It started out a slightly cloudy windy day. We had a full compliment of 13 vehicles with only Dino still missing in action. He'll probably make it in time for tomorrow's outing. We missed you Dino!! The sand was extremely soft and the edges of the dunes were sharp and unpredictable, as I came to realise very quickly on the very first little dune I crossed. Before I even knew what was happening I had Kaspaas 4 wheels in the air, nose pointing roughly in the direction of Mars. Coming down on the other side was quite a bumpy affair, and the steering damper made contact with the sump. Luckily no serious damage was done, and after a phone call to the guys that know about these things, we could continue.
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At the Badprop I gave the new guys some pointers about tyre pressures and momentum and soon everybody was in and out of the hole kicking up sand along the way. As per usual Bees in his 4x2 was first togo in and once again showed what he and his Hilux are capable of. With the sand being so soft the steeper sides became quite a challenge as there is no real run-up and once you get close to the top there is zero traction, which means if you weren't carrying anough momentum you are going to end up doing a "Meerkat" (popping your head out of the hole).
Ismail dropped in and had some difficulties getting the right line out the hole again, but with some guidance he managed to get a pull-away of note and with a hop, skip and a jump his 4Y (carb-job) at 4000 rev came flying out the top. The size of the smile on his face was undescribable! From there on there was no stopping this fella, he was up and down and revving and spinning tyres and taking on bigger and better challenges all the time! Well done!
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From there we went dune charging. Olaf (JoeyDalton) in his 2.4 N/A Diesel S/C Hilux LWB tried endlessly to make it to the top, but the little diesel just could not get enough oomf together to take it all the way to the top. He was taking longer and longer run-ups, eventually almost ending up at KFC in Malmesbury on the last run. This man is a good sport and he was laughing all the way as he kept on trying. The Energizer Bunny can come take some lessons here.
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At the Horseshoe we did the normal figure-8 running up and down and here Jaco (Turbo) in the Sprinkaan impressed us all with the way he threw the 4Y around the bends and made it all the way to the top. The wind was getting a bit hectic, and I wanted to get all the guys toigether for the lucky draw so we decided to head towards the "Big Dune" where there was some shelter.
I decided that 2 guys had to be rewarded for their guts and the way they approached the day and therefore I called out Olaf and Ismail to come get their prizes for "Deursettingsvermoee"/Tenacity. Well deserved guys
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Everybody went home with a little something at the end of the day, courtesy of Hilux4x4.co.za.
As far as I could tell, everybody had a ball, from Brett's little one on his sand-board all the way to Johan B who never really attempted anything but everytime I saw him he bailed out of a different vehicle! I hope you guys are not as sun-scorched and parched as I am despite applying copious amounts of sun-block, I think is is the wind and the glare from the sand that did it.
Thanks to our sponsors for the hand-outs, and thanks guys, it was a memorable outing.
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PS Please be somewhat patient, I am in the process of resizing and uploading the pics, and will post them as soon as they are up. In the mean time though, please add your comments and pictures so long.
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http://s235.photobucket.com/albums/ee26 ... D_02_2010/