Heine's Ramblings and Rumblings


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From the Cruiser Forum by Hennie Kotze

To Rove, or not to Rove!There was a man from the darkest Continent,
who wished to explore it from end to end!
Before long he put deeds to his thought
and went to town where he diligently sought
for a means to rove the yonder land!

And thus the marketplace he carefully scoured,
mindful of the pitfall that he could be devoured
by a horse trader of such dubious disposition
that even his most vigilant premonition
would serve him to no end!

His search for a wagon or vehicle of sort,
that would ferry him overland without abort
became a tiring quest that eventually
lead him, to speak figuratively and literally,
on the path to his first discovery!

For as he patiently roamed the town
a billboard suddenly stared him down!
“Land Rover” it glowed so brilliantly bright
that in his mind it triggered a light!!
“Of course, just what I need to rove the land!”

Thus in he went and bought a Landy
with which he felt extremely dandy!
And as proudly he ‘roved’ down the road
he felt just like the old fairytale Toad
about to be kissed by the Princess!

In his Discovery he set out to acquire
everything that his exploration would require!
From tents and blankets, pots and pans,
to a rack for the roof and some jerrycans!
“Dr Livingstone I presume!”

And finally he and his Randy Lover,
was ready to take to the wild to discover!
Poor fellow, little did he know
that now his bitterest woe
was about to commence!

At first the Rover went like a charm
and in driving fast he saw no harm!
Across the road he went at speed,
proud on the trot like a noble steed!
Until he reached the outskirts of town!

Its a long story that from here onwards ensued
in which frustration overrun the poor dude!
From daybreak to the middle of the night,
everything went wrong and nothing right!
Reliability, oh Reliability! Where art thou?

However, in all fairness it is a fact
that the LR crowd improved their act!
And before the crack of the following day,
a replacement Disco was on its way!
And finally he could leave the outskirts of town!

Low and behold, the LR replacement
smacked of a good improvement!
On he charged, off the road into the rough,
the Landy was made to go this tough!
Let the fun and games begin!

And so the replacement Disco took him far,
away from the town and far from the tar!
Way into the world of all wheel drive,
where only the Overland Manne thrive!
Here the best have to prove their mettle!

Far off the tar another chapter was written,
because our LR man was overly smitten
with his machine’s ability to tackle the wild,
which soon he would learn is rather mild.
He was still to meet Mr Experience!

Like a vicious lion the Disco roared,
and up and over the dune it soared!
With hill descent, traction and terrain control
the Landy was unstoppable on a roll!
Oblivious to the beginning of the end!

Invariably grey matter will always gain
the upper hand over the virtual domain!
Thus the ‘digital driver’ is doomed to fail
where flesh, blood and experience prevail!
Enter the 21st Century Land Rover!

The rest is now history of the past
for the Landy fell quite quickly and fast!
Burried up to its belly in grime and grit,
the Disco dumped its driver in the (censored)!
The digital driver out of its depth!

The day went on and the shadows long,
our Landyman now not quite so strong.
The dark of nightfall was not the fear,
but how to get the Disco out in the clear!
This is not a situation you wish for foe or friend!

But then the Discoman froze into a poise!
Was that just imagination, or really a noise?
Yes, the noise grew unmistakably clear,
someone else was drawing near!
One very relieved Discoman!

With the deep baritone drone of six in a row,
the four and a half EFI (SFA) glided to a slow!
A calloused hand reached out in comprehension
with a gesture of typical ‘Overland’ compassion!
The Discoman thanking his lucky star!

The thirty three muddies mauled the earth,
as the Disco slowly lifted from its berth!
The six-man squad showed little strain,
in helping the Disco onto level plane.
Then it was time to dig into the Luna!

With darkness now calling the shot,
it looked like a decent camping spot!
Unceremoniously a howling moon and eazi awn
were summoned to duty till the crack of dawn!
The Luna’s lid worked overtime without complaining!

Later, as the Kameeldoring flames licked the sky,
the Discoman gathered the courage to ask: Why?
What makes the difference more or less,
of Yota’s unquestionable superior success?
The Yotaman sipped his fizz and smiled.

Is it the men, Old Emu or Ironman, he wanted to know,
that always help Yota to steal the show?
Or is it quite simply plain
the size of your muddies or all terrain?
The Yotaman sipped his fizz and cleared his throat!

With wisdom gleaned from many a day
the Yotaman prepared the final say!
Leaning over to the Landyman’s closest ear,
“Elementary my dear Discoman”, he said for only him to hear:
“The ultimate secret is not to Rove,…….but to Cruise!”


3 Comments

Gonarezhou April 2012

This was my first “real”  overlanding trip in Bo . We were joined by:

Nick and Hester Coetzee – V6 Prado + Echo Trailer

Damian,Lydia and Nikita Stander – Discovery 4 SDV6 + Conqueror Trailer

Phillip and Dena Sprules – Defender 130 TD5

and of course Jagie Bear

Day One 26 April

Day 1

We left home at about 5 AM and met up with the rest of the guys at the Petroport north of Pretoria.  After stopping for breakfast at the Ultra City outside of Polokwane we headed for Louis Trichardt where we filled up and then into Kruger via the Punda Maria gate

We thought about having lunch at the restaurant, but I had an early taste of Zimbabwe in that my first, second and third choices on the menu were out of stock.  This in addition to the credit card machine not working.  We filled up with fuel and headed to Pafuri River Campinstead after a brief detour through the park.

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Tree house option on the river

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River view from the campsite

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Our campsite

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And private showers / toilets

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The bar and pool area

Very reasonably priced at R90 per person. You can also have meals in the bar area

Day Two 27 April

Day 2

After a slow start, because we had a fairly short day ahead (yeah right), we headed back into the park to the Pafuri Border Post, after a short stop at Crook’s Corner.

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The border crossing went quickly enough,  probably sped up by the fact that I paid an “import fee” for food and alcohol on the Mozambique side without realising it.  Apparently Phillip had been “charged” but was refusing to pay,  when I happily came along and paid it without question.  In my defence I thought I was paying for road tax or something.

We headed to the river crossing and were relieved to see that the river was very low and I thought that we would be across very easily.

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Bo at rivers edge (and in 2wd high range I might add – the torque on this engine is awesome)

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The rest ready and waiting

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Filly done

That’s however when the fun started.

Damian drove onto the river bank and promptly got stuck, which was probably my fault as we were not on the main track.   The next 3 and a half hours were spent in alternatively recovering him and Phillip who got stuck helping him out.

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Damian out – now for the trailer (notice how high the car stands in “super extended mode”)

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Trailer winched out

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All hooked up again – with Filly in the lead – off we go !

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But not for long

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Nick helping Filly help Damian

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But not for long – eventually we had to winch Filly out with a snatch block

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Out at last .

We eventually got Damian over the river and then went back for the trailer . As good as the D4 is , it really battled with a 1 ton plus trailer in thick sand . Luckily Damian was with friends …..  Winking smile

After some fun in the sun,  we headed for Sango Border Post, after first helping a local out the river bank.

We reached Sango at about 4.30 and were across quickly on the Mozambique side.  The  Zimbabwe side went quite quickly as well,  until we reached the exit gate.

Here the police battled to find engine numbers on all of our cars until it was past 6 O’clock (note to self,  must remember to find it for future reference).

As it was now past 6,we were told we would have to wait until tomorrow, as they were now off duty, despite the fact that the border was open until 8. The other option would be to “assist ” them.  So R150 and two beers later we were through the gate.

While I normally refuse to pay bribes,  it was apparent that we weren’t  going to get through that night,  any other way.

We then looked for the closest accommodation on the GPS, which was Simwunini.

It  turned out that there was no camping,  only chalets.  We then continued to Mabalauta where we drove around a bit until we found the guard who allowed us in after a bit of persuasion (no money this time though)  and a promise to book in the next day.

We finally set up camp at about 8 pm, 11 hours and 138 km after leaving Pafuri

Day 3 28 April

Day 3 Mabalauta

Spent a quite day around the campsite, only going out for a late afternoon drive.  We didn’t see much,  other than a herd of elephant.

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Very nice campsite with lots of shade

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This was before Filly discovered there was an ablution block Embarrassed smile

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The previous day caught up with Hester

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What would a trip be without a Landy with an open bonnet Devil

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View from one of the lookout points

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Damian’s form continued with him getting a puncture on his way back to camp.

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Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies

It was great to see that the general area was in good shape, with all the buildings and hides looking like they had recently been refurbished.

Day 4 29 April

We headed back out the park, destination Fishans Camp.  The road along the railway line was better than I expected and we made it to the reception in good time, after a short traffic jam at the causeway.

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The water was very low and crossing was easy

We stopped for lunch at Chipinda Pools and then headed on to Fishan’s.

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Damian got stuck coming out the river, and then Phillip had to recover me, after I got stuck pulling Damian out.

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But it was nowhere as bad as Pafuri had been and 20 minutes later we where on our way again.

Upon arriving at the campsite, I wasn’t overly surprised to see someone already there.  Another double booking!  I’m beginning to suspect that this has become a unspoken policy of the Zimbabwe Parks Board.

Any way after introducing ourselves we went a bit further along and set up camp.  Quite a different experience to our previous double booking  in Hwange.

We had sun downers in the river bed and several beers to wash the dust away.

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Ellies in the river

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After supper we all had an early night

Day 5 30 April

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We had a lazy morning,  and then headed in the direction of the Chilojo Cliffs to go look for Hennie Rautenbach’s geocache.

After much backwards and forwards. we eventually gave up,  as all the roads became dead ends and headed to the cliff viewpoint for lunch.

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Nick developed a problem with his low/high range selector, with the car refusing to go into low range or select any of the other options. This was going to be an issue,  as he needed low range to get back across the river.

I managed to get hold of Patrick Bremner on the sat phone and he in turn got hold of someone who worked for Toyota.  After a couple more phone calls, Nick was told to check a sensor on the transfer case.  The connector had come loose,  so problem solved.

We had sun downers in the river again,  accompanied by some ellies.

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Not quite noticeable in this pic is the ellie that came out the river just to the right of Nick’s trailer

Day 6 1 May

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We’d been hearing lions ever since we got into the park , but last night they were very close , with tracks in the river and also just behind our camp .

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Dena’s footprint on the left , lion’s on the right

After breakfast we started home , via the back way out the park. Although this meant we had about a 150 km of dirt roads , we didn’t pass through any road blocks .

Damian and I however were both fine $20 for doing 88 km in a 60 km zone , although there were no signs to back this up. I wasn’t going to waste time over $20 though .

When we arrived at Beit Bridge , I was initially relived because there weren’t many cars in evidence. Unfortunately there were many locals queuing to get back into SA after the long weekend , and the waiting time was running at about 4 hours according to some people in the queue .

We decided to pay for runners and cleared the Zim side in about 20 min . It cost us R800 per car , but I felt it was worth it (it might have been less, but I made a rookie mistake when I paid for the first part of the process and I had left all my rands in my wallet. I’m pretty sure that drove the price up for the next stages)

We stopped off at the Spur in Messina for supper , and Phillip and I decided to stay over , while Nick and Damian drove home .

We headed to Boabab Caravan Park were I had stayed before , but they have done away with camping , so we had to book a chalet instead. Not great , but not bad for R330 for two people.

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Day 7 2 May

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We left at about 6.30 and where home at about 12.30

In Conclusion

It’s been about 8 years since I was last in Gonarezhou , and it is definitely somewhere I will be visiting more often from now on. It is apparent that corruption is more common in the Southern parts of Zimbabwe , as I’ve never had any of the issues we experienced , when crossing the border higher up .

As far as Bo goes , I am over the moon with the performance and handling of the car itself , and the camper setup also makes it very easy to camp almost anywhere if required , and our set up time was around 5 minutes from stopping .