Eastern FS DVR Adventure!!! September Outing!

[Asjas]

Fraaaap pr pr pr prteeet!!!

One of the blokes in a tent near me let one of. It was now Saturday morning and everyone was was busy along the campsite that seemed to be over 500meters wide. Excitement was clearly in the air for today.

As i crawl out of my tent dressed as good as a 1.8m person can be in one of those campmaster tents, it is clear that this day will be one for the memory books. In true 4x4Action style everyone was once again ready far before the 08;00 drivers meet. Each vehicle made itself up the hill that was overlooking the campsite. As drivers meet and the standard radio checks was performed it was clear Willie has either had a wild night or terrible nightmares, he was the only vehicle still left in campsite and this was the first "strafdop" offender for the day. We left him behind with Henk as they would quickly catch up again.

This was now the start of our day heading down Into the DVR valley. Let me quickly set the scene best i can of how this valley looks.
IN the center you have flood grasslands that's about the size of 10 rugby fields patched together. either side of this veld to your east and west you have the embankments of the 2 mountains forming this valley. A small river runs down this valley following its natural curves, some places its just a meter or 2 wide and other places almost 10meters wide. This river runs down the southern mountain face over the dvr waterfall and heads downhill north towards the Angles waterfall located in then northern end of the valley. At the northern side you have a few cliff's ranging from 20meters to about 80meters. At the south side you have the Drakensberg escarpment looking over natal. Quite a mouth full i know.

Anyway getting down into this valley you really only have 3 routes down and 2 out. If by any chance you are down there and get 10mm of rain you will probably stuck down there for a few days or have one hell of a battle to get out. With the wide selection of vehicles that was on this trip we really only had one route the we can use both for in and out of the beautiful place. That once again meant taking the longest "bypass/scenic" route. So we did for the safety of the group considering the nearest hospital was just a 4 hour drive from us.

We then proceeded to head due south over the hilltops of these mountains. With an Easy grade2 drive we were on the edge of the world on the southern cliffs averaging a few 100 meters high as the stood overlooking Natal. the wind was really blowing in this spot but that didn't deter anyone from getting out of the vehicles and making their way as clos to the edge as they would dare. A few Photos was takes and it was time to head over to the top of world. Most peoples with hits of vertigo started to fear for their lives at this stage as they saw the tracks following closing to the edge of these colossal cliffs. It wasn't a straight drive along the edge just yet. We first had to transverse around a very steep koppie with some gnarly camber and down to a small ravine with a muddy water crossing, only at this point can you make your way back up to the edge of the escarpment.

Some people in the more top heavy vehicles for sure had a few butt clenching moments as we made our way past this camber'y section and headed to the stream below. Dirk went through with his Jeep followed by an overly eager Ice-cream bus that almost made a stoppie as its high-lift jack and winch got plowed into the soft river bank. We had a good laugh thou. This small mud hole became a point of amusement as everyone attempted to get out at this muddy exit. We spend good time here recovering everything from a small Jimny to the Landy known as the dreadnaught...
The first of many times that landy would get hold up for the day. Some vehicle's made it out including 2 JImny's popping off of the rev limiters.

This was a fun obstacle and everyone had a blast. It was time to continue our trip an we made our way back to the escarpment, here things got slightly technical as we needed to cross a rock filled veld and a rocky hill with some sharp and badly placed rocks. One by one each vehicle creeped along and over with a few "rock mover" here and there. Following this we made our way to "top of the world" and got some Amazing group photos taken by Martin.
It was now time to make our way down into the Dvr fall's valley. Featuring an even more off camber section about 100m long followed by a zig-zag down this section, but before going down the Zig zag we made a short Looped run probably 500m long just to have a breathtaking view of the Metsi-Matso dam below and the Massive multi million Rand lodge build for government functions.

Down the Zig-Zag we went and wan now down in the Dvr valley.

We crossed the flood planes and headed to the river crawling section located on the eastern side of the valley. Here all the brave SWB vehicle went and did the river crawl section that wasn't LWB friendly at all. The worshond clang then took a detour over the koppie and down a loose stone and gravel section to meet up with the SWB vehicles as they needed to forge a way through the big mudhole to be back with the convoy. Needles to say almost everyone got stuck and need a small tug. After all this fun and entertainment we all needed to head back up this ball bearing hill with some momentum everyone did get up, even the big Vw"s that didn't use momentum but got out following a slightly different line. By now it was around 14:00 and the kiddy's started to get hungry and wondered where was this waterfall they were told they can go swim in in the morning. following the tracks we went north a bit more overlooking the angel waterfall below that could only be accessed by extreme vehicles. with a gradual U turn you then headed back up a steepest hill onto the plateau. Chad ended up in a very particular spot with 60meter of nothing not far behind him. We quickly set up for a winch recovery from the top. Pierre took point and had the Syncro aligned for the winch. with everything securely hooked the winch started.

Chad not getting the power down to the wheels. Pierre's Syncro with its back wheel staring to lift off the ground and just the utter chaos that was starting to unfold it was quickly decided that everyone behind chad back trailed back to the convoy vehicles on the top.
Flip took the initiative and stopped the recovery, and then he proceeded to strap his Pajero to the back of Pierre's Syncro for additional weight and a successful recovery then followed.

Not even 10 min later on our way back to Dvr Falls for a luncheon and the children to cool off the Prado remembered it was a toyota and got stuck in the only muddy grass patch down there in the valley. They quickly tucked him out And off we were. The whole convoy almost went through and the Chad also got sucked into the earth behind us. With some grunt we also recovered him and all off us made it to the waterfall for a shower/rinse, or what ever you would like to call it...

Everyone had some time to refresh and cool down.
Around 15:00 it was time to head back to camp as we needed to backtrack from the zig zag all the way back to camp, that was the only way in and out of the valley for our type of vehicles. As we left the waterfall if was clear the Chad has completely forgotten about his dear wife as we had to remind him on the radio. We gave Chad some advise about ascending long steep hills but it seemed he also struggled with some kind om mechanical bug the weekend.

Back on the escarpment we made our way back towards camp. This yet again took some time due to the rocky sections we had to crawl over.
At camp we started a pit fire again and learning from the previous nights braai we kind automatically made 3 or 4 smaller braai fires with the different breeds of vehicles owners grouping together around these smaller fires. With some good food and the moods set nicely it was time for a few straf doppe, in short everyone had one for one or the other reason...
Chad probably had a few to many, don't know if he got stuck on purpose the whole day just for this reason or if its just a standard Landrover thing ( summing up the Landrovers this weekend made me understand why the Camel Trophy was such a big thing back then.)

Small awards and gifts were then Given out for nominees of all different things by random. Thanks yet again for everyone that did supply a few gifts , especially Martin that had sponsored quite a few goods. Good jokes went around. with some brand bashing and such, Slowly most of the Crowd faded away to their tents. A few ou us still sat at the campfire having a good kuier. Now was the perfect time for Dirk to set alight the "pepperbos" plant we bought on Friday. We quickly recognized the smell had a good laugh with this big boll of "parkie grass" (Weed for my non South African friends). We fooled around performing what might have resembled a mix of what the first ever rave was like mixed with some traditional fire dancing Pretending to call up the ancestors. Some ware around midnights we all made our way to bed ending one wonderful day up in the berg...

Part 4 following shortly.

[KurtG]

His name is Chas, just saying

[Asjas]

LOL tYPo

[BushWacker]

... some photos from the Dirkenberg trip ...

[BushWacker]

… as I find it:
Joburg ~ 1750m > amsl ( Mannys auditorium )
Harrismith ~ 1600m > amsl
Retief Rock ~ 1800m > amsl ( Kerkenberg Base Camp 1 )
Top of mtns we visited ~ 2200m > amsl ?
Bergville ~ 450m > amsl (bottom Oliviershoek Pass)

[BushWacker]

... and here's a google drive
where the co-operative ones
are posting their photies for 2021 ...

https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/f ... sp=sharing

[Asjas]

... and here's a google drive
where the co-operative ones
are posting their photies for 2021 ...

https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/f ... sp=sharing

I will upload all my images and vids today, as last week was hectic back at work.

[Asjas]

With commotion heard outside of my tent as i lay trying to motivate myself to get up due to the previous nights festivities I come to realize this amazing adventure hand an epic weekend with new and old friends is about to come to an end.

I spend about 30 min recovering from my zombie state and finally got the courage to get up, Once again i battled in my small tent to get dressed for the day. Then i quickly packed away all my creature comforts in the 2 canvas bags I had and chucked them through the door of my tent. i followed suite. i started the gas stove for a strong mug of coffee.

shaking on both my co-drivers tents I yanked them from their peaceful slumber, it was time to pack up. by the time they got out of their tents i already had fixed them both a strong cup of coffee. As we waited for the dew to evaporate of the tents I started to serve a breakfast fit for a king... or at least a medieval era king. Some leftover cheese Grillers got chopped into little cubes, refried with some black pepper and butter followed by scrambled eggs. Its fair to say we over ate a bit.

By now the whole camp was hard at work folding up tents and packing up all sorts of equipment. We had another cup of coffee folded up our tents and had the Navara loaded in no time. I Pretended to be a professional camera man and set up both the action cams front and back of the roof rack to get the last bit of footage for the weekend, i got back in the bakkie and we made our way back up the hill to join some of the convoy vehicles that was already waiting on briefing and radio checks.

As we stood on the hill, the campsite slowly disappeared back into a wilderness with no trace that anyone has ever been there. The true spirit of an over-lander leaving no trace behind.

The usual driver briefing was done and our normal radio checks followed, with all in place it was time to head back to civilization. WE then started to make our way out of the valley. It was quite a easy route planned for the day. Head down the valley back to the main dirt road into Qua-Qua trough the homesteads and back on the gravel road we used too enter these beautiful mountains a few days prior. Anyway we made our way down into the valley over the 2 streams we crossed to get here originally and out towards the dam wall. As we were almost out of the thick of it we quickly made a short left over a mild rocky Z turn and ended up at n deep spot of the river going down from the matsi-metso Dam wall. Here we all got out to get a last moment to enjoy the silence and peace only nature can give.

PLOOOSH!!

Clearly someone either fell into the river or willingly jump into the freezing cold river water at 9Am. I walked over to see Mr Clink over in the river doing a few backstrokes...
By now i was convinced Land-rover folk was a different breed and to my arousal I was starting to like the idea of owning one, lucky reality kicked in just in time as this dark thought sneaked up on me when Dirk called out "LETS GO!"
I then heard a public announcement over the radio when i passed one of the vehicles: "gggrr Free Ice-cream for all the kids at the ice-cream van! grr"
I made my way around a few vehicles and here was Pierre's Big head poking out of the synchro's small side window holding these tiny sugar cone ice-cream sweets handing them out for the children as they passed by. This was both hilarious and awesome at the same time. PIerre always has a trick up his sleeve! You are a legend!

All back in our vehicles we made our way down the last rocky section and ended up on the dirt road. most of the team then by instinct shifted to high range due to higher speeds on the gravel road, and some just never learn. The nissan Hardbody in the convoy was empty at this time and they quickly refueled it out of a jerry. In no time we were back on the road heading towards Qua-qua.

IW was quite a fast drive averaging around 70km/h and a 20+ vehicle convoy makes a lot of dust, that meant we all drove atleast 100meter apart stretching our convoy t about 2km in length. Dirk was in the lead and Jnr at the back on sweeping duty. Eventually we were back in tight formation after Dirk waited a few minutes at the T-junction for everyone to catch up. Here we made a right turn into one of the main paved roads in Qua-qua and proceeded through the town at a safe speed considering all the attention this massive convoy of off-road vehicles attracted from the locals.

Now for my Non African followers. You get 2 types of homesteads here... The first one is the hometown homestead usually big in size super clean with well maintained homes far from the capital city's, these are the peaceful places full of friendly citizens and locals mainly consisting of the elderly and young. Then you get the Squatter camps that's close to the capital city's, that's overrun by crime and criminals and everyone in and between hustling for money to support their young and elderly families in the 1st type of homestead. This is not the kind of place you want to get lost in or enter alone.

As we passed through Qua Qua we got allot of attention as the locals screamed and shouted in excitement as we passed by, some taking photos and video's while other's ran closer to see what all the commotion was all about. With great joy we waved back as we made our way through. we turned down a side street on the righthand side and followed it for a kilometer or two. At this T junction we took a right onto the main gravel road that brought us in from the tar road so many days ago. yet again we set off causing allot of dust passing oldmans's farm and heading towards Qwatani resort. We came to a halt again at the same place where we deflated our tires before heading into the mountains. With a few Memorable speeches we said our goodbye's, as this was the point where the trip ended and we all would split up taking our different ways home. Some teams needed to go back to Kerkenberg to receive trailers and spare parts the brought along as a safety measure, others had plans toward Clarens side and the rest headed northbound back to the capital.

The Navara with a few additional tattoo's caused by the rugged bush and semi flat tires was at ease as its "porridge wheels" Pap wielle in Afrikaans (flat wheels) rolled along the tarmac heading towards Harrismith. It was an 30 odd Km drive and we weren't dangerously low on tire pressures and decided to fill up and re-air the tires at the local garage in Harrismith. As we stopped at the garage filling up diesel and inflating the tires we noticed this hiss sound from the rear right wheel. Apparently after driving almost 200kms in rugged rocky mountains loitered with all dangerous objects that can destroy a tie, we ended up with a single barb form a barbwire fence that planted itself into the tread of the tire. Life IS funny isn't it. Out came the "snotters" as we call them (tire plugs) and within 3 min the puncture was repaired and the tire aired back up.

The 3 of us the chomped down on a sausage roll and a coke and pointed the navara towards our home town......

Until next time my fellow adventurer's

[Asjas]

I just want to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone that made tis trip one for the books. You lot were a blast and I hope to join an event with you lot again soon!!

[AndreasR]

And a thank you from us for a well written, informative and humorous trip report. We can certainly learn a thing or two about trip reports. Well done. Thanks for taking the trouble to write the report.

[Asjas]

And a thank you from us for a well written, informative and humorous trip report. We can certainly learn a thing or two about trip reports. Well done. Thanks for taking the trouble to write the report.

No sweat hey

[Flipside]

Nicely done Asjas, great writing…

[Martin de Jager]

In some ways , one actually gets jealous, when one sees how close the three brothers are together, and credit to them for the spirit when they assist with mechanical repairs.

[Mad Manny]

Asjas, thank you for your trip reports. Really enjoyed reading them.
They are now here, for all eternity, for others to read & enjoy.
Sounds like a great trip...

[KurtG]

Fokken lekker reading Asjas, thank you