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Submitted by: Sean Lange
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How The Mydo got to The Tackle Box in Middelburg
The Tackle Box in Middelburg, on the N4 to Mozambique, now stocks the Mydo range of lures. It may seem an odd place to find a well stocked and determined looking tackle shop, but the spread of equipment soon tells that these guys fish for everything!
Their saltwater section is vaste and carries everything you need for your next trip to the coast, but it’s their freshwater selection that really boggles. They have everything! In all flavours and sizes.
But how The Mydo got to Middelburg, was an adventure in itself!
On another wayward mission, this time to Mozambique, I had my liefde Renske along, my cousin Robbie, Oscar and Chelsea (12 month Jack Muscles), and a new boat in tow. We had just collected the old landcruiser from the garage in Durban, where they had serviced the brakes. And now we were off from Johannesburg, on the N4.
The N4 is a rad road, dotted with juxtaposes of huge industry and perfect nature. Its also the road that serviced the trade route between Lourenzo Marques and Johannesburg, steeped in history just as the Beira Corridor is. It’s hard to detect but cruising with my Google Maps on and Google Now throwing me clues, at least I am finally forming pictures in my mind.
Ok, but not on this trip. The cruiser/boat combo is always a mission and that 2F diesel is a sleepy beast at best. But 110kmh felt fine and we were comfortably taking it all in as we climbed one of those long gentle hills, this one taking us past Middelburg. Its about in the middle between Johannesburg (I just can’t write that other word, makes my fingers want to puke), and the delightful Nelspruit?
Bang. Left back of cruiser loses a wheel. Brake job?! You put your life in your hands when you entrust your car to idiots. (Thanks Teddy, you know who you are). The cruiser now riding on bare metal and sparks, that thing that braces the suspension and removes most of a cruisers clearance, luckily sticks right down, and we rode out the initial tail wag and slowly came to a very ungraceful and unbecoming and unwelcome halt. But the wheel had other ideas. The over tightened wheel nuts had snapped in the workshop already (idiots), and the newly launched 16 inch wheel inside paddled us at 110kmh. It cut us off and slowly aimed for its final resting spot, 2 kilometres away. But to get there, there were obstacles. Cars. Coming the other way?! My heart stopped as the wheel just missed a BMW and a Toyota.
To cut it short, already another many thousand out of the ever shallow pocket (The brakes had already cost R12 000), and things were getting worse…
But we were safe on the side of the road, and I hopped a fence and over into a building development where the nice people called the N4 vehicle rescue service. Their number is actually plastered along the entire route of the N4, righyt into Maputo! Would you believe it.
So a little bantam bakkie with a huge rugby forward arrives and soon I am driving through Middelburg shopping for new studs and bolts. We get some and I start the arduous task of removing the brakes, the backing plate – the entire lot. The brakes were damaged but I fixed that with a screwdriver and a hammer, and soon I could sneak the new studs in through the back (after a long battle to get the old ones out).
I reassemble and even put the long lost wheel back on when the rugby forward offers to complete the job, I relent thankfully – but when I hear the distinct sound of another stud snapping, I nearly lose it and murder the guy. I mean, it was a 6 hour roadside job?! So, I drive off, fuming, on 5 studs out of 6, luckily finding a taxi mechanic down the road, with decent studs, that he and I together, whacked into the backing plate again, in about an hour.
Off we go and soon get pulled by the police curious at the boat no doubt. I can’t find my licence again! But he gets bored and leaves us to continue to Komati and Ressano Garcia, where we arrive to a closed border. We missed it by 20 minutes. So I sleep on the boat to keep a watch and the others find places in an already overcrowded cruiser.
Early bells and through the border and the clutch fluid starts to leak out. Stuck in fourth again (this has happened before on this trundler), and into the hectic ring road traffic around Maputo where we manage to get a few bottles of the good stuff, and limp off pumping that clutch. The whole day to get to Tofo with the rig behind us and finally we made it just before midnight. Three days after we left Port Shepstone?!?
So when driving past Middelburg on my way to Komati again, I stopped off for a reminisce, and enquired about the fishing in the area. We were directed into town where we stumbled upon The Tackle Box, who, having previously stocked The Mydo, were very enthusiastic and stoked to have the brand back on the shelves.
The Tackle Box in Middelburg stock the entire saltwater range of Mydo’s, and the new Mydo Luck Shot, in all the sizes and colours.
