Spots & Messing About - Gaborone, Botswana

[Alan_Green]

Gaborone. A capital city so obscure Microsoft thinks it's a spelling mistake when you type it in to Word.  

 

God knows how this got here:

 

Parked up at a local garage: 

 

Funny tuk tuk thing:

 

Older jap stuff:

 

This guy got really angry that I was taking a pic of his car without permission. Was shouting at me. He calmed down when I said I was actually taking a pic of the phone number because I wanted my radiator repaired. He didn't seem to mind that I was driving an air cooled Beetle at the time!

 

Plenty of old trucks:

 

No.1 Ladies Detective Agency Special:

 

Mint Jag for sale - £5,000 ono

 

Botswana army Landy. Check the licence plate - Black letters on a black background. 

 

Don't dare jump these red lights:  

 

To be honest, there's not a lot of tat about. Most stuff is new. The average mall car park looks like this. Very dull.

 

Amusingly named church: 

 

Cheap petrol - 50p per Litre.

 

Competition on the lager cans. Win 40 cows and a bull. Great if you live in a flat:   

 

Bloody cows everywhere. All over the roads. No road sense and nearly invisible at night. I once wrapped a nearly new Rover 75 V6 Conn around a herd of cows in the city centre at 9.30pm one Saturday night while going to fetch a pizza.  Mind you fillet steak is only £7 per kg! But it's perfectly normal to be hurtling down a road at 60mph and then suddenly be faced with this:

[Uncle Jimmy]

Show off....

[Junkman]

The contrast between these pictures and the ones the brainwash media is feeding us could not possibly be starker.

Besides, that yellow estate just nuked my want list.

[castros_bro]

*** Warning  non motoring related comment *********

 

Bloody hell, what's yo doing there?

 

I lived/worked in Khutse and Orapa and if I ever retire would go back and do a Masters at Gabs Uni.

[John F]

How much do Mk 2 Escorts go for over there? 

[Taff]

nice early BRG MGF there. I doubt that it's ever had any over heating issues in that climate.

[STUNO]

Yellow estate is a Ford Falcon from Australia in about 1970.

[Skizzer]

Great stuff.  Southern Africa is GR12.

[Alan_Green]

How much do Mk 2 Escorts go for over there? 

They're still cheap. Here's a selection of what you can get for £500. And pretty much rust free. I have my scouts looking for 2-door MK1 & 2 Escorts. But apparently Zimbabwe is the place to go for barn find old classics.

http://www.junkmail.co.za/motoring/ford/gauteng/pretoria/pretoria-west/ford-escort-4-door-mk1-36475697#prettyPhoto 

http://www.junkmail.co.za/motoring/ford/gauteng/johannesburg/east-rand/1972-1600-ford-escort-panelvan-38509085#prettyPhoto

http://www.junkmail.co.za/motoring/ford/free-state/welkom/fort-escort-1600-for-sale-39399183

http://www.junkmail.co.za/motoring/ford/gauteng/johannesburg/fort-escort-39517343

  

 

Bloody hell, what's yo doing there?

 

I lived/worked in Khutse and Orapa and if I ever retire would go back and do a Masters at Gabs Uni.

Cool. Been here on and off for 10 years. Before that South Africa. Before that West Africa. 20 years in Africa, on and off.  Talk to me about accom/cars/permits if you do study at the Uni of Bots. I can help with all that.

[Alan_Green]

Have a "minty" Escort. £1,500:  http://www.junkmail.co.za/motoring/ford/gauteng/johannesburg/roodepoort/ford-escort-1-6-gl-1976-special-edition-41337101#prettyPhoto

 

[Station]

Driving an MGF in that country's climate would be akin to shagging a wasp's nest.

I bet the engine is like the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station.

[Alan_Green]

Back in the land of £6-per-kg-fillet-steak. Been bombing about in this bad boy: (5 points if you can name the starting point. Hint - purple trees in October).

 

4.2 Litre diesel and seriously slow. Belt shredded itselft in the middle of nowhere at midnight but managed to coast to civilisation by switching the engine on and off and freewheeling 30 miles to civilisation.  Luckily the land is as flat as a pancake. Changed the 3 belts the next day, but the air con one came off 3 days later. Pity that 'cos it's 40 degrees.

[Skizzer]

Gauteng Province plates... suburban Jacaranda trees ... Pretoria?

[Alan_Green]

Excellent. Yes. Pretoria. (Or Tshwane).  Now Bots Spots in no particular order:

[Alan_Green]

Part of a collection of about 100 vehicles owned by a car hoarder/B&B owner on a road to nowhere. That's not me BTW:

[Alan_Green]

You see all that green stuff? That's the broken glass from hundreds of beer bottles. The locals just leave the empties on the ground and the cars run over them exploding them. Every pub car park is like this. Interestingly no one seems to get a puncture. Someone must pick up the bases and necks.

[Alan_Green]

My Herbie replica. Note meticulous attention to detail. With added Autoshite dealer sticker: 

No Tunnocks, unfortunately, but there's SALTICRAX:

Bloody cows and donkeys all over the roads, as always: 

Christmas tree dash at night (belt fail incident):

[RobT]

I did some voluntary work in Tanzania 10 years ago and always remember the trips in the daladala Toyota Hiace vans around Dar es Salaam, chock full of people sweating over each other. A bit like London buses but more entertaining. Can't recall ever seeing any nice old chod floating about, not even in the posh embassy area, everything was always in shagged out condition!

[vulgalour]

... and now I know what a Jacaranda tree looks like.

[Alan_Green]

There'll be looked after stuff held back for Sunday drives, even in Dar. There seems to be enthusiasts everywhere. Like these old Merc fans in Ghana: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZeUM98ifMk 

 

P.S. Think they should be called Truffula Trees.