How Scott saved my life in the desert

Spent a cleansing and beautiful two weeks in South Africa & Namibia over Christmas & New Years. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

We are still sorting the 3500+ photos and will post an album soon, but thought you'd like to see my heroic Scott in action changing a tire on the side of a hot, dusty, lonely road in the middle of absolutely nowhere in the Namibia desert.

Never mind how his cowboy driving and cavalier attitude toward warning road signs as we approached a rocky river bed may have caused the blowout...we were in a double cab 4X4 Nissan Pathfinder gas guzzler with the double CD collection of Johnny Cash performing live at Folsom and San Quentin prisons blaring on the stereo. How could he be expected to drive any other way??

It wasn't until we'd driven a few kilometers past the river bed that we turned down Johnny to pinpoint where a certain troubling noise was coming from....when Scott saw smoke coming from the back rear tire we realized we better stop to have a look.

The tire was a mess! Scott got to it right away, but it didn't help that the handle on the jack was from a different model and so didn't actually connect with the cranking mechanism. But thankfully Scott was prepared with his leatherman (the only time I've ever seen him use the thing aside from once peeling fruit while hiking). And so with some strategic assistance from some nearby boulders (don't ask), we were on our way after only 45 minutes.

I stood by feebly holding our road map over Scott's head in an effort to shade his face and head from the sun, which was giving off about 120 degrees of unforgiving heat. After a while I gave up and started taking pictures.

Click on album for larger view...