Losing A Wheel !

We were extremely lucky that the car didn't roll as it swerved out of control on 3 wheels .......

Two weekend's ago, when my mother-in-law was still visiting us from the UK, we decided to go through to one of the major towns for lunch at one of our favourite (Indian) restaurants. We had just left the farm, and around 15 minutes into our journey (we were not yet on tar and were still driving on the dirt road) my husband, who was driving, suddenly lost control of the car and we started swerving all over the road, almost rolling the car. It was pretty scary, I was sitting in the back between the 2 kids (both strapped in) & just grabbed on to both of them as best I could and held my breath .... as we skidded all over the road & finally ground to a shuddering halt.

My first thought was that we'd had a burst tyre .... we all got out of the car (baby son had been asleep and continued sleeping throughout !) to survey the damage - we'd lost our back left wheel/tyre (thank goodness hubby hadn't been driving any faster than he was, else we would've flipped the car for sure).

Every single passerby - without exception - stopped to offer their help to us

We had recently - a week before - broken the back left hand shock absorber when we mistakenly hit an unmarked speed bump (or 'sleeping policeman' as we like to call them here) on our way to the Tanzanian coast for a few day's break. Hubby had replaced it himself upon our return, but had left the farm mechanic to put the tyre back on & tighten the wheel nuts - which were obviously not tightened enough, which is why we lost the entire wheel ! (And yes - incase you were wondering - I did have choice words with hubby on the side of the road as to why he hadn't CHECKED IT HIMSELF !!!!)

The wheel studs broke off & this is what remained of our wheel !

Anyway .... there we were ..... all dressed up with no where to go .... stranded on a fairly remote strip of road in the blazing hot African sun ..... missing a wheel which we searched for to no avail. By this time lots of people (mainly kids) had appeared out of nowhere to help us look for it. A young boy called Samuel eventually found it for us .... buried deep within the grass on the roadside ... and he proudly rolled it up to the car for us, as his friends cheered him on !

Two of our farm mechanics arrive to survey the damage, and bring us a 'rescue' vehicle to drive back to the farm in !

We waited on the roadside for about half an hour waiting for our farm mechanics to arrive to 'rescue' us (hubby had managed to phone one of them - thank goodness for more reliable mobile 'phone networks in our remoter areas these days) and in the meantime I began chatting to the children, who were gathered around and watching everything with great interest - we were their daily entertainment ! I asked them in Swahili, if any of them spoke English, and Samuel replied on their behalf 'Yes, a little'. I then asked them if they all went to school and they replied proudly 'Yes !' and Samuel was very pleased to tell me that he attends 'Secondary' school. He was such a polite and helpful child, and I gave him a small gift ('to buy yourself and your friends some soda's') as a thank you for retrieving our wheel for us.

Every single person who passed us during the time we were sitting on the roadside, stopped to offer their help - be it people in vehicles (few & far between), trucks, on bicycle or on foot - both old and young alike. But then, that's the spirit of Tanzania and her people !

Our car has since been repaired and is back on the road again. (The damage included a bent shock absorber, broken wheel studs, broken hand brake cable, shattered brake disk and we also lost the brake pads !) I took the opportunity to point out to hubby after the incident 'It would probably never have happened if we'd been driving a Landrover instead !' ('cause you all know I'm a Landrover girl at heart ;)

But jokes aside, we are lucky that we were all safe, as things could have been a lot worse.