N3 MADNESS last night!

[Mike Hoxbig]

true but surely the chances of an accident increase when more cars are on the road?

Also, as you said, if there is an eff-up and you get delayed, you will still get home at 7/8pm. much better than Midnight if you ask me.

Yeah it's still luck of the draw though. If everyone has the same thought of leaving at 7am to avoid the madness, it's going to be busy when leaving at 7am I'd personally rather take an extra 2 days leave, and either come back 2 days early or 2 days late, just to make sure...

 

[Wall]

Yeah it's still luck of the draw though. If everyone has the same thought of leaving at 7am to avoid the madness, it's going to be busy when leaving at 7am I'd personally rather take an extra 2 days leave, and either come back 2 days early or 2 days late, just to make sure...

I'd personally do the same though having just started work, leave isn't freely available to me atm

 

[Brenden_E]

We left today from Durban -> Centurion. Zoomed through with almost no traffic.

 

[Rickster]

If you only going for the easter weekend, why not fly?

 

[Brenden_E]

If you only going for the easter weekend, why not fly?

5 people in the car = R1.5K to drive down. To fly 5 people will cost what - R4K?

 

[Rickster]

5 people in the car = R1.5K to drive down. To fly 5 people will cost what - R4K?

I was referring to OP.

 

[supersunbird]

If you only going for the easter weekend, why not fly?

Might work if one person, but lets say a 3 member family?

Lets see:

- Plane:
R615 on Kulula x 3 then x 2 for return = R3 690
HYUNDAI I10 (OR SIMILAR) for the 4days/3 nights = R609
Parking for 4 days at OR Tambo/Gautrain trip to airport for 3 = OR Tambo: ???/ Gautrain: R135 x 3 = R405 and R400 for the parking = R805

So plane is at least R5104 for the travel.


- Car:
Lets go with 3 tanks of fuel = R1400
Toll gates to and fro = R409
Food and drinks = R400

So car at least R2209

Make it four people and car costs stay almost the same, just more food. Plane goes up quite a bit again, but in the planes favour, probably 3 hours and a bit of time vs 7 hours travel time.

 

[supersunbird]

I was referring to OP.

No excuse, he stated in a post he had womenz with him, wasn't just him.

 

[Colin62]

- Plane:
R615 on Kulula x 3 = R1 845

You've still got to get back to Jo'burg, so double that, and you'd need to book a long, long time in advance to get R615 per ticket on the Easter weekend.

 

[zululami]

If you only going for the easter weekend, why not fly?

I could have. My SO had a procedure recently, she can't fly for some three months. And it is a more expensive - and we really wanted a road trip!!! and boy did we get it!

 

[supersunbird]

You've still got to get back to Jo'burg, so double that, and you'd need to book a long, long time in advance to get R615 per ticket on the Easter weekend.

Oh crap, you're right, those are just one way tickets! Will amend post.

 

[diabolus]

Oh crap, you're right, those are just one way tickets! Will amend post.

Plus don't forget, flight time is not equal to "total time spent getting to your destination". A flight is alot longer if you start timing yourself when you drive to the airport + waiting on the airport + waiting for luggage + driving to your accomdation from airport.

I did this calc for a flight to Bloem, if i start driving at 8am from Pta , and someone else starts driving to the airport at 8am for the flight (obviously taking off at say 9-9:30), we will most likely be at the destination at the same time ;-0 .

Obviously this only seems to work for shorter distances, a flight from Jhb -> CT is a different story, but then fuel costs will start to become a bigger factor since the Jhb -> CT flight route is probably the cheapest route in this country to fly.

 

[Hitchcock]

If you do decide to drive over this period of time, best is a day before or after the start of the long weekend.

2 years ago I drove into this trap. To turn off the highway to get into Montrose outside Harrismith took ages. The traffic just piled up right there as well. Took very long to pass toll gates as well.

This year we left a day before the long weekend and traffic was no problem at all.

 

[supersunbird]

I actually left on the Friday of the long weekend, but only at 10am. No delays even at De Hoek or Wilge toll plazas, guess everyone went way earlier. So guess leaving late to go there, but leaving early to come back is one solution.

 

[Colin62]

If you do decide to drive over this period of time, best is a day before or after the start of the long weekend.

I took a different approach. Twenty years ago, I moved from Gauteng to KZN. Now when I travel the N3 on a long weekend, I tootle along watching you thousands of guys all going the other way, while we have a nice peaceful trip on our side of the road. Just never make the mistake of trying to stop at one of the stops that has traffic from both directions, and you're sorted

 

[Wall]

I actually left on the Friday of the long weekend, but only at 10am. No delays even at De Hoek or Wilge toll plazas, guess everyone went way earlier. So guess leaving late to go there, but leaving early to come back is one solution.

I left at 3:15am and the traffic was great. There was a steady stream of cars ahead of you but no congestion at tolls etc.

 

[jman]

We left splashy fen (awesome music festival btw) in Underburg at about 10am, and got to Pretoria at about 17.30. With one stop