It rained on Sunday in KZN. All day. In fact half of the night before as well. So dirt roads turned to slush, dust surfaces to mud, and dongas to lakes.
Which was all blooming marvellous for me, because I was up in the lush Karkloof area overnighting at the 150-year-old Shafton Grange country manor... 54 hectares of beautiful farmlands, and big green fields with gorgeous Lipizzaners grazing lazily in them.
And while it was dust clouds in my wake when I arrived on Saturday, it was a whole new wet and wild experience leaving on Sunday.
Loved it: the big beefy (and very good looking) Nissan Navara 3.0 V6 diesel 4x4 that I was driving just ploughed through the lot, bouncing through the mud pools with glee, churning up the thick black slush with carefree (nearly said gay!) abandon.
The rain was incessant, so the huge windscreen wipers behaved like well-trained metronomes, back and forth, back and forth, all the way home. The demister worked overtime, and the aircon was a boon, because despite the rain, it was still humid, being KZN. The double cab was the perfect getaway vehicle: all of our luggage and goodies could be stowed easily in the back seats and then when coming home, we stashed it on the floors and front seat and my little cherub spread out her quilt and pillow behind me and read herself into a coma.
This latest offering from Nissan is not just another truck. It's more spacious, better equipped, far more powerful yet fuel efficient, and more macho, than ever before.
No surprises, incidentally, that the Navara is Europe's top-selling workhorse...
The V6 dCi is a powerful big beast that boasts a mighty 550Nm of torque and develops 170kW of power, and you'll find the going exceptionally smooth and refined in this bakkie.
In fact the engine is so remarkably quiet that just after we first took delivery, my daughter made me stop the car so she could hop out and unlock the fuel cap to check that it actually was powered by diesel.
It weighs a good two tonnes, yet is fantastically quick off the start line and relishes the steepest hills and climbs. It's also a terrific towing vehicle, if you have boats, caravans or racing cars.
We loved the double-decker cubby, the comfy seats, the seven-speed auto gearbox, and the Intelligent Driving Control four-wheel-drive set up, where you can manually choose your various off-road/on-road modes.
We also enjoyed the reverse camera, the touchscreen info detailing fuel economy and consumption etc, and we pretty much kept in line with the quoted 9.5 litres per 100km figures put out by Nissan: in fact, we were mostly under that.
The Navara is a serious bundu basher, but it's equally pleasurable and at ease in the city, and you'll enjoy the quick and immediate response when you put your foot down and want to overtake in a hurry.
Top speed, by the way, is a not-too-shabby 195km/h. And naturally it's jam-packed with all the active and passive safety features you'd expect.
I loved it, although I think it's rather pricey at R533 400.