Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Garmin, maps,

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..............

5 comments:

  1. 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!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey ya,

    I 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

    ReplyDelete
  3. 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.

    Sonal, thanks and look forward to seeing you on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Karen,

    Just 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.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is a beautiful country, and a very friendly one, let me know it you need any tips??

    ReplyDelete

I AM WHO I AM

Thanks for popping in to my blog, i hope you enjoy reading it as much as i enjoy writing it, please pass it on to friends and family, and leave a comment to let me know that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, SOMETIME is reading it...