Vehicle Breakdowns and good fortune

We left Kruger Park on what was going to be our longest daily drive of the trip. We were off to Royal Natal Park which borders up against the country of Lesotho 750 km west of where we were in Kruger National Park. 750 km, not impossible considering the excellent roads in South Africa, but we didn't want to be driving after dark so we knew we'd have to get going and try to avoid any delays. No problem whatsoever. We pulled out of Kruger Park and headed through the  rather depressed area of Mahushu and Swalala. We were making good time. Then the truck coughed.  

Heh heh. Just a hiccup. Shift into a lower gear and keep going. I was driving and Michelle chatted on obliviously. We drove through a long stretch of concrete block shanties, I rolled through a lot of intersections, hesitant to stop as there was absolutely no place to get the truck looked at if we couldn't get going again. The truck was accelerating slowly and it was apparent that something was amiss. Going up a long hill as we pulled out of Jerusalem (totally didn't make up that name) the truck entered "limp mode" and wouldn't go over 20 km/h. It was a long slow drive up and around the hill with nowhere to safely pull over. We made it to the top of the hill then largely coasted into a parking lot of a mini mall where we could have a look at what was going on. We shut the truck off not knowing if it would turn on again and had a look under the hood  Everything was clean and looked okay. We held our breath as we started the truck up and everything appeared to be normal. We took a few laps around the parking lot before venturing back onto the highway and everything seemed fine. Until we got to our first hill. Again into limp mode. We scanned the GPS looking for a safe spot to stop. We found the police station in the town of White River and stopped in their parking lot expecting it to be safe. A quick call to the rental company and he consulted with his mechanic. Their feeling was, if it reset itself once it would  probably do so again and we should just continue on. We headed out again and everything seemed okay. We went about 20 km, and pulling up a hill out of the town of Nelspruit the car coughed again. I knew we wouldn't be able to go any further. We did a u-turn in an intersection and headed back into Nelspruit where we found a Toyota dealership (our truck was a Toyota Hilux).

Imperial Toyota of Nelspruit. Quite possibly the best service at a dealership I have ever received. We met Coenie the Service Advisor, who listened to our problem and understood immediately that we were in a time crunch. He booked the car in for service and we met the shop foreman Vikkus. Although the shop was busy with vehicles, Vikkus and Coenie squeezed us in and did what they could to get us on the road as quickly as possible. Our good fortune at having the truck breakdown WHERE it did and WHEN it did was unbelievable. We had spent the previous three days roaming Kruger Park and were off to spend the next week driving through some very remote back areas of South Africa. Including climbing through the hilly mountainous Kingdom of Lesotho. Had we broke down anywhere else or at any other time we would have been seriously in a difficult position. As it was Vikkus had us patched up and on the road again with a new diesel fuel filter and a Mass Air Sensor within two hours. We couldn't have received better or more friendly service. Coenie and Vikkus have our heartfelt thanks for getting us on the road so quickly.

Waiting for our truck to get fixed at the Toyota dealership in Nelspruit. Smiles to the contrary, we really wanted to get out of there!! But they had a cappuccino bar!! 

On to Royal Natal!

We made it to the campground at Royal Natal, picking our way through the darkness to our campsite. We hadn't stopped much during our long drive, so the plan was to light a fire and have something to eat. Our campsite was in the Drakensburg Mountains and it was already cold. We really needed that fire. Now, I have to say something about South African firewood. It doesn't burn. Well, it kind of burns but it needs a real hot fire to get it to burn. So how do you start a fire with this stuff? In the last few days whenever I started a fire I did what I always do, chop up little bits of kindling in progressively larger sizes, light a fire with the smallest bits and keep adding larger pieces until you can get a nice flame. In South Africa it doesn't work that way! We had built fires every night with only limited success. All around us people were enjoying their fires using the exact same wood as us.  We couldn't get this darn wood to light!  We blew on little embers until we were red in the face. Nothing. Then I noticed something. Everybody else lit their fire with firestarter and walked away from it. The guy at the rental place, while he was showing us the vehicle had made a real point of showing us the firestarter and making a big deal of how much there was. I had scoffed at the time thinking, what kind of  noob fire guy needs firestarter!? Kindling! Kindling is the answer to starting a fire. Not in South Africa it isn't. At our Royal Natal campsite I put in the firestarter and piled chunks of wood on it. A quick light with the matches and I left it alone. In no time we had a roaring fire. Lesson learned, listen to locals when being offered advice.  

It was cold in the mountains. We literally went to bed wearing all our clothes (including toques!) shivering as we fell asleep.