Re: ng. car rental story

Can't match the damage stories but I did surprise the woman at Cape Town station by checking to see if the BMW 320 I was picking up (I'd arrived on the Blue Train) had a spare wheel! Dropped it off at Johannesburg airport absolutely filthy - comment from the woman there "I see you discovered our dirt roads!" - I had almost gone off the N2 near Grahamstown which is how I discovered that the tyres where made of a "longlasting" compound as opposed to the "stick to the road" compound. The dirt road from Knysna to Avontuur was interesting - it starts as a high speed tarmac but somewhere in the forest (round a blind bend) it turns to dirt. The South African approach to road works was interesting, actually shocking is more appropriate - the N2 again, this time near Port Shepstone, travelling fast over the brow of a hill to discover no tarmac! Mud for 200 yards - lift off and hope. I was told a story of someone scattering a bus queue by arriving (down hill) in Orange River to discover they'd damaged the brakes when chasing 25NC's down the lineside service road.
US hire cars - no book of instructions and eventually reading the hire agreement to discover that I wasn't allowed to use dirt roads. This was after driving the dirt road on the F&CC grade. I had the same opinion of the tyres on that car. This one had been an upgrade after the woman at the desk at Denver Airport asked where I was going - she thought I "needed a bit more power".
We all seem to have survived our adventures - sometimes even wiser " />
G