Yesterday brought upon a challenge that I’d rather wish had not come up. I damaged the rental car. And by damage, I mean I was traveling down a rural highway in South Africa when a semi crossed the center line and I pulled as close to the shoulder as I could to ensure that we wouldn’t hit. Well in that maneuver, it turns out I found out that South Africa’s roads are not the best maintained in the world and the edge of the road had eroded to the point where it had crossed the yellow line. As such, I found my front passenger wheel (that’s the left down here) on the edge of this eroded pavement which resulted in my tire going flat.
I have to say, it was quite the surprise. I got over onto the side of the road immediately with the hope that I would be able to change to the spare, get up to Addo Elephant National Park and then swap the car back in Port Elizabeth before I continued on to Knysna. Well, as I started to take in my options, I noted that the ground was rather soft from the rain that had been in the area for a few days (or so I’m told). I ruled out trying to change the tire there as a mater of safety and decided to wave the white flag and call Hertz. Exactly what I didn’t want to do.
Well, they were pretty friendly about the whole ordeal and despite being out in the boonies, had a new car out to my location in about an hour. I’m sure the cost for a new tire will be plenty expensive, and hopefully they didn’t wind up having to tow the vehicle. The guy that showed up to swap my car was going to try to move the car and put on the spare. He wasn’t there later that afternoon on the side of the road, so I’m crossing my fingers there.
But, sometimes this is what happens when you travel: things don’t go according to plan. Wouldn’t we all like to just have a perfect vacation every time with no issues or added stress? Of course, but that also doesn’t give anyone a good story to tell when they get back or years down the road. I mean, how many good stories come from “I was sitting at the resort just relaxing.” See where I am going with this? It’s the challenge that you have to overcome or that gets you out of your comfort zone that you’ll really remember and of course bring a good story.
Hopefully though, I won’t have any other challenges of this level on this trip! I might still rent a car in the Seychelles, but I haven’t decided…after this I might be good on driving in foreign countries!
