Oupa Stig conquers Mozambique

[Family_Dog]

The following Trip Report is posted on behalf of Oupa Stig. Tp make it easier to follow, I have broken it up into various pages. Pictures will follow.


-F_D

[Family_Dog]

We were supposed to go to Mozambique at the end of 2011, but my friend backed out at the last minute, which
did many bad things for my blood pressure as I had already invested in quite a lot of equipment for the trip. To
compensate Pieter promised to join us in 2012, a promise which I made him keep with threats of violence…

Through the year we had spent a lot of time talking about the trip, but no actual plans had been made. Pieter
works as a paramedic on a mining site in Namibia, I work as an insurance contractor in Johannesburg.
Communication was sporadic, but by the 10th of December we had agreed that he would bring a few things to
me which he couldn’t fit in his Wrangler and trailer and which I would have space for in my SC KZ 4x2. We
would then leave at midnight Dec 15/16, him from his mom’s place in Pretoria, me from Roodepoort, and meet
along the way, probably at Ermelo.

I was to go by myself as the little lady had become somewhat bigger – pregnancy is her excuse, and she did not
want to risk her life in strange malaria infested deepest darkest Africa. Etc. Which suited me fine. So my kit did
not require a lot of space, a fact which Pieter made full use of when bringing the kit he couldn’t fit in his
Wrangler / trailer. The more he carried into my garage, the bigger my eyes got. I was going by myself for a
week, he was going for 3 weeks, taking his teenage daughter and mother along, and collecting his Namibian
girlfriend at Maputo airport on the 22nd. He had to fit his own and 3 women’s stuff into a Wrangler and a 5 foot
Venter trailer with large wheels… for the sake of the holiday I crammed it all into my KZ. This included 45l
milk, 80l water, tons of food, many many bottles of booze. My own booze consisted of 12 Tafel Lagers and a
bottle of Jack. I’m not a big drinker – the Jack came back almost untouched. I did manage to polish a whole 2l
of Oros though… there were also 4 jerrycans, empty for the time being, to be filled at eMangusi.

Needless to say, despite hitting the sack at 8pm and hoping for a few hours’ sleep before the drive, not a wink
was slept, so by 11:30 my flask was full of coffee and I was heading for the highway. I was pottering along at
100 to 110km/h to give Pieter time to catch up. At Bethal I stopped to decant the first cup of coffee. There I
came across a Tuna towing a rubber duck and behind that another trailer with 2 quadbikes. The aunty was
leaning against the door puffing a ciggy, so I asked where they were headed. Mili, she said. Ugh! I really did
not like the thought of quads at Mili, but her hubby was bigger than me, so I said “Drive safely” and made a
duck.

Eventually Pieter phoned and said he was just outside Ermelo, where was I? 10 k’s away, meet you there.
Met at the Engen where he filled the Wrangler up. As they crowded back into the Wrangler, him and his mom
in front, his daughter in the back, up against the roof on a pile of luggage, I felt bad, and told his mom to ride
with me. For her it had the added advantage that she could smoke. I intended using the week in the fresh air to
kick the habit, but still had a pack to finish on the trip down. So we set off for Piet Retief, then Pongola. Along
the way there was fog, and of course lots of darkness, so the countryside remained a mystery to us. The N2 was
in fairly good shape though, and none of the new tollgates were in operation, which pleased me no end.

At Pongola we stopped to fill the Wrangler again… it’s a thirsty beast. My needle was still over half. By now
all the coffee was also having an adverse effect, and much to my disgust I had to pay R2,00 to use a smelly
toilet. When the attendant saw how much I decanted, he wanted to charge me double!

Pongola to Jozini was more entertaining as it was now after sunrise, and we had something to look at. It was a
lot of fun cruising up the hill to Jozini in 3rd, and watching the Wrangler in front of me hunting between 2nd and
3rd all the way, roaring and farting like only and American automatic can. The hills were alive to the sound of
guzzling…


/continued

[Family_Dog]

From Jozini onward it became a bit more tricky. Our average speed had been just below 120 on my clock, but
now we were down to below 100 to avoid cattle and camouflaged speedbumps on the main road. At first we
found it annoying, but closer inspection showed that these rural communities were at least being given some
infrastructure and protection from speeding vehicles, as there were miles and miles of cement footpaths next to
the main road for pedestrians (and cattle…) and although poorly marked, the speedbumps were usually close to
schools. Who were we to complain about speedbumps making the lives of these folks safer?

At eMangusi the Jeep was filled up again. I filled the KZ here too, requiring 56l to top it up. By my calculations
that gave me over 11,3km/l (638km) for the downhill trip. Of the 4 jerrycans, 3 were filled with petrol for the
little genny and the thirsty jeep, and one with diesel as I had absolutely no idea what my consumption was
going to be in Moz on the sandy roads, never having been there. With this lot added to my existing load, the
KZ’s rear bumper had dropped about 25cm from normal unloaded height. I was VERY CONCERNED, to say
the least. How would the rear suspension cope with those roads with all that weight???

Slowly we set off for the border post. There we found about 40 vehicles ahead of us, many of which were
Mozambicans returning home in bakkies hopelessly overloaded. While waiting we deflated the tyres to 0,8bar.
The line was moving quite well, but we were puzzled by all the folk passing us on foot, many of them obviously
South Africans from cars behind us in the line. And every now and then a flashy 4x4 would come cruising past
the whole line, right up to the gate, where they would be waved through. Later we found these folk had sent the
passengers ahead with the passports and paperwork, effectively allowing them to jump the queue. The Tuna
with the duck and quads was one of those…

By 10:30 we were properly in Mozambique, ready for the last 100 odd km’s to Mili. We were met by Pieter’s
brother Hein in his Cherokee V8 hemi. Hein had removed 2 of the 3 silencers, but it still did not sound like a
V8. He wanted to remove the last one too, but his wife wouldn’t let him… more’s the pity. Hein had been
camping at Mili for the past week already, having towed in his caravan – a normal road going caravan which he
had modified slightly. (offroad axle, whole new chassis, properly built and galvanized, extremely professional.
Hein builds hotrods from scratch for a hobby, and is an aircraft mechanic. His work is GOOD.)

Because Hein knew the road he drove in front. I followed him, with the Wrangler and Ventertjie in the rear.
The 2 Jeeps were to be my recovery vehicles, as Hein felt sure without 4wheel drive I would get stuck a few
times. My KZ is the Legend 35 model, with a nice shiny stainless nudgebar. This nudgebar has a belly plate.
This belly plate has some holes in it. Two of these holes are in line with the recovery points, which the belly
plate otherwise would have covered completely. This means recoveries have to be done in a perfectly straight
line, or risk doing damage to the recovery equipment on the edges of the hole in the belly plate, or damaging the
plate itself. Good thinking, Toyota. So I had removed this belly plate before the trip, even though the KZ now
looks somewhat less handsome.

Slowly we set off, dodging 4x4 hi-ace taxis and stationary brokendown or stuck overloaded local bakkies and
small trucks. It boggled my mind a bit that these sandy tracks through the veldt were the main route from
Maputo to this border post. I believe the road to Do Ouro is even worse, but from there a much larger and
“better” road leads up to Maputo. We eventually met up with this road, though my relief was shortlived, as this
“highway” was not in much better shape than the sand tracks leading to the border post. So far I had not had any
trouble with the sand. The bumpiness was a hassle though, as I had to go fairly slow so as not to damage my
rear suspension under the heavy load. Even so, we had to wait a few times for the Wrangler to catch up, as he
did not want to damage the Ventertjie either.

We could not lighten my load by sticking the Jerrycans in the Cherokee, as they had breathers, stinking up the
whole place with petrol fumes (Obviously not dinkum steel Jerrycans, but good quality thick plastic jobbies)
The rest of the stuff was so carefully packed in the back of the KZ, it would have required a full re-pack to get
anything out and the rest safely back in. So I continued carrying the Jeep’s load, knowing they’ll get me out
should I get stuck – they had to, all their booze was with me!


/continued

[Family_Dog]

Along the way we stopped for a humungous bag of charcoal, which went into the Cherokee. Eventually we
reached the Western gate of the Maputo Elephant Game Reserve. Here we managed to confuse the gate official
horribly. Hein had already paid for his full stay, and after much arm waving was allowed through. Pieter then
wanted to pay for himself and his daughter and his Jeep and his Trailer and his campsite for 22 days. In Rands.
He was highly upset when the exchange rate was worse than if he had paid in Meticais. Eventually he settled
down and coughed up. At least the money supposedly goes for a good cause – preservation. Now things became
tricky: Pieter’s mom wanted to pay only for herself. Simple. But where’s her car? No, she caught a lift with me.
So she’ll pay for my KZ to enter? No, I’ll do that. She’s there for 22 days, I’m there for 8. How will she get out
again? And so it went. Finally he gave up, charged me half the rate and everyone else double, and let us in. We
are to this day not sure what we were supposed to pay, but I’m happy because my 8 days plus vehicle plus
campsite cost me R350,00. I think the proper rate if you pay in Rand is R70/day, per person, R70 to let the
vehicle in, and another once off R70 for… campsite? Not sure. Maybe I got a better rate because unlike the
Jeepers I was quite relaxed. Hiluxes do that for you… 

Now the bad roads really started, according to Hein. He had gotten stuck 3 times on his way in with his
caravan. Although I had no caravan I also had no 4wheel drive and a very heavy load. Oh well, getting stuck is
part of the fun. It’s just a bit eina if you have to rely on 2 damn Jeeps to get your Lux out….

By now it was just after 1pm, and we were all tired and hungry and thirsty and looking forward to the first time
I got stuck so we could use the opportunity to dig in the canopy for some drinks and eats. I had plenty liquids
available, but was getting real hungry. The Jeep guys believed lunch lay around the first corner.
I thought differently though. I did not believe I was going to get stuck, unless the roads got drastically worse.
I know my KZ – I have put more than 200 000kms on the clock, usually with load, and even if this was my first
sand driving experience, I still felt confident in my vehicle and my handling of my vehicle. So instead of a
sarmie in my hand I set off with a cigarette between my lips. Pieter’s mom joined with gusto. The worse the
road got, the faster she smoked, lighting the one Menthol from the butt of the previous one. Man, that lady was
gonna sound like Joe Cocker by the end of this trip! At least she was a neat smoker, no butts out the window,
but all in a little plastic bag by her feet.

We had a little 2 way radio, with a handset in each vehicle. It was only really good for line-of-sight, but at least
Hein could warn me of really sandy patches, especially on the uphill sections. These were my biggest problem,
as they were very rutted and bumpy, a bit like the axle twisters at 4x4 tracks. I could not crawl them because I
needed momentum to stay on top of the sand, so words like “bottoming out” came out of my mouth quite often,
while Aunty Menthol next to me spent a lot of time against the ceiling or on the floor, chasing after flying
cigarettes and using very large swearwords. At times I joined in the swearwords as I worried about my KZ’s
rear leafsprings. Seeing the Cherokee in front of me in auto 4wd la-di-da easy peasy, oops, both rear wheels up
in the air, kids yelling on the back seat because they had bumped their heads on the roof, then crushed their
spines on the way down again, made me realize we were going at least twice as fast in some sections as we
should. To be honest, there were maybe 5 of these uphill sections that were nasty. The rest of the road was fine
for decent commonsense driving. Nowhere had I felt the need to engage my difflock, and nowhere had I felt in
any real danger of getting stuck. But this is a road better suited to 4wd. Leaping up those hills just ain’t good for
your car. Or the road, for that matter.

On the way we saw some elephant, but so far off, the Hubble telescope would have had trouble getting a clear
picture. Then we stopped at the lakes, where we saw some hippo. The animals were shy – I suppose the war had
something to do with that. Eventually we reached Mili and our campsite. What a beautiful place!

At the campsite there was some pushing and shoving for good spots to pitch tents. There were many tents to
pitch, and only so much space. Hein already had his caravan plus tent set up. For his 2 teenage daughters a
dome tent. For his 10yr old boy, Klein Heinie ( :) ) another smaller dome tent. For Aunty Menthol a large
dome tent which was all ready for her just to walk in and lie down. For his generator a tent, to keep the rain off.
For the porta-potty a tent for privacy and to keep the smell in.


/continued

[Family_Dog]

Pieter had to have a sunny spot to unroll his fancy flexible solar panels. He needed a shady spot for his kitchen
gazebo. He needed a level spot for his own tent and another for his daughter’s tent. He needed a tree with a
good branch to hang the shower from and a level spot underneath to put up the shower tent. With enough space
next to it for his own porta-potty tent. With a gazebo over both to keep the rain off when you shower or sh… sit
down. With a shadenet screen around for more privacy. With many groundsheets. With a place closeby for the
trailer because all his food was to come out of the KZ and into the trailer where the monkeys couldn’t get to it.
And and and.

Me, I’m used to camping in a 2man tent, using the bakkie’s tailgate as chair/table/kitchen etc. In recent years I
have made a few concessions to my wife. I now had a camping chair, a good quality inflatable mattress, my 6yr
old son’s little green plastic table, and a tent which supposedly can sleep 9, but in reality will sleep 4
comfortably but sleeps 2 in luxury and 1 (me) like a king. I had a bedroom, lounge, kitchen, bathroom and
stoep! All open plan of course. In my kitchen was my teeny little Bluette gas stove and my coolerbox and all my
food on display on my son’s table. My bedroom had a mattress and books, my lounge had a camping chair, my
bathroom had the 70l plastic container which I had brought my food in, and a bar of Dettol soap, and my
toothbrush. That plastic container was big enough to fit my skinny naked butt and 5l lukewarm water. I was the
cleanest of everyone there, because their 5l showers ran out long before all the soap was washed off all the hairy
bitts. I know – I lent them my shower because I did not like the thing. I did not have a porta-potty. I had my
son’s potty for night wee’s, and a spade. My stoep had 60l fresh water and a camping chair, but only when my
lounge did NOT have a camping chair.

I was set up within an hour of arrival. Pieter was still setting up and getting everything shipshape for his
girlfriend’s arrival by the time I left a week later. Catering for women is tough… though my wife is happy now
that we have the bigger tent and chairs to sit on. The only thing the Jeepers had which I did not was freezers, all
set up with solar panels and dual batteries and generators. But as payment for carting all his stuff there Pieter
had to keep my few chops and sausages frozen, and freeze my icebricks as I exchange warm ones for cold ones
in my coolbox. At least my butter and apples and most importantly my Tafel Lagers were nice and cold. And
the water for my Oros.

From our campsite to the beach is maybe 50m along a sandy path. And there is this magnificent beach. Warm
water. Sunshine. A few fishermen. Three or four other people on the beach. Miles and miles of virtually empty
beach. WOW! Here I settled down and had the second-last cigarette in my pack. A while later I returned to the
campsite to find the fire burning already. Hein you beaut. After a lambchop and a pow(?) – delicious local bread
– I had my last ciggy. Then I hit the sack. The sun was still visible, but I was not.


/continued

[Family_Dog]

The next day, after a nice early morning swim, I felt the need for some Mozambican tobacco, so, getting
directions from Hein as to where the little spaza shop is I set off in the KZ. I was not going to walk 2km in that
heat. The spaza shop had no cigarettes, but they did have Tipo Tinto – Rum. So I bought some for R45,00.
Bargain, and not too bad a rum either. One of the patrons thought he might know someone in the area who
might have some cigarettes for sale. He spoke no English, and my Portuguese is not good. Is not, full stop.
But we managed to understand each other, and off we went. Having found this someone we were referred to
another someone down by the Mili well. There we went, where the other someone was not, but a different
someone was there and he spoke some English and he knew of another someone who might have smokes for
sale. By now the cigarettes were no longer important to me – all these someones were very amusing to me, and
I felt I had to let this thing play out until we met the right someone. So the latest someone, now crammed into
my KZ along with the original someone, gave me directions back along the route we had followed from the
main gate. 15 minutes, he said. OK, I said, but if we get stuck you push. No problem, he said. I was a bit wary,
as the Jeep brigade was not with me, in fact they had no idea where I was, and there’s zero cellphone reception
for me. Getting stuck would be very un-fun. But what the hell, let’s go on an adventure! Suffice to say that we
drove 20km on those sandy roads, and on roads which had only ever seen feet, no tyres, where the grass in the
middle grew roof high. And yet my 2 guides were so calm and collected, I never felt a moment’s worry. They
showed me 3 spaza shops, the only one of which had any cigarettes was closed. At another one three very
young someones approached me with a muddy bag, and revealed a pile of mud crabs dinner plate sized. (each
crab was dinner plate sized, not the whole pile…) Those things are delicious, but I refused to buy anything of
the sort in a reserve, much to their confusion. All these little spaza shops are hidden from the main routes, often
the only thing giving them away being two feint tracks leaving the main route. Eventually at the 3rd spaza shop
with no smokes I said we had to go back – another 20km, but well worth the scenery and being off the main
tracks. My guides felt peckish and each purchased himself three or four teeny packets of nick-nack type chips.
These they ate with much pleasure, and promptly threw the empty packets out the window. Grrr. So maybe it’s
not only the South African tourists messing Mili up with their rubbish. Perhaps the locals do their own bit of
messing. Or perhaps they mess because they see the tourists mess and therefore think it’s OK to mess…
Whatever, it’s very sad.

Back at the Mili campsite, just as I approached, I saw Hein in his Cherokee. They had become worried about
me, and he was on his way to start looking for me. Much to his and Pieter’s disgust I had, just like yesterday,
not gotten stuck and they could still not claim to have recovered a Hilux. I gave each of my guides R20,00 and
told them to let me know if they hear of someone who has cigarettes…


\continued

[Family_Dog]

A few days later it looked like rain, so to occupy the kids we thought we’d go for a drive in the 2 jeeps. I guided
them along the route I had taken, and even though they found it very scenic, it was no longer quite as exciting
because the element of danger had gone out of it for me – getting stuck in the middle of nowhere with 2
strangers and no comms…. Now in 2 jeeps…. Pfuuui, this was not near as much fun!

We spent a lot of time snorkeling off the beach. There are 2 sets of breakers, the further out one breaks on a
sandbank which at low tide is maybe 1,5 to 2m deep. Then the waves roll to the beach, where at low tide they
break on a fairly smooth rock shelve. This shelve is seldom fully exposed, so the beach appears to be sandy all
the way in. Treated with respect this rock shelve is not dangerous. Go just beyond it, between the two sets of
breakers, and you find a deep gully with many many many fish. It’s like swimming in a tropical fishtank.
Rub yourself well with sunblock, enter this gully at the Southern end of the beach, and let the stream carry you
north along the coast. All you have to do is paddle a bit now and then to stay over the gully. Magnificent! We
spent hours diving for fishing tackle. Hein eventually had a collection of about 30 large sinkers from just in
front of our campsite. We had a gazebo pitched permanently on the beach, and would spend 90% of the day on
the beach or in the warm water. Heaven.

On the evening of the 22nd I packed up my camp, pitched a little 2 man tent for the night, and got ready to leave
at 1st light on the 23rd. My KZ was virtually empty now, as I had left all the fuel and my extra water to Pieter
and Hein. I wanted to decant the one jerrycan with diesel into the KZ while I had someone to help hold the
funnel, but after less than 10litres my tank was full. The KZ was not standing level, so it might have taken
more, but by this time I had done 22km tar and a further 140 odd km sand, and it felt good to see only about
10litres topping the tank up. Obviously this is wildly inaccurate, but I had to rub those thirsty Jeeper’s noses in
it… With that “full” tank I drove back all the way to JHB. Outside Carnival city my fuel light came on, and I
decanted the last 10 or so liters from that jerrycan, and made it home before the light came on again. My
consumption back up the hill to Joburg was much worse, as I had the sandy section from Mili to the border, and
a much heavier foot on the tar. Was home with a cup of coffee in my hand by 4pm, had left Mili at 5am.
The border crossing took a while as there were many cars both entering and leaving Moz, and the bright
officials on the SA side had not marked clearly the 2 separate passport control lines for exiting and entering,
causing many folk, myself included, to stand in the wrong lines.


\continued

[Family_Dog]

Initially Pieter was to escort me to the border from Mili on the day I left, but then he had to go pick his
girlfriend up in Maputo, so Hein was to be escort in his Cherokee. That 200km round trip in the sand meant
almost a full tank of petrol for him, and I was very confident by now, so he did not escort me directly. They did
decide to follow a few hours later and go show his mom Ponta Do Ouro, which meant that if I did get stuck in
the reserve they would eventually find me. However, all went well, until I saw the elephant footprints in the
road…
I stopped to take a few pics with my cellphone, then remembered that elephants have long memories and
probably remember people shooting at them during the war and and and… so I got back in the Lux and slowly
drove on down the hill, careful not so surprise any stray grumpy musky bulls, keeping a nervous eye on those
enormous footprints all down the road… and then the road was flat and open and no elephants to be seen for
miles around, but the footprints were still in the road, and suddenly I realized that I had missed the new road
and was now following the elephant footprints along a sandy track that got looser and looser… I tried to speed
up ever so gently to gain some more momentum, but instead found myself going slower and slower. Even
though the sand right next to the track was much firmer because of vegetation, the track had been worked so
deeply that sidewalls had formed which were way too high to climb, especially as I was already losing traction
and had a high middle island to deal with too. Slowly, gently I ground to a halt… all by myself…

Have spade, will dig. No point in going forward, at least another 100m of the same sand. No point in going
back, even further to firmer sand. The sand was so loose, stepping in the wheeltrack in front of my Lux I sank
ankle deep in soft loose sand. 30m to the left ran the new, firmer track. 2 car lengths behind me the left shoulder
is a bit lower. Dug all 4 wheels open, cleared smooth gradient behind wheels, laid dry vegetation behind rear
wheels, difflock on, gently, GENTLY reversed 3 car lengths. It is 5:30am and I’m sweating like a pig.

Crank front wheels midway left, not too sharp, difflock off, get out, go and find spade.

Clear left shoulder wide enough for front and rear LH wheels. This means digging away a heap of sand about
500mm high. Not much, you say?

Now clear center island wide enough for front and rear RH wheels when turning left. Load spade. Get in.
Gently, gently, JAYYY!!!!

Took me 40 minutes. One Spade. No Jeeps. What a great holiday!!! And I’m still off the tobacco.

[Oupa Stig]

Thanx for your effort, Eric. Seen in context on the forum I do see that it is quite lengthy...

[Family_Dog]

Here are the photos. Mickey, if you would like me to put them somewhere in the above text, please let me know where and I will move them.

Nice trip report, and well done on getting rid of the tobacco! ;)


-F_D

===

[Oupa Stig]

Tx FD, pics happened to fall into sequence:
1st ocean view at arrival at Mili
Hidden "shoprite" as locals called it, with 2 jeeps..
Some hippo in one of the numerous lakes.
Treacherous elephant spoor that lead me astray, leaving me stuck on my own with only a spade for company.

[Thunder02]

Great trip report Had me in stitches,nearly spat my coffee out a few times.

[Oupa Stig]

Thanx Neil, it was almost as much fun to do as the trip itself...

[Thunder02]

Thanx Neil, it was almost as much fun to do as the trip itself...

If you have,some pics of the campsite would be great,want to see the hundreds of tents

[Haboob]

Thanx for sharing...well narrated, & sounds as though you all had a great time. Pitches were scarce though & the sandy bits are probably always more scary than they look...esp in a 4x2.

[george]

Excellent Micky Good to hear about the place. I am heading slowly down to the south and will visit there in about 2-3 weeks.

[Oupa Stig]

Neil, I took very few pics, my camera cost me 8k 15 years ago. Massive 2.1mp.... Life went on, got wife,house, kids, KZ.... Never got around to upgrading camera. I find videos give better feel anyway for sharing experience. Still dreaming of good SLR though....
George, the road in to Mili takes time, but well worth it. Campsites are a bit dirty as no one seems to clean up when messy tourists bugger off, and no facilities/water/ablution at all. Part of the fun. Well water, can be drinked, but will give you the trots 1st few days....
Edge, sand was not scary on the way in, as I had backup. On the way out on my lonesome it was a HELL of a lot more fun! Bumps were scary though....

[Bulletjie-3]

Sorry Mickey.
George you must visit Santa Maria for a boattrip to the island.

I enjoy you trip report Mickey (and your sense of humour) - thanks.

[Darcor]

Great trip report...really enjoyed that.
Well done with the 4x2 in the sand!!!!

[Donkey]

very well narrated and thanks for sharing, you should write a book

[Mud Dog]

Cannot for the love of me understand how I could possibly have missed this TR when it was originally posted, but I did. So pleased that it was 'bumped' ... and I got to read it after all!

An entertaining read, Mickey! Well done on a great TR!

(Now you need to upgrade that camera!! )

[CasKru]

Thanks for sharing and the detailed report

[Oupa Stig]

Thankyou for your kind words....
Will most certainly invest in better camera, but it's going to be a while before I get to go on another trip like this. Might manage a few shorties in the meantime though...
I agree about the pics - no matter how much s....t I talk, without pics a trip report does not work as it should.
Something I learned on this forum!

[Mud Dog]

Absolutely nothing wrong with that TR Mike, very well narrated (you have a gift for it). A few more select pics would have made it unsurpassable!