TARTARUGA

Since we returned from our cape tour in June we have spent a month in holiday in the UK and on return the Tartaruga, now on 100 000km, had to get some fundamental repairs and maintenance done - replace dented Crankshaft pulley - replace internal oil pump filter - replace undersized electric radiator fans and restore their control - replace two badly worn front brake discs and pads - replace front wheel bearings - replace king pin grease seals - recondition tie rod ends - move camper access stair to outside of door - change door hinge from drawbridge style to normal side hinge - replace broken drivers cab screen mount. - remove waterlogged starlink and replace cellular modem and access point - finalise arduino accelerometer, gyroscope, temperature, humidity unit. - manufacture foam inserts for drawers and cupboards It has, to say the least, been a busy few months, but tomorrow we will torque check all the bolts on the front steering knuckles and finish off one or two cosmetic chores, Tuesday our lightening ravaged burglar alarm will be replaced, and i must go fir a dental checkup, and then in Wednesday night i hope to sleep in Golden Gate where the weather is cool and friendly. First we go to Capetown by the scenic route and share Xmas with my daughter and her little family, then we will bum around the Cape and at the end of January we are booked for two weeks, which i hope to extend somewhat, in the Richtersveld. We are thinking to travel home via Kgaligadi and maybe into Botswana, but this will be follow the nose stuff again, so welcome along for the ride, it will be a slow start but some interesting technical testing ahead, and the outdoors awaits!

I don't allow posting to this group as it interrupts the flow of our trip report, if you have questions or comments please message me directly and i will reply in the group in the next posting <This message was edited>

Just a small update, our departure now likely to be delayed, while standing for 5 months, it seems the tartaruga clutch plate has seized, tomorrow will look deeper into the issue, but at this point i am not sure if this can be sorted without a gearbox removal.

Ok update, trip starts friday, clutch is sorted out, but now we are waiting for security company to do home alarm repairs, only on Thursday, so we will travel in the national Xmas madhouse, fortunately we use relatively few national highways

At 15h00 this afternoon, it still looked like this, and tomorrow won't be an early departure either as the post office has just woken up on a parcel i have been waiting for, but this is the last goal post change, we are ready to go now, its been a long hard mission this time, but reality is different from the wanderlust inspired dream. <This message was edited>

Richards Bay to Clarens 21.12.24 510km ************************** Quite a day, most of the work carried out on the truck has been a great success, but we still can't rely on the new electric fans, under stress they do not cut it. The first stage fan is smaller than the second, i think this was a mistake, we should have used two big ones. Tomorrow we will swap them around and see what difference it makes having the more powerful unit come in first, but at this stage as soon as the truck is working hard uphill and the turbo comes in, the fans don't keep up, been a day of frustration in that regard. The new brakes are top class, it still doesn't atop on a dime but at least it can stop now. Just finished dinner at the old bus stop campsite, a personal favourite. Tomorrow i need to see why the GPS on my PC isn't working then i will put up maps everyday as usual. Its been a lot if upgrades so expect to rake a few days to settle down.

So nice to be out of the bay, tonight we have lovely cool weather and just as we were finishing supper the first peals of thunder echoed across the sandstone cliffs, cool and fresh clean air, God I missed the countryside, it has been too long by far.

Clarens to Craddock 620km ************************** Had a much better journey today, running back on the original fan, so no overheating issues. The freestate and eastern cape are terrible dry, very few farms have much in the way of crops or animals, unless they are getting water from somewhere. Tonight we are camped on a farm just outside Craddock, Sanctuary resort, R300 per night, beautiful emerald green gem, luxury tents and probably 20 decent sites with water and power and good clean ablutions. Still a long haul to Capetown, R800km, but we will make it for Xmas, need to cover most if that tomorrow so we can do some Xmas shopping in Tuesday

Not too much to report, we slept in Montagu lastnight and drove through to Capetown today. Pretty uneventful till we reached du toits kloof tunnel, must have hit something in the road, took this tyre about a minute to deflate, no option in the tunnel, have to try and reach the exit, jacked the truck up to change tyre and the jack slipped, now i have a cracked rib and a holiday, lucky chap. Hats off to the tolcon staff of the tunnel and to Ishmaels towing from Worcester who sort it out, and the wouldn't take a cent for their effort, Tolcon can pay, well that is an unexpected Xmas prezzie. There will now be Xmas and then we will look at the residual damage

Morning and merry Xmas to all. Just for the record, we are squatting in Ou Skip caravan park, licking a few wounds from the dutoitskloof tunnel event and others, as soon as we have replaced a battery, tyre and handbrake cable, we will be heading north and the richtersveld park.

Today we are leaving Ou Skip and heading to St Helena to help Johan celebrate the new year and convince him to join us in the Richtersveld. Battery is renewed, just need to find a new tyre then we are all back in ine piece

Morning all and happy new year to everyone. We will leave St Helena today where we have been resting up at Johans place and celebrating the new year. Today we have an appointment to repair brake parts damaged in our unfortunate dutoitskloof tunnel tyre episode, then we will move north to Vanrhynsdorp for a few days to visit Charlottes Mom, then from there the trip will get a bit more visual as we go to Hondeklip baai and on to the richtersveld from there.

View from Johans stoep, one of my favourite spots.

St Helena to van rhynsdorp 195km

Checked in at the letsatsi resort campsite in Vanrhynsdorp, new establishment, R800 per night, but for once it is worth it, private ablutions and kitchen, all mod cons, power, on grass, perhaps not quite our style in camping but for a treat, ill take it <This message was edited>

Sucking up some mango and pineapple cocktails, really lekker, Gods in his heaven and alls right with the world

13 jan 2025 Vanrhynsdorp to hondeklip baai

Well........ Today we finally got off the tar road, about 195km travelled, and as usual on the first day of any offroad trip, it went a bit ruffff. As you can see from the highly staccato gps tracks, the corrugated roads bounced my solid state fanless pc so severely it rebooted continuously, tyre pressures reduced helped bit, don't really know these maxxis as well as i would like to, suppose by the time i get to the Richtersveld i will understand them a bit better. Then the next thing a wire fell off one panel drive motor and i had to remove a panel to get in and fix, while i was "fixing" i leaned on one of the panels, and it shattered. Does seem to still make power, bad time to loose this as the richtersveld camps have no power supply. So then i came down off the roof and to rest my arse sat on the braai................

Dint sut on unreinforced concrete braais!!! So ya, no crayfish, season closed and the visitors ate it all, did get lovely lamb at Garies and a frozen but recent snoek at our campsite, which we will braai in Springbok tomorrow. Weathers here, wish you were all fine, here are some pics of the arista wreck and the town

Got wood and lamb at Garies

Our campsite looks out over the sea, but its too far away, need to hear it and feel it at night when i sleep

Campsite, hondepandokkies, hondeklip baai, R450 fir the site, power water no braai, well not much if a braai anyway, clean ablutions but small, soap toilet paper, all supplied, and they sell fish

14 jan 2025 Hondeklipbaai to Springbok over perdhoek pass, circa 120km, of which 15km tar on N7

Cheating a bit today as i didn't want to turn the car PC on, till i find out what was going wrong yesterday, a solid state/embedded PC is not supposed to respond to vibration so i am suspecting some kind of short to ground, and that could be terminal, so no tracks recorded today. The trip is mostly, from the Koingnaas turnoff, through the namakwa national park, we were lucky to see Gemsbok, Red Duiker, Jackal, klipspringer and a solitary tortoise. The area is simply splendid, it is more dramatic in spring during the wildflower season but even now, abounds with odd and unusual plants, stark dry terrain and picturesque mountains. This route climbs the wildeperdhoek pass and messelhoek pass built by prisioners in 1860s. The prison ruins are still visible down in the dry river bed on the north side, shortly after reaching the top of wildeperd section. The oass is about 5km long and quite steep, but in no way a difficult drive, considering, the truck needs gearshifting every few seconds to keep the turbo on the boil, time for a VVT upgrade. Not much else to report, settled in to the old fave, Springbok caravan park campsite, we did look at the kokerboom campsite down near the N7, but it looks deserted, dry and dusty without shade, and we were needing a laundry, which is a feature here. Braaied yesterdays Snoek, super meal with rice salad and chillie salad with chocolate pud to follow. Life is great. Tomorrow, with the kind assistance of Dunlop Calvinia who have helped us out of trouble so many times in so many different places all over the country, we will get our replacement tyre for the one list in dutoitskloof tunnel, and then move on to Port Nolloth and the richtersveld.

Todays braaied snoek, mmmmmmm

The road albeit badly corrugated, is a million times better than the one yesterday which has been hammered to kingdom come by the xmas holiday season

Lion king cup all the way from the London live show we attended last year, finally made it home to Africa

Charlotte stalking small plants and goggas

Up the pass we go

Looking down into the valley, we see light colored circles in the vegetation, not unlike fairy circles in the kaokaveld, wondering what causes them, will ask the rangers at the richtersveld if they know

So so pretty even without its mantle of spring flowers for which it so well known

Never seen so many klipspringers in my life

Jackal couple

Another solitary gemsbok

Tonights camp at Springbok caravan park R380 for two per night with water and electricity and a braai at every campsite, Good clean ablutions with tons of hot water, laundry on site and plenty shady trees, nice quiet site in a beautiful mountain setting

Just want to repeat a previous message as there are quite a few new people in the group, we only allow posts from admins, so that is us who are in the trip, we don't discuss stuff here, but anything you want to know or hear or feel we can add to the discussion that contributes value, please message us directly and we will deal with it. Later on when we are big and clever we will move all this to youtube then have the luxury of comment and content all in one place. This is on my todolist for years already, but sadly rectification of iveco trauma points has never allowed the time, perhaps that is now changing........ <This message was edited>

If you want to add anyone who is interested to the group, please use the link below, send it to them and they can join up and leave and rejoin as they wish.

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Cathy, wie ons gister in Springbok ontmoet het, stuur asb. die link vir Oom Alec in die sprinter motorhome, hy het so met ons gereel vanmore op pad uit. Dankie. <This message was edited>

Its been a maintenance day today, new tyre is on, wheels rotated and we are all back in one piece again, bought a few essentials and a bit of food, looks like we ready to head out in the morning again, very pleased to have 6 good tyres again and many thanks to Dunlop Calvinia fir organising everything and Dunlop Springbok for fitment and tyre rotation.

Springbok, 16 jan, decided not to travel today, truck had a few issues, our camera system hasn't been up to much for some time now so we sorted out a few problems with that, also stripped the PC which was rebooting in gravel roads, hope that is sorted out now. Myriad of other small things then finished off with left over snoek fish cakes and chips, washed down with a bottle of good white. Tomorrow, Port Nolloth and Mc Dougals

Fish cakes chips and chillie salad, dik gevreet!? <This message was edited>

Springbok to Port Nolloth, 142km tar road in good nick, via Steinkopf

Quick hop this morning to the sea, once you pass Steinkopf the dessert starts to get redder and eventually around the Bulketrap/Eksteenfontein turnoff, you see the first of the bare red sand dunes of the Kalahari. They say once you have the red sand in your shoes you never get rid if it and you keep coming back. It certainly has some allure, i know the road to Eksteenfontein becomes problematic in places where the windswept dunes come right across the tar road, the sand us loose and you need to take care, or you tarry for a while there. Steinkopf is another ine if these towns that defies logic, nothing going down there at all, police station and an OK bazaar and that is about it, only claim to fame is it was on the trainspoor for the copper ore line, even that seems to have disappeared. Soon the red dunes give way to white sand and the coast comes into view, the last straight into Port Nolloth is about a 10km downhill straight stripe of tar, we turned left at the junction just before the town and headed to the only caravan park in the area, a little south at Mc Dougal bay. This is a well known establishment R173 a night, each site, right on the beach, has braai and electricity and a tap to about every four sites, two good clean and always locked ablutions blocks, being your own white stuff to the party.

Mesmerised by endless dessert landscapes and roads which connect point A and B with no pretence, straight to the point as they say

The red dunes around eksteenfontein in the distance, welcome to the kalahari

Give it a chance and the road will be gone, the sand is constantly in the move

And then it becomes white again and you xan snell the sea

Pretty little Mac Dougals bay

Just around the corner from all sorts of important places

One of the most stunning parts of this campsite, has always been the sunsets

With or without the filters

No need to tell you what is happening today

Tomorrow will be our last day in Port Nolloth, the on to Brand Karos on the Orange river

Bits and pieces from Port Nolloth

Namakwa mariculture park, or what is left of it.

Pity their mariculture can't do something about reviving the decimated west coast blackmussel population

For those that are unaware of it, a mussel known as the Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, was introduced, probably by accident and was first spotted in Saldanha harbor in the 70's. It was also introduced by aquaculture, (why they had to farm exotic species is totally beyond me) this invasive pest attaches itself to the indigenous mussels and in the competition for survival, the indigenous one looses, the invader then has no way to proliferate and also dies off, oysters and other molluscs are also affected, it also led to the extinction of a swimming crab, the name of which escapes me right now, and the outcome of this debacle, there are no longer mussels on the west coast of southern africa, stretching right up into Namibia, all wiped out and the rocks are as sterile as a 2021 covid ward <This message was edited>

And so we bid farewell to Port Nolloth and Mc Dougals, it was really cold last night and wind rocked the truck most of the night. The days are lovely, tanning weather, but ya, it is always sad to see what has become of the west coast, and when we leave a site like this, it is never clear if we will ever return or if we do, if it will still be operational. The ANC remove most of the small private boat fishing rights, this coastline used to abound with fishing boats of all shapes and sizes, colorful and romantic and the best fresh fish in the world, but licenses were restricted to cadres, and aligned countries and businesses. The locals literally had their livelihood ripped out from under them. To create some jobs a few aquaculture farms were established, but mostly they only provided opportunity for foreign business, there are still some perlemoen/abalone farms running, i suppose the high value makes it profitable. It seems most of the mussel and oyster farms have fallen into decay, one can't help wondering what contribution was made to the destruction of the west coast marine ecology. Port Nolloth, as you can see from yesterdays pics, has no fishing boats, only diamond boats with their conspicuous vacuums and support vessels. There is seemingly only one mine, DBMC or De Beers Mining Company. I don't see much action on their premises and seldom do any of the boats seem to move, one wonders how much of that lot is still left, the locals say last month the mines had difficulty paying salaries, so we leave here wondering how much might be left whenever we may return. Such is the nature of the African beast, wasteful, ignorant and unloving of its inhabitants. <This message was edited>

Farewell present

Hondeklipbaai - Brandkaros 120km trip settled in for a couple of nights. Its an easy trip on tar until the border post turnoff after which it becomes seriously corrugated but hard gravel, with a little sand dune encroachment in the road, which was not too bad today, but may well become a problem for small radial tyres and 2x4 vehicles. A bakkie will be happy here, no 4x4 required. Otherwise uneventful trip, stopped at Akexander bay to do the west most Tartaruga pic, that town is a mess, always has been, no redeeming features of any sort and the diamond mines are very quiet, ine wonders if Alexkor is still in business

Straight stripe with about 2 10° corners in 80km. Mostly coastal dunes in both sides of the road, prospector trenches and diggings everywhere you look.

Alexander bay and Alexkor works from the main road

On the quest tor the west most point, awful roads from the orange river flooding and fences and gates everywhere.

And finally you can go no further

Global warming in mid summer.............. And as far west as west can be, while still in South Africa

Everything windswept and sandblasted

Stopping to loose some tyre pressure for the bad road

And then settled among the grapes at Brandkaros

Brandkaros is R200 pppn with several sites under trees, power tables and bins at each site, no tap in sight, free wifi

Same site where we fixed the michelin tyre that destroyed itself a short while later on the highway

Time to get our bikes ready for a little richtersveld exploration, think this tyre weld has done its job, it shall retire gracefully.

Light lunch under the trees, building strength for tonights potjiekos.

Brandkaros campsite to Sendelingsdrift, 64km. Normally i would say this road needs at least a bakkie with pretty staunch tyres, but today we were in luck and two roadscrapers have been at work and it was a pleasure. We arrived 4 days early for our booking here and the reception was more than accommodating and in no time at all our reservation was changed and extended and the same half price discount we got for booking on black friday, was extended for the whole duration. Simple efficient and absolutely dirt cheap. The Sendelingsdrift camp isn't much to look at, but it does have shady trees and electricity and drinking water, clean ablutions, but bring your own white stuff. We serviced our bikes yesterday and found a major issue with rear caliper so that needs to get stripped and attended to, we sleep here tonight and tomorrow then we will head out into the park to see what we can see

The road out of Brandkaros

Unusually cloudy sky with the Orange river down below and Namibia on the other side

Pudding from the farm at Brandkaros

Just echoing my earlier comments on the diamond giant on the est coast.

https://dailyinvestor.com/mining/74328/south-african-giant-went-from-crown-jewel-to-problem-child/

We spent this morning in the botanical garden which is the main reason we slept 2 nights at Sendelingsdrif, which is otherwise a bit of a disinteresting place to be. The garden was just the beginnings of a rock garden last time we were here. Unfortunately we missed the resident botanist who was away on business, will try again on the way out. <This message was edited>

These are all cellphone pics, very difficult to get just what you want as the light is very bright and difficult to see detail on the screen to get the focus sorted also no easy way to control depth of field on a cellphone, i will take more time in the bush with our proper camera tomorrow <This message was edited>

Sorry Marc who just joined us, but ewe are going off grid this morning for about a week, 8 days if i recall correctly, if all goes well we won't have signal till we leave the park, then there will be a flood of info on here, sometimes we get some Namibian roaming along the way, but it is quite unpredictable

This is likely to be our route over the next few days, if all goes well

At the ferry

Endless mining everywhere, this one's called reunert

Amazing tree embedded in the eocks

Stunning flowers everywhere you look

Take a stroll with me to the viewpoint

From the viewpoint

Top of the embedded witgat tree

Incredible vistas

Beauty abounds, a besem bos or broom tree

Welcome to campsite B

Sendelingsdrift - Potjiespram campsite, a short 12km hop that any decent bakkie or determined car could do, the roads are excellent but a bit rough for small radial tyres, the only place where you could experience any difficulty is if you foolishly left the road in the sandy riverbed at the campsite.

Thoughts on Potjiespram, doubt we will come back here again, that sounds like something i said before, the river access is not good, if you were to fall in the river, you need to climb a vertical bank of a meter or more to get out, you would be unlikely to voluntarily climb in the river as it is a violent color if green, a place where a careless man could loose a lawnmower, its not like ine can sit on the banks if the river and enjoy the birdlife, a, there isn't much, and b, there is nowhere to sit, just bush and scrub. Then there is the ants, little black ants, you put down your chair and sir in it, 6 minutes later you are chasing ants out your ears, doubtless inspired by the extensive cutting back if the brush and scrub to make the campsites, and lastly, although we enjoy the free firewood, you wouldn't want to make a fire here, it is prone to be windy, and if the smallest spark got into the bush, you would have to run for your life

Oh and did i mention the goats, it seems every morning the local stock post, of which there are many, disgorges hundreds if goats which make their way upriver grazing. Then in the afternoon, they all return en masse, through all the campsites, grazing and shitting and making a noise as only goats can, along their merry way.

The trimmed scrub creates an ant paradise

The river appears a vibrant chemical green, presumably from the phosphate and nitrate runoffs from surrounding farms it runs through. Chemical soup not for me to swim in.

Gave our batteries a proper hiding lastnight and having decided to leave Potjiespram a fay early and head to De Hoop, by 10h00, almost fully charged again.

Potjiespram - De Hoop campsite, 44km over akkedis pass, up to akkedis pass, all OK for 2x4 but the pass itself although quite possible in 2x4, certainly holds some risks, there are some steep climbs and descents and off camber section, and it is definitely not the place for city slicker radials. Possibly more difficult is the descent from about 5km out through the river gorge down to the orange river. There is a hiltop section if you keep right at the sanparks warning sign, that is easier but it is very off camber in parts and a long way down, i use the river path, doesn't need difflocks but definitely center diff locked and high range. The campsite was occupied by two parties when we arrived, one trying to help the other that was stuck in the river sand in a toyota cross, 2 wheel drive. Interesting fellow, chasing the eclipse in 2030 and preparing himself for the trip, but he doesn't know diddly about offroading, wrong car, wrong place, wrong tyres, wrong tyre pressures, travelling alone, and has two prosthetic legs and that my friends, is about as wrong as wrong can be. Anyway, we pulled him out, was about to do the last pull back onto the hard road, when the parks arrived in their cruiser, so i stepped aside and let them finish up, we will meet up with Olav again, maybe in the eclipse tour in 2030. The wind blew all afternoon, and De Hoop is a sand pit, so it hasn't been a wonderful day, and terribly hot. Our deep freeze compressor controller messed around, looks like its giving up the ghost, managed to get it going again and i hope i can keep it going for a few days, or we have to hightail it for capetown or chuck out a lot of rotten food. Anyway, day ends well cool and mild evening and the wind has died a bit

Chunks of rubber everywhere in the road

Halfmens pass

Hand if God

Climbing akkedis pass

Coming through the poort just before De Hoop

Coming through the poort

Brave Olav who got stuck

Ine of the rare finds of the day, parabuthus villosus, it is the most dangerous scorpion in the country, diurnal which is unusual, and can shoot venom for a meter if provoked, give it a wide berth

Curious klipspringer, also a rare find in the desert

Peace and quiet, us and the orange river and its birds

Num num num num and so it comes to the end of another lazy day, hotter than hot and dry, clothes washed, dry before you finish hanging them up, wall of the camper reaching over 40 degrees and do the fridges are battling, the fridge normally switches off at -2.0 C and in at 2.0C most of the day it is 5C or hotter, deep freeze is better, normally runs at -11C here it gets up to -5C (when it is working) stunning beautiful peaceful place, it is absolutely lovely till about 10h00 in the morning, then the sun gets teeth and at 16h00 the wind comes up and sand blows everywhere, when it dies down we rush for the shower, without benefit of a geyser, the cold water reaches about 40C almost too hot to enjoy. Life is good, mielie pap cooked and a new loaf of bread, still on braaivleis and potjiekos leftovers, life's great

The ground temp is 60C, the car reports 49C at 14h44, that's properly hot

Thunderclouds developing, I'm betting it doesn't help us much, wecar HOT

My cellphone lying in the shade on the table is 41C

Looking very promising, we hear distant thunder and the wind has changed, what a privilege to see this, IFFF only

Even our cold water tank on the truck is 42C we are careful to move the truck during the day to keep the side walls of the camper in the shade, so the water heated to this temp just from ambient airtemp

Today we got news from Olav the brave who earlier got stuck in the sand, techs had to come from Upington and replace two shredded tyres, and having done, so they decided to abandon the car as it made so much noise when they tried to drive it, probably stripped the hell out the torque converter or a side shaft, another Giant i once knew called Wouter Brand used to refer to this as "the risk of not knowing", wrote a whole essay on it, should be compulsory reading for every offroader. We seem to have found a happy medium, happy but not pleasing, with our fridges, deep freeze which makes -20C at home cannot be coaxed much beyond -5C here. Have added gas and wasted gas and tried it all yesterday, but in the ambient air at about 50C i have to face it, i am far from winning the battle. Need to rethink this fridge and the technology in play, got to stop the meat from going off and the beer from getting hot, its definitely a life and death matter

30 Jan 2025 De Hoop campsite to Kokerboom kloof campsite, 64km, the journey from the campsite starts with climbing out if the orange river valley and about 50m of it is steep and loose and no place for a 2x4, although determination is and has been known to step in when testosterone calls, i have completed this climb without a radiator fan in 2022, i don't want to do it without 4wd. The rest if the trip, ja, if you must, there are some steep sections and a bit of loose sand but no great shakes, the road is deserted, we haven't seen other vehicles or people since leaving De Hoop where we stopped to greet the local bokwagter chap. They had a bad tyre on their bakkie yesterday and stopped to ask for air, gave them a sheet of tubeless tyre plugs and some solution, they wanted to trade for goatmilk, we said no thanks, well i haven't drunk any milk for 30 years now, and sure not restarting this bad habit under such circumstances. The tatasberg viewpoint is breathtakingly spectacular, the strong rocks the earth has spawned in this place are something i connect with. The Kokerboomkloof seems to have more dead than live kokerbooms, going to ask about that still. The campsite is spartan to say the least, 4 units the showers are decommissioned and basically a basin and toilet and there is water, i think it gets trucked in and above Campsite A are 4 x 3000l jojos. We still have 1/2 our main water tank and we decommissioned the geyser as it was leaking radiator water, and at these daily temps, the cold water is almost too hot already. 3 nights here, tonight we will make seafood potjiekos and bake another bread. The silence here is deafening, and the birds are so tame they almost eat crumbs out your hand, they are delighted to have a little water from us and so we spend the afternoon studying the local pecking order at our plastic bowl water hole.

Last breakfast at De Hoop, going to miss swimming in the river

Climb the maerpoort with us

The annoying beeps are from the difflock control, we always lock the centre diff when the road is a bit bumpy as the sharing of load between from and back, can cause the vehicle to bounce around like a ball, not the way to drive a 5t load safely, under steep gravel climbs like this one, we use the difflocks and always a lower gear than we really have to, iveco daily trucks, have shit brakes, its that simple, and rushing backwards down an obstacle, particularly when you can't see out the back window, and without much ability to slow down, is a mistake we choose not to risk making.

View from our camsite

Hone fir 3 nights

We haven't been sitting outside at night on this trip as the sun only really goes down well after 20h00, by which time we are making ready for bed and it is often quite windy, so tonight we made this delicious seafood potjie and only finished at sunset, so here we sit drinking a lekker after dinner liqueur and i look up, in less than ten minutes, i see a dozen satellites moving across the sky, wow, i recall when i was a kid looking up and seeing just one, would be shrieking sputnik sputnik and tell all the kids at school about it the next day, my how times have changed

Quiet day today, the cavalry in the form of Patricia the park manager, who drove from Sendelingsdrift, about 80km away, to check if we were OK, was a welcome break, we had a long chat about parks and the environment and AisAis and the Namibia border. Why she came to look for us remains a mystery as we arent list and are exactly where we planned to be, booked and payed to be, but it was nice to meet her. The pot bread just keeps in getting better.

I would pay R50 for that in a bakery. Birdlife is quite amazing, Charlotte found a dassie rat, a meerkat, another rarely seen rat which has a tail, it is quiet, peaceful, not too hot or windy, lovely to be here. Tomorrow we will return to Sendelingsdrift and see if we can get into Namibia without losing all our food and firewood to the ravages of african governance, we have still got top frade lamb from Garies and braai stuff and all sorts in the deep freeze, if i have to destroy it at the border post, i would rather shoot someone.

1 Feb, Kokerboomkloof campsite, to domorogpass and then backtrack to Akedispass and Sendelingsdrift. Total distance about 120km travelled. The roads are good and 2x4 could make it most places, that is if it can get to those places. For the second time in the life of Tartaruga, i had to renege on an offroad section, the Domorogh pass is entirely manageable in a 4x4 bakkie, however in a high heavy truck like ours, the road in places is wickedly off camber and the consequences of being wrong without a parachute, are really no joke. No motorhomes and definitely no 2x4 on the pass. Kokerboomkloof was lovely, it is one of the places Iconnect with and I loved our time there. We cut our trip short to have an opportunity to meet Pieter Van Wyk, the botanist in the park. He is on an interesting mission tonight, to go and observe a new plant species he has discovered, which is flowering tonight for the one and only time in a year, the flower needs to be documented for his submission. Hopefully we will get more time together tomorrow. Our scorpion has already been established to be Parabuthus Villosus, a very dangerous diurnal scorpion also called the day stalker, unique as it can squirt its venom and so doesn't need to sting to attack, and one of only two that hunt in broad daylight. More enthralling snippets after our session tomorrow. We have now decided to go on to Augrabies and Riemvasmaak on Monday morn so its two nights here, tomorrow will be lamb shanks cooking again, google grub for the rest of the week, so here's some highlights of the last few days

Bokmakierie in the campsite

The pictures don't do it full credit, but my heart was in my mouth getting this far, 500m from the top it got too off camber to continue

For days, literally, we see noone else, tracks in the road, but see noone, no cars, no noise just the wind, the birds, and our own voices.

You need to zoom in on this picture and ⅓ of the way from the top, near the centre you will see the Tartaruga down the hill, not much road between it and us

3 Feb, sendelingsdrift to mc dougals bay, (Port Nolloth) 260km tar in perfect nic from Alexander bay, the gravel till then is a subject we prefer not to talk about, it is passable with any vehicle but gets hammered by the trucks from the diamond mines.

There is not much to be said about the day, excepting that while travelling between the campsite and park offices to greet the park manager and botanist who have become good friends, we discovered the serpentine belt fir two alternators, power steering, water pump and radiator fan, was totally destroyed. Yes, that story AGAIN! A bolt had worked loose and fallen out the camper alternator bracket, leaving the alternator mounting loose and floppy. We have been plagued by a slipping belt since before Xmas and the engine was becoming progressively less likely to start, so we found out why. Unfortunately our spare belt was 10mm longer than should be, and the tensioner couldn't take up that much slack. Instead of going for a new belt, this might have taken a week to reach us, i opted to remove and modify the bracket, a little welding and drilling and refitted everything, now we can accommodate either belt length. The rest of the journey was uneventful. How do you know when its been a good trip

When you get to a tar road and are glad to pump up your tyres, and you still have 6 of them!!

Trio of curious Gemsbok

We made a lovely lamb shank potjiekos, and Charlotte pulled out this surprise, cork a bit shot, but still tasted good, i think our standards might have changed since covid took our smell away

So time to top up fuel in Springbok today before the idiots put up the fuel price again, buy a spare belt and as we are into frozen veggies, a little retail therapy, i shan't bore you all with this, but on Wednesday our spare belt arrives and then we will push on to Pofadder and Augrabies. Till then.........

McDougals-Springbok-Klein Pella 382 km good tar and gravel.

We stayed over in Springbok and picked up 2 spare radiator belts, not that we believe they will be needed now that the problem is solved, but having been bitten over and over by this problem, it is a matter of policy that we don't travel without them. The second alternator we added into the truck places an additional load in this belt, and as it is a 300A alternator, no small load. We have never lost a belt because of the load, but there used to be a compressor where the second alternator now lives, the compressor was intended to pump airbags and tyres and was not a great success as it was too hot, we had a lot of trouble with belts and brackets, and later installed a custom built alternator from our landcruiser days, the bracket wasn't strong enough and had to be redesigned on a farm just outside Upington a hundred years ago, now this new one we had built is doing a fantastic job, but of course when it screw falls out, trouble starts again. Hopefully now over that, we find ourselves in Klein Pella at the Karsten farm lodge campsite. R150 pppn tables and braais, power and water and clean serviceable ablutions with oodles of hot water. Not much going on here but it is associated withbthe Namakwa 4x4 trail that follows the orange river, and is located in beautiful mountainous country typical of this stretch of the river. We were q bit disappointed as we believed the campsite to be on the banks if the Orange river, it is not, it is on the Klein Pella river and it has truly been some time since that last saw and water. Always read the small print. Lazy day, braaied a fat rump steak and wors lastnight, was great, lamb can get monotonous after a while. Tomorrow we will head to Pella, Pofadder and end up at Augrabies falls.

Looking over the might Klein Pella river

I have never in my life seen kokerbome on this scale before, it is stunning

Good scraped dirt roads

Our spot in the campsite, there are 9 sites

Looking down to the orange river in the distance

Boss relaxing with a good book

The farm does dates and grapes, reputed to be the biggest date exporter in SA, really good quality fruit

Aint she sweet

Dates from the farm

And so the sun sets on Little Pella

Klein Pella - Pella - Augrabies national park 222km good gravel and excellent tar no problem for any vehicle.

Stopped in at Pella to look at the 1822 RC church and mission, aside from which Pella is a shithole. Slowly the rough rocky mountainous dessert landscape gives way to barren sand and then as we approach Kakamas, the vegetation becomes silvery topped grasses abd herby looking bushes, a few sheep about and one or two cows. About 20km out of Kakamas we start to see the agricultural nets under which citrus and grapes are cultivated, mainly for export and also a lot of raisins are out to dry as the grape harvest has all but been completed. Stunningly beautiful. We booked our campsite on sanparks valentine special offer, and so with all discounts and fees, the park costs R248 a night for both of us. The campsite is beautiful, trees and grass, braais and power at each site, taps are around, three ablution blocks, plenty hot water with soap and white gold included. Fantastic.

Date palms, abundant fruit and top quality

The church at Pella

Barren sand as far as rhe eye can see

The Augrabies falls, Orange river is a little low at present, bur here it rushes over the falls and down an 18km long gash in mother earth, soectacular

And it is hot here, my God it is hot, all afternoon in the swimming pool

Augrabies to Gariep Lodge Prieska, 338km, good tar. Overnighter then on to Mokala, new game reserve near Kimberley

Lot of the harvesting is complete and everywhere you look grapes are out to dry to make raisins and sultanas

No comms will update in two days time

Prieska to Mokala 227km, gravel from Douglas in reasonable condition.

In Prieska we stayed at Gariep lodge, R200pppn, nice small campsite, take care not to park on the concrete strip as we did, there is a spotlight there, no switch, you sleep in glaring light and with all the local goggas, otherwise an entirely serviceable spot

Mokala is expensive as Sanparks goes R580 odd per night, no power, water, private ablution and kitchen, gas, solar lights and fridge, it is a very pretty spot and the reserve abounds in all sorts of game, yesterday we saw gemsbok, springbok, wildebeest, duiker, eland, tsessebe, red hartebeest, giraffe and a plethora of birds

This greefpan solar power station 63mw and privately owned but gridlinked, it is huge, but in terms of current amenities by no means the hugest which us Kenhardt at 530 odd mw.

We stopped in Douglas, a little town i have always enjoyed, excellent steak and topped up on wines and an excellent potstill brandy after some tasting.

Mokala campsite

This chap shared our supper

My new T shirt

Climbed under the truck this morning to address a small problem, and found the small problem bigger brother, transfer case mounting bracket which is known to be sub standard in these trucks, (as are so many other things too), strapped up with ratchet straps, hope it gets us to the tar road without getting worse. Once we hit the tar it should get us home

Picnic lunch under a Mokala tree, it is so quiet the trucks refrigerator fans are audible at 15m, me and my tinnitus, lots and lots of rhino middens but the owners are all hiding

Its been a long day driving 70-80kmhr with our tied up transfer case, taking no chances but so far it looks good. Truck developed an odd engine miss that got progressively worse during the day, and then after exiting Bloem, just disappeared. Nice sightings in the park this morning including the much sought after Roan Antelope, but sadly no rhino and no Sable, my favourite animal. Settled Little rock resort for the night, power and water on sight, under beautiful trees with braais, there are 36 sites, all sharing one bathroom, can't imagine how that works out, but as the camp is empty but for us, not my problem. R320 for the site per night, good value for peace and quiet

Lovely peaceful site

So bring the cherry liqueur let's do an appraisal

Ladybrand - ATKV Drakensville campsite 272km good tar, lot of roadworks from Clocolan to Fouriesburg

Along the way we stopped at the viewpoint on surrender hill near spioenkop and saw this storm running all along the Malutis, by the time we reached Clarens it was there, so we canceled plans for a last stop at my favourite site near Golden Gate, and pushed on to ATKV instead. So thanks for joining us on this journey, tomorrow is home James, we will do a summing up of the good and the bad on this trip for those who are interested, please feel free to stay here if you want to join us on the next trip, i don't know when or where, but it will be this year, we have to fix some diffs and transfer case and rhen we will be back on the road again

Safely home, we will post more tomorrow, tiring day but its done

Richtersveld 2025 trip close out Things that were good/excellent/made us very happy • Camper Aircon • Solar panels • Batteries in the camper • Propane gas for firelighting • The hotplate for outside potjiekos cooking • The heavy duty camper alternator which worked so well till its field control stopped working. • The Bosch engine management system that allowed us to proceed safely when the dashboard stopped working (again) • Our new upgraded brake discs and pads which are such a huge improvement. Things that failed/broke/made us very unhappy • the back diff in the truck which destroys its cover plate screws • The transfer case mountings that we have known for years is a weakness and broke on this trip • The Iveco starter motor that sometimes works properly • The starting battery that we replaced because the starter motor wasn’t doing its job • The trucks dashboard CANbus that got wet (again) and stopped working • The Iveco radiator which is leaking water and needs daily top up (not related to above) • The heavy duty alternator field control that stopped working • The airbag solenoids that failed • The airbag compressor that was pumping dust and mud into the system and damaged solenoids. • The car PC that kept on rebooting. • The fridges that worked so well, till the Richtersveld temperatures got into the 50s and 60s • The trucks leaf springs that are to soft at the back, sueak, squeak, squeak and squeak some more, and which are falling apart. Highlights of the trip • The richtersveld parks staff at all levels that are so polite, helpful and friendly. • The Botanist Pieter Van Wyk at Sendelingsdrif, one of the most interesting people we met, and who gave up most of his Sunday to talk to us about EVERYTHING in the park • Mokala game reserve with its rough and rustic facilities and the incredible array of animals • Discovering a wonderful campsite at Letsatse lodge Van Rhynsdorp, despite having to pay R800 per night for it. Lowlights of the trip • The west coast which has been stripped of naturally occurring black mussel and all the other critters normally associated with them, leaving naked rock in their place. • Guano caves in Montagu, letdown after our last stay at Dooringlaagte which we liked so much, R780 per night, presumably because it has hot springs, which are miles from the campsite and in the form of an indoor swimming pool, which smacks of COVID and athletes foot. • Finding the greatest campsite of our trip at Letsatse Lodge in Van Rhynsdorp and paying R800 per night for it.

OK folks that is it for this trip, thanks for joining us for the ride, as I said before, stay here if you want to join the next trip, we will change the group name when we know, Now we must knuckle down and strip the camper and clean, fix a few wiring items, change the way the Iveco starting battery is controlled, fix the TV power supply, find out why the camper alternator field no longer switches on and repair, then mechanical, remove 2 diffs and transfer case, replace useless Iveco bolts on the two cover plates, and even more useless transfer case cross members to be upgraded, a new leaf in each rear spring and two additional rear shock absorbers. Clean and purge the airbag and exhaust brake air pipes which have gotten full of dust. Find leaks in the radiator and hot water circuits and restore. Rotate tyres, figure out how to reallocate the tyre pressure monitors to the right tyre positions on the dash display. And on the IT side, PC wasn't reliable, must get changed, it is mostly about vibration and the USB plugs, God willing, Starlink again, can't live with it, can't live without it, c'mon Elon c'mon c'mon.......... Not as bad as Angola trip but still a month or more of work, and then we will be off again, Drakensburg, Kruger, Botswana, Malawi, who knows, all good possibilities, we also need to return to Angola and have for some time now been slobbering over a Northern Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda Kenya trip, who knows, hang in, as life unfolds.