Travel: February 2016

Pine Lake Resort and Kruger National Park

My brother, John and his wife, Anne, have some timeshare. So, the mid term break (they are both in the teaching profession) in February 2016 was a good time to visit Mpumalanga and in particular the Kruger National Park.
Anne had booked time at Pine Lake Resort, near Hazyview. This was about 37.3km's from the Numbi gate into Kruger. But because of the problems that were reported on the road to Numbi, we chose to use the Phabeni gate instead.
Sue and I were going to be only staying for the weekend, leaving Randpark Ridge on Friday afternoon. According to the Garmin, it was about a 4 hour drive. We would be travelling back on the Monday morning, leaving Pine Lake very early. The drive over went well and it took us 4 hours and 5 minutes

We were travelling light this trip, with no caravan or trailer ! The car was packed with a fridge, dual battery system and one bag containing our cloths for the weekend.

The chalet. has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, lounge, dining room and kitchen. very nice.

The view is over a dam/lake.

Pine Lake Resort is stunning and we had a lovely chalet (3 bedrooms) overlooking the lake. Good braai area as well, which we used on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

We departed early Saturday morning for Kruger. Leaving at 05h00 we arrived at the Phabeni gate just after they had opened.

There was already a queue and the processing was slow, with only one of 3 booths manned and open !. Anyway, we made it in !

Its always nice to be in the Kruger.
We had the opportunity to see 4 of the big 5, and only missed out on the Lion !!

It was exceptionally hot. The forecast for Skukuza was 44c and we stopped for lunch at Lower Sabie where it was, according to the parks-board, 45c. But there was a very hot berg wind and it felt more like 54c.
Even the monkeys and baboons were feeling the heat !

We stopped off at a stretch point, but it was too hot to have a good look around !

It was very dry and most of the grass has died and there is really just a lot of sand. The water situation seemed dire, and even the warthogs were batting to find mud to cool off in

We exited at the same gate at which we had entered the park. We left at 18h00.

On the Sunday we had decided to have a later morning and a decent breakfast.

It was very good.

The rest of the day was just lazing around with a short drive into the nearby attractions at White River where we spent about 3 hours milling around the local craft stores. Some had excellent local crafts.

Sue and I left Pine Lake Resort very early Monday morning as I had to get back to work.

It was an excellent relaxing weekend.

According to Garmin, the following are the statistics :

Total Km's - 1,207
Moving average - 62km per hour
Overall average - 53 km per hour
Moving time was 19 hours 31 minutes
Total time was 22 hours 59 minutes.

My land Rover

Since I first traveled in a Land Rover as a small boy, in Mtubatuba in Zululand, round about the early 70's, I was fascinated by these vehicles.

We used to go to places at St Lucia Estuary, as it was in those days. We visited places like Charters creek, Fanies Island and a place where there was a large sand dune which the land rovers had to traverse to get off the beach back to the car park. I think this was at Cape Vidal. In those early days there were really only land Rovers for the fishermen and 4x4 fraternity.

I had to wait until I could afford a Land Rover. So, when I turned 50 I bought a Discovery 3 TDV6 SE. This was a fantastic vehicle and was superb in all off road conditions. It pulled our off road trailer with perfection. However, after 5 air compressors for the air suspension, I decided to sell the vehicle.

I had heard about a Series III, via my uncle in Howick in KZN, which I was told was in use and used every week-end to take garden refuse to the local tip. After thinking long and hard about it, I contacted the owners father. The owner had emigrated to Australia. I arranged a date and time to view the Landy. I was optimistic. So I hired a trailer and drove down to Howick, from Randpark Ridge Johannesburg. Its about a 494km drive on good dual carriageway highway. I took my Dad down with me.

Well, I was stunned and a bit shocked when I did see the Landy. It was full of junk in the back. It was green, but that was from moss from the vehicle being parked in the shade under a tree (Howick has a lot of mist so its very damp there).

It would not start. You could not see out of the windows because they had separated and water had got in between the two layers.The roof rack had wooden beams and these were rotten. The tyres did not look good. The exhaust was shot. So much for it being used weekly to the refuse dump !!!

After looking at it for a while, walking around and opening the bonnet. It was decided not to purchase the vehicle. The asking price was just too much for a vehicle in that state. On second thoughts I suggested a price and the fellow just laughed. So, we came back to Johannesburg with an empty trailer.

I looked around for other defender type land rovers but could not afford the asking prices. So, after a few weeks I called Howick and suggested a revised price for the Land Rover. This was accepted by the owner, in Australia. So, we hired a trailer again and made the trip back down to Howick.

The land Rover still would not start. The owner called his local mechanic. They replaced the plugs and points, fiddled with the HT leads, but still it would not start. There was a new battery in, so we managed to get the vehicle up onto the trailer by putting it into gear and cranking the starter. This worked.

I tied the landy down with multiple straps and we headed back to Johannesburg. It was a slow trip, because if I went too fast, the trailer started swaying. Anyway, we made it back in one piece.

Offloaded the landy in my driveway and pushed it to one side. Took the trailer back to the hire shop.

Now, I had to move the vehicle around to the back of my yard. But, its got that non starting problem.

So, I turned the key on and noticed that there was petrol pouring out onto the driveway. The problem was that the fuel pipe was punctured just near the petrol pump. I got underneath, got a new piece of pipe and a joiner and a few clamps. Made the repair. Got back in, turned the key and it started. (Wonder how good that local mechanic was in Howick that he did not see that there was no petrol coming through). Anyway.

The next week-end I decided to take it for a little drive to see how it felt. The first time I put my foot on the brakes, I almost veered off the road. So it was back home.

So, I had some work to do on the Landy.

I have :

redone all the brakes (it needed everything new as the old ones were totally clogged up)
fitted new types
new manifold
new exhaust system
new clutch master cylinder
new brake master cylinder
new glass all round (all windows except for the back door window)
replaced oil seals
new windscreen wiper blades
new windscreen wiper on/off switch
electrical work
replaced the rear lights with land rover originals
serviced the SU carburetors
new fuel filters
repaired and painted the rook rack
resprayed the land rover

Now its going well and is used most, if not every weekend. I have also used it on numerous 4x4 trails and also some outings to Marakele National Park, Serendapity eco trails, Mateke, De Wildt etc.

Its also being used as a wedding vehicle !! (see below)

I've just had to replace the fuel tank as well, as it started leaking around the seam.

Now that I've done all this work on the landy (I still have more that I want to do) the previous owner is upset at the price that I paid and has said that he thinks I got it too cheap !!

Here are some pictures :

I had already done all the work of replacing the windows and the other mechanical work required.
But the paint was really in a bad way.

The entire Land Rover was not in good shape, as far as the paintwork was concerned.

I also put new mirror glass into the mirrors, as the were all scarred.

Getting patched up for the spray job.

I put an undercoat on first. Actually, it looks quiet good in black !

Once that was dry, I sprayed it white.

I also painted the step, the front bull bar and the back tow bar areas black again.

The finished product on our first outing. It went very well.

And the landy was also used as a wedding vehicle !!

We were leaving for a trip to Serendapity and then onto Marakele via Ranking Pass. Was a good trip and everything went well. Absolutely no problems from the Land Rover.

Camping setup !

Landy all packed up (roof rack as well as the back of the car)

This is now in December 2015. Its still going strong and no problems.

Note the lights on the back, I changed the single light clusters that it had and fitted Land Rover lights.

I have even towed my Venter Bush Baby trailer with the series III when we went out to Parys to camp at and drive the Berakah trail in the Veredfort Dome. All went well on that trip as well.

Below are some pics of the discovery that I had.

We, however did some great trips in the Discovery, going to Southern Namibia, Mozambique and up Sani Pass a few times. here are a few pics.

Crossing the pontoon over the Orange river at Sendelingsdrift. The operators even provide life jackets !!
This was on our return from the trip to Southern Namibia. We had a great time !

Just leaving Ais-Ais. It was so terribly hot at Ais-Ais that we decided not to camp, but to swap the campsite for a room at the hotel. Was a great idea.

At Canon Roadhouse. Was hoping that the Landy would not look like this old truck, after the dirt roads. But, luckily Namibian dirt roads are fantastic.