Carnage Canyon - 18 to 21 March 2022

[KurtG]

Looks like an awesome weekend, well done to everyone that planned or attended the event.

[Wooky]

First off..... thanks to Manny and the action Group for organizing this event and to Ron (4x4 Traction) for all the hard work in getting the road and camp ready for us. I can only imagine the logistics involved in getting this event together and is highly appreciated.

Edit...Thanks also to the sponsors of the event Maxxis and Off-Course 4x4. Without you this event would not have happened

Thanks to the whole group that went along, both spectators and participants. The vibe we had going was much better that when we went in 2017 and makes for a far more fun an memorable trip.

This was SAXJ's and my second attempt at Carnage in what most would term under spec'd vehicles for this terrain, but then that is part of the fun

Saturday went extremely well for us in spite of some issues with the SJ's long shackle hangers posing problems on the entry into gate keeper.
Made it through with only some minor rock rash on the drivers rear corner. After gate keeper the rocks get bigger and the lines get tighter.
The SJ's nimbleness really was a bonus and we could keep up a good pace. Although power steering would have been nice!
The highlight on Saturday was getting the group over a rocky spur when the main river channel presented us with a 2m deep pool that could have ended the trip right there. Everyone pitched in and in short order we had completed the "road building" and were mobile again.
Getting the heavy weights through that section took some time but we all made it through.

Sunday is where things get harder and Manny allowed us to split into groups. Riaan in his monster jeep and Bugger in Tiny took off and soon left us behind. The remaining three modified Suzukis teamed up and trundled off making very good time in getting through the difficult patches and making Dead dog with lots of time to spare. After some scouting we found a workable route and we got the three Suzukis through without to much fuss but making lots of use of Armandt's bridging ladders to help the approach angles in sections (Thanks Armandt).

This is where my trip came to an end. The next section was really gnarly and with the long shackle hangers on the SJ causing issues with the approach angles like they were I decided to stop. We got Armandt through and Dylan gave it a good go before becoming turtled calling it a day.
Riaan drove back to meet us and the whole group pitched in to get Armandt to the beach..... Well done Dude you deserved it!

From a vehicle perspective most of the mods and protection worked really well and for the section we did ( missed the last 300m to the beach) we never got seriously stuck, never had to be winched nor use the highlift jack. So consider that a win ( thanks Vic.... good spotting)
The biggest issue we had was the long leaf spring shackle hangers. Will definitely need to look at how to modify those if I go back to carnage.

Damage was limited to a bit of rock rash on the body and lots of dings in the under body protection but nothing mechanical. Considering the SJ is still on the original skinny axels that was a definite win.

Oh... the other mod I will definitely do before going back to carnage is fitting power steering

Thanks again everyone for a great weekend in the canyon....

Cheers

W

[Mad Manny]

Great report Wookey - yes, if it wasn't for those shackle hangers on the front leaf springs you would have made it to the end...
But I must stress, getting to Dead Dog Gorge is still a win, in my opinion...

[Ratchet]

Two weeks prior to Carnage we decided Ratchet was ready to make her move to 37s, so we got them ordered and fitted.
A week prior to the trip we start prepping Ratchet, we articulate the 37s to check if we have any clearance issues, we seem to be ready, the Sunday pre trip I start to do torque checks on all the front bolts, we find a trackbar jamnut loose, draglink boot torn, draglinks bolt loose, swaybar link bolts loose, a small engine oil leak and we still have one steering hydraulic line damaged from 3 Provinces trip.
The Monday we start with the rear bolt and torque checks, not much issues found other than break pad retainer clips missing. Tuesday we have a mobile hydraulic line team rock up at the house and replace the squashed hydraulic line from 3P, we decided to reroute the 2 lines from the transmission as they were getting pinched.
We put armoured 300nb lines not wanting to lose a line on Carnage (famous last words).
Wednesday we do a fluid check and find everything needing a top up.
Grant is having a tuff week his rock winder has major issues on its breaks so he lands up spending 3 nights working right through and leaving me to crack on with prep.
Thursday I make peace that I have tried my best to prep Ratchet and I need to pack both the vehicles for the weekend.
Grant pulls another all nighter and I give up at 12 at night after some beers.
Thursday I'm fighting with DSV courier as they haven't delivered my Liqui Moly (5l ATF, engine oil and 5l brake fluid) 10 days later!
Friday morning I wake up and start packing remaining last items, Grant is still sitting in meetings on the winder even though both of us have taken leave.

Anyhow, we set out @ 14h30 - much later than planned due to his challenges. We arrive a little late to campsite but set up in great time. Thanks to everyone involved in prepping the campsite - its neat, tidy and just an awesome location with the river running in the background. My radio brackets arrived Friday morning so we decide to attempt to do a temp install so we have coms. We get the radio in, but not the aerial very short range coms. We decide to make an easy dinner - some burgers - we crash early, Grant is poegeye.

Saturday morning we wake up and the campsite is very quite, we start making breakfast and get the geyser going for a shower. We're a little confused between a 7am or 8am start our own fault for not asking the night before. Never the less at 07h30 we hear all the cars leaving the campsite and quickly finish up and follow. Drivers briefing was simple and filled with a surprise of an awesome goody bag with some great sponsored items, some Maxxis, Offcourse, 4x4traction goodies. Nice fit for my new Maxxis 37s. We start just after 8am nerves, excitement and all, the route seems manageable and its going well until we get to gatekeeper.
We decide between which line to take and I feel we can give the tuffer line a try until I walk back to Ratchet and start her up and find I have no power steering, the outlet PSC steering cooler line popped on a joint mid pipe, this was the first of the pipe repaires - all in all, 4 times on Saturday and 4 times on Sunday!
After the repair the easier line on gate keeper goes well. The next big obstacle is a doozy after us sitting at the back of the line we slide into the pool and can't get out of the sand, pull a winch line and eventually get over and repair the line again. The rest of the day goes well except fir 2 more pipe repairs. The last repair we try something else to give the joint more rigidity.

Saturday night we kuier and have an awesome time with all the amazing participants and spectators, truelly an awesome group.
Thanks to every person who helped, motivated and made this trip what it was.
We head off on Sunday and the pipe seems to be holding so we're in good spirits. We eventually pop the line again. Grant is so frustrated with the line he decides to lay under Ratchet in the river - he finds the problem, the draglink on the passenger side, when tge coil is fully compressed, is squashing the braided lines on the intake side to the cooler causing a pressure increase resulting in the outlet pipe to pop. We reroute the line and think we've sorted it for the rest of the trail. We eventually arrive at Dead Dog Gorge at 14:30pm and man those are some serious rocks. I walk the rocks and make a decision we can handle it if the pipe holds. Decide to be the last vehicle not to hold up anyone on our attempt. We eventually make our way alone through to the beach and it goes super well, we only open up the lip on the rear diff gaurd - a big hammer fixes that .
We made it and can't believe it.

We have one more pipe burst on the way back from the beach and reroute the intake again.

All I can say this was an opportunity of a life time, I really thank everyone that made this trip so amazing and I really look forward to driving some trails with the participants again.

We have little bumps on skids and a loose front trackbar again but otherwise Ratchet is great and we drive her home.
This week our mobile hydraulic hose team will be at the house again!!!

Thanks again all to the very memorable trip...

[Wooky]

Great report Wookey - yes, if it wasn't for those shackle hangers on the front leaf springs you would have made it to the end...
But I must stress, getting to Dead Dog Gorge is still a win, in my opinion...

Thanks Manny.... a definite win in my books too.

[Bugjuic]

What an awesome and memorable trip!
First and foremost thanks to Manny, without whom this trip would not have happened!
Then to the Off-Course team and their affiliation with Maxxis for sponsoring a part of the trip!
Then Ron, who set up the camping area, cleared the path, and made this one of the most memorable camping sites I will never forget, what a great guy with the best personality you will find (just imagine the complete opposite of Manny! that is Ron ).

Thursday:
Being a spectator and co-driver/spotter to Trolley Fan (Alex), my prepping was more of an overland one: Roofrack on, Watertank, RTT, head out to the shops, buy all the food, pack almost my whole garage into the SussieBussie (Fortuner) and off I go to Polokwane to drop off kids and wife, only about 40min drive from Carnage. Hand a few tools to Anthony, helping him tighten his Front hubs (Who ever thought, lets take an awesome off-road vehicle you can plunge into the bush with, and then to fix it we will put Torx bolts on??? )

Friday:
Quickly get some items at Ron for Piet who helped clear the tracks and looking after our belongings at camp, whilst we try and drive carnage the next day. Meet up with everyone at the garage, Ron arrives and there the trip starts. Finally no more cellphone reception, reach a great 'campsite' and crack open a beer (or more), sit around a braai and see everyone wondering what is to expected the next day.

Saturday:
I hop into Torro with Alex and head off to the start of carnage. Ready to start the trip, almost getting excited then Manny decides to give a speech. As many will remember, it was a long speech with very little content, but indeed needed . First day driving commences and not too difficult for most of it, but got more technical at Gatekeeper. Nice intro to Carnage. Then on the other hand, hats off to Riaan in Bad-Habit, just cruising past people on his own line making everything seem like a breeze, and winches a few people out, overall giving a helping hand where needed. While on the track, Torro, on a rock bed, decides not to start anymore, Anthony from Off-Course 4x4 quickly gives a hand, trying to jump start us with his plaasimplement, but nothing! Upon closer inspection I see smoke coming from the starter, where a wire running to the solenoid has melted itself off, find a nice thin piece of driftwood, wedge it in there and there we go, this piece of driftwood drove with us all the way, and might still be in Torro as a backup. Got to camp at around 14:15, soldered back together with many eager bystanders and help.

Sunday:
Back into the river, get going early in the morning, Off-Course 4x4 hand out nice gift baskets to all the competitors and additional stickers to bystanders and co-drivers, at this stage Manny also hands out 4x4AG stickers, thanks guys.
The very first rocky section about 200m in I move a rock under Torro, expecting the diff to catch it, miscalculate the weight and wedge my RH index finger nicely between two rocks, Alex quickly assists, we move the rock and bandage up the finger.
All relative 'smooth sailing' until we don't see Anthony and Angelique anymore. The river sand being driven by everyone before them has now been driven out, and Angelique was bottoming out numerous times, Anthony winching her back a few times and trying again. Finally through, it is time for Anthony to pass, not expecting him to go through first time, he shoots that weapon of a Patrol right through first time, video can be seen of that.
Reaching Dead Dog Gorge at around 14:00 being the last group to reach DDG, Angelique, Muller and Alex decide to drive DDG, now this is NOT for the faint hearted and some of the angles were quite knarley to say the least. All of them finish the first part of DDG and we decide this was where we will stop Torro. We tag along helping where needed and Angelique and Muller make it to the beach! What a view, and we take a nice swim in refreshing water pool.
Coming back DDG was interesting, almost sure we were going to roll Torro, we decided to anchor ourselves to a rock and Muller assisted with some great spotting.
Easy route back to camp where war stories were exchanged and a nice fire was made, ending off a great trip!

This a a bucketlist trip, great bunch of people, lets not make it another 5 years before we attempt it again!

[Mad Manny]

Karma will get you for these two comments...

Then Ron, who set up the camping area, cleared the path, and made this one of the most memorable camping sites I will never forget, what a great guy with the best personality you will find (just imagine the complete opposite of Manny! that is Ron ).
Saturday:
As many will remember, it was a long speech with very little content, but indeed needed .

Oh look! Karma got you!

The very first rocky section about 200m in I move a rock under Torro, expecting the diff to catch it, miscalculate the weight and wedge my RH index finger nicely between two rocks, Alex quickly assists, we move the rock and bandage up the finger.

[iandvl]

Oh look! Karma got you!

It may be spelled Karma, but it's pronounced "Ha!"

[Asjas]

Carnage Canyon Trip Report by Asjas - Part Two (for part one - see post # 106 above)

Carnage Continued...

Friday:
I made my way back home at 5am after completing my full shift at work, knowing the Nissan with 289000kms is a bit pap in the broek, I bargained on at least a 5hr drive around 80-100ish km/h. Getting home just before 6 I started double checking the last things on my list including my camera gear and the special herb mix rub i wanted to take for our steaks.The Swambo and kids were still fast asleep. I kept fiddling around until around seven when they woke up had a coffee and now could pack the rest of my gear as it wont disturb the sleeping minions. JC soon arrived and we also loaded his stuff and i arranged with him that il come by and pick him up as i still had to go and drop the dogo's off at my mother in law.

Two dogs a toddler and a baby all in one vehicle.. well that's self explanatory.
With the dogs Offloaded i headed towards the Sasol station just to double check all tire pressures before getting on the road, following the checks I nervously made my way to Trighardt getting the vehicles up to 100 in hopes that it would tow stable. luckily it did. I Pulled on the sidewalk at JC's house and gave him the call - we soon found ourselves heading down the N17 towards Bethal. We had smooth sailing all the way to Middleburg when Swambo and the kids felt the urge to use a restroom. I pulled into the garage for them holding the fort at the vehicle while i waited for all of them to finish up. Its at this moment when i was just about to start a Vlog i noticed in a panic that i left all my camera gear at home. Perfectly packed away in a bag on the corner of the table... Subsequently i lost it a little but soon relaxed before heading towards Groblersdal via Loskop Dam, which is flowing quite beautifully as can be seen with the wall of white water running down the side of the wall. The rest of the drive was quite uneventful up to Kgotsong, just the odd complaint from the swambo or Zander.

With the co-ordinates given to me and google maps, i managed to fly past our rendezvous point as google was pretty certain Total energies filling station was a few klick's farther down that road. So i turned my road-train around and headed into the Garage where we met up with the rest of the team.I introduced myself to all the new faces. Manny, Manny Oh many just the Porra i imagined him to be! Here we also met the Off-course crew before Riaan stole the show with his impressive towing combo. And in the blink of an eye we were heading out to camp with one interesting looking convoy.

Just before camp we had a steep downhill section consisting mostly of loose rocks, this caused havoc with Buggers trailer and it was decided that they will offload Tiny Tiger and pull the trailer to camp empty, but before you could enter camp you had to do a sandy river crossing. Riaan with his rather oversized setup managed to hang the trailer on the embankment of the river making him the First official guy to get stuck the weekend. We all spend the hour of too before dark setting up our campsites. Dylan only left late and was expected to reach the camp around 7-8pm. We had no signal on our mobile devices and limited radio range in the gorge. This left Dylan with only one pin-drop on google maps and the rest he just had to wing to make his way to camp. Chilling next to the campfire I overheard the soutie on the radio but we couldn't get back to him, Being the night drive freak I am, I nominated myself to jump in the SJ and head out to look for Dylan. To my disappointment he was just a few minutes up the track and I had to turn around as it would have been impossible for him to get lost at this point. We assisted them to set up camp before heading to bed

Saturday:
We all aligned on the beach with Manny running the show we had a drivers briefing and Off-course 4x4 explained their requirements to us, Riaan and I also had our birthdays on Saturday and got acknowledged!!!. Soon we headed off, crawling our way up this river and most of it was fairly tame. (I do speak for myself). Soon we reached the 'Gate Keeper' and while Wooky was busy assaulting his leaf spring hangers I had an attempt on the harder line to the right. This Proved to be impossible without a front locker and i made my way back in behind Wooky. Next up it was my turn to do the gatekeeper. Thanks to some on point spotting the SJ just walked the obstacle, following me we managed to get Dylan over also. Steadily everyone made their way over gate keeper while Angelique's team repaired the jeep. With everyone almost through the zooks and bad habit pushed on thinking the bigger Rigs will soon catch up with us again. The trail ever so slightly started to get more advanced until we reached an un-passable obstacle. Here the Members in front of the pack started to build a bypass to the side using the best chinesium Gwalas available on the market. Bad habit then proceeded to test the bypass.

Now this bypass had 2 flaws to it. One: you needed to come in on a angle and steer sharp right not to slip your rear wheels off, this was a issue for the longer rigs. Two it had a gnarly off camber step on the other side that definitely tested the SWB Suzuki's tip-over angle. Issue two got me as i went over and did a full lock to the right, I felt the weight shift and the left rear lift... NOPE! not taking the "preferred" line I thought and re aligned myself to just cut straight down the near vertical steps on the right of this obstacle. I can just imagine it looked crazy for all the bystanders! But I must admit it felt way safer than the first line. We hung around as each vehicle battled its way over this interesting bypass.

The front of the pack headed out again and we soon found Ron chilling in the shade by his cruiser next to the trail. probably the only sane person around the weekend. Camp was just around the corner and everyone got through the last bouldery section except me and Antony. you see he managed to get the rear of his patrol hung up on the fuel tank reducing his long rang ability with probably 80kms. Cocky as I was I followed his exact line and also got snagged on a boulder completely dis-forming my front track bar. It closely resembled a grapevine branch by the time we reached camp.
We set out to snatch the Trackbar straight again in camp using a tow strap and a large haak en steek boom. We started the fire in my Flat-pack braai and the rest of the night was history.

Sunday:
At 07:30 the Zooks waited in the river at the camp, as we discussed the night before we would have headed of in Two groups, Bad Habit and the Zooks and then the rest would follow. Anyway at 8am sharp everyone came rolling into the river bed, Off-course 4x4 handed out some awesome goody bags followed by a heartfelt speech from the one and only Ron! Soon after we set off Bad Habit Followed by Bugger and then the Zooks. 3 minutes into the trail I got stuck in the soft sand on a very awkward angle and had to winch, haha! 4 min into the day! with a quick winch I was back on the way and we navigated upriver with the average boulders being about twice the size of the ones we had on Saturday. About 400m into the trail the SJ got beached on some wet rocks and we had quite a fight to it out without the front locker. Thankfully we had the rock ladders, and boy did those cheap steel boards save our "Donkeys" the rest of the day. Nomad also got stuck in the exact same spot and the big rigs was just behind us, making us panic ever so slightly. The next section we forged ahead like a mad men and we stopped a lot picking and scouting for lines but didn't hear any other vehicles from the rear so we relaxed our pace and had a blast just going along at snail pace. Soon we reached the first serious rock ledges and slabs in front. It looked intimidating but we found a easy line over without any issues at all. Then suddenly Manny was standing next to me like some weird psychopath killer that came from the bush, he explained that he came from camp and Ron is also just around the corner. Passing next to this washed - out cliff on the river bend my steering suddenly acted up and I couldn't turn right at all. I had no choice but to stop. initially the 4 of us stared at the front suspension and couldn't see any problem, that was until Dylan noticed that my pan-hard bar was completely bent. He even remarked "Dude that's like an hour's repair at best" With which I replied "pppft! just give me 4 minutes". Minutes later the old bar was out and I was busy torquing the new one tight with some special river sand nut locking compound donated by mother nature.

Back on track there was still no sign from the crowd behind us and no growl from the mighty Hemi ahead, thus the 3 little-ish Suzukis headed along. 200m or so up the trail we were faced with a obstacle... the only actual line was in the river and up the waterfall boulders if I can explain that way.
But seeing Wooky struggle in front and not having the best setup for wet boulders we scouted a crazy line on the island/sandbank that went through between 2 thorn bushes and over a big hole.. This was the line i decided there and then. some rock ladder engineering later i found myself on the highest boulder in the river balancing carefully on 2 rock ladders... haha you should have seen that!!! It work flawlessly.. Wooky then followed and Nomad behind him it required extreme precision driving but we all made it without toppling over. DEAD DOG GORGE. yhepp! we reached D.D.G...

Arriving at the first part of D.D.G was probably the most intimidating scene i ever had in my off-road driving life, just these jagged volcanic rock ridges laid in front of us! Boy this is it i thought. The lot of us set out and Dylan quickly spotted the line, suddenly it wasn't that intimidating anymore.. Still intense but doable. With some precision rock ladder usage we got the 3 Zooks through, even Wooky with his ultra long shackle "bangers". Reaching the next and probably the most Serious section of carnage after crossing some river grass I was completely convinced this is as far as we can go... Physics and gravity said No you cant pass here! While imagining a line through mid air, Bad Habit with Anton, Flip, Riaan and bugger appeared. They came to try and assist us. Now don't be mad at me as the next 30min of my life was just eye to eye contact with Dylan.. like a true Bromance. I truly cant remember anything from the moment I reversed into that obstacle. All my focus was on Dylan and his hand signals as he walked me through that insane section. i never even looked out the window to "see" the line. This led to me gaining access to the last 50m up to the beach.

I can just imagine the wack angle i was at by judging on Anton and Flips face as the SJ leaned?fell to the right over the last big step before heading upriver to the beach. They were surely convinced I'm going over... haha. Now for the last 50ish meters. without a front locker the conventional line wasn't going to work and thus we got creative by hugging the left side of the riverbank up the mountain on both obstacle between the SJ and the beach.. that was probably the most uncomfortable section on the whole of carnage. being on 3 wheels more time than being on 4 haha,i think the rock ladder jammed in between my rear wheel and now dis-formed exhaust was probably the only support keeping me upright.

The 2ND Suzuki ever on the beach! We made it! And to be honest this is why we came here, even knowing that a rig like mine only stood a 23.68 percent chance of ever reaching the beach!

Without Dylan and my Ladder boy JC. IT would never have been a reality!!

Getting back to the service road was just as Epic and hectic as going up to the beach, but I'll leave that for the videos and photos to explain Just how hard everyone had to work to accomplish such a great feat!!

Trip report from Asjas in Rattletrap.

[Mad Manny]

Great trip report Armandt.
Yes, JC the ladder carrier is grossly under-appreciated.

[Flipside]

Excellent write-up Asjas

[Bugger]

Thanks for the Trip reports

[dawidloubser]

I'm so sorry that I had to sit this one out, I'm busy with a big project in the EU.
I vicariously lived the journey through your excellent trip reports, and I truly wish I could have come along!!

Well done to all of you, making it through this trail is a real accomplishment in off-road driving.

In 2017 I stopped at Dead Dog Gorge - I kind of drove last behind everybody, helping out, spotting, recovering, etc. By the time we got there, it was already so late in the day that it didn't make sense to push on - especially if I *did* get stuck, and there wouldn't have been any help around to un-stuck a 4 tonne mog

I can't wait to go back and complete the journey - since 2017, my mog is definitely more Carnage-proof. There won't be any ripping off of the whole exhaust next time...

Here's a nice memory from that time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_B-ClUudhg

[Mad Manny]

Part One of The Off Course Carnage Canyon video is out!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv9PzkPpS88

[Shane]

Vaarkit Manny, you uglier than I remember!

Can I get a photo to scare my kids?

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