We left Hogsback on this final leg of the ultimate Landy Tour to celebrate Land Rover 50th anniversary. Traveling along a dirt road on the way to Addo Elephant Park, Terry spotted a cobra in the road. He managed to avoid driving over it but it struck at the Land Rover and reared itself aggressively, displaying its hood and challenging Brian’s vehicle behind him. In Addo with it’s low shrub and open plains one had a clear view of the majestic elephant, including the babies who always look as if they don’t quite know what to do with their trunks.
Tsitsikamma and Garden Route
The Paul Sauer Bridge over the Storms river heralded our arrival at Tsitsikamma Coastal Reserve with its spectacular setting. It is situated right on the coast against rugged mountain scenery. Huge pale green breakers roll in from the Indian Ocean to smash themselves on massive ragged rows of black rocks running parallel to the beach and the camp sites. Sea gulls swoop overhead with their raucous cries and the whole effect is boisterous, wild and invigorating. Misty rain obscured the beautiful aquamarine of the ocean the next afternoon and the rocks and waves became a surging, tumbling mass of white foaming water .
We made our way west along the Langkloof, where one can see miles and miles of pear and apple orchards, to Prince Alfred’s pass: a lovely narrow scenic dirt road hugging the mountain on one side with a deep forested ravine on the other. It was lined with proteas and fynbos (a collection of flowering plants endemic to the Cape). In Avontuur we were joined by Annie (whose vehicle suffered a broken wheel bearing shortly after) and Senta, each driving her own Series Il SWB and Roger in a Range Rover. Near Pietersrivier we slept next to a clear tea coloured stream on Katot’s farm, situated between the Langkloof and the Outeniqua mountains and enjoyed excellent freshly baked bread and smoked warthog sausages cooked on the camp fire.
Klein Karoo
Leading the convoy the next morning on the ultimate Landy tour we were startled and amazed by a kudu that jumped down Linto the road from a cliff about three metres high. She stumbled but ran off across the road and Daniel behind us had to swerve to avoid bumping into her. At Knysna we marveled at yellow wood trees six and eight hundred years old, bought fresh fish at the harbour and visited the grave of George Rex who, contrary to local legend, was not an illegitimate prince of the British realm. One admires the expertise of the old pass builders like Baine when negotiating the beautiful and old Phantom and Homtini passes with hand built stone walls on the edges.
Montague pass had been damaged by floods but we used it to cross the mountain anyway because of its beauty and charm. We saw a narrow gauge railway bridge which is still used by steam trains and were delighted by a Knysna lourie flying ahead of us in a tunnel formed by overhanging trees, displaying the stunning red flashes on its wings. You could see the motorcars on the sweeping tarred Outeniqua Pass to the left. On the other side of the mountains we found Oudtshoorn, the place of ostriches and limestone caves and the final demise of Kermit’s engine.
The ostrich feather industry boomed in the late eighteen hundreds creating fabulously rich “feather barons” who built extravagant palaces to live in. The advent of the motor car caused the feather market to collapse and ruined the farmers: a woman in a huge, elaborate feathered hat did not fit into the new automobiles and feathers went out of fashion. Ostriches are now bred for leather and meat.
The fantastic limestone creations in the Cango caves are a magnificent sight in spite of damage and general wear and tear caused by thousands of visitors.
Engine Disaster Strikes The Ultimate Landy Tour
Kermit’s engine — the diagnosis is bad.
The oil consumption in Daniel’s Series Il started to increase at an alarming rate until, after weeks of deliberation, checks and plans of action, the engine was opened up in George and diagnosed as utterly trashed. The dust had been too much for his “air filter for road use” and had ground itself around the inside of the engine. The Land Rover agent in George worked miracles: they machined the engine, obtained new parts from Cape Town and reassembled it in two and a half days, with an air filter suitable for off road use. Swartberg BMW in Oudtshoorn graciously loaned Daniel a Discovery so that he could accompany us to The Hell, a tiny narrow valley in Gamkaskloof, reached after 57 km of mountain road in the Swartberg range. The road was built in 1960 and before that the local inhabitants had access to the outside world by donkey only. Peter with wife, daughter, trailer and Freelander joined us here for a while.
The peculiar folded rock formations in the mountains of the Swartberg range are fantastic and one marvels at the forces that can bend mountains. The Swartberg pass itself is spectacular but not very Swartberg Pass. challenging compared to Lesotho, mainly because the gravel road is in a good state.
We took a secondary dirt road running along the bottom of the mountains and saw one ostrich farm after another. By the time we arrived at our night stop at Warmwaterberg, we were covered in dust and very happy to dip into their hot springs.
Southern Tip of Africa
Standing at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point in Africa, one realizes that you are very far away from the rest of the world and you appreciate the part the Land Rover has played in bridging gaps, not only between continents and countries but between cultures and between people.
We visited Gansbaai on the Cape South Coast because it is reputed to have the highest per capita number of Land Rovers in the country. Although the weather was cold and rainy, the Publicity Department entertained us royally With a cocktail party (during which Brian had to replace a broken bearing) and a champagne breakfast as well as a boat trip to Dyer island to view the seals and penguins. The wind was blowing quite hard making the sea so choppy that the hammering one received was worse than in a leaf sprung Land Rover on a fast bad road, but it was fun.
Cape of Good Hope
On the drive to Cape Town on the ultimate Landy tour along the coast road we failed to see why Sir Francis Drake labeled the Cape of Good Hope the fairest cape in all the world”. Mist shrouded the distant vistas and Table Mountain was completely invisible. It remained covered in mist for the duration of our stay but the spectacular views along the Peninsula Drive and a visit to the Two Oceans Aquarium lightened our spirits. It is generally accepted that Cape Point, with the Atlantic to the West and the Indian to the East of it, is the dividing point between the oceans, although Cape Agulhas is the southernmost point. This has been established by comparing the plant and animal life occurring to the west and east of Cape Point.
Twenty six Land Rovers and the Freelander came to visit us at a braai evening arranged by the Cape Land Rover Club. Our final morning dawned clear and bright with Table Mountain in all its glory for our line-up at Bloubergstrand. We drove through Wellington and Paarl (Dutch for pearl) where Paarlberg Land Rover laid on a lunch of the best hamburgers I’ve ever tasted, washed down with beer and good Cape wine. Boplaas wine farm deserved a visit in order to taste and buy some port – the evenings around the camp fire were getting decidedly colder.
The Cederberg
The ultimate Landy tour headed inland to Ceres, a small secluded valley in the Western Cape It had a camp site shaded by huge pine trees and I found lots of Boletus and Pine Ring mushrooms which we had for dinner and breakfast.
We were joined by Nico and Sibella (Dutch) in a Tdi with off road trailer, Simon, Christine and baby (South African) in a Series Il LWB, Gerhard and Tina-Marie (South African) in a Series Ill SWB and John and Lorraine (South African), Defender Tdi, roof tent, bringing the total number of vehicles continuing on to the Cederberg, to thirteen. Cederberg is the home of fantastically sculpted sandstone rocks, Bushman paintings and even a few Bushman from Botswana now housed in traditional style on a special reserve. A potjiekos competition was launched and Jochem swore that the Grand Prize offered had to be a Range Rover, which he set out to secure by offering large sums of money for votes for his entry. The Range Rover did not materialize but great fun was had by all. An interesting back road to Wuppertal yielded more fantastic rock formations, as well as a shoe factory where we all bought “velskoene” (literally skin shoes) for very reasonable prices.
The West Coast
Having stocked with fuel, water and supplies we entered the sand tracks of the West Coast. We stopped at a camping spot right next to the waves and promptly renamed it Whale Bone Bay because a whale carcass had washed out on the beach and everyone collected a whale memento. Although Julia had banned all animal parts” from their vehicle, Daniel was not deterred and strapped his whale rib across the front of the roof. The cold water of the Atlantic discouraged swimming but we all collected our quota of mussels for dinner. We spent two days driving up the coast on tracks just off the beach with sorties down to the bays to inspect them. We got stuck in the soft white Cape sand on numerous occasions even with deflated tires. People who could not drive on sand before learnt very quickly here. Chris (and Mariette in a Defender, South African BMW engine, roof tent) on being stuck very firmly whilst attempting a sandy rise, exclaimed in distress: “I’m stuck and I’m in diff lock! “.
The entire coast and inland area from Wuppertal to Alexander Bay and the Richtersveld, changes to a garden of flowers and flowering shrubs during spring each year, but now it was barren and dry. At Spoegrivier, we turned inland and continued to Hondeklip Bay and Port Nolloth where we were enveloped in mist once more. Early the next morning we folded our dripping tents and headed for the Richtersveld and the sun which was shining very brightly 20 km from the coast. This is the bank of mist activated by the cold Benguella current and the hot land mass. It is also the saviour of the fauna and flora in the Namib desert in Namibia, just north of the Orange River.
Richtersveld
Our vehicle sustained a broken exhaust at the manifold and Willie towed us for 30 km to Sendelingsdrift where there is a diamond mine with a workshop and a welder. The amount of dust accumulated when one is towed on a dirt road 8 metres behind a Defender is unbelievable. We were lucky enough to repair the manifold and arrived at our camp site in the Park on the banks of the Orange River well after dark.
Two days were spent driving around and exploring the Richtersveld which is impressive at any time of the year. Towering mountains and ridges of stones, rock and Rope and spade at the ready. Negotiating a sandy rise — Cape West Coast, sand, vast plains and valleys, weird rock formations, steep rocky passes, rare and tenacious succulents and glorious flowering aloes; colours from white to beige to tans, browns, reds, purple änd black, green tinted sands a never ending kaleidoscope of colour and texture and variety. All bordered by the river flowing wide and smooth.
The ultimate Landy tour now headed east in the direction of Pretoria and the night stop at Vioolsdrif was just that. We had a refreshing swim in the river which was shadowed by an enormous rock face and Susan served everyone pancakes to celebrate her birthday. Brian and Kurt started back to Cape town early the next morning and the gentle rumble of a Land Rover engine starting up before dawn and moving quietly out of camp, sounded lonely and sad as it faded in the distance.
Northern Cape
From here we proceeded to Pella, a Mission Station with a cathedral. Pella is a clean, tidy little village and in the 1870’s, two French priests made the bricks and then built the cathedral following instructions from an encyclopedia. It took seven years to complete. At Pella Drift where we camped for the night a spectacular sunset set the tone for a quiet reflective evening. We stopped at Pofadder and bought lamb for R14 (1.75 pounds) per kilogram and Dave cooked it to perfection over the fire at Augrabies National Park. Augrabies waterfall is awe inspiring and the rugged beauty of the surrounding game park is unique. John and Lorraine saw five klipspringer on the rocks and in the camp we were plagued by naughty monkeys and entertained by three kinds of birds eating crumbs from our table.
Two days later we were back in Pretoria and the ultimateLandy tour had come to an end. We had been to most of these places before, but the impact made by visiting all such diverse areas in one continuous trip was astonishing. The enthusiasm and good will encountered from the tour members, other Land Rover owners and the public was delightful and extremely gratifying.
On this ultimate Landy tour We spent 55 days in 37 camps of which 10 had no facilities at all. Seventy-one people participated in the tour in 35 vehicles representing all Land Rover makes except the 101. A total of about 157 Land Rovers were involved at some stage. We traveled approximately 9250 km, of which about 5346 km was on tar, 3100km on dirt roads and 1804 km on tracks or no road at all.
by Ina Cotton
You can find the previous chapters of the tour here
Part 1: Land Rover 50th Anniversary Tour Across Southern Africa
Part 2: Land Rovers Off Road Challenge Through Lesotho to Transkei
Watch the video at The Overland Legend on YouTube
