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Kerkenberg Zook DVR falls Extreme trip

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Kerkenberg Zook DVR falls Extreme trip

#1

Post by Bugger »

A couple of Zookies set out on a mini Ysbeer Extreme trip with DVR Extreme 4x4 October 2020 after Covid shit. To the Drakensberg Kerkenberg Spitskop area
As some of the Guys trip reports filter in then I'll post links and copies here

Just before the Trip Tiny got some upgrades
First was a 80mm body lift and a set of 35" Mud terrain tyres
And some Tiger 🐅 stripes and Tiny Tiger was born.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkE2EMQ ... e=youtu.be

Here is a link from some of the Action
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#2

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#3

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#4

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#5

Post by Bugger »

A pic of some of the Zookies lined up
Sign made by a very friendly lady
And Pierre and Woolf busy packing Tiny Tiger for the trip

Again once you on the trip you realize that you got far to much shit with you.ImageImageImage

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#6

Post by Bugger »

A write up from Facebook Ross outdoor Adventure


What a special weekend this was. As lockdown regulations are basically a thing of the past. We at #rossoutdooradventures had a blast up in the mountain tops of the sterkfontein dam region..

What a special place this is..
Firstly we started off at Retiefs klip.
This is where Piet Retief established a camp consistsing of 54 wagons on the 5th of October 1837. The next day Retief, Jan Gerritze Bantjies and 14 men set off to explore the region between the Drakensberg and Port Natal (modern day KZN).
Retief returned to the laarger with a message to the camp on 2 November 1837 announcing that the trekkers can now move down into Natal. He called this place Kerkenberg, as it reminded him of a church or a place of religious gathering.

So on 16 October 2020, 183years after Retief set up his laarger in Kerkenberg, we at Ross Outdoor adventures also left our laarger and moved into the mountain ranges of the sterkfontien dam area to explore just as Retief did by horseback.

After a quick Vehicle and radio check we finished up drivers meeting and set of as a convoy consisting of 11 vehicle's.
A short Tar and Gravel road session later we found ourselves passing through a old farm gate.
Directly after this gate the road went missing.. To the left just a dried out river bed and to the right this sandstone "koppie". Before we even knew it we were bouncing and crawling up this "koppie". The day continued over a series of twee spoor paatjies and a rocky off camper area here and there..

At Approximately 13:00 we found a nice outlay of tipical Drakensberg trees ans scrubs. After a short discussion we came to an agreement that this will be the place we set up camp.
1 Hour later everyone had unpacked set up their tents and had some sort of lunch.

Hereafter we went to explore the region further. We went down the valley and reached a small steam. Everybody crossed this and we definitely saw the top heavy nature of the suzuki's. Up and down we went for a few hours climbing and down the steep mountain hills. After some time we found ourselves in quite a particular predicament.

This particular obstacle that laid infront of us was a sandstone climb followed by dribi g ontop of a ridge with 180m plus cliffs on either sides of us.. To a view that literally puts you over the Metsimatsho dam near the QauQau district... Getting 11 vehicles on top of this rather narrow ridge took some heavy maneuvering and more guts than most will have...after a quick photo session we all slowly made our way back down this ridge again...

A short while latter we found ourselfs driving down a rock river bed and a few small waterfalls... At one point in this river we almost tumbled over in Bosvark trying to squeeze it between a rock and a hard place. This was one of the scariest things I have ever done in Bosvark.. After getting everyone out the river the sun wasn't visible anymore and dusk was approaching at an alarming rate. We quickly grabbed some dead wood laying around at the riverbed loaded it onto the vehicles and headed to campsite. Just before we entered camp we quickly filled up our water canisters with crystal clear water that came down from the mountain spring..

Day 1 in the wilderness ended with us around a warm campfire telling jokes and having a good know each other session..

Please stay tuned for the other half of this epic adventure.

From our team
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#7

Post by Bugger »

Some more Ross outdoor Adventures


And the Saga continues....

Day 3 or day 2 in the wilderness if we could put it that way... What a heap of surprises awaited us...

So after the first night of some elaborate partying and everyone going to sleep past 23:00 that night, we got awoken by that famous whistle of oom Dirk Van Reenen just as the sun started to clear up the darkness of the night.
With a quick koffie and some rusks followed by allot of commotion in the campsite we found ourself in the clearing below the camp doing quick radio checks for the day.
And oh boy what a day it was going to become...

Radio's checked. The normal morning jokes made and everyone still semi asleep. We got told over the radio by Oom Dirk "die is n rowwe bliksem" and in a few seconds total panic broke out silently in each vehicle.
What we had before us now was the infamous Zig zag obstacle, this creature infront of us was a 30-40deg climb on damp morning grass literally up the side of a mountain...
We all quickly got in line and hit this hill with all the confidence we could muster.. 2nd gear low range and lots of right foot was the order of the day in Bosvark.
At first it wasn't bad as we started of on a slightly of camber climb to the right. And then suddenly we had to take a sharp curve to the left where we hit the steepest part of this mountain hill, driving directly east into the morning sun on the back of the hill left us with a bit of a dilemma.
See where this section of track was the shadow of the mountain still casted a dark spot over the face of the hill, this combined with the sharp rays of the morning sun left all off us blind for atleast 50m going up this mountain. Navigator out the window and all drivers just giving it beans driving blind with navies shouting LEFFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT LEFFFFFFFFT!!!!
I can promise you the WRC Rally championship didn't even have this level of team work.

Well as you can expect we were all Fully awake when we reached the top. And had the adrenaline rushing for more...

After some ups and downs on the hills we reached "The Uncle". This one had a reputation to do quite allot of body damage as its basically a washed out boulder road up this hill. Everyone decided they will first walk this obstacle. Each team discussing which line will be better..
After some scouting we all set up to crawl up this obstacle. In a matter of a few minutes all suzukis was peacefully resting at the top with no damage and oom dirk on the radio saying: "you are the only team ever to come here without one recovery".

Then then set of to the river below in the valley.
Obviously no straight lines were driven and we found ourself stuck in a little revive. With a bit of fancy footwork and clutch control we popped out on the other side. Now down to the river bed.

We passed through this overgrown bushlike tunnel that was around 400meter long and popped out on one of the more interesting river beds I have ever seen, see this is sandstone territory so over the years the water carved into the sandstone and it made like this solid sandstone road with no rocks or boulders. It gave off the feeling of a cement skateboard park, this smooth surface with bums and dips.
We followed this "road" down to Hart waterfall.
Hart waterfall wasn't a big watefall but made for a spectacular view with its shallow pool at the base of of its 1.5meter drop. At the edge of the sandstone fall there's a formation in the stone made by many years of water washing over the edge. This formation as you can imagine was shaped like a heart <3

About 20meter or so back from the falls was a grade 5 obstacle a shear 45deg rock face that Oom dirk specifically said should not be done in a SWB vehicle. Being a bit of a rambo as Dirk kept saying Pumba and Bosvark quickly aligned themselfs to do this challenge with all others opting to pass. Pumba rushed the hill got halfway up and sat there for a few moments spinning its wheels and gained just enough traction to continue up this dreaded stone face...
Bosvark's first attempt was a bit slow and bare got up the hill before sliding back down. Re aligned and with a bit more momentum It also charged straight up this rock face as if it didn't exist. We did a few more moderate challenges in this area before we set off again.

After this we went to search for the legendary DVR waterfall where we all will quickly take a shower and a dip to cool down...
Problem was... This area was last driven in 2018 and only two vehicle made it to that spot..

So here we are 9 jimnys and 2 jeeps plowing through bushes and small deep streams...
It probably took twice as long as we expected but everyone got clean and we set off to go down to the Metshimatsho dam wall, crossing a few river streams as we moved down the revive.

Before one could reach the dam wall there was still two rather tough obstacles in the way.
Number one was a shirt stone and gravel climb
With a few steps, this obstacle proved difficult as it had almost zero traction due to gravel sections on it. Pumba went first and afyer the 3rd attempt the team noticed his back wheels weren't turning. Later to be diagnosed as a broken rear sideshaft...
Luckily this obstacle also had a bypass rought and the teams did this obstacle as the saw fit in their vehicles.

We then went down to a heavy Boulder section near the dam wall obstacle number two. Lets just say some paint got lost and some vehicles spent quite some time in this area...
After trying our best to be Rock crawlers (Failed) we took a short detour int a deep section of the river just to take a break and have some fun. Here we got thrown in the deep side literally.
After some mocking around and trying to get out of the river bed.. Which was way more difficult than antisipated we started heading back to camp as we had one limping vehicle and still quite some distance to cross before we were back in camp.

a Quick stop at Daryls rock saw some vehicles do some extreme flex exercises before heading back to camp. The drive back to camp was rather normal as we opted to reach it beforw the sun set..

Everyone pretty tired and battered after a long day of wheeling we reached DVR Falls down slope. This mental monster sits directly beside the zig zag we strated the day with... Only difference is its a straight line down this mountain face set at approximately 43deg angle and the fackt that Dirk rolled doen this slope over 200m in 2016 the 1st time he attempted to go up this hill. And has ever since only been a down route into camp...

Now stairing down this 400+meter slope. We all started to act like children infront of a principles office. Shunting at each other who should go first. Mufasa went down first follwed by tiny tiger and bosvark. When everyone reached the bottom. Something happened in
The atmosphere "Boys im going up DVR falls" said oom Dirk on the radio.
Remember this was a Inner deamon he had to face as he rolled down this mountain in 2016 in a open top jeep rolling 200m down the hill with more flips than one can count on your fingers.. Absolute silence followed as th 4.0 TJ jeep fired up and started to roar up this endless hill.

Bouncing, dust, limiters and the silence of suspence was all that could be witnessed in these few hair raising moments. The moment Mufasa disappeared over the peak of the hill a sudden burst of cheers and energy surged across the valley and everyone was more pumped then they were the whole day.
Oom Dirk spent a few moments just standing on top of the mountain... When he came down we gave him a Salute like never before.
The whole team was pump everyone set out to gather firewood as this was truly a special moment for all of us.....

The rest of this night will have to be a story of its own..

Stay tuned for part 3.
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#8

Post by Bugger »

More Ross outdoor Adventure






Adrenaline pumping combined with the good moral of the chaps with everyone at the bottom of this hill that was considered unconquerable by any mortal man we all set off to gather firewood in the nearby scrubs.

Lets just say men will be men.

Soon there was dead tree's being dragged behind the little jimnys from all directions, a massive pile of wood formed in a matter of moment next to our fire pit with probably enough wood to Braai for a whole Comando base.

With the fire starting to rage in our fire pit, spirits high the men arranged a litte 1902 re-enactment of the Anglo boer war. Of course the only civil way to accomplish this was with a classic Tug-O-war. Crackling and poping firewood in the background the red lining of the sunset just visible on the western peaks of the mountains and hills, no wind or a cloud in the sky set the perfect scene for the epic battle that was about to unfold.

Team Nomad representing great Britain to the left and team Kerneel on the right representing the Boer Republic. Massive amounts of ego flinging left and right between the spectators.
Slack was removed from the strap both teams charged.
5..
4..
3..
2..
1..

The flag dropped every last bit of power being delivered from the jimny's and is seconds Nomad disappeared in the dust cloud as he got tugged over no mans land intoe Boer territory...
Like in all war no victory can be justified with just one battle.

Sides switched and ready to go again, our brave ear heros alligned themselfs again.
4..
3...
2..
1..

Again massive commotionand dust from both sides. But this time team Nomad stood its groud with Kerneels putting its heart and soul into the battle. Both sides stealing a cm by each other with no actual results.
SNAP!!! And both vehicles shuttered to a stop..
Kerneels also snaped a sideshaft. Handing victory over to Team nomad.
This was by far the most accurate representation of the anglo boer war as the results came out exactly the same...

One needs to remember we are out bush. No workshops or special tools was available. At this stage we had the vitara "Pumba" with the broken sideshaft and Kerneels down both and in mobile with damage which would see most people's vehicles leave on a flatbed.

The bright Campfire fluttering to the south of the camp and Led post lights and torches to the north..

The team partially splited. Some enjoying the lekker chit chat of all the day's happenings around the campfire. And others doing their best to fix the damage to both Pumba and Kerneels. With these particulars changing as the night went on. Everyone pitched in some how or some time to help with the repairs.
Some fancy grinding work with a stone drill bit a 24mm socket and the only 12v drill we had available the Vitara's chances to live another day slowly started to increase. Luckily kerneels had all the right spare parts available to just swap in new equipment without any mayor fabrication work..

At 01:00 am sunday morning both Limping Suzuki's fired to life and did a quick hoon around the camp.. Keeping the few that went to bed early awake for a tad longer..
Moral never dropped. The fire burnt till in the morning with laughter and jokes till late into the night...

Stay tuned for part 4.
As Sunday drive back to civilization also had a trick or 2 up its sleeve

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#9

Post by Bugger »

End of trip Ross outdoor adventures


As dawn approached, dead silence still filled the campsite with just the distant ringing of a local farmer's cow's bell. The Men clearly had quite a night.

Around 06:00am ish you could start hearing chit chat brewing up from all the tents. Half an hour almost everyone was up. Some had a pannetjie in the fire for breakfast and a kettle whistling here and there.. It was quite an early awakening as everyone went to bed way past 01:00.

Trrrrrr!!!! That famous whistle of oom Dirk went off "8 O'clock we leaving", all started to pack up camp. And soon we were ready to set of with the mule loaded with all the empty jerty cans.
You see those little Jimnys runni g on 31"wheels and in low range the whole weekend. Probably got worse fuel consumption than your avarage 79 Cruiser.

All packed and ready we assembled down in the valley's open plain. All extra food that was left over packed in a bag and ready to hand out to the locals as we made our way back to civilization.

Radio checks done and we stared ascending up the mountains towords the west.
At this stage Kerneels was fixed and just shorting its rear locker..
Pumba on the other hand was 1 wheel rearwhedrive and had no locker in the front.. So at best we can call it a dis functional 2x4.

The road leading out of camp was quite some distance as we transversed to the furthest western side ofregion we were able to play on.
See oom Dirk had a lekker crawl section and the mini grand Canyon as he called it to show us that side..

We back tracked from the camp down to hartjie waterfall and past the obstacle Pumba had lost it sideshaft at.. It was quite a easy and forgiving route. Deep down i know everybody enjoyed it after such a brutal weekend.
In no time we were on a backroad heading to Quaqua. But as promised on Thursday night by oom Dirk he wont take us on any highways..
And 800m on this road he made yet another short cut to the left up a hill towards the mountain sides again.

We went down what can be called washed out cattle tracks and up to our last river crossing for the trip. I quickly decided to take a dip in the river as it was 36deg outside, in a single cab SJ.. Hot wasnt the word..
With the aircon now set to max (open windows and soaking wet)we assembled again and started one of the most beautiful and pleasant sandstone formation rock crawls any 4wd owner dreams off. It literally felt like we were doing the infamous Moab trail.. Just this super smooth flexy 40ish deg crawl, Perfection!

On top of this crawl it was a short 300meter detour to the lefthand side and we found ourselves on this so called mini Grand canyon.
What an amazing place this was.. A 2 meter wide crack that was almost 50odd meters deep..

Just as i passed Pumba to make my way back to Bosvark i saw a puddle of oil underneat. A quick inspection later it was discovered the front diff housing was also cracked and loosing oil at an alarming rate.

Look it was Sunday around 11:00.,we still had 50+km to do offroad and atleast 300km still to reach our home towns. Time wasn't on our side and a massive front diff strip operation was simply out of the question.

With a slight panic among the more mechanically inclined half of the team.
Discussions were made we quickly drainded the remaining 70ml of oil that was left and rubbed the crack with some handsoap as oil kept seeping from the crack.. With a quick sweep of a cloth and sillicon applied at exactly the same time. The crank seemed sealed.
With the draining process we found 2 sheared teeth in the oil, what can only be a sign of some undesirable damage.

We filled up the diff with some new oil and screw back the filling cap. Pumba now on the verge of loosing all drive and time running short on all parties sides. We set out back to camp. Which was alot of flat-ish terrain and few downhills. This lead to probably the most unstanble rally cross atage ever as everyone was winding up these 2 spoor tracks with jimnys an suzukis that was way to top heavy to ever drive safely on the highway at 110km/h..

I personally saw Tiny Tiger (the big orange sj), bounce like a rabbit of the track a few times and barely rolling over.. With this aggressive and hatd rally syage behind us we a regrouped at the first rock climb near that farm gate we entered on the 2nd day coming into the mountains. Some guys aired up tires while others were busy making sure their loads was still secure..

Once again we set off on normal back farmroads, these felt like the N4 highway compared to the terrain we traversed the weekend. Whe approached the T-junction that lead us back to tar road and civilization.

"Tiny Tiger Tango"Image trademarked By Stuart.
Was the new term and probably the most frightening thing I Saw on the whole trip..

This was of course the Orange Sj running on 35"tires that had such a severe death wobble that it will actually kick the back tires off the ground like a upset ranch horse. This happend anywhere near 60km/h and was absolutely terrifying.

We all eventually made it to camp without and roll overs. This was at approximately 13:40.
Quickly and efficiently everyone's equipment was offloaded from the Mule onto their respective vehicles.

With finnal greatings and a jerry rig to A-Frame Pumba back to Pretoria.
We did a final vehicle check. Cleaned out the dirty air filters and headed back home.

This Place truly can only be described in two words.

UNFORGIVING BEAUTY!!!

Until nextime our fellow outdoor enthusiasts.
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#10

Post by Bugger »

Some broken Sideshaft repairs and Battery welding was going on Saturday night ImageImageImageImageImageImage

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#11

Post by Bugger »

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mdTEN4 ... DjDaZ/view


Tiny Tiger and Bosvark getting winches Closer to Mufasa and not Winching him out

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#12

Post by Bugger »

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?van ... 9204aa.jpg[/IMG]

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#13

Post by Bugger »



https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing


This is the link to the Google Drive Folder with all Partisapants pictures
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#14

Post by Woolf »

Thanks Pierre. That was a memorable weekend of note

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#15

Post by Saxj »

That was a frikken awesome trip.

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