After a quick pit stop at the petrol station in Sesriem, we began making our way home (at least our temporary home) to Windhoek. Once again the scenery was amazing of a different sort as we made our way through the pass of the Naukluftberge range. We were pushing hard—up and down, fast and slow, in and out of gullies. After taking a wrong turn and double backing, Ole Bess began experiencing some serious problems. First the power steering went out, then the battery indicator started flashing, finally the check engine light came on and there was nothing left to do but stop and try to figure out the problem. Fortunately we had come into an area where there was cell phone coverage and our friends called to check on us and indicated that they were turning around and coming to our aid. What a good thing because we were essentially in the middle of nowhere. Reid determined that although the coolant was overflowing, one of the main belts had broken. We had been warned about having spare belts given their elusiveness in the African bush, so we just so happened to have an extra. The next problem was the fact that we didn’t have the correct tools to get it back on. Larkin jumped in his vehicle and drove down to the village store and made inquiries about a mechanic who might have the proper tools. In the meantime a vehicle bearing embassy plates slowed to ask us if we needed help. In mid-sentence response, I recognized the couple as being the US AID Mission Chief, Greg Gottlieb and his wife Linda. “Hey don’t we know you?” Indeed we did and what a fortuitous coincidence. So, Greg and his wife joined our roadside entourage as we waited for the mechanic to arrive.
About 20 minutes later, a few chaps in a donkey cart showed up with tools that weren’t much better than what we had. The men played with the belt for a while until Reid determined that the bearing had seized and there would’t be any replacement of the belt until that got fixed. Just about this time a small pick-up truck pulled up alongside our party. The fellow introduced himself as Pinkie and said that he was a mechanic at Pupkewitz Toyota in Windhoek (mind you we were 110 km from the nearest big town, Rehoboth, and that was another 75 km from Windhoek). He had some tools too. Unfortunately, he hadn’t got a replacement bearing, but he made a few phone calls and said his friend could locate one. His friend, it would seem, is the chief mechanic at the shop where we usually take Ole Bess for normal maintenance, Minz Garage. At this point, we were so floored by the series of coincidences that we all stopped fretting and trusted that someone was looking out for us and this was all going to work out.
There are a good deal more details to this, but that would take another two pages, so just know that Annie and I got home with the Gottliebs, Emma and Augustus made it in with the Powells and Reid made it back before 11:00 p.m. even after driving the route between Rehoboth and Klein Aub (the village of our breakdown) three times that evening. God is Great indeed. We had no doubt paid it forward in the kindness we had shown to the Swiss ladies and were now on the receiving end of someone else’s kindness. Funny how things work out.
About 20 minutes later, a few chaps in a donkey cart showed up with tools that weren’t much better than what we had. The men played with the belt for a while until Reid determined that the bearing had seized and there would’t be any replacement of the belt until that got fixed. Just about this time a small pick-up truck pulled up alongside our party. The fellow introduced himself as Pinkie and said that he was a mechanic at Pupkewitz Toyota in Windhoek (mind you we were 110 km from the nearest big town, Rehoboth, and that was another 75 km from Windhoek). He had some tools too. Unfortunately, he hadn’t got a replacement bearing, but he made a few phone calls and said his friend could locate one. His friend, it would seem, is the chief mechanic at the shop where we usually take Ole Bess for normal maintenance, Minz Garage. At this point, we were so floored by the series of coincidences that we all stopped fretting and trusted that someone was looking out for us and this was all going to work out.
There are a good deal more details to this, but that would take another two pages, so just know that Annie and I got home with the Gottliebs, Emma and Augustus made it in with the Powells and Reid made it back before 11:00 p.m. even after driving the route between Rehoboth and Klein Aub (the village of our breakdown) three times that evening. God is Great indeed. We had no doubt paid it forward in the kindness we had shown to the Swiss ladies and were now on the receiving end of someone else’s kindness. Funny how things work out.
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