Go! Drive & Camp Oct/Nov 2023

I grew up in a house where we always had pets. I was fond of all our animals and still remember countless stories about each one. My love for our pets, however, didn’t come close to that of our youngest brother. He wasn’t just fond of the animals; you could say he was in love with them. Especially the dogs. Our two Staffies were named Silas and Fiela. (Clearly, someone was reading Dalene Matthee when they came into our lives, but that’s beside the point.) They were beautiful and had the loveliest temperaments – we had so much fun playing with them in our large garden. But they were outdoor dogs and had to sleep in the kennel near the back door at night. During the freezing Free State winters,…

INBOX We love hearing what’s on your mind! Write to us at drivecamp@gomag.co.za and please remember to give your full address and contact details. Drive & Camp reserves the right to edit and shorten letters – and publish them in the magazine, on the website, and elsewhere. In April this year, I decided that for the June school holidays, our family could do with a trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. As you know, finding accommodation at short notice here is no easy feat. I joined a Facebook group and received scoffs and sniggers from seasoned Kgalagadi visitors when I enquired about accommodation. Helped by a friend who is an avid Kalagadi worshipper, we booked six consecutive nights, all of which were camping. I’m a single mom with two kids,…

Christene wins a cooler bag worth R220. Whether you’re a camper, fisherman, or sports fan next to a cricket pitch, this cooler bag has room for a lunch box and a 1,5 ℓ cooldrink bottle. The lid also has space for a coffee flask. The interior is lined with PVC, which makes it easy to keep the bag clean and hygienic. The bag has a short strap that reaches over the top and attaches with a Velcro strip, as well as a longer shoulder strap if you’re going to carry it over longer distances. It’san ideal picnic accessory or a padkos bag for a road trip. winkel.weg.co.za…

INBOX Thank you for the article about Eswatini in the June-July 2023 issue. Information for selfdrive tours in this country is rather sparse. We’re planning a tour from the Western Cape to the Kruger National Park and would like to make a detour through Eswatini. Our time for the whole tour is limited, so we’re basically just driving through Eswatini. We plan to visit Ngwenya Glass and possibly the Sibebe Rock as well. We’ll be camping at Malolotja and aim to continue the next day through the Bulembu border post to Barberton, and then on to Sabie. We have five vehicles, each with a bush caravan. I’d like to know if our intended route, especially from Piggs Peak through the Bulembu border post, will be suitable for towing the caravans.…

INBOX I recently tried to remove the lock on my bakkie’s spare wheel, but I couldn’t even insert the key due to all the dust, sand and mud that had clogged the keyhole. Luckily, I was near a workshop, and after half an hour of struggling, the lock was removed. According to the mechanics they frequently see this issue. Their advice is to remove the lock when driving in areas where help isn’t just around the corner. Just think about what could happen if you need to change your tyre in some remote area. Following this, I took an empty peanut butter jar made of plastic and drilled an 11 mm hole in the middle of the lid. I cut three round pieces from an old tube the same size…

Driekie Dekker From Hentiesbaai to Dannhauser in KwaZulu-Natal: 2 400 km. My husband and I. My husband drove the whole way by himself. Definitely never again! Miller Langenhoven I drove 3 000 km in 30 hours, but I’ll never do it again –and I don’t recommend it either. Pieter Rossouw From Lower Sabie to Cape Town. Will never do it again! Agatha Ikking From Kempton Park to Kasane in Botswana. But I will never drive that far and long consecutively again. It’s asking for trouble and it’s unpleasant anyway. Erich Jacobs From Pretoria to Cape Town, but I started driving at 5:00. In my student years, I drove from Plettenberg Bay to Sasolburg and only left at 16:00. I was in Bloemfontein by midnight and will never ever do it again. Those last three and…