This is an annual event in the Cirtusdal area, and every year they have a selection of 4x4 routes to choose from, ranging from Gr1 – Gr4/5. The organisers of the event contacted us at African Off-Road WC to assist them as route guides on the “difficult” route of the day to ensure everybody got through safely and to do the necessary recoveries. Coenie and I took on the challenge, and on Saturday morning at 6am Kaspaas roared out of Brackenfell, destination Citrusdal approx 180km away.
We arrived at just after 8am, after a coule of Stop/Go delays on the N7 and a coffee break at Piketberg and met up with a keen group of 4x4-ers rearing to take on the mountains. Our group consisted of the following vehicles:
1 x Kaspaas Hilux
2 x Hilux D4D SRX
1 x Hilux 2.7 IFS
2 x 80 Series Land Cruiser
1 x 100 Series Land Cruiser
1 x 3.5 Pajero 5 Door
1 x Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo
1 x Jeep Cherokee
1 x Land Rover Disco 3
The group:
After getting off the gravel road towards Ceres we headed for the “Mangaanmyn”, and old manganese mine that stopped production in the early years of the 1900’s. The route is not much more than a rocky mountain track up a ravine next to a little river which we crossed from time to time. Some tributary streams from the side of the ravine crossed the path from time to time as well turning the track into a black muddy mess, which caught out some of the drivers and made for a lot of fun. Especially the Jeep Cherokee with its zero ground clearance bottomed out from time to time.
The red 80 Series Cruiser popped a tyre off the rim when the driver misjudged the mud-patch and sideswiped a hidden rock. Spare wheel time, and we had to sit and wait for the whole operation to be completed on the narrow mountain track.
Waiting to change the tyre:
The most exciting bit came when we did the last river crossing and the opposite bank turned out to be one huge black marsh with little to no traction and enough black mud to cover a small African country. Kaspaas went through with a lot of mud flying, and then the fun started. Kaspaas recovered the one Hilux SRX and got it onto the other side with no big hassles. From then on Kaspaas was out of reach and the other guys had to get each other through the mud. Needless to say at one stage 3 vehicles were bogged down and recovering them all became somewhat of a jigsaw puzzle. With me and Coenie taking charge of each recovery and showing the guys the safe way of doing it. Needless to say we were covered in the smelly black stuff, and sweating a lot, but before long we got everybody out and we drove another 500m to the end of the trail.
Mud-Disaster:
More Mud Fun:
Making sure alles is VAS:
Der Stuck Jeep...
Here we had a nice break and Oom Koos, a local, entertained us with stories from the past about how the mine was started, and also how they harvested boegoe in the area in those years. He used to criss-cross those mountains on a horse when he was a young fella.
Coenie and Oom Koos:
Kaspaas taking a break:
After our little siesta, we had to back-track along the same route, and the mud hole awaited us. Luckily this time it was downhill and gravity got us all through, except for the black Cherokee which bottomed out again. The red Cruiser went to pull him out and lo and behold, popped another tyre off the rim. Party ouens darem...!! After some time spent washing the de-beaded tyre in the stream, the re-beaded it got going again. The second tyre was actually cut badly and was a complete write-off. The owner said although it was a big loss, he’s happy that it was not a brand new tyre he did at least manage to do about 500km’s with it. There was another insident where the Hilux 2.7 IFS also bounced out of the track due to some over eager driving to get though a mud hole and got stuck in a precarious position. With some clever winching and liberal application of the apprpriate snatching the day was saved and Ricky was back on track to complete the trail.
From there on it was plain sailing back to the school ground where we ended our excursion. After saying our goodbyes, and exchanging contact details Kaspaas was pointed in the direction of Cape Town and with a quick stop at the garage to re-inflate tyres we took the long trek home. At about 19:30 we arrived back at home, where our better halves awaited us with warm Scooter’s Pizzas and a well deserved, stewige dop (the first one for the day).
We’ll be back next year, but this time we’ll be camping….. The Mangaanmyn trail we did was rated to be a Gr4/5 trail, but in my humble opinion it is no more that a Gr2/3, but that could be upped a little in the rainy season. :roll: :roll:
Kaspaas enjoyed this outing immensely, and performed according to expectations. After all the mud, he has NO brakes, and needs to go to Allan for a quick brake-job and a bath, before our outing to Klein Tafelberg next weekend for 4x4 Driver Training. The rocky section of the Klein Tafelberg trail cannot be done without brakes, it would be too dangerous.
Thanks to Coenie for coming along and helping me on the day, and to the other 4x4-ers on the trail, who came through to make this a great outing. Well done guys!
