Marakele Garden of Mountains

[SimonB]

My brother was there last weekend. Got this email from him.

Did the Marakele eco-trail this weekend – the one that was postponed in May because it was too wet. The Tuna handled it very well, except that rock sliders have been moved to the top of the to-do list – the side steps are looking decidedly second hand… The trail is extremely rocky and rough, with lots of really bouldery ups and downs, some with tight turns halfway. But except for the sidesteps the Tuna was excellent, so I’ve got no more worries on that front.

We also did about 150km dirt – good and bad, smooth and corrugated, straight and bendy – and it didn’t try to kill us even once. So either the new one has got the handling issues sorted out, or the old one never really had any handling issues. Never having actually driven an old one I’m probably talking rubbish, but I reckon the main problem with the old one is that it is really easy to drive it too fast on dirt… The packing system worked like a bomb, as did the fridge mounting box with all the wiring in it, and the second battery installed under the bonnet.

But we only did half of the trail… Our four vehicles were us, an old cruiser wagon, a Pajero DiD GLS, a Landy 110 TD5 and the guide’s Cruiser bakkie. After brunch on Saturday on top of the mountain the landy just died, stone dead – the computer had packed up, so it’s still on top of the mountain. By the time we’d given up on the landy it was too late to carry on to the next camp so we retraced our steps back to the previous camp. Which meant that one particularly hairy downhill suddenly become a particularly hairy uphill; we managed ok but that was where one of the larger dings in the sidesteps came from. So we only did 30km on Saturday, but it was still 7 hours driving.

I don’t really subscribe to the Landy vs Cruiser debate, or trash other peoples vehicles or trumpet my own, but I do have a piccie of a cruiser towing a landy…! Two of the main jokes that came out of it – a landy recovery kit includes a snatch strap and a cruiser, and why do landy drivers tip the guides so well – they use the leftover petrol budget. The Pajero also handled it well, but also had side-step issues, and other than a dinged front fender, but you can’t really blame the vehicle for hitting a tree!
So all in all it was excellent, but we must do it again one day to actually do it all – after the rock sliders that is. I recall Uys designing rock sliders for his Tuna, so I’ll browse the forum for some ideas.