44. The day our V.W. Combi got cloned in Cape Town

In the three weeks we had been in South Africa much had been added to the pair of boobs and ‘Cape Town or Bust’ on our combi. Literally hundreds of messages had been scrawled over the back, front and sides in biro, lip-stick or scratched. It would be no exaggeration to say that hardly any of the original paint work was visible.

Some of the messages were complimentary but most used extremely colourful language suggesting we should procreate with ourselves and / or return to Rhodesia immediately. A good number, possibly as much as 50% were limericks, similar to those found on the walls of 1960’s gent’s toilets and incorporating the same graphic anatomical illustrations.

So shortly after arriving in Cape Town it was decided that instead of driving around in what looked like a gent’s toilet on wheels we would treat our faithful old combi to a new paint job. 

After much consideration we settled on the checkerboard look...black and white squares. Something unique that when seen, would immediately be associated with the band.

Our combi entered the garage a scruffy, bedraggled, gent's loo on wheels... and emerged three days later a stylish band van. What a make-over. The old girl looked amazing... gleaming black and white checks, very 60’s, very cool...and very, very unique...or so we thought.

                        looking less than her gleaming best

We felt really pleased with ourselves, even smug, as we drove to The Grand Prix along the coast road to Sea Point. It occurred to us that we were no longer just travelling in a Combi but a in a moving mobile poster. Every journey we took from now on we’d be advertising ourselves. Brilliant. 

Suddenly, almost surreally, our chequered combi approached us on the opposite side of the road. “What the...” but before we could take it in...our chequered combi drove across the junction directly ahead. And, if that wasn’t enough mind games for one day we had gone no more than a hundred yards when, as true as God, we were over taken by at least three chequered combis.

No, we hadn’t inadvertently slipped through a worm-hole into some weird Chequered van dimension, it turned out our combi had been painted exactly the same as the Top Hat Dry Cleaning Company who had a fleet of combi vans...as seen in an advert below from the time.

So from that day forth every journey we took in the van we’d be advertising Top Hat Cleaners. What a result!