start well, we both paid for petrol - fortunately the petrol attendants know Walter, so they keep a close eye on him and gave us back the money he'd paid over. Then he wandered off in the Spar so it took me some time to find him so that I could establish what he wanted to eat at the braai while he was catching up with the butcher. I finally sent him off to the bottle store to get some liquid refreshments while I packed everything into the cooler box. He returned with a huge bag of ice for the tiny cooler box, so that required the entire car to be re-packed before we could finally set off.
Fortunately it was fairly smooth sailing after that, we even managed to find the turnoff on the first attempt.
Me: Walter, why don't you ask Bob where we should turn
Walter: I don't know how to use him
Me: But you used him in Magoebaskloof
Walter: I've forgotten
Both of us: sigh
We finally got there, paid, found the 4x4 trail and set off with great confidence. How difficult could it be? The road looked good, the invitation had said it wasn't challenging, but more of a nature drive. Perfect.
Hah. After a while we arrived at a mud channel.
Me: This is obviously not the road, it's not tarred.
Walter: This car can do anything. I'll check how bad the mud is. Put it into low range, don't rev it, just drive through at a constant speed.
Me: Why don't we just turn around?
Walter was out of range by this time walking the track
The Ninja took a deep breath, clunked some deep bits and set off bravely through the deep primal slime. We arrived on the other side and Walter climbed back in "See? I told you this car can do it" Now that we had done the offroad bit we took it out of low range and set off once again.
Another surprise awaited around the next corner....
I took one look "Walter, I'm reversing" but his testosterone was engaged - "Nonsense, just drive slowly over them and we'll be fine"
Sure enough the Ninja rose to the challenge and brought us safely through. By this time we considered ourselves old hands and ready for anything the trail could throw at us.
Except the next bit.
I call this offroading peer pressure, there were cars behind me so I went. A little way. "Stop" shouted the stranger as we went around a corner "I'll show you where to go" So we got out
By this stage there's no way out. You also can't just close your eyes - I apologised to the Ninja, got back in and promptly stalled. Then I decided that it was nowhere near as scary as the first time you do stalls and spins (fly straight up until the aircraft stalls, drops a wing and tries its best to fall out of the sky end over end). That cheered me up immensely and I set off with gusto. By the time we got to the top (to much cheering and applauding) the helper was strangely quiet and pale but Walter was impressed. "Sjoe" A man of few words is our Walter.
There was only one more part that gave me pause for concern, we "walked the track" discussing the various options and what to avoid "You don't want to stall here, it's all very loose so you could slide backwards over that cliff" and so on. I'd already decided that Walter could indulge his testosterone on this part and was waiting patiently for him down the track when another jolly offroader patted the roof of the Ninja and said "On your way then, we're just waiting for you"
I set off slowly, looking for Walter (who was conveniently right at the top of the mountain) while various people (all men) gave me different instructions. I picked one, followed his hand signals and when he said "Floor it!" I did. First time. No sliding. Clever Ninja.
No comments:
Post a Comment