Zip Ties and Duct Tape

And they're off! We have begun our first country trip and will be traveling through South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland for the next 3 weeks. For all you would be robbers and pillagers out there, the house is still armed to the teeth and we lent all our valuables to friends so don't even think about it. I even took my favorite shoes so there is no point in breaking in. Short of a King Tut style curse the place is safe and secure. Maybe I should look into curses just in case. : )

So we left on Monday... eventually. We woke up on time, did our last minute town stuff on time and even left the city on time.... then 10 miles outside of town part of the car fell off.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you a "FAO LEARNING EXPERIENCE!" That's code for unfortunate event which teaches you a lot about the local culture or you gain some kind of medical or automotive knowledge. It's all good in ICT.

So we hit 120 km, hear a very loud *clang!* then the sound of metal dragging. We pull of the road (it's a very nice paved road too btw) and take a look. The metal undercarriage that protects the gas tank is hanging by the right side and there are no bolts in sight for the left. Lance and I are pretty relieved at this point because that sound could have been something soooooooooooo much worse. So under the car we go in our formerly nice clothing (more about that later) to see what's possible.













Long story short, there was wedging under found bolts, coaxing/banging with wrenches and a whole lot of plastic Zip Ties through anything we could see would connect the carriage to the car. Fingers crossed we set out again and have had no troubles since. Now the inclusion of a huge bag of Zip Ties in the trunk of the vehicle makes a lot more sense. I'm wondering how many others are hidden in it just barely holding the vehicle together...

There was a role of duct tape in there as well. That will come in handy for something I'm sure.

The adventure continues.