August 25th until 28th: The 4x4 Eco Trail

The infamous 4x4 eco trail. After a short chat at Twee Rivieren main camp at 9 o'clock we drove up to the Kij Kij waterhole to leave the main road at approx. 11. We let the tire pressure down to 1,3 bar cause the 214km ahead of us would be sand and nothing but sand. Well, despite of the 4x4 I was sitting in the initial thought about all the dunes was a wee bit scary but we didn't spend much time there to go deeper into it. Every one in the 5 cars had a walkie talkie so that we were able to communicate while driving. The first few dunes were ok until I got stuck in one that would even be rated. Anyway...I found out that in my bakkie the front wheel hubs have to be locked manually to make the 4WD work. Well, after that was done it dug through the sand like a charm. I even managed to conquer "Big Sister", one of the two biggest and steepest dunes of the trail.

Not too many animals along the way, but Francois had told us before. But the landscape was simply breathtaking! Just like the thought to sleep nearby a waterhole having no fence around the tents and just a guide with a rifle. So as a preparation for the first night "out there" we pitched our tents at the Witgat campsite. The bush luxury was well represented by open-air showers (just a plastic container to fill with your own water, can you believe that 2,5 litres are sufficient for a full body shower? Well, I don't need shampoo and conditioner ;) and so-called longdrops. Which were quite a luxury, because that way you don't have to dig a hole and burn the toilet paper when you're done. Speaking of luxury...being the only real tourist (all the others are South-African citizens) I felt a bit weird that evening because the only stuff I had brought besides my camera and laptop were my backpack and the big plastic box with my kitchen tools and food. I had not even brought a chair. Well, not the others. Their 4WDs would be equipped with boxes and even more boxes containing everything you can imagine. From gas-stove to a full bush kitchen, solar shower, spotlight...you name it! But anyway...despite of the great start into the evening with our delicious braai it was frickin cold that night and it must have been below zero because the water on Francois vehicle was frozen the next morning. Besides one of the hundreds of scorpions had chosen the underside of my tent as his area to discover. Nice thought, ey? Thank god he wasn't inside the tent, because according to Francois the Kgalagadi dunes are home to Africa's most venomenous scorpion. Well, I wouldn't be able to figure out which one it was just because of the tracks it had left. And despite Francois' 80% hit rate for lions and hyenas roaming around the camp we didn't have any bigger predatory visitors. Too bad, especially because the others had told me quite a few stories of people being stuck in their tents because lions would be waiting outside playing around with the coal for the braii. Hehe. So we took off at 10 for the next 60-something kilometres. No challenging dunes this time, which might also have been the case because I knew how to handle most of them by now.

The second stop was at Rosyntjiebos camp, situated in an area that is nick named "The Serengeti" because it's like a pan surrounded by dunes. A lovely place and we could hear the hyenas and jackals singing at night. It wasn't as cold as the night before, but still chilly enough. :) No visitors during that night either. :(

Our third and last stop was at the Swartbas camp. This time Francois let us arrange the cars and tents around the campfire in a circle so that none of the predators would have a chance to sneak in unseen. I took a few pictures of the beautiful sunset before I was asked to come back into camp because it was too dangerous out there. I had a quick thought whether I would really be able to stand my ground in case lions or hyenas would offer me their company. I do believe that especially out in the dunes they are much more scared of humans than we are of them, but hey...that point has to be proven. :) All the preparations, however, were in vain because again no visitors. Which might have been a good thing because we had to prepare for the biggest challenge of the trail: "Big Brother", the father of all dunes. Francois calls it overrated, I can confirm. He said that none of his guests had made it up with just one attempt, but it was almost too easy. might have been because my tire pressure was down to 1 bar at the time. I guess I made the other 4WD enthusiasts grind their teeth a little, but hey...it also worked when I went up there once more. Anyway...the trip ended at 1pm on the 28th and we all agreed that it was one of the coolest things to do in the park. Besides the group was very nice and from the first day on it was possible to joke with everybody. South Africans are a cool bunch of people!

So after a short excursion to the Polentswa campsite we all went to Nossob where most of us had booked for the following 2 nights. Our evening there started with...guess what? A braai, of course! ;)

tbc...


Pictures of the 4x4 eco trail.