Driving Skills

During my first year as an exploration geologist, I was working in Limpopo (northern province of South Africa). As I've mentioned before, I had a 4-by-4 bakkie (truck) which I travelled with daily in the Bushveld. My driving skills have improved since then, but I had a few near-misses in the beginning.

Tracks left by my driving skills a day later

It was early one morning and I was using one of the main dirt roads between farms to get to the area where we were drilling. It had been raining heavily the previous night and day and the road was very muddy and clayey. As I was driving, I could feel the bakkie weave left and right over the road, but I could manage it. Farmers were zipping past me of course, but I didn't want to radio my manager to let him know I had flipped the company vehicle and kept a nice tortoise speed.

Suddenly, the bakkie began sliding with it's nose to left. I tried to bring it back, but didn't want to pull the steering wheel too hard and end up spinning. I saw a tree coming closer and gently lifted my foot from the petrol. The bakkie continued sliding off the road, but very slowly. When I came to a stop, I was horizontally across the road and thankfully had stopped before hitting any farm fences. I really did not want an irate grey-bearded man yelling at me for letting his cows get loose :-).

A bakkie stopped with a man and his small son. He asked if I (girlie) was all right. I laughed and replied everything's fine - I just needed to reverse and get back on the road. Luckily, the bakkie stopped nearby some giraffes. They were quite close to the fence and if I hadn't slowed down I would have missed them between the bushes.

Yay for advanced driving skills!