I underwent my Stoma reversal operation on 1st August. Everything went well & I was discharged on 3rd August. After a few days in Pretoria Delana & I set out on our trip to Mdumbi on 9th August. This proved to be a long (two days) & difficult drive, on some very poor roads.
Just 30kms short of Mdumbi we heard a grating noise coming from the car. Upon investigating, we discovered that five of our wheel bolts & nuts had sheared off! We were stuck! Delana got on the phone & arranged our car to be towed to the VW dealership in Umtata & arranged for the guys from Mdumbi to come & tow our caravan to the campsite.
After a couple of hours delay we arrived & set up camp. It was a very rustic, but pleasant site with decent facilities, close to the sea.
The reason we were here was to celebrate Francois's 50th birthday on 12th August. Delana & the girls set up the gazebos & tables for the event.
The whole of Delana's family were here, plus some of Francois's friends. We enjoyed a very pleasant ten days together. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too good & couldn't join in with most of the activities. In fact, the whole of August was a right off for me.
The accident happened over a long weekend, so we expected to pick up the car in a few days. This proved to be very misplaced! There were no wheel nuts & bolts in the country. Delana started phoning every dealership in the country but without success. In the end, she phoned Ford dealership & managed to secure three bolts & nuts from East London & two from Johannesburg. We managed to courier them from Johannesburg but decided to hire a small car & pick up the nuts & bolts from East London ourselves.
In the meantime Rob & Beth Meyers invited us down to their house in Cintsa, which was around 380 kms away. They own a beautiful property overlooking the sea & the surrounding area is very scenic. We spent a lovely four nights with them & enjoyed their excellent hospitality. We then drove to Umtata to the VW dealership where they fitted the nuts & bolts in short time. We now have five in the wheel, as the dealership lost the one remaining nut & bolts in the wheel. However, it is safe to drive with five nuts & bolts in the wheel, so we drove back to the campsite, packed up & left on 28th August to continue with our planned trip along The Garden Route. This whole situation had taken nearly three weeks because of lack of VW spares! A simple thing which could be fitted within minutes had cost us all this time. At the time of writing (13th September) the spares have just arrived in the country & we are having them couriered to us.
On our way to The Garden Route we made a brief detour to Grahamstown in order for Delana to meet up with Patsy an old friend. Grahamstown proved to be an old historical University town with an elegance & charm. However, one can see the neglect in the last few years as the municipality have not been doing their job.
This was not one of our most successful trips, as I could do very little & couldn't enjoy life at all. I felt sorry for Delana who had to do everything as I was incapacitated.
