TRAVEL Cross-country by Ford Ranger
On road trips, anything can happen. Often weird and pretty out-there things, too.
Like when you find yourself at one of those generic-looking petrol stations somewhere between Joburg and Bloemfontein sipping a tepid Wimpy Americano while your co-driver, who happens to be a Cape Town coffee evangelist who has trained world-champion baristas and carries his own brand of ground beans in his luggage, watches in disgust, despairing eyebrow raised.
I was surrounded by a bunch of motoring hacks and a fleet of fresh-off-the-production-line nextgeneration Ford Rangers. Almost everyone in our convoy was swigging similarly lacklustre lattes and frightful flat whites – never mind the oily chips and burgers and soggy toasted sarmies being wolfed down.
We were on a mission, though, coffee quality a lesser priority than making time. We weren't so much seeking out the sights and sounds of the Free State as we were getting our loaded bakkies to some hard-toreach destinations. On the backs of our vehicles were JoJo tanks, a few fruit trees and assorted heavy-duty equipment – all bound for rural parts.
Getting there was the tough bit, our Ford Rangers the solution.
Once we left the N1, we would intentionally navigate towards a few appalling dirt roads, engage beast mode as we put those bakkies through their paces on a through-the-rural-heartland adventure that would traverse not only pretty countryside, but seek out some of the scariest mountain roads we could get our tyres onto.
