How Not to Drive to Kruger:
We arrived in Joburg without a map.
Why the hell I didn’t order one on-time from Amazon, I don’t know. All I know is, I assumed the rental agency would have a map, or the airport, or that google maps would be reliable. WRONG.
We used google maps (the car agent said everyone uses google maps), and I even checked its directions with the car attendant, but we made the mistake of not looking at the big picture (scrolling out) to study the main highways to Kruger. So I don’t know what happened, but somehow google maps got us on the R25 followed by the R33 – which was way the hell out of the way – before getting us to the N4.
The R25 (or maybe it was the R33) was riddled with huge potholes. Our first inkling that it wasn’t a normal road was when we saw a small truck and a car driving toward us on our side of the road–before swerving back to their side. We quickly found out why when we reached the same spot – there were massive potholes that we had to swerve around to avoid hitting.
We’d already hit a few small potholes toward the side of the road, but suddenly they were all over the place. My husband hit a few big ones before he got the hang of it. The key was to drive in the middle of the road unless, of course, there was oncoming traffic. Discolorations in the asphalt meant potholes, so we needed to slow down, swerve around, or creep over. I helped keep an eye out and would motion with my hand to tell my husband to go around. There were too many for him to see at once.
Our sheltered teens were scared to death. My son ‘threatened suicide’ if we “broke down out here,” and my daughter hid her face and tried to sleep (of course she couldn’t). The drive was like being in a video game–we got pretty good at it!
There was no way we were going to make it to Kruger before they closed the gates (yes, you HAVE to get there before they close and lock the gates), so I found an Inn through google search (thank you technology!). We ended up staying in the tiny one stop town of Belfast.
The inn was called Woody’s Place and it was really nice. They had cottage rooms out back with pretty furnishings and comfortable beds. Belfast is one of the coldest places in South Africa and it got very cold that night. The gas heater at Woody’s Place didn’t do much in the living room, and they said their fireplace smoked a bit, but the master bedroom heater was good, and all the bedding was very warm. We didn’t complain. I hadn’t slept more than four hours in the last two days(I’d been running on adrenaline), and we were all exhausted from the drive. I slept seven hours that night–heaven!
When we arrived at Woody’s Place I quickly told the proprietor about our overnight delay at the Zurich airport and our pothole ridden drive from hell: “It HAS to get better from here, right?” I asked.
Luckily, it did. We made it to Kruger the next day, safe and sound.
Lesson Learned: Don’t trust google maps!
Karen – Fun reading! Learning that we probably will NOT drive in S Africa! LOL! I hate potholes and depriving myself of sleep. BTW I have several videos posted of our US journeys on YouTube if you feel compelled to watch any. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnbWgbMMoTXb31OaIbV2Z7g/videos Cheers!
Yes, I’ve begun watching your RV videos, they are definitely fun and I love your choice of music.
Hi Karen, I got your blog from Chetana who knows you. We are reading your blog closely as we are planning ours already. About Google maps, it was the worst at Venice where we just got back. We got lost so many times. But then getting lost in Venice is a thing to do but not when you have hungry kids.
Hello Ching Lai!
Being lost with hungry adults is no fun either! 😅 It’s hard to find paper maps these days, isn’t it?
I’m so glad you are finding my blog helpful; I’d better step up the pace of my posts! When are you going to South Africa?
Hi Karen, I giggled after reading this blog! You can’t trust Google Maps its true (never take the “shortest route” ) – we took a break down to the Drakensberg last week driving from Johannesburg and the “shortest route” took us on a 11km dirt road through the rural area and farms. Yes the views were great but driving in the country relying on your phone where the signal isn’t great in the first place is a scary experience even for a South African! All’s well that ends well however! Super views of the magnificent Drakensberg made it all worthwhile!
Hi Lucinda!
Oh man, so even the locals can get detoured by Google maps! 😉 I’m glad everything turned out OK. I bet it was a bit cold in the Drakenberg mountains.
Glad you enjoyed the post. I’m missing your beach cottage accommodations in at4umzumbe!