BEST FRIENDS

When I am out in my car(s), this happens to be my new best friend. I am still getting to grips with how exactly to work it completely.

I have worked out the most important thing - how to enter my home address! Touch Screen mode of data entry is something new to me, and it takes time to get used to it!

I only hope that it is not the same as my Nokia Navigator, where I entered an adress in Mandini (on the Tugela River) for my hometeachers, but the cell phone does not recognise the name "Mandini" I panicked the first time I went to see them and phoned them to come and find me! Then I followed them to their home. After that I find my way - more by luck than judgment!

I have an idea (untried as yet) that a Garmin has access to maps from anywhere in the world, so if I input the address ANYWHERE, the GPS will direct me there. I know that Ewan Mcgreggor used a Nokia GPS to navigate from John O Groats to Cape Town, by land, so it must be possible to set an address in the UK and to travel there from Zululand, by land. Ewan Mcgreggor and Charlie Bornman travelled by motorcycle to Cape Town, and I saw interviews with people they met going up Africa. I know that someone went to Londonl by land, in a Rolls Royce, and several people have ridden on bicycles - HARD work? I bought 2 landrovers, so that travel in Africa outside of South Africa, is effortless. As a youngster, we used to drive from Salisbury (now Harare) to Beira in Mocambique, and if an old Ford Prefect can make that drive, then so to can Landrovers.

Last year, I was advised that the wreckage of the plane that my (one and only) cousin was killed in when it was shot down in Mocambique) was located. I grew up with my cousin, so when his death was announced, there was no grave that you could pay your respects at. Apparently though, the locals where the helicopter was shot down, have buried the 16 dead, so there is a grave! I would like at some stage to take a trip to the graveside! I have worked out that the best route would be to enter Mocambique via the border near the route past the southern end of the Kruger Park. Once in Mocambique, you turn along the banks of the Great Grey-green Limpopo river, and the crash site and grave are along there somewhere! I am convinced that there is a route by land up Africa through Malawi, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt. From there you can get across the Mediterranean, to Italy, then across to France and via the Channel Tunnel to London(ish)

I would be really prepared to undertake an adventure like this, except that following my MVA accident, I am physically disabled. Driving up Africa - literally single handedly - is daunting! Still, short trips now are something that I can get used to.

I discovered something yesterday! I had been filling my Freelander TD from the wrong(?) diesel pump at the garage. I was using the pump out in the open, the one with regular grade diesel. I found out that if I fill up with 500 ppm diesel, it runs much cleaner and much quieter. So much for my Dad freaking out that I bought a Diesel vehicle! A huge benefit is that since it is turbo charged, it is incredibly economical. I have been from Zululand to Durban - and back - and it has used only a quarter of a tank of fuel - that is only around R 300, unlike my Opel that used to use R 500 worth of petrol or my monster Disco, which uses around R 700 to get there and back!