The road I travel

I seldom have to worry about getting from point A to point B when I do my business travels. Usually everything is organized well before my trip, and even though pick up in most African countries are below standard, I still manage to get where I have to be fairly easily. Today my trip to Pretoria was a bit less organized. I knew I had to fly to Johannesburg, but from there to Pretoria was still a bit vague. I asked around for opinions but decided I will cross the proverbial bridge when I get to Johannesburg. There are not many options; taxi, train, shuttle or hitch hiking. Before I could make my decision I was cornered by what seemed to be a taxi driver. “Taxi Sir?” First I wanted to bypass him for being so obtrusive, but I had to start somewhere. A taxi to Arcadia usually costs R450, “but for you sir, we can do it for R400”. He got the job…

It was already dark when I got into his sporty red Mazda X6 and before I could say “go”, we were already on our way. Being a reggae fan I was very pleased when I heard Burning Spear’s “My roots I'll never forget, I'll always remember the road I travel” playing on the sound system while we were doing about 120 in the 100km/h zone. It was only closer to the Tembisa off-ramp that I realized for the first time that I got into a stranger’s car without checking if it was really a taxi or not. There were no signs on the door and no yellow light on the roof either. It didn’t even have a distance clock. What if I end up in Tembisa minus a laptop, a cell phone or even my life? I realized how careless I was and was thinking of ways to protect myself should we take this turn-off to Tembisa. The taxi driver whose name I never got didn’t speak much. I never know when I take a taxi if you should speak to the driver or not and if you should sit in the front or at the back. I didn’t make too much conversation either but did tell him that Cape Town was “always good” when he asked. I also mentioned that I also like reggae and hoped that my fellow brother will have some mercy on me because of that. When Burning Spear was well away with his “We all are one” I made sure that my driver friend heard me sing along. After we passed the Tembisa turn-off I was looking for familiar landmarks to confirm that we are actually on our way to Pretoria. Doing 130 in an 80 zone now didn’t bother me much, I was buckled up and we were on the R21 north which sounded like the right direction to be in. I have never been so pleased to see the Voortrekker Monument before. Pretoria indeed. Now we still had to get through Sunnyside and then hopefully to Arcadia.

The nameless taxi driver took me straight to the hotel’s entrance. I was so relieved to be there in one piece that I did not even go for the R400 deal. I gave him his R450, shook his hand and wished him a safe trip back to the airport. When I checked the receipt it looked like a real taxi company and that my fears were unfounded . I checked in and when Marvin at reception asked me how I got there, I was quite proud to say “I came by taxi, why?” Marvin said: “Oh, we had a shuttle waiting for you at the airport Sir and they just phoned to say that they could not find you....”