KAQ 658B - An Obituary

Today I received some very sad news from back home. After years and years of almost dying but coming back from the brink of death each time, it seems that finally the struggle was too much and I'm sorry to announce that my good old Subaru Outback has taken its final splutter and reached the end of its days with our family.

I don’t know why we have a tendency to get attached to cars, especially this one but it’s weird thinking that I will never have that sudden panic when I remember that the breaks don’t really work or feel my heart sink as I hear that tell-tell hissing sound of the radiator overheating, or having to take a standard 10 minutes out of my day to turn it on. I learnt to drive in this car, had my first crash in this car and of course came accustomed to taking on the African roads behind the wheel of this car.

We, as a family, all had very different takes on this car, there were times when I never wanted to see it again (prime time being when it over-heated at the top of the Rift Valley, and I was stuck for hours with some people who were not used to African driving – not my finest hour), and when suddenly in the middle of driving your passenger politely enquires why their feet are getting wet and you have to find a way of telling them that the radiator leaks without them freaking out. My sister, on the other hand – hated the sight of the car. This probably had something to do with the fact that when you turned on the engine an annoying ticking sound started, and to this day I have no idea what it was.

There were, however, times when the car was great, it was the prefect thing to wiz around Nairobi National Park in and as long as we had a bottle of water to feed the radiator all was well. And the entire of Nairobi knew it was me, as they could hear the car spluttering along form a mile away, indeed one of the best games to play was guessing how far up any hill you could get in the car in 1^st gear before it ground to a halt and started going backwards.

Still when my cousin burnt out its 15^th and final clutch and the engine could no longer be fixed by the farm mechanics, it was time to say goodbye to the old outback.  KAQ 658B - driving you was never dull and you provided us with endless stories. To whoever the lucky guy is out there who has you now: a word of advice - don't drive anywhere without a bottle of water in the back of the car and I of course wish you patience because you’re going to need it.

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