A day on the road

You never know what the road will bring. Toast Coetzer heads south on the N1 and discovers South Africa.

- NICOLENE LOUW

I tap a quick double-hoot to my friends, who swiftly disappear behind their large, black gate. I reverse out of their yard and swing the nose of my Subaru down the street. Auckland Park is still dark. I follow the directions on my phone, which leads me to Empire Road and then the M1 south. At first light I’m on the N1 and thinking about the roughly 850km that lie ahead.

My destination is Cradock. Or, more accurately, my mom’s farm about 50km beyond Cradock. I’ve just spent a month on the road in Botswana, Limpopo and Gauteng, researching stories for the magazine. The Subaru is packed with camping gear and all the random purchases I inevitably collect during a long trip. For example, there’s a 10kg sack of birdseed from the mill in Vaalwater; a large plastic bag filled with dried mopane worms; and a handful of St Louis lagers to enjoy back home when I start missing those Botswana sunsets.

This morning’s sunrise is a goody. Sebokeng appears to my left, and beyond that, a colour show that makes me crane my neck to keep looking. There are some clouds in the east, which means the splendour drags on until I’m over the Vaal River. But now, approaching Sasolburg’s towers of smoke and fire, the orange glow is like an apocalyptic movie scene.

My eyes return to the highway just as something sprints across. A dog? No, it runs more fluidly, like a cheetah, but that can’t be… It’s a serval! It’s about 200m ahead of me and I watch anxiously as it crosses the oncoming lanes before disappearing in the tall grass like a phantom. Wow!

The serval brings a smile to my face and that smile stays put until I reach Kroonstad. I pull off at the Shell Ultra City. It's just after 7 am and the forecourt is busy. Drivers pop hoods to check oil and passengers stroll into the shop where they either join a queue for coffee or make long strides for the bathroom.