Car Wash, Baby

One of the highlights of our trip to South Africa was the car wash.

Yeah, that’s right, the car wash.

After CQ and I drove from Swaziland to South Africa along that dirt road, we realized that our white pale red car was in dire need of a car wash. It was a shadow of its original self, a new color of dusty pale red that could only be replicated with a drive down a 60 mile dry dirt road from Swaziland to South Africa.

Since we didn’t want to return the car looking in such shabby shape we stopped in the city of Witsum (CHECK) to fill up the tank, trade driving, and find a car wash. Driving along the main road from the highway we eventually found a filling station where we were able to do all of the above.

The car wash was announced at 65 Rand, or about 8.75$.

It took an hour. We watched in total shock as the team washing our car actually washed our car. Completely, thoroughly, and totally. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life.

The guys started by hand washing the exterior of the car, then power washing the exterior of the car, followed by opening the doors and washing the inside joints, as well as opening the hood and washing out the engine. Once the wet wash was over, the car was moved over to the dry wash area where the team tackled the inside of the car with a vacuum and such vigor you could not imagine.

There wasn’t a surface of the car that was left untouched. They wiped down the inside of the door jams, the washed behind the rearview mirror, they scrubbed the compartment between the driver and passenger seat.

The whole process took an hour, and as CQ noted, he’s never had a car wash like this at home—usually they stop where this team started, leaving CQ to take the car home and finish the job.

We were so impressed with the job we gave them a 35 Rand tip—and they were dually thankful—they are probably still talking about us.