A travel experience I do not wish to have again

The year was 2017, and my older brother had partially gifted me a Volkswagen 4 salon car that he barely used for a year. The car was neat and mildly tinted. It's a portable SUV, yet one you will enjoy riding in. Visiting the mechanic workshop was regular; however, some things would not just go as expected. Some nuts were loosened, and my detective skill was not sharp enough. I did not realize that a rod from the car detached and struck the gear box. Two problems occurred; one was easily fixed, but the other was a challenge. I got the gear box fixed at the workshop, the leaking spot was sealed, and the oil was replaced or gauged.

---

A friend of mine had a wedding, which I intended to attend with my car. By the way, I started driving cars in 2009; however, the Volkswagen car was a fairly new car, and driving in it attached some class to me. My place of residence in Lagos is about a 5-hour drive, and usually the road is busy and dangerous with heavy-duty trucks. The night before takeoff, I heard an unusual sound from the engine side. It was late already, and my intention was to take off at the first light of dawn. The car was moving fine; it was dusk, and so I ignored the one-time noise I heard from the car. Driving is a hobby for me, and long-distance travel is not a scare in any way. I knew my family would disapprove of me traveling with the car, so I kept this away from them (including my older brother, who lives in Lagos).

IMAGE CREDIT IS MINE

I took off the following morning, and my journey was smooth up until Ogbomoso, which is just about a 40-minute drive from my takeoff town. I noticed there that the car's sound changed and became a little slower. I got to a community not too far from Oyo town that I can't remember the name of now (I'm not familiar with that route). I got an elderly man who was a mechanic to look into the car, and it was confirmed that the gear was the issue and not selecting. My car was an automatic. I stayed with him for a while, and when he was not making significant headway, I had to abandon the car and continue my journey with public transportation. I got to Lagos and confessed my ordeal to my older brother. He was and is very considerate. He offered me his wife's car to drive around town for the period I was in Lagos. All the while, I kept in touch with the mechanic and sent him money to have the gear repaired.

After the wedding in Lagos, I took public transport back to Oyo and @smc.arike.oba joined me in Ibadan with the intention of accompanying me back to Ilorin. We got to the community where the car was and realized what the mechanic did was to manage the situation rather than solve the problem. He told me I should drive slowly and not speed much. The Oyo-Ogbomoso road is often busy with heavy-duty trucks, and by faith, we began the journey, two of us. The trucks we overtook were in the hundreds. Unfortunately for us, dusk was approaching. Though I was driving slowly, I continued to overtake trucks that were stagnating for reasons we could not ascertain at the time. Eventually, we got to a deadlock where some cars had to make diversions to join another route because the one we took was pretty much occupied. The night had fallen, and it was about 8 p.m.

The car could not accelerate further, and the only selection was the reverse. My friend and I sat in the car for 4 hours, as we could neither locate a mechanic nor accelerate forward. By about 1 a.m., I had taken the most dangerous decision in my travel history, which was putting the car in reverse and driving with it in the popular and dangerous "odo-oba." The road itself was bad and had a history of accidents. You do not want to imagine me driving in reverse mode at such an hour and in such a place. I had to man up, as my companion was a lady. She was equally bold. We barely got out of the dangerous spot when we were stopped by some men that came out of a trailer parked by the roadside. Apparently, they saw what I did on the road and had to stop me where I was. We were admonished to park the car, as such a drive could not get us anywhere. We obliged and slept in the car till daybreak.

The car was towed by another vehicle to Ilorin at an extra cost (about ₦30, 000) and, thankfully, arrived at my mechanic in Ilorin. I had to tell my family back home that the car was faulty; what I didn't tell them was how the fault arrived. Eventually, I had to foot the bill of securing a replacement for the whole gear for about ₦100,000.

After that incident, I made a decision not to travel with my personal car on any occasion unless it was well worth it. I have learned to listen often to the sound of my car and, as much as possible, avoid risky journeys.

Thank you for reading. I would love to have your comments and contributions.