Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Overview

I got back from my trip last week Thursday. As per my usual habit - I'll post the trip in "daily" sections - as and when I get time.

I try and get away for a good loooong trip at least once a year and was originally planning on doing a trip to Central / Northish Namibia in June, but torn ligaments and a broken foot put paid to that idea. In short: I've been dying to get out... Liana's mom was mentioning the fact that she'd never seen "die blomme tyd" to us a few months ago, and so we decided to take the "oumas" to see the flowers and also work in some "gat-skuurdery" time.

The Crew

Vehicle 1 : Nissan Patrol TB45 towing XT65. Liana, Alida (Liana's mom), Jenny (Derek's mom) and myself.
Vehicle 2 : Misubishi Pajero. Derek, Mari, Leane and Elbie.
Vehicle 3 : Nissan Patrol TB45. Danie (my old man) and Hilary (my mother dearest)

Route

Day 1: Pretoria -> Redsands.
Day 2: Redsands -> Augrabies.
Day 3: Augrabies -> Nieuwoudtville via Kakamas, Kenhardt, Brandevlei, Loeriesfontein.
Day 4, 5: Niewoudtville & Surrounds.
Day 6: Nieuwoudtville -> Groenriviermond via Lutzville and coastal track.
Day 7: Groenriviermond -> Varswater.
Day 8: Varswater & Surrounds.
Day 9: Varswater -> Hondeklipbaai.
Day 10: Hondeklipbaai -> Klein Pella.
Day 11: Klein Pella -> Redsands.
Day 12: Redsands -> Pretoria
Highlights

A few teaser photos follow. Also, a snatch recovery of the old man's Patrol when he was not concentrating. I'll post the video when I get to that day....

Hey Ian, great trip@!

Just wondering if you followed on a bicycle, as I don't see your name as passenger in any of the three vehicles.....

mvcoller wrote:Hey Ian, great trip@!

Just wondering if you followed on a bicycle, as I don't see your name as passenger in any of the three vehicles.....

My bad, Malcolm. I was driving number one. I will amend.... :)

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Day 01 - 2023/08/27 - Pretoria to Redsands

Route: Generic N14.
Road Conditions: Nothing spectacular.
Distance: 554km.
My folks in Patrol Two left from Potch heading out Potch -> Klerksdorp -> Wolmaranstad -> Schweizer-Reneke -> Vryburg -> Kuruman. Got away several hours ahead of us. Note: Road between Wollies and Schweizer is apparently more pothole than blacktop at the moment...

Patrol "Een" (my truck - I made a "punny") and the Pajero got away a little later than expected. Ended up leaving Pretoorsdorp at about 11h00 instead of the 10h00 I was planning for. Generic N14 drive - ie: Pretoorsdorp -> Krugersdorp -> Ventersdorp -> Coligny -> Biesiesvlei -> Sannieshof -> Delareyville -> Vryburg -> Kuruman. Nothing spectacular on the road. N14 is not fantastic around the "Brandvlei" filling station, and very bumpy on the bit between Klerskraal dam and Ventersdorp. Traffic was relatively quiet all the way, although Mams in Vryburg, where we refuelled, was super busy...

Other than that, nothing much to report. Oh. Except perhaps you notice the funny zig Southwards on the GPS track map. I was not focusing properly and ended up turning left at the Ottosdal road - instead of following N14 (ie: that pesky piece where the staggered junction turns right and then immediately left), so we lost a bit of time with that mess up...

Got to Redsands eventually, and set up camp. We normally camp at Redsands. I lurve the place. Richard Kaufman is an excellent host. And by camping, we can normally see what we've forgotten when packing - which gives us a chance to stock up in larger centres (Upington etc). Braaied for dinner with a few beers, and turned in.

Side note: apart from my folks (who are very organised), this is the first time touring with the oumas, so it was quite a bit more work than Liana and my normal touring "ritual". With the normal set up, we can go from stop to camp set-up and having a beer and fire burning in about 5 minutes...

Day 02 - 2023/08/28 - Redsands to Augrabies

Route: Generic N14 up until just after Kakamas. Tar to SANParks Augrabies
Road Conditions: Nothing spectacular.
Distance: 369km.
Up bright and early, packed up camp and headed out on the N14. Roadworks are still present along most of the stretch past Kathu - it feels as if they've been this way forever.

Reached Upington around about lunch time. Refuelled at the Engen in tow and had a bite to eat. Navigated through Upington and followed the generic N14 past Kheimoes, Kakamas. Strangely enough - it was load shedding in Upington when we went through, but I gathered the Khi Solar One plant between Upington and Kheimoes was also off this day... First time I've seen it without that "weird" glow... I'm not a padstal person, but I was threatened by the LF, so we stopped at the "Pienk Padstal" in Kakamas.

Arrived at Augrabies, setup camp and entertained the tortoise ambling around. First time I've overnighted at Augrabies - the camp-site is awesome.. Braaied - as always... :)

Day 03 - 2023/08/29 - Augrabies to Nieuwoudtville

Route: N14 to Kakamas. Right on R359. Right again on a dirt road to Kenhardt. Right on R27 to Brandvlei. Right on R357 to Niewoudtville via Loeriesfontein.
Road Conditions: N14 fine. R359, potholed. Dirt track has detour (you need to travel a few kilos past the turn off, take a parallel dirt road and climb on it again). Dirt track also is pretty corrugated. R27 is good tar. R357 is dirt all the way to Loeriesfontein, and after that good tar.
Distance: 481km.
We got up early and broke camp before taking a drive through Augrabies park to see some of the viewpoints. Spotted a sizeable group of giraffe (what is their collective noun) as well as a large troop of baboons. Photos are from the viewpoint at Oranjekom.

After that, we headed out back to Kakamas, turning right at the first robot - which becomes the R359. Interestingly enough, what is now the tourism office in Kakamas was originally a power station - it has a very unique design which was modelled on ancient Egyptian architecture. When I reached my waypoint for the turn off we were meant to take, we were a bit stymied as the road was closed due to roadworks, but we managed to take a parallel dirt track about a kilometre on and back track to the road we wanted. This is the Kakamas -> Kenhardt road. Lots of interesting geological features in the fairly barren landscape most of the way. Quite corrugated, but I've driven worse. The road later on runs parallel with the Hartbees perennial river. Interesting to see, as it seems to be the southern limit of the red kalahari dunes. On the left hand side of the road, lots of red kalahari dunes. On the right, none.

When we reached the tar road just before Kenhardt, we stopped to re-inflate tyres. That was when In discovered I had made a mistake... I normally stow the jockey wheel of the trailer in the nose cone or in the boot when I tow. However, that morning I felt that I was wasting time. I mean - everybody tows with their jockey wheel attached to the trailer right? Sadly, the corrugations mean that the jockey wheel had somehow extended itself and we had lost the wheel part somewhere on that dirt track... No use worrying about it now though.

After inflating, we headed down South to Brandvlei where we took our turn off West for Loeriesfontein on the R357. The last time I travelled this specific stretch of road was back in 2020 when the area was in the grips of a massive drought. At that time, most farms were boarded up and closed. I was happy to see that the veld has recovered quite a bit and there appears to be life (and new maintenance) at several of the previously boarded up farms. Although we also spotted bat-eared fox on the drive, the highlight for me was the way the flowers suddenly just started... Originally, subtle - spotting only one or two in the barren landscape - we were treated to quite a bunch of them just before Loeriesfontein - where the road becomes tar again.

From here, we pushed onwards to Nieuwoudtville to encounter the second mess up of the day.

I'd booked to camp at "Die Blou Huis" for three nights. The photos looked fantastic and I'd paid in full. But upon arriving, the owner (I shall not mention names) already appeared pretty inebriated, insisted he was only the manager and that the owner had never mentioned that we were booked there. But it was fine "hy sal plan" maak. The place was packed. I mean - caravan A-frames standing under the ass of the caravan in front of it - really sardine-tinned in. He managed to clear a tiny bit of space for us - but this was not enough. I told him to get slotted. I'm currently still waiting for mt refund...

Anyways, managed to find a place to camp at Ulla Irene - a plot on the edge of town. But what a fantastic place. Very rustic. But the owners - Karen and Ulgar (also known as "duiwel") are fantastic people. And we even had our own braai area / pub / lapa thing...

I jacked up the A frame of the trailer to unhitch the thing, and then one or two old rims (decor at the lapa) under the A frame to steady it properly. Set up camp.

Third mess up of the day was dinner. We had not catered for this evening in terms of braai stuff as the plan had been to order pizzas from "Die Blou Huis". A quick check of consensus around the three different parties indicated there was no way in hell that "Die Blou Huis" would see any support from us. So we ended up lighting a fire for ambience, and resorting to the other rations. ie: ham, cheese, salad stuffs. Almost a european breakfast-type spread. It was good though. Chatted about the trip for a bit. Spoke lots of gif about "Die Blou Huis" and it's errant owner, and then went to bed...

Day 04 - 2023/08/30 - Nieuwoudtville

Route: South to Oorlogskloof, around town.
Distance:41-odd kilos.
Got up, chatted with "Duiwel" and opted to head out South towards Oorlogskloof and Matjiesfontein. Stopped to see the glacial paving a few kilos South of Nieuwoudtville and then took a drive on the flower route on "Boere Plaas". Had a bite to eat at Matjiesfontein. After that, headed back to town and dropped the oumas off at the camp. Liana and I headed out to do grocery shopping and had a beer at the pub at the Nieuwoudtville Hotel. It's a very "drinkable" pub. Made a karoo skaap potjie that evening.

Day 05 - 2023/08/31 - Nieuwoudtville

Route: East and then Rondekop Road back to the R357
Distance:81-odd kilos.
There was a cold front moving in, so checking out flowers would not be very productive. So we opted to check out other parts of the general area, taking the Calvinia road, turning left on the Rondekop road and looping around the Gannabos Protected Area back to the R357 Nieuwoudtville <-> Loeriesfontein road. Apart from the first and last bits, all dirt road. There are a gazillion kokerbome on that road... Forget the "Kokerboomwoud" in Keetmans, I reckon there are more here. And there are probably even more later in the trip - but I'll get to that point later...

Stopped at the Nieuwoudtville waterfalls, which are pretty cool to see. Had a beer at the hotel whilst the wimmin did the shopping and then headed back to camp to braai.

That evening, the proverbial heavens opened and we would need to pack up camp wet...

Day 06 - 2023/09/01 - Nieuwoudtville to Groenriviermond

Route: Nieuwoudtville to Vredendal via R27. Vredendal to Lutzburg via R362. Lutzville to Groenriviermond via 4x4 track next to the coast.
Road conditions: Tar, nothing exceptional. Some laaarge potholes on Van Rhyns Pass. First part of dirt track after Koeknaap, perfect - but watch out for trucks. After that, as good as it can get. Soft sand, hard sand, estuary crossings etc.
Distance: 250km
We got totally rained out during the course of the evening, and so we packed up wet and got away later than planned. Refuelled in Nieuwoudtsville and after that headed out west on the R27 - stopping brieflyin Van Rhynsdorp to take out fishing permits for our coastal blommetjies kyk bit of the trip. The Van Rhyns Pass is pretty spectacular...

At Vredendal, we restocked for the next three evenings - booze, food, other necessities. Derek and Mari's blankets were totally soaked from the storm and they had not had an opportunity to dry them out, so they bought a few more fleecy blankets whilst the two Patrols headed out to Lutzville to refuel. At Lutzville, we refuelled - both vehicles as well as jerry cans - and then we headed out on the R363 - turning off onto a dirt road towards Sere Wind Farm shortly after Koekenaap.

The first part of this dirt track is awesome - you can run at a good speed. I presume this is the maintenance because of the sand mineral mines and the wind farm. Just watch out for the trucks. The track is narrow and they come with speed. Road is good until you're past most of the active sand mining sites. After that, it becomes a combination of bits of good sand and beach sand driving. There are also a couple of perennial estuaries one needs to get across - of which some had obviously been flooded until quite recently. Also a gazillion gates to open / close. Gate protocol was followed. ie: Lead vehicle (mine) would stop and open the gate. Vehicle two would wait until vehicle three assumed "ownership" of the gate and head on. But there was a mistake made - at some point, my father, travelling at the tail end of the convoy, ended up losing radio contact with the other two vehicles. We turned around to look for him when we realised he was not on air, but at this point, we were probably about 10km ahead. Meaning it cost us a round trip of 30km.

What had happened, is that after closing the gate, he had munched on his "lunch bar" and been a bit distracted crossing the "estuary". It had obviously been flooded quite recently - water ruts on both sides of the road. And he was bounced into a bog... Seriously....

Other vehicles were on the soon before I was - and attempted to recover him. Without success. They even attempted making a "train" out of the trucks to tow him out. It did not work. They were then talking about snatching (without snatch straps), but luckily I arrived back in time. Unhitched the trailer, and first attempted to pull him out. This did not work. Two quick snatches later, and we were ready to roll again...

All proper protocols were followed in snatching. There is a video here:

However, this caused quite a delay, and we only arrived at Groenriviermond campsite after dark - with the lighthouse beckoning in.

Started a fire, braaied. Slept. Exhausted.