Richtersveld June 2005 I was keen on a short outing to somewhere remote and asked Greg if I could join him on this outing to the southern Richtersveld. As it turned out Greg could not go and asked me to lead the trip. I have been to the Eksteenfontein area a number of times, but had never done the area between Kuboes and Eksteenfontein. A quick lunch meeting with Greg the week before and armed with maps plus two of Greg's GPS units loaded with the waypoints I was prepared to travel the unknown! I arranged for the group to meet me at the Springbok cafe at 13h00 on Thursday 16th June. On a good sunny afternoon we met, the group consisting of: Myself + an old schoolfriend Loekie La Grange in my Land Cruiser Karen + Sam Millar in their very well kitted Nissan Patrol they brought from Australia Peter Burger and Fred Kennedy in Peter's Hi Lux KZTE double cab Ewold and Ruth von Killian in their short wheelbase Nissan Terranos The von Killian's had an unfair headstart on all of us as they had already spent a week up in Namakwaland, visiting Pella etc. They were relaxed and ready for more. After some coffee and last minute shopping and filling of fuel tanks we started travelling in convoy, towards Steinkopf where we turned west and then after a while northwards again to Lekkersing. Once there we did a short tour of the town and we where on our way again to our first night camping spot in the veld. We reached a beautiful camping spot with a sheltered rock overhang above the braai area at about 17h00. The wind was unpleasant, but we quickly pitched the tents and settled down to what normally is one of the high points on any trip. A good campfire, wine, food and interesting company and the weariness of travelling all day was soon forgotten. The next day we travelled via backroads and tracks towards Kuboes. After lunch, yours truly and his navigating passenger were a bit too confident and the result was we had to backtrack for half an hour. Red faced we found the right track again and we were on our way to Kuboes. The veld was beautiful after good rains in the preceding weeks/months and in fact the normally dust blown area around Kuboes was green as far as the eye could see, covered by millions and millions of small succulent plants. After much waving and nodding as we travelled slowly through Kuboes we took a dirt track into the mountains, where after a bit of scouting we found a suitable camping spot. A quick shower for most of us (I had a cold one under a thorn tree, Karen and Sam had a hot water shower in an annex to their huge fold out rooftop tent. The Australians like their comfort!) Again the evening "kuier" was succesful, Fred and Peter tucking into some huge steaks they had expertly braaied over the coals, the rest of us enjoying a variety of meals from chicken curry, risotto to chops and wors, all washed down with lots of wine. (This bush travelling is hard, I could definitely keep this up for a considerable time!) Next day saw us heading into the mountains, traversing a little used track that seemed to climb endlessly. If I remember correctly we climbed more than a 1000 metres. In some places the track was rough, but all the cars made it without damage by taking due care. The views were incredible and this is one of best tracks I have ever done in the Richtersveld area. We travelled along the park boundary high up in the mountains, although there is no fence, we could see this from our GPS readings on the map. In the afternoon we started descending and down in the valley came across signs of human activity again. Fences, shepherd's shelters and concrete water reservoirs. One of these, now empty, sadly had the remains of a number of baboons that had drowned. Time was now catching up with us and after a quick meeting, we decided to give the handbuilt pass from where we were over the Stinkfontein mountains to Eksteenfontein a miss and rather travel down the valley along the banks of the little river. Although this track is marked it is little used and on a number of occasions I had to use my imagination to find the tracks. Just before we reached the gravel road a call came from Sam over the radio that he had a flat tyre. A quick tyre change and now we were travelling in the dark to Eksteenfontein. From there over what must be one of the most corrugated roads in SA we travelled down to the Gariep (Orange) river to find some grass covered camping spots on the river bank. We pitched tents in the dark and within minutes had the fire going. Next morning we arose to the sight of beautiful rock faces and the serenity of the river running through this arid landscape. Unfortunately all good things come to an end, after packing and saying goodbye to our fellow travellers we were on our way home, physically tired, but mentally refreshed. Jurie Schuurman