Hilux 4x4 Forum

Have'nt quite reached home yet, ie still in Joburg, leaving for CTown on Monday.. weather permitting... when I will be able to finish a full trip report and load photo's. But would like to say a very, very big thank you to my fellow travellers for a spectacular trip through bits of Moz, lots of Zimbabwe, and bits of Botswana... Many border crossing and river crossings later, I am still just amazed at the wonderful companionship of my fellow Hilux family members.... Thanks Schubert family, Eksteen family, Terry family for helping to make this about 6000 km trip, that includes my CT to Joburg extension, an amazing adventure... Also a massive thank you to Nico, Christie and their wonderful daughters, other Hilux family members in Phalaborwe, for your hospitality to an additional 7 adults and 4 children that changed your front garden into a camping site and your home into our home for 2 whole days..

Welcome back, looking forward to the report and pics

Thanks Jacques.... maybe Ooooms will load a few photo's if he has time, before I get to do the report....

Val, I hope so, I really hope so.

Glad you made it Be safe the last bit

Lekker, Val! ..... Looking forward to those TR's!

Mark is doing an excellent job of reporting on our trip, so I am just going to add my extra trippie on either side of it and maybe give some idea's I had about the rest of the trip....

In total I covered 5701km...

Left Cape Town on Wed 27th June with the plan to take 2 days to get to Joburg... Spent the night at a very neat self catering cottage next to the Gariep dam... Sjoe but it was cold... fortunately the bed had an electric blanket and so I had a warm sleep... a glass or two of red wine helped, of course...

I was happy I had decided to stay there because the next day the road works to Bloemfontein were tricky and would have been a nightmare to negotiate in the dark with the wonderful Hilux lights....

Arrived at my sons in Joburg to spend the night with them, and I was so amused, because the next morning they left for a holiday in Mauritius at some 5 star hotel all luxuries included, and I left for Mark and Danelle's to go live in the bush for 2 weeks..... no accounting for your kids hey...

Danelle and I spent the day doing last minute shopping and packing for the trip...

Well the next day.... we just drove through lots of toll gates and paid a fortune... think the streets must be paved with gold... We met up with Mike and Sonya at Milly's and made our way to Phalaborwa to stay with Nico and Christie.. Frans, Denise and their girls and boy joined us there..

I must admit the others camped on the front lawn and I stayed in their guest flat....very privileged... Their hospitality was exceptional... Can you imagine, they accommodated 7 adults and 4 children. Nico made an awesome rooibok potjie for us for dinner on the night before we left, and we ate like royalty... Thanks guys for such wonderful hospitality, good chats and lots of laughs..

We went for a drive and just a short way from their house we came across these ellies in the river bed...
From their front lawn we could see, giraffe, elephant and buffalo across the river at the Timbavati reserve... bit too far to get good shots, even with a 400mm lens

Our convoy headed out from there to Kruger, stopping in Phalaborwa to fuel up and buy last minute necessities... We stopped at a water hole in Kurger and I managed to get these shots with my mik and druk...
We made a great brunch at Punda Maria and headed for our camping spot at Pafuri...

The hamburgers and chips that the guys braaied for us for supper was great.. and that evening we had 'nagapies' bouncing around in the trees above us, they were so sweet, but unable to photograph them..

The next morning we were up very early and off to make our way through our first border crossing... Mmmmmm... that was i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g particularly on the Moz side of it... Felt like a chicken running around without a head running from one office to the next, to have papers filled out, passports stamped, vehicles checked, and so on...

The track we took after the border was a lot of fun... it had obviously not been used in a long while, and the sound of bushes and branches scratching the sides of myvehicle drowned out the sound of the really good music I was listening to in my vehicle... Occassionally the guys cut away branches and sometimes the girls got out and held them back so we could drive through...

Of course what was uppermost in my mind was who was going to walk the croc infested river when we reached it, to see how deep it was... No problem though, I had my camera ready for the action... actually no problem, because it was very sandy with a stream and a little axle twister on the other side... then of course my concerns turned to how the Mazda was going to get out.. actually, just joking we all did really well, I think..

Thanks for you side of the story and great pics

Hi Val, I LIE your MIK EN DRUK pictures.. they are great

Goeie aksie foto, krom rug Rooibok met n stywe stert
Daai ellie gaan nou n surprize op sy kop kry.......

Then it was a, I think beautiful, rural, but dusty section of road to our next border crossing... The dirt roads were in fairly good condition until we reached some little settlement and then it become very bumpy and full of potholes, some of them bordering on donga's, I know I hit one of them at about 80km.p.h. and my skeleton realigned itself.. the funniest thing I saw though was a bus hurtling towards me, at the speed of light, sideways, ie the chassis was totally twisted and the only way it drove was sideways, forwards...

Just before the border, we had a Moz police check... and the Mazda in front of me was thoroughly checked... when the policeman approached me I asked them what they were looking for and he answered, "I will tell you when I find it," reckon we were lucky they had no electricity there, because our laptops might have started to look good around about then... Anyway, I think it was a good day for girls, because he did'nt check my vehicle quite as extensively as he did Mike's...

And so on to our next border crossing... No electricity, hand written forms, and lots of them, you name a tax, they have it..... streets must be lined with gold dust on this occasion... But I must add, the people were very friendly, (one guy even offered to join me for the rest of the trip), and polite, but insisted on checking vin numbers, chassis numbers etc so that took a while..

Then we reached Gonarhezou National Park... Sjoe, we are so spoilt with computers and internet connections... It was a long process.. The campsite with some facilities and fairly decent camp site cost quite a bit less than the ones with minimal or absolutely no facilities in the remote unknown...

But I must say, it is such a beautiful country.... our first river crossing in the park we encountered some hippo, and the Chipinda campsite had beautiful views...

This elephant had been in the camp next door during the night, and on Danelle's walk back from the toilets in the morning she almost walked into him... just before he moved off into the bushes..
These hippo with their calves were in the river in front of the camp, I took this from the campsite and did'nt go closer..... Mike did and they became very unsettled, so he backed off..
From the campsite across the river..

We left Chipinda after a night and headed to our next camp site. On the way we stopped at the pools, I was keen to gate crash that camp for the night, because it had the most amazing pools and a resident croc or 10... By this time little Heinie, who is all of 2 and a half years old had learnt about a new species called the 'olikrokinoster', they were everywhere...
Brunch at Chilola cliffs and then a little fun at the next river crossing before our next camp

GI Jane wrote:We left Chipinda after a night and headed to our next camp site. On the way we stopped at the pools, I was keen to gate crash that camp for the night, because it had the most amazing pools and a resident croc or 10... By this time little Heinie, who is all of 2 and a half years old had learnt about a new species called the 'olikrokinoster', they were everywhere...

Hahahaha I also teach kids about a "Olikrokonostorlikewanefant" :wink2:

When we reached Pokwe the real work began.... The guys baked bread
chopped wood for the fire
chopped more wood, it got hot chopping wood
collected water so that the ladies could
This was tough work for the ladies, because the water was chocolate coloured..

But most important of all of course was the ellie dung dance
We had a couple of flies around and we heard of some magic dance that involved elephant dung incense that would rid of us the flies.... so very kindly Mark did us the honour...

It's still open to debate whether it actually works... juries out on that

On route to our campsite, I found the trees magnificent, There were'nt as many animals as I had anticipated.... Those we saw were very nervous and moved away quickly and the elephants that did'nt appeared to get angry if we did'nt move on...

Saw this along the road

Very nice!

Glad you're back safely

Your mik and druk most definitely takes better phodies...
This is my favourite

A herd of ellies crossed in front of us at the vlei, but they moved away swiftly
At our next campsite, which had involved a number of river crossings, Mark retrieved some spyrogyra from under my vehicles and gave us his version of the spyrogyra hakka...
Then it was time for the all important job of collecting water for the evening shower...

I reckon there were at least 20 - 30 crocs in the river around us....
But in spite of that the brave warriors were going to ensure hot showers... well maybe luke warm at the most...
I tagged along with my camera, thinking that if I was'nt going to get any photo's of a lion kill, I might get lucky with a croc kill.....

The ladies placed their orders for crocodile handbags, belts and shoes....

Truthfully though, as the guys approached the river, the many crocs that could be seen, submerged and disappeared from site...
Think that has to have been the best shower site ever....

They found some secluded places along the river, and hung the shower bags in some heavy branches, over looking the river...
I had a shower as the sun was setting over the river, the view was spectacular... must say I was watching the banks carefully because was worried that the crocs would come out of the water and have me for dinner, it was'nt that far from the edge, and fortunately the weather was warm enough for a cool shower....

Next stop Lake Kyle The colours at sunset were spectacular
These young guys did some trawling for fish
But unfortunately I think they came up empty handed on the day, but they really worked hard at it
Zim ruins the next day... Heinie all two and a half years of him climbed all the way to the top and back down on his own. It was quite a climb to the top..

Welcome back Val.
Report looks amazing so far.

Great pics & nice report Val glad u back !

howzat Zak! you've been quiet?

Ag nee man......wanneer ry ons weer.......

Great pics and story tx Val ... Andy Val

Besig bra
Hoop ek kan aan die einde van die week bietjie vir julle wys wat my so besig hou!!!!!!!

Sorry Val for taking over the post sal nou still bly.
Ps next time take me with please.

thanks for sharing the great photos and stories. camped at lake kyle ( that was virtually dry at the time) and zim ruins in the late eighties....brought back a flood of memories. thanks for that.

african dust wrote:thanks for sharing the great photos and stories. camped at lake kyle ( that was virtually dry at the time) and zim ruins in the late eighties....brought back a flood of memories. thanks for that.

Currently the dam is only 30% full....not due to the lack of rain ..... but due to a faulty gate in the dam dam wall they can't repair.......

Damn gate!!!

Great Report & Fodies Val, Keep them coming.
When Mark has competition on the Forum, then the advantages are all for the readers that had to spend the cold winter at home.

Hey I'm not the competition, I am the backup... He is writing a stunning factual report giving all the important stuff, I'm just filling in my two cents worth...

But at the moment think I'm a bit confused, thought our next place was called Matopo Hills, but whatever Molopa, what's in a name...

Haboob wrote:Great Report & Fodies Val, Keep them coming.
When Mark has competition on the Forum, then the advantages are all for the readers that had to spend the cold winter at home.

Janee agree...! Val has pointed out 'other' things I have already forgotten.....like the nag-apies, border corssings (which seem normal to me..... ),

But she cheated cause her 'mik and druk' has slightly better....only slightly better zoom than ours :alvarin:
Unfair and I object, she must give me one :!:

Val.....you forgot to mention the key's........

So our next stop, a game park with very little game, other than baboons... Well that all I saw... Mark and them all saw hippo, I saw trees, stunning ones, but TREES...

Matopo, Malopo, Molopa hills

From our campsite...
On the way to the game park I met some wonderful people.. This guy had a problem pumping up his tyre, I offered to pump it up with my compressor, could have had it done in two ticks, but he insisted on doing the hard labour... he also said he did'nt mind if I took a photo of him... he was gone when I came down the road a short while later, so he managed to get sorted out in the end...
The beautiful coloured trees... I resorted to photographing tons of them because of the shortage of animals
Then on the way back from the game park, I met another group of people that were collecting the grass they had cut... Very friendly, I exchanged a tub of melrose cheese wedges for the opportunity to take this photo of them...they were so happy... we found cheese very expensive at the store we went to in Masvingo

OOOOMS wrote:Val.....you forgot to mention the key's........

Think I have a bit of selective memory loss, give me a hint about the keys..

GI Jane wrote:

OOOOMS wrote:Val.....you forgot to mention the key's........

Think I have a bit of selective memory loss, give me a hint about the keys..

Anyone seen my car key's....... :roll:

Well we left there and had a long drive to another border crossing into Bots... we knew about the problem of taking through meat and fruit so we dispensed with all of that..... On our way to the border post we stopped for brunch on the way, and a convoy of SA vehicles with trailers passed us and reached the border post first... Well..... they had their trailers completely unloaded and checked, and I reckon by the time we got through the paper work the border officials were over with checking, and unpacking vehicles so we sailed through.... without any hassle...

Our next stop after a very, very long drive through Francistown and parts of Bots, was Zanzibar. We spent the night on the Bots side and went over early the next day without any hassles... probably the most uneventful border crossing of the entire trip...

The dirt road section after the border crossing was pretty bad in places... We stopped for Breakkie at Mokopane, and Zandyl joined us for coffee... It was getting to the time when the group was going to go there different ways back home..

Frans, Denise, their girls Tersha, Bianca, and mister Personality in 2 and a half years, parted company for Groblersdal....

On our way to Joburg, Mike and Sonya left us for Rustenburg and we carried on to Joburg...

Monday was the last leg of my journey back to Cape Town, amidst news reports of the N1 being closed due to snowfalls....Many stop/goes later I stopped to take some photo's just about to enter 3 Koek Sisters....
I was pretty tired by then, as I had been on the road for 11 hours with all the roadworks so I decided to camp at Karoo National,,,, the thought of a warm bed in a guest house was tempting, but far too sophisticated after the last 2 weeks, so I opted for remaining tough....

Ohhhh..... those keys that I kept leaving in the lock of my car door....... you know I thought I had left them in my tent sidpocket that was neatly packed away in the back of my canopy, that was already closed with the spare wheel carrier and petrol carriers already closed... a mission....

Brilliant Picture Val.

The sun had almost set by the time I checked through the gate at Karoo National... so I pumped up the ISO on my camera, and handheld it, while sitting in the vehicle with the motor running... hence grainy, not entirely sharp shots....all this so I could get my tent up and bedding in before it was entirely dark...
Had a wonderful dinner in the restaurant, got back to the campsite and started a roaring fire and enjoyed a couple of 'polisie hot chocolates' so that I could have a wonderful nights sleep...

The next morning I had planned to do the 4x4 trail to see if I could get closer to the snow but learnt that it had been closed due to previous rains that had damaged part of the trail. Just as well, because when I woke up the next morning my little Malamoo tent that had housed me for the last 2 weeks was covered in ice, looked like a little igloo...oh, the value of feather duvets and hot flushes...

Want to once again thank my fantastic fellow travellers for a wonderful trip... Also want to comment on the amazing group of children we had on the trip.... The girls were always willing to help when it was needed.. in fact most of the time they never needed to be asked, they offered... They entertained themselves all day long and were always happy, friendly and just well behaved... as for my hero Heinie... we shared bowls of oats and occassionally the odd meal from the same plate... the sweetest thing on two feet...

THANKS ALL OF YOU....

Lovely pics, Val, even the grainy ones! Yeah, OS can only do so much and no more with those big lenses, especially in failing light, and there's never enough time to get a pod out if you want to capture the moment.

Lovely pic's, tx for sharing Val

zepplin wrote:Damn gate!!!

in the damn wall!!!

Really nice pics Val

Val, this is a very nice report - and your pics are GREAT

GI Jane wrote:...oh, the value of feather duvets and hot flushes...

Mr_B wrote:

GI Jane wrote:...oh, the value of feather duvets and hot flushes...

Ja Mr. B, getting cold is not an option, I carry around my own internal volcano, or 'personal summer'......phew, 'is it hot here or what?'

Excellent trip & pics, Val. I envy you guys & gals with an eye for fine pics... A child in Nursery School can take better pics than I!


-F_D