I wonder how many arguments this invention has caused ................. I wonder how many ruined holidays can be directly linked to this piece of modern technology............... I wonder how many people have had raised blood pressure or self combusted because of this small little piece of metal.
Last week we went to the Kruger National Park for the weekend, and my eldest daughter let us use her Garmin, apparently........ something that we are still to discover, it is great in the park is shows all the hides, the dams, the roads....... just not the animals which is a pity because they are sometimes really hard to find, maybe someone can invent a heat seeking Garmin that can show where there is life out there in the bush, because sometimes we went for kilometers without seeing anything............
When we left home we put on the Garmin, and were on our way, estimated time of arrival in the Kruger Park was 3.45pm........ great we could get in a bit of sight seeing, ample time to get to the camp, which closes its gates at 6.30pm.......... no problem..................haha.
My "better half" however decides to take a "shortcut" that he knows ............. which obviously is a national secret because the Garmin is completely unaware of its existance............... it will take time off the trip, he said, and better than that you would not have to pay any of the toll fees , he said ............ well the Garmin did not like the way we were going, at every intersection she would tell us to go left, go left, and every time "the man" went straight it would add another 15 minutes on to our arrival time..... go left........... 4.00pm ......... recalculating .......... go left ......... 4.15pm.......... recalculating..............go left 4.35pm........ recalculating............. go left 4,45pm........... recalculating ............ go left ........ 5.20pm......... recalculating ............ at that point in time if my daughter and I had heard that female tell us once more to go left we would have imploded, so we switched off the Garmin, accompanied by raised voices, remarks about negativity, and lets go home rather..........
It would appear that we are lucky enough to have the only Garmin in the world that lies ...............
yep.... bottom line that female has no idea where she is going .......... and her timing is all
out ............it is impossible when you are taking the "shortcut" for it to take longer, I am wondering whether we can sue the voice who gives the directions, for making his "shortcut" take longer.
We eventually arrived at the park,at 5.15pm we had to go in at a different gate than we had intended because the Crocodile River Bridge was flooded, and we were staying in that camp, so we had a 90 minute trip to our camp .......... no problem............
NOW he decides to use the Garmin to find our way to the camp.................. well after an hours trip, in which we saw rhino, elephant and lots of buck..... we arrived ............. back at our starting point the Garmin had taken us in a circle...................
We now had 30 minutes to reach the camp before the gates closed........ impossible, we phoned ahead and got permission to be late, what a trip, we saw leopard, we saw elephant , we saw rhino, it was almost as though every animal in the park was conspiring against us to make us late, I mean how can you just drive past a leopard you had to stop and take photo's and watch..........
Just when we thought it could not get better..........there was lion in the road 20 metres from the gate to our camp .................... thanks to the Garmin's wrong programming we had seen 4 of the big 5 in one hour ........
We never used the Garmin again, and on the way home, we used the national roads, and paid the toll fees ...................... I paid the toll fees .............. he wanted to use the short cut again..............
We have a TomTom..it's pretty good, but I always take a map and written instructions because I don't trust technology that much! Sounds like an amazing trip..I thought we saw some pretty cool wildlife on our Alaska trip,but nothing like what you saw! Amazing!
ReplyDeleteHey ya,
ReplyDeleteI have read your past 2-3 posts and u know what i really like the way you write these posts :) cheers and dont be surprise if you see my visits on your blog evryday ..Cheers
YaYa, good idea, next time the map goes with. We were really lucky this trip we even saw cheetah, which is unusual at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteSonal, thanks and look forward to seeing you on my blog.
Hey Karen,
ReplyDeleteJust wanted you to know my garmin lies to, here in the USA, but how funny how we have pilots that always know a shortcut...lol.
Errrr 3 hours later !!!
We will be living on the edge in June when we visit SA for first time, for the worldcup. We will be hiring a car and doing all the good stuff..hahaha. Can't wait.
Denise.
It is a beautiful country, and a very friendly one, let me know it you need any tips??
ReplyDelete