I Went On a Road Trip
A large Buddhist temple had their annual Chinese New Year celebrations in Bronkhorstspruit. I arrived for the Dharma service, and hang around eating lots of Chinese vegetarian food for another three hours. Afterwards, I decided to travel further explore the area a bit more.
There is a mining town (diamonds) named Culinan about 40km away. That was the destination for the trip. I have visited this town a few times, but a short road trip wouldn't hurt.
I headed out past B'spruit on the tar road. Upon consultation of a paper map, I discovered that there was a dirt road running parallel to the main road. Having a 4x4, the decision was a easy. The dirt was of very good quality, allowing me speeds of 60km/h. The run was incident free.
I rejoined the tar road a few kilometers outside of Culinan. The town's claim to fame is that it has found the worlds largest diamond, early in the last century. I knew the town from previous visits; but I couldn't stay for too long as this was an spontaneous road trip, and I was getting the family lunch this day.
I knew exactly where the big hole was, and its view point. The access to it was via a dirt road. Nothing to spectacular there, so I moved along to the next objective of the road trip.
Many years ago, the tar road to Pretoria has collapsed into a sink hole. From my Google Earth studies, I saw that a dirt road was crated which bypasses the damaged section. The mission for today was to find that road and drive it!
Technology to the rescue: I accessed Google Earth on my phone trying to find that road. It showed the road being out of town, so I drove to that location. The exit onto that temporary road was marked. However, they are restricting that road to passenger cars only. As a measure to prevent trucks from accessing the road, they made very narrow (2.2m) gate which a passenger car can squeeze through. The road was spectacular, with nice views. I was surprised at the amount of traffic on that road.
Eventually, the detour rejoined its tar allingment, and I drove into the north of Pretoria without incident. From there, I took the toll highway home. I got some buffet-styled lunch on the way to feed the family.
Overall, a great day out doing something different.
There is a mining town (diamonds) named Culinan about 40km away. That was the destination for the trip. I have visited this town a few times, but a short road trip wouldn't hurt.
I headed out past B'spruit on the tar road. Upon consultation of a paper map, I discovered that there was a dirt road running parallel to the main road. Having a 4x4, the decision was a easy. The dirt was of very good quality, allowing me speeds of 60km/h. The run was incident free.
I rejoined the tar road a few kilometers outside of Culinan. The town's claim to fame is that it has found the worlds largest diamond, early in the last century. I knew the town from previous visits; but I couldn't stay for too long as this was an spontaneous road trip, and I was getting the family lunch this day.
I knew exactly where the big hole was, and its view point. The access to it was via a dirt road. Nothing to spectacular there, so I moved along to the next objective of the road trip.
Many years ago, the tar road to Pretoria has collapsed into a sink hole. From my Google Earth studies, I saw that a dirt road was crated which bypasses the damaged section. The mission for today was to find that road and drive it!
Technology to the rescue: I accessed Google Earth on my phone trying to find that road. It showed the road being out of town, so I drove to that location. The exit onto that temporary road was marked. However, they are restricting that road to passenger cars only. As a measure to prevent trucks from accessing the road, they made very narrow (2.2m) gate which a passenger car can squeeze through. The road was spectacular, with nice views. I was surprised at the amount of traffic on that road.
Eventually, the detour rejoined its tar allingment, and I drove into the north of Pretoria without incident. From there, I took the toll highway home. I got some buffet-styled lunch on the way to feed the family.
Overall, a great day out doing something different.
