Hunting up The Mountain Bushmanshoek Boerwar 1899 to 1902

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Last weekend I decided that it was time to attempt something different, thus I loaded up the wife, the two Jack Russel dogs Jenna and Scott and of course my Minelab Soverein GT, not forgetting the paw paw and coca cola and ice. First had to go and fill the tank up with some fuel, no use going venturing off into the countryside with a half tank of gas, we then left Queenstown and travelled towards Sterkstroon that is +- 70km from Queenstown, just phoned the farmer in advance to tell him that we were going hunting on his farm again, he was not even there, another reason why he does not mind us going to his farm is because it helps to prevent stock theft if there is movement on his farm, his farm is over 3000 hectars in size, consisting of mountains, valleys and beautiful scenary.

Thus we eventually arrived at the gate to enter his farm, luckily this time round it was open, he did not have any sheep stock in this section, thus we just drove through, this is when I switched on the ARB air locker compressor that I have installed in my truck, this compressor pumps up a small cylinder which fills up with air, this air is used to activate the front and rear diff locks that I have on my truck, when the tank is fill, the compressor will switch off automatically. We then took a route towards this small mountian that we could see in the far distance, when we had closed another gate, I asked my wife to lock the front wheel hubs, you have to do this in some 4x4 vehicle's so that you can get direct 4x4 mode when you select the gears in the cab, my truck also has a Marlin Crawler kit fitted, for thoughs of you who do not know what this is, it is basically a unit that I bought from America, a sort of special adapter plate and a few gears, a person then takes another transfer case and seperates it and used a section of it with the adapter plate to join my existing transfer box to this extra section, with this modification it gives my truck a super low range gearing which is very suitable for off-road conditions. Now inside my cab I now have four gear levers, two are known as Twin sticks, I then selected the correct gears, high range for now and we then took the best route across this valley and eventually arrived at the foot of this mountain that we had to climb, now to just give you a brief idea, there used to be a track that lead to the top of this mountain, however it was built over 100 years ago and due to soil erosion, time and a boundry fence that has been erected half way up the mountain across the existing track, it was not possible to even attempt to even try and use it, at the foot of the mounatin, this section of the track was completely washed away. Thus after looking at the mountain slope for a while, I then selected lwo range 4x4, activated both lockers front and rear and slowly made my way up the mountain slope, basically in a straight line, driving up slopes at side angles is scary, but it sure gets your blood flowing.



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To get to a certain point we had I had to use the help of my wife to direct me through this difficult section, basically we had to turn to the left to get back onto the existing track, but to do this we had to tackle some very high rocks that were too large to move, thus with the added help pf the high ground clearence of my truck as well as lockers, power steering and my wifes help, we managed to get the truck over this difficult section with out any problems, but there was this huge rock futher up the track, see bottom right of the next photo, I had to reverse twice back to be able to move the truck into the correct position so that we could get past this huge rock, it was just too high to drive over it and I did not want to damage The Bridgestone 33" x 1250 x 15" mud tires that I have fitted to my truck, thus we made it around past this huge rock and then had to cross a section that had scattered rocks in our path.



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And then finally we managed to see the top of this mountain, but we first had to drive up and over some more huge rock formations which were quiet easy considering the fact that we had actually made it up to the top, I think that this truck of mine is the first motorised truck that has ever been to the top of this mountain, when the track was first made by The British troops during The Boerwar, it was hand made, they did not have any motorised vehicle's, during this time here in South Africa, yes trains were around but nothing to move and push large amounts of sand and rocks to build roads up mountains.



We then took a route twoards the old fort that The Bristish had also hand made, they had used rocks that they had found from the surrounding areas, this fort was used as an observation look out point and also to give them some shelter from the hot summer months as well as the cold minus 15 degrees celsius winter months, this mountain gets lots of snow and ice during winter each year, basically this fort was put up to protect The Bushman's Hoek Pass as well as The main railway line through this area from been damaged and taken over by The Boers who they were fighting against.



Some of you might by now be asking yourselves what is this guy from South Africa doing that he wanted to get his truck up this mountain :icon_scratch: Well like I said in the beginning of this article (true story) we were going hunting.

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Now first of all, just some views from ontop of this mountain, yes this is South Africa, wild and tough but beautiful.




You can see the farm house in the distance with the red roof in the above pic.

Rocky formations all along the ridge.

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And by this time, the urge to get the machine out and to start to hunt was so for real, but first let me just explain to you some things, during this time when The British were in this area, there were more than 3000 Bristish troops camped with tents below from where we originally came up the mountain, however I believe that they kept their horses and stock actually ontop of this mountain to prevent them from wondering away and they even had tents up there as well to stay in.

Thus out came the machine, I then doned my peak cap, sunglasses and earphones, last weekend I had modified my digging tool and you will see what I have done to it in a pic futher on, luckily the last few weeks we have had some rain in this area, thus it had softened the soil and would not be so hard to dig in, a few months back it was like digging into concrete down in the valley below, I have been up on this mountain before, but by the time I had got to the top, I was so buggered from walking up there straight up through and around a very rocky section and it was during the hot summer months as well, that I did not do much hunting, I have mentioned this in another article before here on this excellent web site.

Walking down towards the futher end of this vast area, I soon started to pick up sounds with my machine, the first item that I found was this, have a look at the pic.



Here in these pic's I show you all what I found, it is the metal protective section from an army boot, you get one at the front and this one at the rear. They are normally nailed to the underneath section of the boot.

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I then found this 303 rifle bullet head a few paces on, this is how I found it when I dug my hole.


I then found this what looks like a more modern 12 bore shotgun doppie, it says
No 2 ELEY GASTIGHT around the primer section of it.



Then another boot heel steel protector.



And another steel boot protector and this is what my spade looks like, it sure works very very well, it is a spade that us 4x4 guys use when we have to help our mates out of the mud when they get their vehicles stuck.



And now the last photo for tonight, this photo shows you what else I also found, even lucky to find a live 303 bullet, this happens often from this area, there is a round little metal item, looks like a small cart wheel, that I am not sure what it is, will take a better pic and post it in the other section for you guys to help me, but briefly it has eight little spokes, it is about 35mm in Od and on the other side in the middle it has this little hole that has threads in it, the hole size is about 5mm, I am not sure, but it seems to be made from brass, I thought taht maybe is is from a tent as an airvent, but I am not sure.

Thus it is sleeping time now, enjoy the last pic, all comments are welcome, who is coming to visit and hunt with me in this area?

[Mr_B]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for taking the time to post the pics and tell us about your adventure! Really cool! I think your lux is a legend on this forum. Having front and rear diff locs as well as the crawler kit really does turn an SFA into a super 4x4. You forgot to mention that the crawler/reduction gearing is also a torque converter, it really makes a huge difference bumping up a 4Y 2.2 to about 900nm(or so I've heard) of torque at the wheels! This makes the 2.2 perfectly capable serious offroad engine! My friend Craig has a 2.2i with 35's on with a crawler and front diff loc, this thing is a go anywhere monster of note, he often kicks dust in the LR/Jeep boys faces!

I actually thought you meant wild life hunting, when you said 'hunting', not geological excavation! If I were on your side of the world I would love to join you, but fear that my lux wouldn't be able to follow where your lux leads! One day when she grows up I plan on fitting a front locker and crawler gears!

Thanks again!

B

[Dadz Toy BFI]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for taking the time to post the pics and tell us about your adventure! Really cool! I think your lux is a legend on this forum. Having front and rear diff locs as well as the crawler kit really does turn an SFA into a super 4x4. You forgot to mention that the crawler/reduction gearing is also a torque converter, it really makes a huge difference bumping up a 4Y 2.2 to about 900nm(or so I've heard) of torque at the wheels! This makes the 2.2 perfectly capable serious offroad engine! My friend Craig has a 2.2i with 35's on with a crawler and front diff loc, this thing is a go anywhere monster of note, he often kicks dust in the LR/Jeep boys faces!

I actually thought you meant wild life hunting, when you said 'hunting', not geological excavation! If I were on your side of the world I would love to join you, but fear that my lux wouldn't be able to follow where your lux leads! One day when she grows up I plan on fitting a front locker and crawler gears!

Thanks again!

B

Yeh, real interesting reading Simon

Ps... You do have a crawler kit Snip, it's called your ICV :!:

[Mr_B]

I wish Richard! Once you have driven a vehicle with a crawler in you will understand, no amount of electronic wizardry/gadgetry can make up for what a crawler kit does! Just watch Craig's SFA next time we go to Atlantis! Craig's lux can easily go down a steep decent on engine compression/ high torque, at half the speed and twice the control, that we non crawler folks do! So in essence it's a great performance and safety enhancement!

B

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And I can tell you that with the larger 33's that are fitted as well as The Marlin Crawler, I have checked with the GPS and the speedo is out by only 2 to 3km, with my truck, I can easiely get 120km per hour driving on flat tar roads, the previous owner must have done soemthing to the cam or engine, this 4Y is awesome. Thank's guys

[Family_Dog]

Nice report, Simon! Look forward to reading about more of your adventures.


-F_D

[ToyX4]

I've went to Gonubie/East London end of January for a quick getaway.
And I can tell you, the mounainous areas around Queenstown is really something.
First time I've been there.

Simoan. you're really lucky to live where you do.