Driving in South Africa

 This is one of my very favourite subjects.  As a tourist guide and road user I find that I commonly speak to fellow drivers on the road - although they clearly can't hear what I'm saying. 

One of the 'conversations' I have is why there is the need to be there first - no matter where you are going to and where 'there' is.  So I normally shake my head when a driver past me just to squeeze infront of my vehicle to be stuck behind the truck I was stuck behind too.  "How could you not see that the truck was the reason for my patient driving?  The fact that the wheels are picking up pebbles like shrapnel seem not to bother you.  And you only past me.  Now you also realise that the truck is 22 meters long and that the traffic from the opposite direction comes in drips and drabs."

Another 'conversation' is why a taxi driver seem not to know the difference between hazard lights and normal indicators.  "Why, for the life of me, do you use the hazards?  Is there an emergency on board?  Are you turning left or right? Oh, there you...  Just picking up somebody!"  I do hope that somebody in some taxi association will someday come up with the bright idea that first you use your indicators and once you are almost stopping you put the hazards on.  Then we will love your driving just a little bit more.  We already appreciate the fact that as a taxi driver you perform a public service and have to be 'there' first.

For now, the last 'conversation' is "Why are you overtaking that or my vehicle when you clearly can't see if there is any traffic coming your way?!  Yikes!  That can't be good.. oh no! Eish! Playing chicken in broad daylight isn't fun!"

So?  The next time you are driving and you see some 'crazy' person shaking her head and talking animatedly to you, it might be me...

Save driving!