I Want to Go On a Road Trip
There was a drive that I wanted to do for the last 10 years, if not longer. Finally, on 22 July 2017, I drove the N5 for its full length.
In South Africa, our top-tier routes are the National Roads. We have 15 of them criss-crossing the country. I must admit that the N5 is the shortest National route at about 230km in length. The starting point was about 280km from home, with the end point being 315km away. Add it all up, and it is feasible to do it as a day trip.
Since I simply love to drive, and drive solo, I got into my car and headed out. Getting to the starting point, I drove down the N3. This road I know well, as it is the most popular corridor to the coast. I picked up the N5 at its terminus outside of Harrismith. Little bit of road works (construction of a grade-separated interchange) but nothing too serious. I enjoyed the Maluti foothills as the road bypassed the enclaved country of Lesotho. The route goes through the center of Bethlehem; the road was quite bad through town. Afterwards, onto Senekal, and finally Winburg where the N5 terminates at the N1.
There. I opened my account of driving every single national road for its full distance. 14 more trips to go.
The return leg was up the N1. This is the Cape Town - Johannesburg - Zimbabwe road.
Just outside of Kroonstad I picked up a hitchhiker. He looked decent, so I decided to assist. His story was that he is running away from home. He had a huge fight with his parents; his blind step-father demanded some money from him, which he didn't have. Since I don't have both sides of the argument, I couldn't make an informed judgement. It took him about 8 hours to travel 40km from a struggling mining town. His destination was Pretoria. He has a friend there who was willing to help him out.
The guy was down and out; he had no money; he had no funds on his phone; he had no battery left on the phone either. With my permission, he used the car's USB to charge his phone. His friend didn't answer any of his social media messages. However, his friend knew of his predicament. I think his friend didn't have the resources to collect him. Welkom is over 300km from Pretoria; not everybody drives such distances for fun like me.
My passenger has never been to a large town like Johannesburg or Pretoria. I felt uncomfortable driving him to his final destination: its an overshoot of over 60km one way. Also, time was an issue for me: It would add over 1 hour to my travel time. I wanted to be home by a certain hour. En-route, I decided to drop him off at a very large mall, only 50km from his destination. That mall was only a few kilometers from my planned route. From there, he could easily use public transport to get where he needs to go. I gave him some cash to make his way to his friend.
I returned home in good spirits after being a good Samaritan. On the trip, I needed to think about a serious career decision. Decision has been made, thinking that it is the right thing to do. I landed up self-sabotaging a once-in-a-career opportunity. I guess the higher powers didn't want me to change jobs at that stage for one reason or another.
[image deleted]
In South Africa, our top-tier routes are the National Roads. We have 15 of them criss-crossing the country. I must admit that the N5 is the shortest National route at about 230km in length. The starting point was about 280km from home, with the end point being 315km away. Add it all up, and it is feasible to do it as a day trip.
Since I simply love to drive, and drive solo, I got into my car and headed out. Getting to the starting point, I drove down the N3. This road I know well, as it is the most popular corridor to the coast. I picked up the N5 at its terminus outside of Harrismith. Little bit of road works (construction of a grade-separated interchange) but nothing too serious. I enjoyed the Maluti foothills as the road bypassed the enclaved country of Lesotho. The route goes through the center of Bethlehem; the road was quite bad through town. Afterwards, onto Senekal, and finally Winburg where the N5 terminates at the N1.
There. I opened my account of driving every single national road for its full distance. 14 more trips to go.
The return leg was up the N1. This is the Cape Town - Johannesburg - Zimbabwe road.
Just outside of Kroonstad I picked up a hitchhiker. He looked decent, so I decided to assist. His story was that he is running away from home. He had a huge fight with his parents; his blind step-father demanded some money from him, which he didn't have. Since I don't have both sides of the argument, I couldn't make an informed judgement. It took him about 8 hours to travel 40km from a struggling mining town. His destination was Pretoria. He has a friend there who was willing to help him out.
The guy was down and out; he had no money; he had no funds on his phone; he had no battery left on the phone either. With my permission, he used the car's USB to charge his phone. His friend didn't answer any of his social media messages. However, his friend knew of his predicament. I think his friend didn't have the resources to collect him. Welkom is over 300km from Pretoria; not everybody drives such distances for fun like me.
My passenger has never been to a large town like Johannesburg or Pretoria. I felt uncomfortable driving him to his final destination: its an overshoot of over 60km one way. Also, time was an issue for me: It would add over 1 hour to my travel time. I wanted to be home by a certain hour. En-route, I decided to drop him off at a very large mall, only 50km from his destination. That mall was only a few kilometers from my planned route. From there, he could easily use public transport to get where he needs to go. I gave him some cash to make his way to his friend.
I returned home in good spirits after being a good Samaritan. On the trip, I needed to think about a serious career decision. Decision has been made, thinking that it is the right thing to do. I landed up self-sabotaging a once-in-a-career opportunity. I guess the higher powers didn't want me to change jobs at that stage for one reason or another.
[image deleted]
