Travel Hiccups

So we're driving from Capetown to 'The Garden Route' where there have been floods in the region a week or so ago. The road is closed but the helpful roads authority guy there tells us there's a really long detour on tarred roads, or a shorter one on dirt road that's quite good - and a lot shorter. So we do the short detour and for the first 30km it's great and we manage 80km/hr or so but then the good road disappears and a crapulent one appears out of nowhere. It seems doable, but after the second river crossing we wonder what the story is - of course that's also when we realise we have a flat tyre. Middle of nowhere in Africa, small, front wheel drive car, flat tyre. Thank god the rental company have a REAL tyre as a spare and we're up and running again in no time - but a 4WD owner coming the other way warns we're about half way, and the road doesn't get any better... Damned either direction... So we travel onward with extreme caution, especially when we discover the two German girls who passed us earlier with their stalled golf on the next river crossing; some other drivers are already helping restart them. Finally we all get going again , traverse the crossing and manage to make it to the good road. The Frenchman is stressed but I'm enjoying the problem solving and the knowledge that this is something we'll remember long after the beautiful landscapes have faded from memory.