Driving from Illovo, Joburg to Oolong Lounge, Bloemfontein
Planned departure: 10am
Actual departure: 12.40pm
Distance: 398km (about 4 hours)
Planned arrival time: 5pm
Actual arrival time: 6pmAfter last night’s fantastic show at Howl Records Folk Festival at The Nunnery, woke up elated and amped for my winter tour to Cape Town. For the first time, nothing hanging over my head before leave. This tour in particular feels epic in nature.
Despite our intentions to leave at 10am, we took it pretty easy. Before we hit the road, we headed to Aware music store at 70 Juta Street so that Jo could pick up some CDs she ordered. We then headed to next door to Post, where Aware’s DJ Destrukto bought us a cup of coffee. Such a sweetheart! We got takeaway prego rolls (which were delicious!) from Post for lunch and then hit the road. This was around 12.40pm. Cutting it fine, but Bloem is only about four hours away, and soundcheck at Oolong set for 5pm. So all good, right?
Right. We hit traffic as soon as we hit the M1/N1 to Bloem… fortunately, it cleared up fairly quickly and it was clear skies and roads until just before Ventersburg. At this point, my car’s electrics went a little awry. My handbrake and inside car light went on, and my indicator/hazard and temperature gauge alert lights went off. Uh oh.
I pulled off at the first garage we came across, a friendly Caltex in Ventersburg. An auto-electrician was called and arrived quite quickly. While he fiddled around in the fuse box, we stood in the freezing cold, with the wind chilling our bones despite the vanilla cappuccinos in our hands. This was the first time since I quit that I found myself thinking that now was a good time for a cigarette. So glad I resisted that impulse.
I asked Jo to take a photo of me paying the sweet auto-electrician for our tour blog, which ended up causing a bit of a fuss. His girlfriend, who’d been waiting in his car the entire time, charged up to Jo and demanded that she delete the photo. Jo’s wide-eyed “We’re musicians, it’s for our tour blog. It’s innocent, I promise!” seemed to calm her down a little, but it left us both with that icky feeling that we’d accidentally done something wrong. Did she think we were from Carte Blanche? Or was she just jealous? Her boyfriend definitely didn’t seem to think anything untoward had been done, so we waved goodbye and sped away in as non-suspicious a way as we could.
We were back on the road by 4pm, with 180km (?) to go, but the adrenaline pumping through me, and the weird vibes from Aggro Girl, had me laughing and feeling the adventure creeping up on us. We were going to be late for soundcheck at 5pm, but we’d get there and that’s all that mattered. It’s at this pint that I realise how far into the unknown we are stepping here. Also, I really need to pee.
Late for soundcheck, but everybody was chilled - it was love at first sight for Bloem and her people, think it was returned *blush* can't wait to go back! Sandy Little & Louw and Mariska & Bux opened - wow - some serious talent here!
Hit the road at 10.30pm after the show, gonna drive through the night - Cape Town here we come!!!
Day 1 Tour Costs
Description / Damage
Padkos / R100
Petrol fill-up #1 / R486
Prego rolls at Post / R30
Toll 1 (Grasmere) / R13
Toll 2 (Vaal) / R43
Feel-better break-down vanilla cappuccinos / R16
Auto-electrician / R240
Toll 3 (Verkeerdevlei) / R37
Total / R965
Day 1 Driving Soundtrack
Today we rocked the following stations/albums:
702 (Shotgun’s prerequisite for a partner: must love weekend 702!)
The Organ – Grab That Gun
The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac
Thomas Krane –self-titled album (Delicious local band alert!)
Eels – Souljacker (Jo’s prerequisite in a partner: must love the Eels!)
GIG COUNT: Oolong Loung show brings us to 37/100 shows
