Dear Members As usual there is lots of news from the last 31 days. The October News was put directly on the website so you need to check the website at least once a week. As you have noticed from the emails there is still a lot happening and the one thing I am very excited about is the connection with our new sister club in Tasmania (see below), I think this is going to give us some great exposure and we are hoping to link up with similar clubs on each continent. Our tenth anniversary get together at the Gariep Dam near Colesburg over the long weekend 1st May 2008 is going to be great. I have ten vehicles from Cape Town and Alan has a group from Gauteng. We are aiming for at least 20 families from each club and a great weekend of fun. The venue has been booked and is reachable by 4x4 or your car and we are busy planning lots of fun activities, tours, game drives, etc. for the four days. Alan and I have a lot of prizes for our tenth anniversary and decided to rather use them at the Gariep event than hand them out at local meetings...so it will be in your interest to get there. We are having a committee team building event and brain storming session in January and will give you feedback and a programme for 2008 after that. Thank you for all your support during the year and we hope you have had as much fun as we have had. Greg   What we have done Since the 8th of January 2007 we have advertised and/or run the following outings: Midweek Madness January Boegoeberg Richtersveld Lamberts Bay Dunes Valentines Party Botswana/Namibia Botswana Diamond West Coast Malgas Fishing Weekend 24 Rivers Hike Midweek Madness February Bird Watching/Camping Trip Zimbabwe Long Haul Kruger National Park trip 4x4 Breakfast Run Riebeeck West Midweek Madness March Klein Tafelberg Bush Medical Course Club Meeting Zimbabwe Longhaul #2 Midweek Madness April Pella Trip Club Picnic Elands Bay trip Sushi Social GPS Run Midweek Madness May 15 Passes Angola Coffee evening Evening with Boland Eco Fours June social evening Photographic Competition Midweek Madness July Technical Driving Day Destination Unknown Adventure Karoo National Park Wild Flower Weekend trip Wild Flower Day Trip Bojaanskop Matroosberg Trip Mont Eco Frans's Kalahari Trip Prawn evening in Simons Town Club meeting Comms and coffee evening Kruger Park trip Ou Trekpad Atlantis Dunes GPS Course for members 10th anniversary trip 2008 Richtersveld 2008 End of year function Mozambique 2008 Luiperdskloof Midweek Madness Nov   Interest Groups - Bike Group Cederberg Ride Paarl Ride Franschoek Ride Moorreesburg/Darling Malmsbury/Riebeeck West Laaiplek Ride Muldersvlei breakfast Run Zonkwasdrift Ride Atlantis Riebeeck West Elands Bay GPS route planning Moorreesberg Breakfast Ride West Coast Ride Cederberg Ride West Coast Witsand Genadendal Sutherland   Interest Groups - Photographic Group Meetings every month   Welcome to our newest members: John McGahey Stephen and Linda Knoetze Roy and Maureen Bane Darin and Polly Sacker Charl and Ronel Laas Jurgen and Michelle Steinicke Werner and Irna Lotter Dave and Judy Pretorius Ian and Karin Theron Jeanne and Silvana van Jaarsveldt (transfer from Gauteng) Jorg and Rochelle Mauderer Mark Botha Jean De Villiers Dolf Laas Leon Rost   4x4 News Brief NB NB NB I use a number of groupings for my emails and so I need to know if you never received the 4x4 News Brief so that I can add you onto the relevant list. Please let me know soonest and then I can send the 4x4 News Brief to you.   Deon's new 4x4 Congratulations to Deon on the purchase of his Cruiser bakkie. He flew up to Bloemfontein to collect it this morning. We hope you have lots of trouble free kilometers in your new "baby".   Bradden 4x4 Club in Tasmania We have made contact with a great club in Tasmania Australia and have set up "sister" status with them. This means that if they venture to South Africa they will be guest members here and they will join us on outings, etc. and visa versa. Have a look at their website http://www.braddon4wd.asn.au:80/ We are busy talking to a number of 4x4 clubs in many different countries to set up similar relationships and believe that this will mean that your visit to another country will be a lot more fun and exciting as well as creating opportunities for new friendships. Once this is set up we will look at the possibility of a 4x4 Offroad Adventure Club visit to do some international 4x4'ing.   Christmas party After my motivational email "Not Good Enough" the participation grew from 31 members to over 100 members..thanks. Susan found us a nice venue and we have managed to get the company that did the Spitbraai last year to "cook" for us again this year..so it should be awesome. I will be visiting the site with Russell in the next week or two and will then send you a map and directions. There is the opportunity to sleep over, but at R50 per person (adult or child) I think it is a bit expensive.   Team Building by Sandboarding One of our members, Morne Stevens has started a new venture ... sandboarding in Atlantis dunes. This is an interesting experience and can be done as a family bonding "thing", team building for work, group of friends or anyway you like. Here is the link to his sandboarding website: http://ladybirdfilms.biz/sandboarding/ There is also a forum to discuss latest Sandboarding outings and share photos and videos: http://ladybirdfilms.biz/forum/index.php Email him for more info - Morne at morne.stevens@gmail.com   Atlantis We had a great outing to Atlantis, lots of new faces and fun was had by all. Hein has a passion for the dunes and it is always nice seeing that enthusiasm being transferred to the new comers to sand and dune riding. Hein chatted to me yesterday and has offered to take a "small" group of club members that are new to sand and dune driving to the Atlantis and teach them how to drive in those conditions. If you are interested let me know and I will set it up.   Richtersveld 2008 This was a surprise. I had two bookings from this year and a few enquiries so I sent out the email. Wow twenty nine people booked in the first few days. It will work as follows: We limit the number of vehicles to ten per guide (currently there are two of us) so that means 20 vehicles. If I get a third guide then we can take 30 vehicles but do not count on it at this stage. The last nine people are on a waiting list and as soon as payments are due, in January, we will finalise the list as I am sure some folks will cancel I am sure we will be able to accomodate everyone. There has been a demand to be in my group. At this stage I am taking some folks from our Gauteng branch in my group as well as Morne (he booked in March this year) and the rest of the places will be allocated nearer the time. My group will leave in the evening and get to a bush camp at around midnight we will then explore the next morning at get to Springbok at about noon (Friday). The folks who could not leave on Thursday evening will join us here and the groups will be split and reallocated here. Russel, the other guide has suggested that we try and spend one night together somewhere. We will see if we can find a spot and see if this will work. There is one rule though....the area we are visiting is a pure wilderness area and is visited by nobody except us. You will each have to sign an agreement that no coordinates, tracks or information pertaining to this trip will be forwarded to any forum, mapping group, T4A, Garmap or anybody else. If this is done your membership will be cancelled immediately.   Treetop recce Ian and Veronica took a small group to recce this venue. Treetops near Citrusdal is a romantic weekend getaway that is booked 12 months in advance and is not a 4x4 outing. A small group can be accomodated in tents (treehouses) which are built between the trees. After the recce group ..... we will wait for the Treetop babies...heehee.   Lots of new members As you can see from the list above we have had an influx of new members. Welcome to all of you and please remember that you have to get involved to become part of the club, the sooner the better. There are lots of activities and you should not get bored. The offer is still there to all members..get three members to join and you get the following years membership for free.   Any ideas....... If you have any ideas about anything, want to get involved, want something new, want to visit a place that is not on the programme or ANYTHING else then please email me and I will see what we can do. I think we have created a great base from which to work and with our ten year birthday around the corner we can only do better.   Members Page Come on members....send your details and a family photo to Russell for inclusion on the members page. russdewet@icon.co.za   Website Sponsors. Please support the website sponsors. They sponsors have all been selected by us and give great service