New Zealand - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

If you have not sampled peak hour in Gaborone at one of their famous traffic circles or 4 way traffic lights you have not lived

 

Can say the same for Nairobi, CHAOS!!!!!!

[patches]

If you have not sampled peak hour in Gaborone at one of their famous traffic circles or 4 way traffic lights you have not lived

 

 

Can say the same for Nairobi, CHAOS!!!!!!

 

My work in SA used to take me all over Africa. Whilst SA traffic is bad and the taxis are notorious for their misinterpretation of the road rules, it was still somewhat orderly by comparison.

 

Some of my favourite observations:

 

Kampala, Uganda - Massive 4 way stop (approximately 3 lanes wide each of each direction) on the outskirts when heading from Entebe through to Mbarara. 24 lanes fighting it out at once is not ideal

 

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania - Morning commutes from the peninsula to site involved a bit of drive-by-braille. It seems light contact between vehicles during the struggle through traffic is par for the course for our driver.

 

Lagos, Nigeria - Drive-by-echo-location is the technique used in the bustling city. Drivers are constantly beeping their hooters, but not in shows of aggression or alarm. More as a way to inform surrounding vehicles that you're coming past. It kinda makes sense, but would drive a westerner crazy.

 

Ilisha, Nigeria - Not a good sign when your driver decides to get out of his vehicle and start a fist fight with a pedestrian he nearly knocked over. Even worse when dozens of towns-folk swarm the vehicle and get enraged when they see one of my colleagues trying to film the situation on their phone. Needless to say, he very quickly ceased.

 

Windhoek, Namibia - Generally very peaceful, orderly and nothing notable to report. But when a massive rain storm hits a city that is not designed for high volumes of water, the streets turned into rivers and we saw cars floating down (or off) the roads as I was trying to rush back to the airport to catch my flight home.

 

Some fun times... in hind site

[Wayne Potgieter]

Dar Es Salaam was my worst.

 

And Shanghai. EEK

[Kranswurm]

My work in SA used to take me all over Africa. Whilst SA traffic is bad and the taxis are notorious for their misinterpretation of the road rules, it was still somewhat orderly by comparison.

 

Some of my favourite observations:

 

Kampala, Uganda - Massive 4 way stop (approximately 3 lanes wide each of each direction) on the outskirts when heading from Entebe through to Mbarara. 24 lanes fighting it out at once is not ideal

 

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania - Morning commutes from the peninsula to site involved a bit of drive-by-braille. It seems light contact between vehicles during the struggle through traffic is par for the course for our driver.

 

Lagos, Nigeria - Drive-by-echo-location is the technique used in the bustling city. Drivers are constantly beeping their hooters, but not in shows of aggression or alarm. More as a way to inform surrounding vehicles that you're coming past. It kinda makes sense, but would drive a westerner crazy.

 

Ilisha, Nigeria - Not a good sign when your driver decides to get out of his vehicle and start a fist fight with a pedestrian he nearly knocked over. Even worse when dozens of towns-folk swarm the vehicle and get enraged when they see one of my colleagues trying to film the situation on their phone. Needless to say, he very quickly ceased.

 

Windhoek, Namibia - Generally very peaceful, orderly and nothing notable to report. But when a massive rain storm hits a city that is not designed for high volumes of water, the streets turned into rivers and we saw cars floating down (or off) the roads as I was trying to rush back to the airport to catch my flight home.

 

Some fun times... in hind site

Don't forget Maputo which must have more cars than people

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

My work in SA used to take me all over Africa. Whilst SA traffic is bad and the taxis are notorious for their misinterpretation of the road rules, it was still somewhat orderly by comparison.

 

Some of my favourite observations:

 

Kampala, Uganda - Massive 4 way stop (approximately 3 lanes wide each of each direction) on the outskirts when heading from Entebe through to Mbarara. 24 lanes fighting it out at once is not ideal

 

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania - Morning commutes from the peninsula to site involved a bit of drive-by-braille. It seems light contact between vehicles during the struggle through traffic is par for the course for our driver.

 

Lagos, Nigeria - Drive-by-echo-location is the technique used in the bustling city. Drivers are constantly beeping their hooters, but not in shows of aggression or alarm. More as a way to inform surrounding vehicles that you're coming past. It kinda makes sense, but would drive a westerner crazy.

 

Ilisha, Nigeria - Not a good sign when your driver decides to get out of his vehicle and start a fist fight with a pedestrian he nearly knocked over. Even worse when dozens of towns-folk swarm the vehicle and get enraged when they see one of my colleagues trying to film the situation on their phone. Needless to say, he very quickly ceased.

 

Windhoek, Namibia - Generally very peaceful, orderly and nothing notable to report. But when a massive rain storm hits a city that is not designed for high volumes of water, the streets turned into rivers and we saw cars floating down (or off) the roads as I was trying to rush back to the airport to catch my flight home.

 

Some fun times... in hind site

 

As long as you know the number one when it comes to traffic in Africa, "Might has right". The bigger the car, the more say they have.

Don't pick a fight with a truck............

[Wannabe]

Gabs never phased me.

Nairobi was an eye opener, but Mombassa blew me away. I would have parked the car and walked the rest of the way, if we did not have a Driver used to the hustle and bustle.

[patham]

Don't forget Maputo which must have more cars than people

 

I started typing a long reply exactly about Maputo, got distracted, then my browser lost my text entry. Here is attempt 2. 

 

Most of Maputo I though was OK, but there was one crazy intersection on the EN1 heading north, close to the outskirts of town. It was multiple lanes and has/had bus and taxi ranks on all corners, and was a total mess of vehicles pulling on, pulling off, with traffic, against traffic, pedestrians running everywhere, you name it. It was the one place where driving defensively would not work - take the offensive - spot a gap and put foot!

 

On one memorable occasion I (in my pretend Landy - Freelander) was in convoy with a very unreliable Jeep Grand Cherokee (their diesel injector issues started just after the border). Typical symptoms were kangaroo lurches and pull-backs as the fuel came and went, sometimes followed by intermittent cut-outs.

 

As the sweeper, I could see them up ahead of me lurching haphazardly (fitting in quite well to the local driving pattern), but I had already made up my mind that no way was I towing them through the intersection if they broke down- we would both end up getting totalled. If it died, I would rescue the people and their belongings, but their car was going to be sacrificed and left behind. Luckily - it didn't come to that....   

 

Fun times indeed. I still remember in that trip having to do an unplanned overnight stay at Xai-Xai whilst the Jeep had a bit of an emergency fuel system clean. An unfinished back-packers, the only place we could find, was a mosquito pit from hell. Karma was working though - the owner of the jeep won the prize for the most mozzie bites at over 160.

[patham]

Gabs never phased me.

Nairobi was an eye opener, but Mombassa blew me away. I would have parked the car and walked the rest of the way, if we did not have a Driver used to the hustle and bustle.

 

Change of continent, but I did some work in Vietnam for a few years. Hanoi was absolutely crazy as well. The mine's expat staff, who all had local licenses, were only allowed to drive in the location of the mine, for the trip to the airport to Hanoi they had to have a local driver.

 

The airport run got better when a new dual-carriageway highway opened up, as most of the hot spots could be avoided. But with my own two eyes I saw a truck going down the wrong carriageway once. He knew he was in the wrong, and was concerned enough to be in the slow lane with his hazards on, but that was the extent of his caring....

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

I once did a job in Tanzania for MSF.
They gave me a driver for the trip from Dar to Mbeya which was awesome to relax and see the sites. Or so you would think.

The vehicle, an Avanza type van, was restricted to 80kmh with an alarm at 80kmh they beeped incessantly. A normal person would drive at like 78/79kmh, not my sadistic driver. He rode flat foot all the way, seemingly spurred on by the constant beeping!!!!
I thankfully had earphones and an iPod.

[vanniri]

Here's a strange bad, given that folk seem to be looking for that:

 

The lack of beasts of all sizes.  You drop a crumb in Africa, there's competition between ants, flies, birds, a lizard and whatever over it.  Probably the ants (and crumb) get eaten by the bird.  Here you drop a crumb, a week later it's still there.

 

I try and spend some time in the bush here.  It's flippn impenetrable.  And compared to Africa, empty.  There are a couple of birds, of about 4 species, and aside from one of a couple of variety of deer, and possums, and occasionally wallabies, nothing.  It's like all the ecological niches are empty.

 

In Africa at sunset, you get a set of evening sounds - guinea fowl and pheasants all putting themselves to bed etc, here - nothing.  Just gets dark.

 

It's kind of like being in primordial forest waiting for dinosaurs to evolve.

Similar experience in Europe.

 

South America was a blast, even then the African diversity with the change of the day is unmatched.

[davetapson]

Yeah, so at risk of being fired from the forum - got invited by a buddy to use his wife's eBike to ride out Puhoi valley, back down the Waiwera valley via the far side of the Island.

EBikes are where it is at.  Normal bikes are dead.  They just don't know it yet.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5070686274

 

Edited April 5, 2021 by davetapson

[WrightJnr]

Yeah, so at risk of being fired from the forum - got invited by a buddy to use his wife's eBike to ride out Puhoi valley, back down the Waiwera valley via the far side of the Island.

 

EBikes are where it is at. Normal bikes are dead. They just don't know it yet.

 

https://www.strava.com/activities/5070686274

 

 

100%

[Wayne Potgieter]

Took the family up north for Easter Weekend. We spent some time at a lodge in Paihia.

 

Managed to sneak in a trail run and some kayak adventure. The kids also convinced me to parasail.

 

Here are some photos - we really are quite privileged to live in such a beautiful place.

Edited April 5, 2021 by Wayne Potgieter

[Wayne Potgieter]

I miss slap chips. Like proper slap chips with vinegar.

[davetapson]

I miss slap chips. Like proper slap chips with vinegar.

The Saffas in Browns Bay rave about Sherwood Takeaways - you need to ask for 'soft chips' - but they didn't really have the slapness that slap chips require... for me anyways.

 

https://goo.gl/maps/JGwBuu9Lukmaq6QH6

[hayleyearth]

Yeah, so at risk of being fired from the forum - got invited by a buddy to use his wife's eBike to ride out Puhoi valley, back down the Waiwera valley via the far side of the Island.

 

EBikes are where it is at. Normal bikes are dead. They just don't know it yet.

 

https://www.strava.com/activities/5070686274

 

 

We did an overnight bike trip a couple of months back, easy gravel trails, only 87km... I was shocked to see so many roadie looking guys on e-bikes all the way. We were 2 of maybe 5 or 6 people on pedal bikes. Crazy I think. I can't imagine riding one myself yet, maybe when I'm old, fat or lazy one day.