There’s nothing like a road-trip to remind you why you fell in love

I’m fortunate enough to drive a very nice car, but after Thursday, I don’t think anyone will blame me if I avoid driving it for a while.

The lovely Snapdragon and I have been clashing for a week or two, with the result that I jumped at the opportunity to flee for a few days when my boss phoned on Sunday.

I had to drive to Springbok in the Northern Cape, complete a project and come back.

I encountered some potholes on my way there, but the car handled them fine. What I didn’t realise, was that accumulated damage is fatal to my car’s fancy tyres.

When I came back on Thursday, the tyre pressure monitor complained between Upington and Olifantshoek.

Of course there isn’t a tyre shop in Olifantshoek – just a shipping container where three guys repair damaged tyres to the best of their ability.

They have never seen a run-flat tyre before, but managed to plug it sufficiently to enable me to reach Kuruman. Of course they didn’t have the prescribed rubber there, but had something that could do for a while.

On the pothole-ridden road between Schweizer-Reneke and Wolmaransstad, both tyres on the right-hand side of the car burst, and I had to crawl the last 30km into town at 20km/h.

The guy at the tyre shop shook his head, but referred me to a suspicious little shop in the seedy part of town.

A policeman entered just after me, waited politely until we managed to find two second-hand tyres that would do, and then dragged the owner off.

The two employees just pulled up their shoulders and continued to fit the well-used tyres to my sad-looking vehicle.

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Sixty kilometres from home, my car started to handle erratically. I stopped to inspect the last run-flat tyre and, lo and behold, there was a huge chunk of rubber missing from the sidewall.

I eventually arrived home – almost 18 hours after I started my journey. I was exhausted, but I learned a few things:

• Run-flat tyres hate potholes.
• People in rural towns may not have access to all the technology we have in Jozi, but their ingenuity is unmatched. And…
• Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

I was delighted to see my grumpy old wife. There’s nothing like a road-trip to remind you why you have fallen in love.