Karoo flooding 15 February 2011

On the R353 to Fraserburg, below and above the Teekloof Pass, the massive dump of rain on February 15th caused havoc - the road below is damaged, the pass itself undermined and above it, standing water across whole plains. The R356 dirt road to Loxton was, in places, a river, though the Touareg handled it with no problems.

March calendar

It was suggested I put up some kind of calendar on the site - apparently noone knows when I'm where. So here goes:

March 6 - 23 Zimbabwe on a small lodges and b&bs story
Sunday 6 March - Vic Falls 2 nights at Ilala Lodge and The Hide, Hwange.
Wednesday 9 - move on to the Ivory Lodge ( of the Amalinda Collection ), Hwange.
Thursday 10 - motor on to stay overnight at the Bulawayo Club, now a boutique hotel.
Friday 11 - go out and stay 2 nights at Camp Amalinda, Matobo Hills.
Sunday 13 - adventure on to Gweru and stay at Antelope Park.
Monday 14 - through to Selous and stay at Chengeta Safari Lodge one night and the other at the sister unit , Pamuzinda Safari Lodge.
Wednesday 16 - onto Harare and stay at Bronte Hotel, dinner at Emmanual's.
Thursday 17 - still in Harare but stay at our alternative venue, Wild Geese Lodge.
Friday 18 - to the Eastern Highlands , staying at White Horse Inn.Site inspection of Inn on the Vumba *on the way to or from the Bvumba.
Saturday, 19 - on up to the Leopard Rock Hotel.
Sunday 20 - saunter onto Pine Tree Inn, Juliasdale
Monday 21 - move onto our select Inn on Rupurara for 2 nights
Depart 23 for Harare and Cape Town.

Swaziland and Kruger, Singita and Hlane

A drive through the flooded Mordenaars Karoo via Loxton and Victoria West, stopping in the Eastern Free State in Aberfeldy finished up in Kruger at Singita Sweni and finally, at Hlane in north eastern Swaziland. The park is simple and unfussy, Kruger before the tourist buses. Elephants are skittish - we were chased - but the rhinos are so well monitored they are habituated to humans and we walked within metres of them, obviously not recommended in normal circumstances.The drive back down the entire length of the N2 from Pongoland was a marathon; for all the great work done repairing roads in the former Transkei, the powers-that-be neglected the in-town roads, meaning you fly into say, Butterworth and grind to a halt behind a hundred ancient bakkies sunning themselves in the 'high street'. 1 685km in one day, 500km the next. Again, not recommended.

Swaziland Hlane Royal National Park, Singita Sweni, Kruger

A drive through the flooded Mordenaars Karoo via Loxton and Victoria West, stopping in the Eastern Free State in Aberfeldy finished up in Kruger at Singita Sweni and finally, at Hlane in north eastern Swaziland. The park is simple and unfussy, Kruger before the tourist buses. Elephants are skittish - we were chased - but the rhino are so well monitored they are habituated to humans and we walked within metres of them, obviously not recommended in normal circumstances.The drive back down the entire length of the N2 from Pongoland was a marathon; for all the great work done repairing roads in the former Transkei, the powers-that-be neglected in in-town roads, meaning you fly into say, Butterworth and grind to halt behind a hundred ancient bakkies sunning themselves in the 'high street'. 1685km in one day, 500km the next. Again, not normally recommended.

Car test

    Citroen C5 1.6 THP 155

Next in line was one of our favourites, the large French beast that is the Citroen C5. We have tested it before, a 2-litre diesel, which we found to be both true to the spirit of previous big Citroens (comfy, fast, effortless, beautiful) and also, crucially, right up there when it comes to contemporary standards of fit, finish and handling. Indeed, no car today, with the exception of the Jaguar XF, combines limousine ride and elegant handling quite like the big C5.

But this was a paltry 1.6 litre engine. Insane. There had been much laughter at the idea of putting such a tiny engine into such a large car – some wit on the team referred to it as David in Goliath. Turns out he wasn’t far off the mark – the proverbial Napoleon slingshot. What a revelation! The sublime little 1.6 intercooled turbo, allied to the seamless power train of the 6-speed autobox, is not simply adequate for the job, but downright fast. That’s right, fast. In any gear, at any speed, indecently fast. As one tester noted, ‘this has to be THE sleeper car of the past two years’.

The secret is in that BMW/PSA gem of an engine also seeing service in the MINI Cooper S, the Peugeot RC-Z and the DS3. It boasts an unspectacular 116kW but a much more revelatory 240Nm of torque. That’s good for a 0 – 100km/hr time of under 10 seconds, a top speed of 210km/hr and consumption of 7.5l/100km, as measured. Impressive figures indeed for a full luxury car weighing in at 1500kg.

Such was the revelatory nature of the car that the few niggles almost slipped past. But not quite. No drinks holders, difficult to sit in if you’re tall, we’re still not entirely convinced about that fixed steering boss (it eats thumbs and the horn buttons are woefully small), and, perhaps more worrying, not as cheap as we’d hoped. Even though at R304 000 it’s R24 000 cheaper than a base model Audi A4 (which is smaller and has a whole lot less standard kit), that’s a lot for a 1.6 Frenchie still trying to win over the locals. Our suggestion is to claim a demo and bargain hard. Do that and you’ll have one of the most accomplished motors on the road today.    

QUICK LOOK

Citroen C5 1.6 THP 155

Price: R304 000

CO2 Emission:169 g/km

Warranty: 3 years 100 000km

Service Plan: 5 years 100 000km