As most of you know, we did a short recee drive along die eastern freestate escarpment on the long weekend of march. Scenic drives up some dirt mountain passes and down a few times. Yeah NO! Didn't even come close tbh.
It been raining more than usual in most of SA and still going across the country, anyway so we had some rain before the weekend, not much to be concerned about you know.
Finally, the weekend came, and we set of to Volksrust for a lunch before hitting our first pass just outside of Newcastle. It was a hot day and gave us good hopes for a dry weekend with some mud puddles along the way. Anyway Ffw a few hours, its now around 2PM and we are deflating tires at the base of Muller pass just west of Newcastle, (All the vehicles who joined were novice drivers to the off-road world) yeah you have that same feeling of something bad is about to happen.
The journey starts.
6 Rigs , 3 with trailers. At first, we had a pretty average drive up mullers pass up to around 4 klik's past Moorfield farm. This is where the wet mountain started to show itself, streams flowing down onto the road from all sides of the valley plenty causing muddy patches. FUN! yeah, slipping and getting the rigs dirty, the way we like it. Brooom, Brooom brom! Yip the lead Guide "Me Obviously" stuck in a mud hole probably a meter deep. the line looked dry and it was complete sludge under the dry baked surface. Everyone had a good laugh and the Q7 gave me a tug out of the slop, with that behind us we carefully guided everyone around the hole and back on track.
By now time started to catch up with us as our whole lunch in Volksrust as well as a two-hour delay in the morning get together pushed us 3 hour behind schedule, on top of that we also averaged around 35-40km/h do to severe erosion on the pass....
JA Nout ons kak! You see we planned an additional 80k's or so down Normandien pass and back up Collings pass before heading to Camp skeurklip, clearly if Mullers pass was this slow, 2 more passes will take us 3 hours at least. With this we quickly hopped on the gps and scouted the "long" Fast plaas pad towards Camp. This route gave us hope to reach camp just as the sun was supposed to set over the horizon. I mean we were able to do 70-80km/h comfortably in 4H. Everything went smooth and OH MY! What a hidden Gem of a Place. Incredible vistas at sunset with heavy rain clouds hanging above!!
Almost relaxing considering you can't see the sun and camps still at least an hour away. All of a sudden we had a river crossing being crossed by the river.. if you know what I mean VVVVV
The dude in the q7, well his creativity got hold of him the week prior our little adventure and decided to bolt a flimsy 1mm rock guard to the bottom off the Audi, as you can imagine the water crossing did this "guard" no justice and turned it into a plow less than 2 klik's from the crossing. With Absolutely no time to waste I jumped in under the Q7 with him and we spanner-ed away in the red clay to get it darn plate off. 20 min job that I tell you, in an absolute drench! We looked like two Pypkar ouens at the end of a hekpoort event. So, I stripped down to my jockey and just shoved my muddy clothes into the spare on the back door, (Ja die koue reen het my lont extra kort laat vertoon Okay) Jumped in the Terry and made headway for camp. Swambo has some skills and moments later shoved some new and dry pant on my lap. Lekker man, nat en half kaalgat in my kar!
Anyhow far in the distance the "skeur" of camp skeurklip was vividly visible as the last moments of day lit up the sky. Minutes later it was completely dark and the downpour downgraded to a drizzle.
Somewhere just past 6PM we finally reached the sign "Camp skeurklip >>>" dankie I thought to myself, kinda gatvol for the extreme "turn" this adventure took. Did I mention it was pitch black outside? Yes now we were in the Farm but couldn't find the road to the campsite, my Zulu is extremely limited and that all that ouke spoke. With this and the limited "google maps earth view without 4G" I could make out a potential road to camp. Navigating down and around some Blackwattle forests and through a creek I was faced with a Shocking 2m deep eroded donga of a road heading up the hill. "Hoe de fok gaan ek die ounes met hulle trailers hier op kry": I WAS FUMMING. After almost moering om the Skinny terrano with its rtt I managed to turn around and head back to the farm house.
(Let me just clear up the scene with you- 2 small 6x6m sinkplaat sandsteun plaas huisies with moer ou gorduine van die 2de wereld oorlog!, 1 Zulu man (werker) that can just say YA! to every English Question you ask him, wattle and a few krimrtart bome around, long grass and a drizzle of rain in complete darkness, MoER boys! Wrong turn vibes!)
NA n moerse Gesukkel kon die man darm verstaan ek soek kamp. He then proceeded to take the same road I just drove down into a level 4 obstacle walking in front of us just as the rain came to a complete stop. Now as most of you know, terrain looks completely different at night then in the day. with saying this that donga was still a no Go for the convoy. Then to the far left barely visible into the grass looped a faint 2 spoor patjie around the moerse donga washout. Yes that's the road to camp. Subsequently we gave the guy a lift back to the farm house and gathered the troops for camp.
Well Raai wat! dit was nogsteeds nie Fkn Braaityd nie, Hoekom vra julle? KYK NET HIER! vvv
The cause to this delay you may ask? You see I drove in front through the creek and up the grass 2 spoor padtjie and kept close formation so NO ONE MOERS INTO die Fkn GAt, but chris behind me thought he might give the rest a bit more space and pulled in alongside me on the righthand side as I was crawling up the grassy hill. Leon in the Gwm, with questionable night eyesight followed Chris in the Q7 and cut the corner, subsequently causing this panarie.
But with some military grade coordination, teamwork and Graaf time we managed to successfully recover the bakkie and trailer without any damages. Soon after and with everyone else turning well clear of the hole we managed to reach camp. NOW Imagine this, you and swambo are cuddling in the boswa all alone on a dead still night after some wine and crackers and then these adrenalin Pumped "overlander" rigs comes around the bush with spotlights and all. Shame I would have shat myself if i was them. I Mean , Ek sal mos my moer af skrik as daar 6 bakies dai tyd vani aand ini kampie in gery kom en ek en mamma is aleen! Luckily they were aware that we booked that night, but I still think they imagined we cancelled.
Setting up camp took a few and eventually we were able to light a fire for Supper! And If the guy by some chance is on this forum and reads this. I'm so sorry, but I couldn't keep them quite after such an eventful day! Tnx for your good sportsmanship and sticking it out till 12!
