Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2016 i Leisure Wheels

wHEN I looked out the plane’s window, all I saw was the red dunes of the impressive Simpson Desert below. I was on a flight from Brisbane to Alice Springs, which is situated in an area they call the Red Centre of Australia. They could not have come up with a more apt name, as Alice Springs lies more or less in the dead centre of Australia. These Aussies are real clever buggers. In about 48 hours I would be driving across the desert in what is now known as the ARB Icons, four specially selected and prepared vehicles that epitomise the past 40 years of the Australian off-roading scene. According to the T-shirt they gave us, the Simpson Desert is the world’s largest sand dune desert and, to cross…

So there we were, watching park official Aubrey throw his toys all over our campsite, in the most colourful and expressive Afrikaans We had just arrived back at Polentswa camp after an excursion to Union’s End, in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP). We were late clocking back into camp, and with a strict ‘no driving after dark’ policy in place to aid the fight against rhino poachers, we had attracted the attention of Aubrey. If Aubrey from Nossob were a pressure cooker, he’d have exploded already. “I want you out of this park! Out!” he shouted. But before Mr Aubrey has his final say, let’s backtrack a few days, to the start of what promised to be an epic journey in a Suzuki Jimny, a Mitsubishi Pajero, a Jeep Wrangler…

“CAUGHT between a rock and a hard place,” the saying goes... and at the recent semi-final of the 2016 Bridgestone 4×4 Club Challenge at the Spookspruit 4×4 trail near Heidelberg, that saying certainly rang true for a number of the teams. As if the 10 obstacles weren’t tough enough, just navigating between some tests proved a challenge, and numerous recoveries were made after competitors got stuck on their way to the next obstacle. The new Spookspruit 4×4 trail, created by Johan Havenga, a former Bridgestone Club Challenge competitor and marshal, proved to be a worthy semi-final adversary for the 40 teams that battled it out for top honours. With route master Sakkie Coetzee adding his own dose of challenge, the teams had a real tough time, from the very first…

Text and photos: Deon van der Walt Charge of the dual battery system If you are going to run a fridge/freezer in your vehicle, a dual battery system is an essential accessory if you don’t want to regularly push-start your vehicle, and if you want your fridge to perform optimally. If you drive a 4×4 with an automatic gearbox and the main battery runs dry, then you are really in a pickle. This installation makes use of a RING 30amp DC charger. The secondary battery receives its charge via this charger, thus the vehicle’s alternator has nothing to do with this process. The RING DC charger will give whatever charge is required, bulk, float or trickle charge. The new smart alternators of today just cannot charge a second battery efficiently…

THE expressive Italian tourist sitting across the table was laying into Spanish people with some colourful language. Maybe a Spanish casanova had left her stranded at the altar. On the television on a far wall, the Springboks were just managing to maintain a slender lead over the Wallabies. A young couple were watching the game, too. But the pretty young blonde damsel insisted on walking past our table at least once every five minutes. This was quite distracting. The bar lady served a half-full shooter glass of Jagermeister – annoying when you pay almost R50 per tot glass. The sandy parking lot outside Nata Lodge’s main reception and bar area was pretty full. Here a kitted Toyota Hilux, there a Land Rover Discovery, over there a Ford Ranger with a…

Christmas Gift South Africa’s Wildest Places Scott’s new 400-page, hardcover coffee-table book is on sale now at www.LoveWildAfrica.com for R890 including free delivery anywhere in South Africa. Featuring stunning photographs and stories from the country’s 30 finest national parks and nature reserves, the book makes an ideal Christmas gift. For more information or bulk orders, contact Scott on 082 821 7664 or email scott@lovewildafrica.com DURING the dry winter season, most of Zambia is on fire. Locals burn the dry grass so that when the summer rains arrive, their cattle can graze on the succulent new growth. The smoke from the fires casts a drab veil over everything. It’s a thin grey soup that fills the air up to 3 000 metres. We were flying in a small fourseater plane from…

CURRENT TECH 1. Bluetooth If your car is a basic model and more than five years old, chances are that you have a standard radio/CD-player combination without Bluetooth or a USB port. You can inch your car towards today’s current tech (admittedly by a small increment) by installing a simple Bluetooth handsfree device that allows you to make and receive calls without having to fiddle with your phone. However, unless your regular calls are made to highly engaging or comical individuals – “Honey, do you want me to pick up some milk on the way home?” doesn’t quite qualify – we suggest something with additional features. By installing a new car stereo that has builtin Bluetooth technology with music-streaming functionality, you’ll have a few more options. This will give you…

You’ve just taken ownership of a beautiful new 4×4. It’s not a little curb climber like your previous SUV; this one is serious. It’s got all the tricks and tools. In the words of the dealer, it is “unstoppable off-road”. To put it through its paces, you’ve taken it to your nearest 4×4 trail. Rather worryingly, the place is busy. A crowd has formed to watch you tackle a particularly nasty little axle twister. You even spot a couple of guys from the local off-road club. But you’re not worried. You’ve got a serious 4×4. You engage four-wheel drive and low range – just like the dealer showed you – and set off. For a brief, glorious moment, you are a driving god. You barely feel the obstacle below you.…

I n south-west Namibia, overland travellers have for many years been greeted with a simple no entry sign: Sperrgebiet. It is like a command, issued by a German Wehrmacht General. You will not even consider ignoring the sign. It is verboten! In the recent past, many 4×4 enthusiasts visited part of what was previously known as the Sperrgebiet in expeditions arranged by Coastway Tours, Uri Adventures and Desert Magic. But there is one section where nobody was allowed – the area north of Lüderitz up to Hottentots Bay. For 108 years, no member of the public was allowed to venture into this area. It was the Forbidden Land. The Sperrgebiet was proclaimed in September 1908 after the discovery of diamonds in German South West Africa. The first diamonds were discovered…

Sister companies Lexus and Toyota showcased striking crossovers at the recent Paris Motor Show. Toyota used the show to provide a preview of a production-ready version of its C-HR (Coupé High-Rider). It was first unveiled in concept form at the 2014 Paris Show, but the version that attended the 2016 event was clearly not a blue-sky concept, but one that’s ready to hit the road. As one would expect, the extreme design of the concept has been walked back somewhat to make it more practical, but you can still recognise most of the general features of the original. It’s still a high-riding crossover, and it’s still a coupé (hence the C-HR moniker), but the lines are now less aggressive and the wheels, smaller. According to Toyota: “The model was developed…

Cross-country racing is not so much about raw speed as it is about a vehicle’s ability to cover rough terrain very fast. So it’s about the complete package, with the suspension playing a pivotal part.” Off-road racing legend Hannes Grobler, a multiple South African champion (in rally, off-road and circuit racing), obviously knows what he is talking about when it comes to racing a vehicle at breakneck speed through the bush. He was chatting to us a few years ago at a Nissan media event. We had just watched him drive his Nissan Navara factory off-road racer at about 80km/h on a narrow gravel road – the same road we had traversed earlier in stock-standard bakkies. That track was so rough that we had to engage low range and pick…

HEAR YE! HEAR YE! Been on an amazing overland trip or adventure? Snapped some high resolution photos along the way? Then send us your story and you stand a chance of winning some great camping gear, courtesy of Front Runner, if your story is published. The monthly prize, worth R2 685, includes a Front Runner Flip Pop Tent (two-person tent that pitches in seconds) as well as two of the company’s nifty Expander camping chairs. More information on these products at frontrunner.co.za or Tel: 011 466 0155. Please send your stories to editorial@leisurewheels.com. OKAY, so it seems a little pointless going too far north on the bikes if the flowers are not out yet. Why don’t we test the Jimny on some of the Namaqua Park’s sand tracks and try…

In Australia, they call it a roo bar. In the United States it’s known as a grill guard and in Canada it’s a moose bumper. In South Africa, we simply call it a bull bar. But whatever you want to call it, these bars all share the same basic primary purpose: to protect the vehicle during a front-end collision with a kangaroo, moose or, well, bull. There are numerous spin-off advantages, too. In the off-road department, a bull bar drastically improves the approach angle of a 4×4. It also allows for the fitment of a winch (if it is designed to house a winch) and recovery and high-lift jacking points (if fitted) make recoveries in the bundu a bit easier. On the other end of the scale, for some clients…

PAJERO GOES 4X4ING This month we swapped the Pajero’s chunky Bridgestone D697 all-terrain tyres for the latest all-terrain tyre in the company’s armoury: the D693. Standard on the latest Toyota Hilux and Fortuner, the new D693’s tread pattern may not be as aggressive as the older D697 design, but it is also a whole lot quieter on the open road. However, the question of 4x4 ability remained, so the Pajero was roped into active 4x4 competition duty at a round of the Bridgestone 4x4 Club Challenge. All the competitors had to drive the Pajero over the same obstacle, and some patterns soon emerged: the teams were all quite impressed by the Mitsubishi’s 4x4 ability and, they were also surprised by the D693’s ability in the rough. IT seems as surreal…

THERE’S AN ENGLISH EXPRESSION THAT SAYS: “May you live in interesting times. It is often aid that this expression is actually a translation of a Chinese curse (‘interesting’ here being a euphemism for bloody, violent, uncertain, and so on). Well, for better or worse, we live in ‘interesting’ times. And few things have been as interesting as the rapid decline in new-car sales over the last year. The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) report for September stated the following: “The recession in the domestic new vehicle market had accelerated significantly during September 2016, with all major segments reflecting double digit or near double digit declines.” According to NAAMSA, 47 399 vehicles were sold in September – 7 904 (14%) less than in September last year. And…