What is an epic adventure without some cool people to share it with?
We had some more planning to do for our Night 4×4 Event for EC Offroad Adventures and time was getting tight. There was basically one day we could do it, and we already had an event on that day. The event was the Algoa Toyota 4×4 Club’s Annual Jamboree. Barto, myself and Bernadette had to set up the obstacles, and run the whole event. We decided to do the setup of our event after the jamboree. This would mean starting at around 17:00 and possibly driving the whole night.
This is sort of how the conversations went in setting this up :
Barto – Let’s do the setup of the night event the night after the jamboree
Chris – Cool, I’m in.
And then I asked my lovely wife:
Chris – We need to do the setup of the night event the night after the jamboree, which means we’ll probably not sleep for 24 hours.
Bernadette – Cool, I’m in.
As easy as that we had planned what would become an epic adventure!
Friday afternoon we all went out to Offcamber Adventures, the venue for the jamboree, at around 13:00. Once we had finished setting up tents we headed out into the trail to setup the course. We enjoyed this a lot, and got our vehicles seriously full of mud! We relaxed the evening and went to bed around 23:00.
The next morning we were up at 06:00 and packed up all our gear, and getting ready for the day’s action. Around 10:00 we started with the jamboree that basically had us standing in the sun until 14:00. Obviously we were already tired at this point, but none the less we got ready to leave for the Baviaans.
We left at 15:00 with the sun still high in the sky. Our first priority was to get a fuel stop so that we would have enough fuel to drive through to Uniondale. In Barto’s Triton this would not be a problem, but I was doubtful of our Pajero as this was the first long trip we did with it. We arrived at a petrol station at around 16:00 after taking a beautiful scenic drive to Patensie. At the petrol station we met 2 Baviaans Honoury rangers. Barto told them about our plans for the evening, and they seemed quite excited to hear about it. I assume not many “normal” people drive the Baviaanskloof at night. After filling up we headed to the Kouga Dam (which would be our starting point for the Night 4×4 Event) taking some roads we haven’t traveled before.
At the moment the dam’s level is frighteningly low, and it’s a pity the Eastern Cape is only now starting to think about putting water restrictions in place again.
At around 17:30 we left Kouga Dam and started our journey into the Baviaanskloof. We made various stops along the way, and at Smitskraal we stopped, put off our vehicles and enjoyed some food. Holgat’s Pass has deterioted very much since we were there a couple of months ago. It’s a pity and good at the same time. The pity is that the roads are getting damaged very badly, but the good thing is soon only experienced people will be able to drive there and that means fewer people to mess up all the camp sites. Sorry, I just like solitude when we go camping instead of people with music playing until late at night.
While at Smitskraal we saw another vehicle approach us in the dark, and it was strange to see that it was the same 2 rangers we saw at the petrol station. They stopped by us and we had a nice chat to them. They informed us to be on the look out for Buffalo crossing the roads to get to water. It might be a good time to add that this was around 20:30 and the car’s temperature guage was showing that it was 34 degree celsius outside!
When we left Smitkraal, I did a bit of a calculation and realised we would reach the other side of the Baviaans at around 0:00. At the next stop I suggested that perhaps instead of just heading home when we reach the end via the tar road, we should take on the Grootrivierpoort Pass that runs on the other side of the Baviaans mountains. This is another awesome pass that we haven’t done in a long time. It would also mean a lot more driving instead of the 3 hours on tar to get home. Barto was obviously keen and Bernadette said we might as well as she had prepared to be there all night anyways. Again, as easy as that, and because we all love what we were busy doing,a decision was easily made.
As we were reaching the end of the Baviaanskloof, we noticed a lot of redness in the sky. We had a lot of theories as to what it could be, as there was lightning in the distance as well. Finally at one point when we got out the Baviaanskloof Bernadette said she just saw flames on the horizon. Standing still and looking into the distance we saw a long stretch of flames. By estimation it must have been pretty close to Uniondale. It was amazing how it lit up the sky.
It was about 0:30 now and we headed on into the roads that we were going to take. At a stop after about another hour of driving we discussed how bad the roads seem and there were clear signs off a flood of some type at all the cause ways. It was amazing to see as everyone in the Eastern Cape is complaining about not enough rain, and here there were clear signs of recent floods.
By 2:11 we had seen so many buck, rabbits, kudus, unidentified animals (just eyes in the dark) and opened/closed so many gates we decided we needed to take a break. At this point all the shadows were starting to play tricks on my mind and you start to see things. Funny and scary at the same time. We pulled off into the veld, decided to sleep an hour, and then head off again. All the adrenalin didn’t help though and I probably got 10 minutes of sleep in there.
We woke up and left again with another 3-4 hours of driving ahead of us. It was beautiful seeing the sun rise in front of us while on the mountain passes. I find sad that many people do not get to experience the outdoors like we do. Not that I mean you need to do it at night, but go and camp and wake up early and experience those first rays hitting the earth. You can always go to bed after that again!
While crossing a dry river bed, I took a wrong turn and while still commenting that this doesn’t really look like a well-used road I carried on until it came to a dead end. At this point our radios have been put off due to batteries dying, which was caused by chattering too much on them during the day! First instincts would have been to panic, but luckily we’ve done this so many times, and I know Barto well enough that if he didn’t see as at the agreed upon meeting point he would come back to look for us. So calmly we did a 20 point turn to be able to back track and drove until I saw the real road.
It might be worth mentioning that normally in convoy procedures you drive with the person behind you visible, but at night it’s a different story. Well, for us at least. The 3 of us have traveled around so much already, that we know, without speaking, how this are supposed to run. Barto drove in front with quite a big gap between us as I wanted to drive with my brights on, and also not in his dust. So we would drive for an hour or so, he would pull off and we’d meet up, stretch our legs and then move on again.
The last 100km were ahead of us, and the needle on the Pajero’s fuel level wasn’t putting me at ease. Again we didn’t panic, because we know we’ve got someone there to help us if needs be. I drove that last 100km to the petrol station conservatively, and we made it with a few litres to spare.
From there we drove straight home to arrive at 07:30 and fall into bed. We had been awake since 06:00 the previous day, had an awesome time with running a jamboree for the club, started driving at 15:00 into the Baviaanskloof and arrived at home safely. An epic adventure with 1 hour sleep in more than 24 hours!
