They say, whoever “they” may, but they say that if you never get stuck, you have never tried hard enough. Well, I and many others, whom we have stumbled on our tours, did try to get ourselves temporarily immobilized.

A long time ago, an old Kalahari farmer once said, the heaviest load into the Kalahari, is hard tyres.

 

Ze French Family

Some time ago, we went from South Camp in Nxai Nxai pans to Baine’s Baobabs. On one point off this route, you go through a long tree line but that portion of the track is very thick soft sand.

In this trap is a small Land Rover pulling a trailer that is as big as the Land Rover itself. Both sides of the trap 4 x 4’s were parked waiting for the Land Rover.

So there is the Land Rover with a trailer, the mother and son on the outside, putting the floor mats underneath the wheels and digging the sand from the front of the tyres. T

he Rover only goes forward over the flooring and gets stuck again. And you start to smell the clutch. This was going on for a while. For a long while.

 

Eventually, I see that no one closer to them will help them. So I went over and asked if I could assist them. The French family was by now tired and sweating a lot.

Yes, please help! First, the tyre pressure was at 2,9 bar and it was in Low gear first. I deflated all the tyres and that of the trailer. Do you mind if I drive it out?

Yes please do! Which I did and then everyone can go happily where they wanted to be.

 

Ze German Couple

Again in the Nxai Nxai pans on another tour we were driving down to the Bain’s Baobabs one afternoon and met a German couple seriously stuck in the sand with their rental short of the turn-off to Baine’s Baobabs.

They were complaining that the Nissan was a piece of junk as they really wanted a Toyota.

I deflated the tyres as it was 2,7 and asked if I could drive it out for them. My brother-in-law offered his sand tracks and we drove it out with ease.

Told the guy to continue driving, but to unlock the diff lock and drive in 4×4 High. That evening we met the couple in the camp and asked how it went from there.

She said, oh wow, he drove like a god!

 

Happy Getting Stuck

I once led a group of friends into the Moremi as I had been there before and most of us were pulling trailers or off-road caravans.

We were routing from Xaxanaxa but, just short of Third Bridge, an elephant did a nasty trick by pushing a tree over the very thick sand spoor. I stopped, a bit too abruptly, to assess the situation.

OK, we have to go this way. Box, our name for our vehicle, decided, mmm, this is a nice spot to park in the shade. Stuck! We got out to see why. I did a slight dancing movement, yeay, I got myself stuck!! 

Then why are you so elated, they asked. Because I have not got stuck in the sand for decades!! What normally happens, is one may deflate your tyres to 1 bar early in the morning,

but as the day progresses, the heat in the tyres builds up. Later you will find them at 1,5 bar or even higher. This is what happened here as well. Suddenly everyone jumped out and started to deflate. 

I too deflated my tyres, used a spade to take away excess sand in front of the wheels and then extricated our trusted steed with trailer in tow, out of the sand.

 

 

The Daring Couple

Another time we were doing the Bodumatau route in the Moremi. At one of the water crossing, we all went through a shallow crossing. But one daring couple decided they wanted a more spectacular route.

They got bogged down solidly on the vehicle’s chassis as the centre of the track was too high. We all jumped to assist and everyone had an opinion on what to use.

After a big discussion and gesticulations, my brother-in-law won and we used his sand tracks. We pushed the sand tracks in as deep as we could underneath the rear tyres and they got unstuck with ease.

Sand tracks to the rescue again!

 

River Crossing Gone Wrong

One day I want to show my beloved the beautiful Gysmanshoek pass near Heidelberg. It will be just a quick day trip. But the week before, it rained quite a lot in that area. 

Thus we came to a low water bridge where the other side of the bridge was washed away. No worries, we will cross then next to the bridge through the river.

The missus gallantly fords the river on foot. It looks pretty shallow and at the last bit, she jumped onto the steep sandbank, waiting for us to cross behind her in our steed. 

The fording was easy until that bit she jumped onto the sandbank, “That bit” was a very deep trough. The front wheels go into the trough and the front bumper helps itself to some sand on the other side which is a bit too steep.

 

 

Bridge to one side, a big treestump on the other side, make for no manoeuvring space. The only way is reverse which brought its own challenge. The rear of the car banged into the riverside.

We can move forward and backward in the river but not out. By this time we have quite an audience of local children sitting on the side of the riverbank watching the spectacle playing itself out.

Off goes my jeans and shoes. The audience was really getting their “money” worth. A mid-50s guy, a bit overweight, in his underpants, carrying rocks and with a shovel trying to make the other side of the bank less steep.

Eventually, we extricated ourselves to a big applause.

 

Stuck On a Little Rock

The region of Pella and the Orange River is a beautiful area with lots of tracks, new and old. One of them runs from Klein Pella farm to the Pella mission, called Lelik Pad.

Somewhere in the middle, is a turn-off where the old route used to be. Our route on this “old’ track, takes you to a place where you have to enter a riverbed with a steep bank.

But today, this bank is a short cliff. We walked around to find a better one. As we entered, I noticed one little rock in the riverbed I needed to miss. Which I did not.

 

The right rear shock absorber attachment found this little rock and beached itself. Whatever I tried, low gear, diff locks, she just spun the wheels and pivoted a bit.

And there is no one for miles!! Out comes the bottle jack. Too big to fit, use a smaller one to make space for the bigger one. We got it off the rock ever so slightly.

With the bottle jack still lifting up the Land Cruiser, I drove off the rock! Phew!! We retrieved the jack out of the sand and continued further with no problems.

 

The Bogged Down Italians

On our last sunset drive, before we left the Moremi, we saw 2 men standing on the other side of the Khwai River. Their rented Land Cruiser is parked nose down a bank about to enter the water.

We waved to them and they waved frantically back. There must be a problem with the way they waved at us. We could not drive to them as their car was parked on the water crossing track,

other side of the river with steep banks on both sides of the track. The only way was to walk through the river. By walking a river crossing, one can also “feel” the crossing point, the bottom, the depth and how to drive the crossing.

I noticed there is a way to climb up one of the sides but it is going to be a bit of a challenge. The rental of the 2 Italian men is properly stuck. Unfortunately, the diff locks on the rental appear to be shot.

 

I walked across again to get mine. Halfway into my crossing on foot, there arrives a safari vehicle with tourists on the back. The driver asked me how they were going to cross with that car “parked” on the track.

I showed him where to get out of the track but to keep this way before you turn. He followed the first part of my suggestion but turned too quickly. The safari vehicle’s rear wheel fell back into the track of the steep side, listing heavily to the side. Lots of scared alarmed calls emanated from the safari vehicle. But the guide reversed back into the track and got out as per the first instruction. 

  

I crossed the river and embankment and stopped behind the stuck Land Cruiser.  After my “safety talk” to the Italians about what to expect and how to get them out, they suddenly turned to my wife, pointing to her, you drive.

What? Me? It is your rental! No, you drive, we don’t know how. OK then! As my wife also has not done this type of thing, I gave her the “safety talk”. You had to climb down into the Cruiser as the bank was steep.

With the second pull, we got the Cruiser out of its predicament. She was solidly stuck as one can now see where the rear diff made an imprint in the mud.

 

But wait, there is more. No, they don’t want to drive through, we must.  After crossing the river, I have to ford back again for the fourth time, leaving their car now on the far side.

We watch them as they also now have to walk through the river. It was like a scene from The Odd Couple, two old men with lily white legs sticking out below their pulled-up pants.

 

 

Too Lazy To Deflate

On this adventure, we travelled on the dreaded A35 west up the Kavango panhandle. It started as a nice tar road and we were wondering where this so-called potholed part of the road is.

But soon we experience it. It was bad! Very bad! Parts of the tar on the road were trying to keep the potholes hardly together. Later on, the tar just gave up and they became huge.

If a small car goes into them, we will pass over the car, not even noticing them. Cars, buses and trucks were weaving all over the road. In most parts of the road, one proceeds next to it.

Eventually, we turn off to Guma Lagoon. The track appears to not be too bad. Later it is a bit sandy. Twice on the road, there is a sign that says, please deflate tyres.  

But it is hot and it is not that far to go. So, I did not deflate the tyres. Here and there we nearly got stuck but we soldier gallantly onwards.

 

At the gate, the guy said that our car with the caravan is too big and we have to take the track that goes to the left and then round some trees. So, we turned off where he said and went round some trees.

Wrong trees, wrong track and we bent ourselves around the little tree island. The sand was very soft and we got ourselves solidly stuck, in the sand and into the steep side of the treeline.

The only way is to reverse out…with the caravan. First, we deflate all 6 tyres (Cruiser and caravan) to 1 bar. Some shovelling is needed and the sand-tracks under the tyres.

With a short reverse and lots of grunts and engine revving, we pull our little pantechnicon free of our sandpit and drive to the campsite.

 

The next morning we drive to Tsodilo Hills and we inflate the tyres. No worries in the sand.  When we returned in the afternoon, no problem again.  

That following morning we hooked up our caravan and set course. Earlier a big 4X4 truck used the track ahead of us. We followed that track through the sand.

Again, wrong track. The truck’s wheelbase is far wider than my trusted steed and the sand is getting softer and softer and stuck. We got out and saw, oh, there is the route we were supposed to take.

But to get there… again deflated all 6 tyres, a bit of shovelling, the sand tracks, a lot of humour and laughter, we pulled ourselves to the correct track after extricating ourselves three times.