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.
Ross Outdoor adventures
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