The Other Side of the Garden
BBC TopGear India|South Africa Booklet

South Africa’s Garden Route is a lush, romantic drive. Typically. The other half is the dramatic inland drive through red desert, past big birds and big mountains and big bottles of wine...

Vardhan Kondvikar
The Other Side of the Garden

I have some tangential history with Mercedes-Benz in South Africa.My family, for some reason, decided to make a 1963 fintail part of it – it was second-hand and had been used rather badly, so it kept going wrong, but it was magnificent. Vast, with creaky leather, and to a six-year-old boy, something between the Titanic and a spaceship, designed for epic trips, possibly catching wild animals on the way. God knows why I wasn’t allowed to take it on one.

Years later, car gone, I found a South African car magazine that had a fintail, the same kind, being driven through the Karoo, an arid, ochre semi-desert, clouds of red dust enticingly backlit, the whole seeming exactly the kind of once-in-a life time journey I’d dreamt of. The CLA I’m in is rather smaller, but the Karoo – probably from ‘garo’, a Khoikhoi word meaning ‘desert’ – is just as epic. This is the flip-side of the Garden Route, that lush, romantic, wine-strewn drive between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. This is haunting, beautiful, and you only need to go through a small part of it to feel its muscles. And this is only the Klein Karoo, the little one...

Starting off in Port Elizabeth, you wouldn’t imagine you’re going to find this in your path. PE is often windy, often rainy, a great destination for whale-watching, and the road to Knysna is a highway with little to do other than get used to South Africa’s interesting view of overtaking: if you’re being passed, you move all the way to the left, driving on the wide shoulder, so that the guy passing you doesn’t have to stress out. He flashes his hazard lights to thank you, you flash your high beams to tell him it wasn’t a problem.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der South Africa Booklet-Ausgabe von BBC TopGear India.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der South Africa Booklet-Ausgabe von BBC TopGear India.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS BBC TOPGEAR INDIAAlle anzeigen
Does It Fly?
BBC TopGear India

Does It Fly?

2024 TVS APACHE RR 310 ₹2.75 Lakh - ₹2.97 Lakh (ex-showroom)

time-read
7 Minuten  |
October 2024
Is It A Scooter? Is It A Bike? No! It Is The BMW CE 02
BBC TopGear India

Is It A Scooter? Is It A Bike? No! It Is The BMW CE 02

It is rare when you come across a moment where a company brings out a vehicle into the market without knowing who exactly they want to sell it to.

time-read
4 Minuten  |
October 2024
Aston Martin Valkyrie
BBC TopGear India

Aston Martin Valkyrie

The Aston Martin Valkyrie still looks like nothing else on four wheels. Probably because it isn’t.

time-read
1 min  |
October 2024
ONE-MAN BAND
BBC TopGear India

ONE-MAN BAND

We are a cynical bunch of people as we try our best to narrow down our vision and focus on the things that are lacking.

time-read
6 Minuten  |
October 2024
CRISIS AVERTED! THE EXISTENTIAL KIND
BBC TopGear India

CRISIS AVERTED! THE EXISTENTIAL KIND

Finally, the Yezdi Adventure won’t be suffering from an existential crisis anymore.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
October 2024
ROYAL ENFIELD HIMALAYAN
BBC TopGear India

ROYAL ENFIELD HIMALAYAN

ALTHOUGH IT IS A PERENNIAL ORDEAL FOR ANY MOTORCYCLIST to feel sad while parting ways with a motorcycle, it became even sadder for me this time around.

time-read
1 min  |
October 2024
TVS APACHE RTR 310
BBC TopGear India

TVS APACHE RTR 310

THE FIRST THING I WANT TO SAY IS - “IT IS A MENACE ON WHEELS”.

time-read
1 min  |
October 2024
ACE OF BASE
BBC TopGear India

ACE OF BASE

What happens when you take Porsche's old school entry level model and give it a very not entry level upgrade? This is a 914 as you've never seen it before

time-read
5 Minuten  |
October 2024
MOMS KNOW BEST
BBC TopGear India

MOMS KNOW BEST

Volvo's XC90 was the stereotypical Soccer Mom car. So how will the all-electric EX90 be received among the soccer pitches of Orange County?

time-read
7 Minuten  |
October 2024
THE THEORYOF EVOLUTION
BBC TopGear India

THE THEORYOF EVOLUTION

Ridged bladder seats, an inflating steering wheel and an AI track day coach... has Lotus hit on the supercar’s future, or gone mad’?

time-read
6 Minuten  |
October 2024