Hi All,
What a great forum! I did my first post last night about a few queries I had about my new i30 and got a great response. Thanks to everyone for that. I wish some of the technical forums I go to for support were that useful.
One of the responses to my post was from Dazzler who showed interest in seeing pics of the roadtrip I mentioned, and for some reason I feel compelled to upload some. Now obviously there are stacks of pics from this trip, but I limited it to the more i30-related ones.
Introduction: I bought a brand new i30 as a wedding present for myself and somehow convinced my bride-to-be that a roadtrip round South Africa would make a good honeymoon. The car was bought new in Cape Town, and I did 960km in the few months before going on the trip. Over the next 2 weeks we did just over 5,500kms touching on every province and seeing a whole lot of the country, reminding us of what a beautiful place we live in. The car's called Bullet.
#1: About 1,900km in - Limpopo Province near Blyde River Canyon. That's me. Very proud of my new car am I.
#2: About 2,300km in - at the border post entering Swaziland. Note the cow. At the border post. The border post! Swaziland was awesome though. Super friendly people and great prices on accommodation and food.
#3: About 2,500km in - still in Swaziland. These goats on the road belong to the king and dare not be touched by anyone. This pic doesn't even show half of them. And the maximum NATIONAL speed limit is 80km/h because of this stuff. Usually lower. Except for the roughly 100km of highway in the country which, whew, goes up to 120 km/h. Fortunately it's a tiny country.
#4: About 2,800km in - filling up just before leaving Swaziland back into South Africa as petrol is, like, 5% cheaper there.
#5: About 3,700km in - a backpackers we stayed in in the Transkei. A very beautiful place, but passing through such run-down looking places to get there. The Eastern Cape has loads of natural beauty, but not much in the way of infrastructure.
#6: About 4,400km in - I love this "brochure" pic of Bullet. Taken where she parked overnight looking over a beautiful canyon in a place called Hogs Back. There's just one tarred road coming in, and you've gotta travel the same 150km or so to get back out. Very worth it though. Magical place. Apparently where JRR Tolkien got inspiration for Lord of the Rings.
#7: Same place - This was Bullet's view of the canyon overnight. The rondawel we stayed in was on the left there even closer to the canyon edge. 1 x cold night + 1 x roaring fireplace + 1 x great car awaiting outside = bliss!
#8: About 5,000km in - Just left Oudtshoorn and crossed that mountain range - the Swartberg Pass. Amazing views and all dirt roads which Bullet handled brilliantly. This side of the pass was "closed" and we had to squeeze round that sign on the left to get past.
And then back home to Cape Town! Lotsa road and lotsa fun, and lotsa cool tunes on the (surprisingly good) sound system (with 6GB worth of music on the USB stick), and I miss spending hours at a time in my i30.
Thanks for listening all. I have no idea why I've spent so much time and effort sharing this online. I'm not even on the usual social networks. I think I'm just happy with my car and am happy to share with others who are. Weird.
