My NOKIA 6210 Navigator is quite a special device. Yes it’s a cell phone with the ability to make calls, send and receive SMSs and MMSs, but also more. Much more. A month ago I was called out to a client who is based about 30km from Witbank, Mpumalanga. I know the road from Johannesburg to Witbank and it’s quite straight forward once you pick the correct freeway.
And getting to Witbank, one of the biggest cities in Mpumalanga is also fairly easy. But this place was far out there, it was not even close to the main freeway. Being called to an early-morning meeting in a village I have never even heard of posed the main challenge for the 6210 Navigator, and of course, for me too.
So I punched in all the information I was able to gather and waited to see if it would find the place. Lo and behold it did so within seconds. I then set out on my journey with the 6210 Navigator next to me, constantly keeping a close eye to see if it did not deviate from its original results and route. Because I am unfamiliar with the area I was forced to keep strictly to the speed limit, regardless of the fact that Jozi traffic had eaten deeply into my time. Soon the freeway opened up and I continued with no trouble.
Everything was going well until I took the recommended offramp towards my destination town. Not far from the freeway construction had begun on my very road and a gravel detour pointed me towards a different direction. Would the NOKIA recalculate and be able to use this detour? I wasn’t so sure because I didn’t know how long the detour was operating for and if the Navigator had been updated to reflect it. My fears came true and I realised there was no detour on my map.
For a few kilometres the screen showed no road at all but I went on hoping to rejoin the mapped road at some later stage, and it finally happened after 12km of driving. From then on the 6210 Navigator was back on top, showing the right way and telling me where to turn. I eventually made it to the meeting, some 45km from Witbank in an area one would not normally find in any map.
