The Day my car Swam

It started like any other Monday. The first day of the weeek does not conjure up thoughts of excitement and adventure, but this is what the majority of Gauteng road users experienced.

I am not used to this type of weather. Its sunny and mild one moment, then a wind starts gusting through and all of a sudden it starts pouring. This evokes thoughts of WINTER, not summer. No wonder Joburg doesnt have a beach, you wouldnt be able to enjoy the sun with all the hail on the sand.

Monday was not a warm day. The clouds moved in early and the rain started slowly. Drizzle turned to rain which occasionally would be accomanied by a drop or too of hail, but nothing to get excited about.





My day finishes around 2pm, so after my obligations I went home for a nap, knowing that I would have to return for the drive show at 4pm. When I went to sleep it was over cast, when I woke up, there was a river out side my door. I kid you not. Such intense rain has only been experienced on campus at UCT (when you are actually closer to the clouds and therefore the rain falls harder.)





So its belting down bullets of water. The grass is under15cm of water, vaguely resembling a pond, and 3minutes have passed. A second look at the pond/grass and it had changed in colour, texture and consistency. 4 minutes passed. It was hail. truck loads of it. An unfortunaet person walking in the streets could, no doubt, have been concused from the amount and force of the miniture bombs of hail.



I was, by this time, going to be late for work. But considering there were no brave souls on the road, I didnt think the body work of my car was worth it.



After 15minutes of ice falling from the sky, I made a run for it. Apparently so did everyone else. My 6minute drive took 25minutes. Main roads were flooded, inaccesible, cars were breaking down, blocking roads and accidents caused stress and further road-havoc.

The above pic was taken from inside my car. The bakkie ahead of me is emerging from the tunnel. The water at the bottom of the tunnel is thigh-deep. My little tazz is low set but today, Tazzy didnt have the option of water wings...SHE SWAM!



During my drive, I passed white-christmas card houses, swimming pools in the middle of the street and countless cars that werent as hard-core as my car (they needed water wings!) The flash floods, hail storm and ridiculously heavy rain fall lasted shortly more than half an hour - all of which I was in the worst place possible, but i have the coolest car. I previously dispised the standard white, mass produced tazz, but she has proved herself as good as a 4x4. Golfie would, *sob, not have done it (he's good on the uphill.)





Zambezi, here comes Tazzy!


hehe!