Ou Trek Pad - 28th October 2007 We all met at the Swartland One Stop prior to 8.30 am and signed up and were ready to leave by 8.40 am. In total we were 12 vehicles. By 9 am we were at our destination and we assembled at the lapa to be greeted by the farm owner, Nico Stoffberg, and his friendly dog. The farm is roughly 2 km wide by 5 km long. The farmer had recently bought the farm out of his brother's estate and is in the process of restoring the farm due to the neglect because of his brother's illness. A holistic attitude to nature is practiced and the farmer allows nature to look after itself, he leaves the cobras alone as they sort out the field mice. Springbok was reintroduced onto this farm from the bordering Eskom nature reserve (which the farmer's other brother manages). All but 1 of the springbok returned to the Eskom nature reserve by their own choice! Unfortunately the owner has a problem with a local getting full of brandy and then trespassing onto his property at night with a 4x4 equipped with hunting lights and then shooting his fauna. Russell had a quick briefing and we were ready to take on the 30 odd km trail. The weather was pleasant and by 9.30 am it was heating up. Some of use chose to close windows and use the aircon due to the abundance of horse flies in the area. Initially the trail was fairly flat and we were searching for the challenge. We were told that the dunes in this area are not high so the trail has deliberately been designed with a twist at the bottom of each dune to up the challenge. There were a few fairly sandy cross axeled dunes before finding the dune play pit. We had a bit of a coffee break and dune challenge, which was lots of fun. The second part of the trail was the most interesting and challenging relative to what we had seen. The going seemed to be too easy and we tended to drop our guard and suddenly an obstacle would spring upon you and wake you up again! Some obstacles required a second attempt. The last part of the trail crossed a small river twice. The second crossing was by far the most challenging. We all took the chicken route except for Juergen in his Jeep Wrangler. On his fourth attempt he made it over the crest of the mud bank by choosing the correct line and power mix! Well done Jurgen! This was the driving over and we headed to the Lapa to enjoy a braai with complimentary dry wood. We saw tortoise, owls, duiker, heron, ostriches, ...... In my opinion, this trail would be most suitable to new 4x4 owners testing out their vehicles for the first time. This was yet another pleasant day spent with Russell (thanks for that Russell), a fairly easy trail. Greg Bond Smith