Bundu Trail - Rust de Winter

[beast]

:mytwocents:Mooi fotos, maar jul het net gekamp. Waar is die waar jul vassit en sukkel, kom nou ouens dit lyk te maklik. Nou sal iemand se jul het nie gesukkel nie want jul ry Patrols, dit kan waar wees maar ek sien tot Toyotas daar en hul het seker gesukkel. Spot maar net. Great. Sien jul almal by 4 Mei se Charity run daar in die ooste van Pta om bietjie te ry.

[Herrie]

4de Junie Nico!!!

[Peter Connan]

Here are some of my pictures, with some added verbage for those who couldn't make it:

I arrived first, at around 16h30, and began pitching my tent in the beautiful campground among the magnificent thorn trees.
Uncle Mac and Gerrie arrived shortly thereafter, followed by Grant and Sonja. Cars kept arriving until fairly late in the evening.

Saturday morning was pretty chilly.

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The convoy consisted of two marshal's vehicles from the club, a Jeep Gladiator and a SFA Hilux, three Y60's (Grant, me, and Christo Boegman), three Y61's (Christo Slang, Tinus and Heinz), three Safaris (Louis, Gerrie and Pieter), a Hardbody (Mac), a Prado (Marius), another Hilux (Gustav) and a Mazda (John)

But we soon got ourselves lined up, and got moving. Soon, however the convoy ground to a halt.

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One of the Safari's had cut out. They asked me to go and have a look, but by the time I got there it was running again. We fiddled around a bit without finding an obvious problem but the car ran well for the rest of the weekend.

The first major obstacle is Lover's Lane, where you drive down a deeply eroded narrow river bed. It is incredibly beautiful, in a way that photos just cannot do justice to. At one point we were watching a root, which then moved.

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We now started making our way up the mountain, and the obstacles became tougher and tougher with lots of rock, both planted and loose, and tight windy routes with large steps.

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John's Mazda bakkie unfortunately broke it's tie rod end one one of these obstacles, and Christo Slang towed him up to a point where the rest of us could pass him while he waited for a welding machine to allow him to affect rudimentary repairs.
Because of having stopped to assist with the stalled Safari, I was now right at the back of the convoy, with only Kobus (one of the marshals) behind me. We chatted often as we waited for th convoy. At one point he said that there was a split ahead, with the right-hand path being the more challenging. I sad I would go left, but when I got there everybody was watching and encouraging me, so I took the more challenging route.

I made it without any problems, but when Kobus tried it in the clubs old SFA Hilux, the front U-joint in the rear propshaft broke and he went careening down the obstacle and into the shrubbery, where he was fortunately brought to a halt without rolling the car.

We unbolted the propshaft and sawed of the tree, and then I tried to pull him out, but in the loose rocky terrain I really only succeeded in digging holes. We then tied Tinus's 4.8 to my car, and together we managed to pull the Hilux up and out of the obstacle.

Shortly hereafter we stopped for a lunch of sausage rolls. We now started going down the canyon, another beautiful area. Kobus was going first, with the intention of just getting the Hilux back to base camp, but then the Pitman arm broke and on the rocky ground the car just wanted to head for every available tree. By lowerng the car using the Winch on Peter Claasen's jeep and several of us just lifting the nose every couple of yards and pacing the wheels back on track, we managed to get the car down and off the track so the rest of us could pass. We loaded all his kit into Gustav's Hilux, and Kobus hitched a lift with Tinus for the rest of the day.
By now it was getting dark, and on one of the relatively flat sections there was a fairly long mud pool, and Louis got horribly stuck when his car dropped all the way to the chassis. Christo tried to winch him out, but he only succeeded in winching his car closer to Louis's. Mac then managed to snatch him out on the second attempt.
Because of all this we were now rather late and arrived at the campsite in full darkness at around 18h15, where we all set about looking for a flat and level enough spot to pitch our tents, after which we had marvelous conversation around the campfire.The next morning we awoke to a beautiful view of the rolling hills for miles around. By 10h00 we were ready to go, and headed for the beautiful Leopard Gorge.

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To be continued...

[Stefan]

Awesome trip report, baie dankie! kan nie wag vir die volgende episode nie.

[ricster]

yes ...ditto....this is like a soapy on tv...

[Peter Connan]

The next obstacle was a sharp downhill with a sharp rock strategically placed to hole the unwary's sump, but with expert guidance from Kobus we all made it through.

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This was followed immediately be a short, stepish sheet of rock where it was possible by choosing a difficult line to get a wheel off the ground on some of the cars.

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We then proceeded to the obstacle known as Man of Muis, which is usually done on Saturday afternoon but which we had missed because it had been dark by the time we got there.

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Episode three coming soon...

[Tinus lotz]

nee krisis waars die res????

[Peter Connan]

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Under the knowing guidance everybody was proven man enough for the job, but it was easy to see that some cars made their drivers work harder than others, and it was also a very good example of exactly how momentum should be used.

The rest of the day was fairly easy, although the many mud holes still kept the fun going.

In closing I would like to thank Grant for organising one of the best weekends I have had in a long time, I would like to thank Peter and Kobus from the ATV klub for their very able and friendly guidance and assistance, and their patience when things went wrong, and also to each and every person that came on the trip. Such a trip can so easily be spoilt by personality clashes, but this whole trip went by without a single harsh word, and I beleive everybody had great fun.

Further, I would like to make some observations on which are purely my own opinion and not meant to upset anybody.
1) To me it was clear that the Patrols had a significant advantage over the other vehicles present, despite the fact that may of the obstacles were relatively tight for such large vehicles. The relatively good axle articulation provides plenty of traction and very good body control, and even when that runs out, the diff lock is ready and waiting. There robustness also helps a lot, although the accompanying disadvantage of weight is an ever-present disadvantage.
2) The Patrol's relatively long wheelbase is a mixed blessing and not always a disadvantage. It makes it more difficult to get around corners and causes clearance issues, but it provides stability and ride comfort, and results in good approach and departure angles.
3) The two most critical aspects of off-road driving is recognizing the correct line and the correct application of momentum. Get either of these two wrong and the repair bills (to both you and your car) can be massive. But the ability and attributes of the car will determine these to a large extent, and determine which obstacles you can safely negotiate and which should rather be left alone.
4) It is important to always keep your wits about you on an obstacle, because if anything goes wrong the situation can turn very nasty in the blink of an eye.
5) I got the feeling that tires were perhaps less of a factor than I had beleived previously, although in some situations I still beleive tire choice may be crucial.
6) A Patrol is so capable that when you and it finally run out of talent or a parts breakage occurs, the results can be flippen scary.

[Stefan]

...... where it was possible by choosing a difficult line to get a wheel off the ground on some of the cars.

[Tinus lotz]

THANKS PIET!!!!!
VERY NICE!!!!!!!