Posted on behalf of Simon .........
April 2014
On the 26th and the 27th April 2014, The Queenstown 4x4 Off-Road Club held a
weekend of 4x4ing near Queenstown mainly for the guys from The Amatola
Off-Road Club in East London, but other people and members from other clubs
were invited as well.
After last week's rain that we experienced, we were unsure if the 4x4 trails
could still be driven, thus I went out on the Friday the 25th April 2014 to
check things out, and a friend of mine Shafiek joined me as well.
There was still a lot of mud as well as water, around and the trails were
still very wet and slippery but ever thing seemed safe to drive.
Saturday morning the 26th of April 2014 finally arrived, it had been at
least two months of going out to the 4x4 trails to cut back the thorn tree
branches and to make the trails safe, I did take along Themba as well as
Innocence to assist me, their help was really appreciated, but I must
mention that Andre Bester in his little Landrover also came out as well a
few times and assisted me where he could.
I in fact went out five times onto this trail to cut back the tree branches,
move away huge rocks that had fallen down from higher slopes, I wrapped
chains around the rocks and with my Hilux just dragged them out of the way
and collected dry wood for the bonfire. Ronny Rengers loaned me his heavy
Stihl 038 chainsaw, without the saw, it would have been more difficult
(Thank's to Ronny clap clap...).
We had visitors from The Amatola Off-Road Club joining us on this 4x4
weekend, it was basically for them, but a few of our own members also joined
in the fun.
We all drove out towards Lesseyton and then branched off on the left towards
The Old Red Railway Bridge, making sure that the gate behind us was closed
and secure behind us, this is where the first section of the 4x4 Trails
began. The trail took up in and out of The Lesseyton River, it was very
exciting to be able to drive in this area, mainly because of the rain that
we had, had last week and because we were with other people and friends that
had the same interest as we do and they were very willing to assist when or
if we got stuck in the mud. The guys from East London had radios between
themselves which helped a lot
The 4x4 trail consisted of driving in the flowing river, up small hill
climbs, across some rocks as well as some uneven axle twisters.
Soon we had completed The Red Bridge 4x4 Trail and were soon on our way to
The Famous Rocky Mountain 4x4 Trail, as soon as all the vehicles had caught
up, (Andre in his short wheel base Landrover with a V8 Range Rover engine
was a bit slow due to the wide larger wheels and tyres on his Landy. He told
me that he is picking up a wheel balance problem when he drives over 50 km
per hour.
Just to mention, we had Bradley and his two friends in his Toyota Raider
double cab 4x4, then Gary Bartlett in his Toyota Hilux, but Gary has carried
out the fitment of a solid front axle to replace the independent front
suspension of his 4x4, then there was Lee in his 1990 double cab Toyota
Hilux that has a Mazda 2.5 diesel engine fitted, this is a very capable 4x4
indeed, but Leigh's experience of driving a 4x4 goes back many years and
thus he is a very experienced driver indeed.
Then there was "Grumpy" this is what my wife calls me....I was in my 1992
Toyota Hilux single cab 4x4 with a few modifications also carried out on it.
My wife sometimes also calls me Simoan, must be due to me moaning about my
sore back, sore legs, elbows and she knows the rest.
There was Ronny Rengers and his Co-Driver Shafiek in the 2000 TJ Jeep
Wrangler; I must just mention that this TJ Wrangler has 35" Mickey Thompson
tyres fitted to it, as well as a few additional modifications as well.
There was Chris in his Toyota Land-cruiser station wagon, a very capable
machine indeed. He had a crocodile that followed him into the water when he
was driving into and through the water.
Don was in his Toyota Raider double cab 4x4 also very nicely kitted out
even with a roof top tent, Neville and Renee... (this is how Lee pronounces
her name) in their Jeep Cherokee, Gavin in his awesome "real ass kicker 4x4"
Mitsubishi Triton, Saturday night, Gavin could not stop telling us all.. how
much better his Triton is, to our Toyota's, he says that his Triton is
basically standard and he cannot understand how come we have had to modify
our Toyota's to be able to keep up with his Triton??
Leon and his friend came along in his modified Jeep Cherokee, There was
Johan Smuts in his farm hunting Toyota Hilux 4x4 with a Lexus V8 engine
fitted, Johann's Toyota performed very well.
Jakes from Ace Motors came along in his Kia 4x4 later in the afternoon, I am
sure that Jakes enjoyed the trails as well in more ways than one, I know
that Jakes prefers the sandy mud sections more than the bumping rocks.
The Rocky Mountain 4x4 Trail kicked us in the butts, it was real serious
stuff that it threw at us all, rating it as at least a 3 to a 5 but more 5,
but with helping and guiding each other through the difficult sections we
finally arrived at the place where we were going to spend the night camping.
It was alongside a small river with nice green natural grass on the banks,
my first job was to get the fire going, this was not successful, there was
fire, but soon there was smouldering smoke only and this is when Lee brought
out his gas starting thingy, he got the fire going (thank's Lee), this is
why I had collected all the wood the last few weeks while I was out there
sorting the trails out, but due to the rain we had the previous week the
wood must still have been slightly wet.
The guys and ladies soon had their tents up and for Don with his roof top
tent. I think he had his up first.
Soon we were all sitting around the fire, with it now been winter and we
were down in this valley with a huge mountain above us, the sun soon
disappeared behind this mountain and the cool shadow of a fast approaching
night was upon us, out came the gas lamps and with the warmth of the fire,
which was by now a bonfire, we all sat around the fire chatting and then
Gary B, brought out a bottle of some yellow liquid and we each had no option
but to have a tot of it, he did mention something about eggs....
Renee was kept busy with her small garden spade, removing coals from the
fire and spreading them under each of our camping chairs to keep us warm
from below.
Anyway we soon were braaing our meat for dinner and sharing a plate of nice
sausage and purple onion which just seemed to not run out, Neville and
Renee (Rene') are excellent cooks.
The time to hand out the Lucky Draw Prizes was carried out by myself but,
with the assistance of my wife Miche'le and Renee (Rene')who was pulling out
the numbers from the various bags, we had many prizes, the businesses in
Queenstown and East London that sponsored us in no special order were as
follows;
Image Panel Beaters, Queen Motors Spares, Border Fuel ADCO, Nashua in East
London / Queenstown, Interiors Carpetland, TS Express, Queenstown
Engineering, Eyethu Hardware, Morris Motors & Forklift Repairs, Zweledinga
suppliers of Coca Cola, Queenstown Auto Motolek, Stripp's Auto Electrical,
Autozone, Seating / Bidoffice Furniture Suppliers, Queenstown Forklift Hire,
Blue Marlin Fishing Rods and last but not least Louis and JP du Plessis
owners of Fire & Chubb fire extinguishers that supply and service fire
extinguishers in and around Queenstown, two very dedicated people indeed.
A huge Thank You goes out to all of our sponsors, because without you, this
weekend of 4x4ing would not have been possible thank you!!!!
We awarded prizes to the drivers that were able to drive their awesome 4x4's
through more difficult sections of the trails, for example if they could
follow me through the water section (yes I did get stuck in this section a
few weeks back when checking out the trails) where I had driven in my Hilux,
up and over some rocks, through the axle twister and a few other places as
well, there were by-pass routes as well, so some of the drivers received
more than one prize, because we also had a lucky draw with everybody's names
in the bag and at the end of the evening everybody received a prize. There
were also some cash prizes that were sponsored to us that were won.
We also had an unlucky draw prize, this was given out to Ronny Rengers that
broke his one rear locking hub on this TJ Jeep Wrangler, too much power and
torque delivered from the fuel injection 4 litre engine through the Atlas 11
transfer case out through the 35" Mickey Thomson Baja claw tyres is just too
much for the small Warn locking hubs. And yes I even won a prize as well.
Some of the "guys" went to bed early, or should I say they tried to go to
bed early, but with Gavin telling us how great his Triton is and Lee, Andre
and a few of the other chaps arguing about this subject, soon they were
revving their vehicle's engines to see which one made the most noise and had
the best grunt. The Triton just made a funny wheezing sort of noise due to
some special exhaust that it has fitted, it sounded like a Blesbuck, and
Andre's Landy with the V8 I think made the most noise, surely this must have
been upsetting the guys trying to go to sleep? The Baboons in the
surrounding mountains surely must have been thinking that there was another
new troop of baboons down near the river in their territory? It was a good
thing that the closest farmer was a few kilo's down the track.
Round about 1am and due to the cold really creeping into our backs, we all
soon also "hit the hay", however my wife started to complain to me that the
air matrass had lost all the air, it must have leaked out through a small
hole and we were soon lying on the hard ground, I must just mention that I
was warm, in my "old army brown sleeping bag" my wife also had one of her
own..."She never was in the army". But the ground was hard and it was a good
thing that we had in fact gone to bed at 1am, because soon it was 6h30am and
already the guys that had gone to bed early were up, but they were revving
their 4x4 engines as well, just trying to get back at us for the night
before....and making hot water for coffee.
The bonfire from the night before was in fact still hot, even after the rain
that we had during the night as well, when I eventually dragged myself from
our tent at round about 8am, we then started to break camp, I made sure that
the fire coals were dead with lots of water from the river and we departed
back onto the trail, but took the by-pass route out instead, but we still
had to attempt, to drive through some of the difficult sections and with the
added rain during the early hours of the morning, some sections were in fact
more difficult for the vehicle's that did not have the name starting with
Toy.
We had to assist them with the tow straps and this took extra time, but soon
we were back on the N6 heading back towards Queenstown.
If anybody would like to join us on our next 4x4 trail to Hangklip Mountain
in 2014, please contact me and I will send you the details, I must just
mention that you have to be driving a 4x4 that has at least low range and at
least one diff lock, driving The Hangklip Mountain 4x4 Trail there are very
limited trees, it is mostly grass lands with small streams and there are mud
sections as well, but it is very beautiful and most winters this vast area
gets snow as well. The small streams ice up and even the small water falls
as well. There are no internal fences and in fact no actual track or trail
to follow, you just follow me in my Hilux if you can?