Hi Guys,
Feeling a bit rested, and a LOT better.
Firstly,
Once again, thanks guys, for making it such a memorable day, and thanks to Achille & Aslam for the use of the Radio's.
Also,
Anton, John didn't lose any more of his bumper, the extra bits were removed before the trip.
Again, Wat an Awesome Week-end. Left Home at 08:00, met up with John, Paul & Family, (all 5 in Johns SWB) at the Garage we met up at for the Atlantis day, had some coffee & breakfast, and promptly headed to Paternoster.
On our way through Vredenburg, we decided on an impromptu shop stop at West Coast Mall, for Braai Goodies (as we'd all packed in our braai grids, but nothing else.
Then went off to Paternoster to top up on fuel, at which point Aslam & Achille met up with us.
We sommer then decided to take the Trekoskraal route directly, turned off, drove to the coast, (still with fully inflated tyres)
After much nagging from my side

(everyone decided to stop so we could deflate, which we did, down to between 1 & 1.1 Bar) and drove further, we hit the coast and swung a left.
At this point, we decided to throw luck to the wind, and 'see if we could make it to the Saldana 'old sand mine' 4x4 playground (according to G.E.) by going along the coast, i.e. bush trails & dune fields, as apposed to going via any map.
This was a lot of fun, but otherwise futile, we made it to as far as the 1st house in Jacobs Bay, where all that remained between us & the road to said house, and our connecting route to Saldana, was a flimsy fence.
Being the responsible type, we decided to leave said fence alone and turned around (with much difficulty), I had seen a turn off further back, that also showed on the GPS & on G.E. (Which me & John kept on referring to via our mobiles (when we could get reception, that is).
About 2kms back (15 mins) we found the turn off, took it, went over a hill, as we crested the hill, we saw the road before us (this was the road we'd actually planned using G.E.) and so were getting hopeful, as we went down the front of the hill, the foreground opened to is, and promptly presented up with a heavy gate with a huge chain and lock.
Once again, we had to turn back (it this point it was 13H15)
We decided to go back to the south side of the Trekoskraal camp are & have lunch.

As you can see, a really nice spot, I think we spent almost 2 and a Half hours there, and were on our way again by about 16h00.
From there, we went through the Trekoskraal proper (abandoned Camp site) where we entered that area it was really beautiful, rugged & pristine, with one or 2 nice little climbs,

From there, we were rather saddened by the state of the place, over a stretch of about 4 or 5 km, there is just rubbish strewn, not like a dump site, but like rubbish left behind, its amazing how much there is.
At one point, by a spot you can see a nice circle of trees with a clearing, and a nice camp area, and on the other side of the road is a pile of a few hundred bottles (beer etc) panning out less concentrated rubbish, but just all over.
Nevertheless, we drove on, as it was yet another half hour later, and we were now trying to find our way to Tietiesbaai from this side.
We tried going along the coast side, parallel to the beach where there was no other way, as we decided we did not want to drive the beaches. After trying one or 2 ways out, had to turn around yet again, and head into the big dune field.
After consulting with G.E. again, we saw there was a road leading out at the top of the dune field, so started making our way in.
At this point I must mention that these dunes are unlike those of Atlantis, they have rather shallow rises (I'd say the steepest being around 25deg, but their pitches / crests have really sharp steep drops,to near vertical at between 50 and 80 degrees, even entering the dune field, we had to find our way off the 1st dune, as the drop was only about 2 meters, but was about 70 deg, eventually we got in, trove up the sand, which was really loose on the gentle slopes, you we had to power through them. At every crest, we had to get out for 10 minutes to plot the next 50 meters of driving, and so it went through the dune field, very slowly, but incredibly awesome.
Eventually we could see the road in the bush at the other end of the dune field, got out again, and plotted the way forward, which meant traveling along the top of the dune we were on, snaking back, and around a dune on its left, coming around, and going down in between the 2 above dunes, where they converged , snaking around to the left again, back around to the right, up a short dune sharp right along the top of that one, and then left at the bottom of the dune we were on when we were plotting,
While standing up there, Achille took the route perfectly (we were worried one could roll at the point between the 2 dunes converging) but then he went up the short dune and almost straight down a 2 meter 80 degree drop.
We were running, screaming , waving our hands looking silly, but managed to stop him on time (Achille had lent us his radio, and was being relayed info from Aslam with a 2 way) - This just shows the importance of EVERYONE having a radio that can listen on the same channel.
At this point the sun was already on the horizon, so the views were really breathtaking, adding to the Awesomeness of the dune field.
Eventually, we got onto the road, stopped to pump our tyres, which at this point were down to 0.6Bar, back up to 1.8+,
drove down the road and promptly..................... (25 minutes of what happens in Trekoskraal, STAYS in Trekoskraal)
FINALLY back on the tar, we left as fast as we could, went through Paternoster again and through to Tietiesbaai.
Enjoyed a quick drink in the 'WARMTH' of Aslams tent, while watching Achille extract his tent.
Unfortunately, we had to leave (it was already after 20h00) without trying some of Aslams Espresso (and I LOVE my espresso), especially since Achille had promised not to grind bokdrolletjies into them.
Hit the road, and finally got home at 10pm, and not before Inga sent us on a bit of a runaround somewhere between the N7 and Durbanville.
Needless to say, I cant wait to do something like this again, and again, and again...
Cheers
Ned