Legends 2004 - Part 5

Day 7 - 8 April (The day of the mud !)

Our destination for the day was Stoffels Pan. Having had two nights of bush camping and a fair number of recoveries we were well into the swing of things now. In fact we were so confident that we couldn't see that the 70 Km's ahead of us could take much longer than five hours. We were in for a surprise. Mike F's Range Rover's overheating problems has gotten much worse and he started using much of his water supply to cool and fill up the radiator. When we came out on the Pandamatenga border road Mike and I headed for the Shell garage to fetch water and fill up. Below is a picture of the convoy at the Panda border post, ready to head down the Huntersroad.

We were not even three kilometers down the track when the track on the Zimbabwe side turned inland and we had to cross back to the Botswana side. It was here that our problems really started. There were massive sections of damp cotton soil ahead of us. Nothing to do but wind the engines up and give it stick with full throttle.

Most of us made it through first time. Here Jacque on the left and Mike on the right lost traction.

Note the massive cones of clay that formed on Jacque's wheels.

Nasty stuff and very sticky. Offers no traction whatsoever. Makes a SAG cross-ply and BFG M/T look silly.

As soon as we've conquered one obstacle another stretch of clay was waiting for us ahead. This shot taken by Jakes gives the best impression of what we dealt with during some of the stretches !

By now we have spent an impressive while recovering the vehicles and the sun crept on. Dave Lehr drove ahead to survey and we followed. Progress was hampered by the continues overheating of the Range Rover. We proceeded to two mud trenches where Dave Lehr have passed through. We just just managed to get Wavy pushed through the mud where he lost traction. He then towed Jakes out. Jakes then towed me out. Jacques took a different line and also got stuck badly.

The afternoon was drawing late and we have not even progressed 20 Km's. 40 Km's to Stoffels Pan was still ahead of us. it was now clear that if we are going to carry on down this route that we'd have to make wide detours through the bush. Dave Lehr reported problems with overheating due to grass-seeds and the there wasn't any improvement in the track. The grass was so tall and growth so dense that the seed protectors clogged up in no time. The T4A maps indicated a cutline 3 Km's further. We called Dave and asked him to find us a campsite as near the cutline as possible. We don't want to be stuck in a swamp at nightfall. The track had turned into a quagmire and we had to drive through the bush most of the time now. To assist progress Jakes decided to rather tow Mike's Rangie and Johan hooked up the caravan. Progress was meters only. We got as close to Dave Lehr as possible. It was late and everyone was tired. We decided to cut through the bush to a dry flat area amongst some Mopani. All around us was a wet wet wet swamp. It was doubtful if we'd be able to progress any further and back tracking would be a mission. Dave Lehr and Wavy decided to scout a bit further, for a track to the cutline. As night fell they got horribly stuck. Wavy see-sawing on a huge tree trunk. It was going to be a mission to get everyone out of this mess.

End of part five. Please proceed to part six !