Sorry it took me a little while to get my bearings on this trip report, but here it is and I hope it was worth the wait.
A beautiful sunny morning on Saturday 17/10 and we were almost all on time at the Main gate at Atlantis, except for Niel whose turn it was to make a grand entrance. Here are the guys who attended:
1.) King Rat (Coenie)
2.) Hoppy (Allan)
3.) Kaspaas (Me)
4.) Dino
5.) Lourens Rooikappietjie
6.) Voetsek (Carlo)
7.) RustyRod (Bretton)
8.) Niel
9.) Buff (Brett)
10.) Mauritz Viljoen
11.) Manie the Maniac
12.) Wolffie2 (Leon Olckers)
13.) Morne
14.) Rolbos
15.) Tornado
These guys were also there, but they had their own private party and we met up with them later at the Horse Shoe.
Richard & Chalene
Calum & Claire
Andre & Lisa
Arno & Jessica
After a short little how-do-you-do, we got straight into it and made our way to the "Badprop" hole. Here a few of the guys started playing while Allan and I set off to set up the track for the Blind Driving game. Unfortunately Manie had to leave us at that time, he had other engagements to attend to, but not before he showed us what he and his impressive machine can do.
Blind Man's Bluff:
Allan set out a nice track in a circle with a parking bay and a reasonably long reverse section to get out the gate. In this game the driver is blindfolded and the co-driver sits with hands on the dash board and gives instructions to the driver to negotiate the track in the quickest time with as few as possible tape-touches, and or roll backs. We had a lot of fun with some of the guys had long discussions in the car while trying to avoid the tape and the posts.
One of the conversations went something like this: "Kim you have to tell me where I am, I have no idea where I am". One would almost expect the next sentence to be "Beam me up Scotty" or "Luke I am your father". At one stage I had to tell them to get on with it or I would have to penalise them with a roll-back for standing still so long. Needless to say He-of-Much-Rustyness did it in the slowest possible time. (dinosaurs went extinct in less time).
Dino took the "Bull-in-a-China-Shop" approach and it worked for him because he did the straight parts really fast and then had 1 rollback to get round the tight bits and out the gate. Even with the rollback penalty he still came in 2nd. Morne also tried this, with limited success. Niel was playing the chicken in a Nando's add. But he did take lots of photographs.
The other competitors all did it in reasonable times and the winners were :
1 Louis Botha (Rolbos)
2 Dino Burnett (Dino)
3 Brett (Buff)
All these competitors had male co-pilots. I am not sure how that influenced the outcome exactly.
Dune Charge:
Starting points were marked out at the base of a nice steep high dune (the one where Bees showed the 4Y clan how to do it last time). We decided to give the 4Y's and standard vehicles with 31" and smaller tyres a longer run-up than the modifieds and those with 33" tyres for more grip. As Bretton was the only one with a 4Y with 33" he was allowed some lee-way but he still got nowhere.
This turned out to be a real humdinger, with everybody trying to squeeze every extra mm of run-up out of the marshals and sand flying as the guys tried to get max grip out of the wet sand on take off. The big surprise of the day came in the form of Wolffie with his Black Beauty. Andries Blaauw (our honourary international Hilux representative from Namibia the land of sand dunes) advised him on the pro's of deflated tyres and before we knew it a black streak flew away and almost over the top of the dune, kicking sand in the eyes of some of the modifieds!! Well done Wolffie, that sure was impressive and a well deserved 2nd place in the standard class. Buff in his 2.7 was equally impressive and made the top spot in the standard class with a very nicely timed run after a solid take-off with minimal wheel spin. Morne in his 2.7 bull nose completed the top 3 in the Standard class.
In the end it was Louis Rolbos (7MGE with 33" MTR's) that took top honours in the Modified class, dashing up and almost over the top. Carlo Voetsek also had an impressive run but not enough to take the nr 1 spot and Dino on almost flat tyres clinched 3rd spot. Well done guys!!
Standards:
1 Brett (Buff) 2.7i
2) Leon Olckers (Wolffie) 4Y
3) Morne 2.7i
Modifieds
1 Louis Botha (Rolbos)
2 Carlo (Voetsek)
3 Dino Burnett (Dino)
After the competition was done, we started playing and some of the competitors managed to get further and further up the dune than in the actual competition. Then Allan took the wheel of Bretton's (Rusty) Bolt and showed him how to drive a 4Y with 33"s, going sideways up and down with Bretton hyperventilating down below. Kaspaas also made a run or 2 up the dune and surprisingly actually made it to the top.
Dino was flying up and down the dune in his 22R with tyres as low as 0.2bar, made possible by the fact that he was running really cool bead-lockers.
From the Dune charge we travelled to the Horse Shoe, where the guys did a bit of free style driving. The sand was really hard and compacted so it was not as difficult as it nomally can be. We did the prize giving and a nice post trail discussion and some of the guys got out their portable braais and lit their fires to have a lekker braai.
The trophies AEW sponsored came in the form of coffee mugs with the Hilux Club logo on it, 1st, 2nd or 3rd place and the words "Octoberfest Atlantis Dunes". This was a really practical and novel idea. Not only is it a good looking trophy, but it serves as a reminder of the fun you had on the day every time you have a cup of coffee. Very usefull Allan thank you very much! As we ran out of time (Bretton took so long on the Blind Man's Bluff) we didnt get round to our 3rd competition, so we had a spare set of trophies to give away and we did it as part of the lucky draw. These coffee mugs are once-off unique items, so count yourselves lucky if you have one. Some guys even have 2 and can invite a friend over for coffee, ne Oom Louis??
Coenie was one of the lucky winners of a set of Hilux4x4 Thermal Mugs and the other pair went to Morne. The Red Pepper Bash Plate Grand Prize went to Louis Rolbos who seemed to have all the luck on his side this time around.
I want to thank Allan for his assistance in organising and facilitating the events, playing time-keeper and for all the advice to the less experienced drivers and sponsoring the trophies. Also a kind word of thanks to our other sponsor Cobus from Red Pepper Bullbars. Your generosity is well noted.
The day was a resounding success and it would be great to get this group together again at our next event. Until next time, happy trails!!
Will have to get my priorities straight for next time. Weddings, mini-cricket matches and kiddies parties come second to the Dunes 
