Three flat tyres, one lonely dirt road, and zero cellphone reception. Scarlett Steer gets down and dusty on the R355 between Ceres and Calvinia.

My grandmother always maintained a girl should know at least one of three things: how to sew a hem, roast a mean leg of lamb and change a tyre. I’m a ghastly cook and long ago discovered that a hem stays up just as well if stapled into place, so it’s a good thing I got number three under the belt.

I’m on what some claim is the longest uninterrupted dirt road in South Africa. And I have a flat …

It’s mid morning in late-summer and almost 35 degrees as I climb out of the Condor to survey the damage. Tssrt …tssrt, krrr …krrr. The drone of insects fills the Karoo air; the gentle tick, tick, tick of the cooling engine sounds unnatural among such wilderness.

I kneel down on the searing Karoo sand and send a prayer of thanks up to Grandma Barb. Little did I know this wasn’t to be the last time …