9/06/2010

Roadside Repairs (Yala 05/06/2010)

Craaack!

It was a disconcerting sound that echoed like a gunshot as the Defender 110 went over the pothole. The old jeep rattled to a stop, seemingly fatally wounded. Sumudhu turned to us and rather nonchalantly announced that the axle had broken. This seemed the worst possible news as our run of the park had just started and a broken axle seemed something that would require a tow out of the park.

Sumudhu repairing the jeep

Casually Sumudhu reached over for his phone and called Sugathe, his father, the wily old veteran jeep driver of Yala. Shortly afterwards, Sugathe came up in his Defender 110. And that’s when things became a bit surreal.

Axle for repair; Sugathe, our guardian angel in heavy disguise leaves

Casually, as if this was an everyday kind of repair, Sugathe passed Sumudhu a spare axle which was casually slotted in as if the jeep was made out of lego building blocks. The broken axle was placed in the back for repairs in Tissa, a quick wash of hands for Sumudhu and we were off!

Sumudhu cleaning up before we head off

4 comments:

Me-shak said...

Great to hear you guys gt back safely. Post the pictures soon :D

Cheers!

magerata said...

Only in Sri Lanka! Those Landrovers are hard to break. We have one with totaly air conditioned and seats at the back. My father used to drive it all over the place, even when there is no road! :)
Glad the incident stop you from your visit to the park.

Janith said...

Brilliant. Our guys are really good with making and breaking stuff, no? :D

Offthebeatentrack said...

@Me Shak - hehe, it was an adventure, many pictures coming soon!

@Magerata - would love to have one of those landroevers!

@Chavie - brilliant with the fixing for sure :)