I cannot quite match the size of the vehicle. But picture me, a few weeks ago, on some Dutch backroads. Excellent condition, not a pothole in sight… but NARROW. There is no center divider line, just shoulders. When someone comes from the other side, you dive towards your shoulder and you brush past the other guy. So there I am, in what is practically a brand new Passat, doing the speed limit (80km/h), and then you have people coming from the other side at what felt like at least 120km/h! All on the wrong side of the road, with no brain-training on spacing the vehicle. Scary… but it was also a lot of fun.
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Ja nee, Vredendal… been there many a dozen times, used to run IT infra for a mining company with smelter in Saldanha, seperation plant in Koekenaap, and mine site in Brand-se-Baai and had to go up at least twice a month, seen enough of that part of the world to last many a lifetime.
Ugh, that just brought back memories. Stayed in rural Germany for 6 months a couple of years ago with exactly the same situation on the backroads leading to the house I stayed in. How I didn’t manage to end up in a ditch with i3 company car with all the snow and sleet is still unknown to this day.
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Wait, is it like in some of the Southern Suburbs here in Cpt, the older very expensive ones, where “off-street parking” is driving onto the pavement with half the car, the pavement being too small, so that other cars can just just squeeze through, one at a time?
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It is not quite that bad. You do however see muddy wheel prints on the shoulder of the road, indicating that people do “duck” into the dirt at times. I didn’t feel comfortable doing that with my colleague’s (really nice!) car, and you can get by by just going to the very edge of the paved surface, which I did by using the side mirror, my RHD brain had no instinctive idea where the corners are, as I might on local soil.
It probably helped that the car had German plates as well.
This car had everything (the 2022 model is not sold in SA anymore, if you want a similar car, you need to get the Audi that’s built on the same platform). Sensors all round, automatically brakes if you are about to hit something. Yells at you on the instrument cluster when you go too fast (Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung überschritten!), because the car can also read some traffic signs. Adaptive cruise control (which I didn’t even use), lane keeping assist (I had to constantly wiggle the wheel to remind the car I am still there, I apparently have a very smooth driving style), auto-hold (doesn’t creep forward like a normal auto), and when you shove the shifter in park, it puts on the handbrake itself.
Way way too many electronic mcgafters for my liking!
And the GPS/map system was in German. You hit the button on the wheel, and then you have to say “Fahre mich nach ”… otherwise the electronic lady doesn’t understand you.
The other interesting things you have to know.
- You yield to all traffic that comes from the right. Almost like you do here. That doesn’t swap around just because you drive on the right.
- If you are driving along and a road joins from the right, and there is no clear traffic indication (a line, a stop sign) to tell that guy on the right to stop, you have to yield to him. In SA, he would have to wait, because YOU are on the “main” route and he is joining.
- You will be driving along on a road where there are the occasional narrower point (typically a small bridge). A white diamond-shaped sign on your side of the road indicates that you have right of way. When you get to such a narrower part, other people have to yield to you.
- If you get to such a bridge, and there is a short white line behind which to stop on your side of the road… then the diamond is probably on the other side and the other guy has right of way.
- Cycling lanes are holy. Don’t stop across a cycling lane when you’re trying to enter an intersection or a circle.
- Circles go the other way round… although at least this one is very very obvious and somewhat hard to get wrong.
- People are very patient and almost everyone sticks to the speed limit. Not once did someone honk at me for being a little slow.
This… I was in Munich about 10 yrs ago, standing at a pedestrian crossing waiting for the lights to change, unbeknownst to I was standing in a cycling lane. Boy did I get k@kked on from a dizzy height by some old ballie tootling along on his city bike.
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We’d go for a wandeling every day around 12:30, just before lunch. And the easiest way, if you didn’t want to walk in the mud, was also along a cycling lane. It wasn’t a very busy road and there was ample space to get around us, but that didn’t stop some cyclist from mumbling “Fietspaden zijn geen wandelpaden” as he made his way around us.
Sometimes I do appreciate the little bit of chaotic freedom we have in Africa.
How did your SA license work over there?
To try and compare, driving big trucks in SA, is like driving a car in Southern Suburbs.
And if I ever get my hands on the architects that designed the loading zones …
No more like this …
When we went we got an international license through the AA, just fill in the form, pays your money and its done. Not sure if it still the same these days with all of the fraudulent license stories.
Ha, I’m sure you don’t say that when the taxi’s duck up the yellow/parking/bus lanes and cut you off…
As long as you have a license from a country that is part of the Vienna convention on Road Traffic, and you are driving in another country that is member to the same treaty, and that license is in a language that is understood in that country, you can drive there. Your South African license is literally valid in most of Europe (in Poland or Romania, you may benefit from an IDP).
The IDP is really just 1) a translation, and 2) a document saying what category your license fall into. Since we mirror the classes (motor cars are class B vehicles), you don’t have to do anything.
OK! The Solis arrived. With the WiFi dongle (nice), but without the Wieland connector. Not a biggie… you guys are now going to have to wait until THAT arrives. Sorry… 
We are circling like vultures!
Nooo, it was in the box, there were 2 cut-outs in the 50mm polystyrene, one for WiFi dongle and one for Weiland connector. I checked it before I taped up the box. Can you see if the box had been opened? I had 2 strips of that heavy duty tape length wise across the box and 1 strip over them width wise.
Aaah thanks man! I found it! Now the games can start.
The more I use The Courier Guy, the more I’m impressed, shipped a box to Pretoria on Wednesday at 11:00 ish, delivered this morning by 10:00AM. Shipped the Solis to @plonkster at 13:10 yesterday, delivered this morning. Kudos to them!
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Sidetrack - the only stupid thing with The Courier Guy is that whole instant eft thing to load money onto your account, if you’re in a hurry. I just won’t use instant eft, as you have to then use your internet banking details on a third-party website…
Yes, you can use “normal” EFT, but then you have to wait for how long for that to clear…
I’ve never had the need to use their online system, we have a kiosk about 3,5km from my house so it’s easy enough to just run the package down, pay by CC and they pay the transactions fees. The online system also seems to have inaccurate pricing, case in point was the parcel to plonkster, if I’d booked it online it would have cost me R268 but dropped at the kiosk it cost R140. Suppose they didn’t have to collect…
For some time now I’ve used SkyNet (aka droppa), simply because way back when I needed a courier, they were one of the very first where you booked them online, printed out the Waybill (they have since dispensed with this requirement), pay online (they have both credit card facilities and a wallet), and after that the delivery just happens.
Like you, I also don’t like the “instant” EFT thing, where they proxy your bank login through some third party.
@jacksdad , I was amazed to see the shipping was only R140. That’s quite cheap for the size and weight.
Ja, I think it’s because I dropped it off at their kiosk, they didn’t have to collect. But I’m still impressed with their rates, I shipped a set of speakers last week that were 16kg each and some speaker stands, total 45kg, and it cost the guy R800 on the button.
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