I found this car parked in the street, two houses down from our house. It's an Isabella Borgward. A peculiar name for a car, don't you think?

I found this beauty (a Ford Mustang 289) parked in the underground parking lot behind the (awesome) Aston Martin dealership at the V&A Waterfront. It's an arty photo, but isn't she beautiful? Wouldn't you love to take a ride in her?

Remember these old VW Kombi's? Can you imagine how many things this one has seen, and how many stories this one could tell? It sure looks like it has a long history of memories attached to the neglected paintwork, rusty spots, and worn-out interior. :)

My Toyota-bigot friends would contest and suggest that the Land Cruiser is the best 4x4 to use in Africa. While I'd probably not win a technical motoring argument, there's good reason to argue that Landy's are the best 4x4 for tripping into deepest Africa.

Land Rovers have been so pervasive in Africa over the last 20 or 30 years that finding desperately needed spare parts on old broken-down Landy is very likely - even in the remotest of African villages. The same cannot be said for modern, albeit awesome, 4x4s. What that says for the Land Rover's durability is an arguing point that my Toyota friends would certainly pose, but in reality it's true, any vehicle is prone to failing at some point and it's undeniable that having a ready supply of old parts is always super-useful.

That said, I'd probably rather road-trip though Africa in a comfy new 4x4 and fork out the money for a satellite phone than take a 4,000km trip in one of these rattle-traps. :)

Seeing this iconic South African-student car, the VW Beetle, reminded me of a conversation that I had with a friend about the brownish-red Cochineal beetle.

The Cochineal beetle is a beetle farmed in South America and used to produce a natural red dye. For me the depressing thing about the use of the beetle as a colourant isn't as much that they die, it's more how they're killed. I won't go into the detail here, but read the article if you're interested to know. We humans really don't play nice some times.

For reference, manufacturers use the names "cochineal extract", "carmine", "crimson lake", "natural red 4", "C.I. 75470", "E120" to indicate that this beetle was used in the production of their red soft drinks, sweets, or makeup.

A friend of ours bought one of these babies a few months ago - and oh my, it's an amazing beast of a car. He took us for a quick drive and, to be honest, the car had more of a superbike feel than the feel of a car. The roar of the engine, the sequential gear box, the acceleration and how close you feel to the the road is quite unlike anything else I've ever driven in.

The problem of course is the matter of speeding fines - and the other (and more serious) issue of the soon-to-be-introduced Demerit Points System. Under this system, whenever a traffic offence is committed a point will be awarded to the offender. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of point you're going to do the dance of joy over. An offender's license is suspended for three months once they exceed 12 points. That's serious stuff, considering our less-than-ideal public transport system.

Every three months a point is subtracted from one's balance - reinstating the license when the number of points reach 12. The thing is, if a license is suspended three times it's automatically cancelled. Now that's serious stuff!