Richtersveld River Trip - 20th to 24th March 2008 A few folk decided to join me for a drive up on Thursday before the official start of the trip on Friday. When I got to the One Stop, I met a few guys that were going woith Bruce on his trip, but as he was late, they set off for their overnight stop near Clanwilliam without him. Soon after, our group was ready to move. With me were George & Susan Warren and their friend Eric, Dave & Nerine Short with the girls Nicole & Ashleigh, Steve & Sue-Anne Edwards and their boys Kyle & James, Ralph & Margaret Eliasov and Edward & Karin Smuts. A quick leg stretch stop at Klawer and then the last fuel & loo stop was at Gries. Here I checked with Roger & Bev French and their boys Michael & David, as they were about 30 minutes behind us. After giving them directions, we set off. From there it was on to the Hondeklip bay road where we all deflated our tyres. I had only been given a waypoint for the overnight stop, and was happy to find it. This was a secret that Greg was not keen to share, and I don't blame him. It was a magic spot. Eventually Roger & Bev arrived, and then about 2 hour's later, Clive and Andy from Greg's group arrived. Some of us tried to stay awake to welcome the rest of Greg's group, but sleep got the better of us. The next morning, I was surprised to see Greg and Hein's cruisers parked on top of the rock. They had the best morning views from up there. After breakfast and a nice warm shower, I was ready to move. We had a quick stop at the prison ruins on Wildeperdhoek Pass and then once more when we stopped to inflate tyres at the N7. Every left to do their own thing with the next meeting at Steinkopf. A few folks were late - Steve had a nightmare time trying to sort out a puncture at Steinkopf and in the end kept his wrinkled tyre as an emergency spare. The rest of the gruop met us here - Darin & Polly Sacker and their son Daniel, Vernon Houston and his daughter Tracy, Gordon & Felicity Ingram, Ryan & Bronwin Hill and their son Ethan and Nic & Jenny Nel. Now the 3 vehicles from Gauteng were with us. After a quick briefing, we were ready to move on. I asked everyone to do part of the trip report, and when I receive that, it will be added. Last words from me. Thanks to everyone on this trip for a great time. Thanks for your patience when I could not find the tracks, and when we could not get down to the river. To the 2 delightful ladies from Kazakstan, thanks for the entertainment. I hope everyone had a great time. Russell   Report by Nicole and Ashleigh (both 17 years old) Day 1 We drove to the One-stop after school and met the core of the group. Then headed for our over night spot off the road. It had a very nice view and we were lucky to have a bright, full moon. We sat at the braai and began to get to know everybody. Day 2 We packed up fairly early because we had a way to drive. On our way to meet more vehicles at Steinkopf , we stopped at a historic prison where we got a premature visit from the Easter bunny, Susan. At Steinkopf we had to wait for a flat tyre repair, that didn't happen. The children amused themselves and "play happy, happy with spray bottle". There was also a random cage with cute bunnies. The convoy traveled to beautiful rock formations at Bakkraans. This was a wonderful photo opportunity. Then we arrived at Teirhoek to spend our second night and ventured into the cave which was very amazing with the light from the moon. Day 3 We had a leisurely morning of packing up and taking photos. During this morning we created "two personas of Kazakhstan". Prostitutes, Katya and Anastasia Tolkschisky. Then we departed and thanked Russell over the radio for "good choice of camping spot. High Five". While traveling we reached a dead end in track and Russell send four young legs to search ahead. We had no success and headed for a longer route around the mountain. We went to Baboon Skull, which was very interesting to see the baboon corpses trapped in the dried-up dam. Then we found a spot to have lunch and "discover kinky new side of Susan (Olga). She shows us her pole dancink skills", Richtersveld style! We drove on to place our artistic skills to a collection of rock towers. This was followed by Peter having a flat tyre, so we waited at the patroglyph rock. After searching for some time we found a perfect spot to camp on the Orange river, chosen by "number one leader in whole of Kazakhstan". We then, covertly, switched the magnetic club emblem onto the Pajero appointing "Georgy and Olga as leader of leisure for next day". Day 4 Russell created an Easter egg hunt for all the little children which gave rise to much screaming and excitement. It was extremely hot, reaching 42 degrees, so everybody swam the whole day and got nicely sun burnt. It was very relaxing not having to drive and everyone enjoyed themselves. Day 5 We got up early and had a relaxing morning packing up, gave thank-you flowers to our leaders and then swam until it was time to leave. We parked off to take a group photo and "drove to burnt paradise and say Dasvidanye". To the number 1 leader, Russel, number 1 leader of leisure, Georgy and number 1 pole-dancer, Olga, we say "HIGH FIVE!!! LOW FIVE!!! baby five!!!" Trip, "very nice!" Nicole and Ashleigh [Katya and Anastasia]   Cape Town to The Rock - by Margaret Eliasov The great trek began @ the Engen garage on the N7 at 12.00pm on Thursday 20th March for those lucky enough to take time off work or those of us old enough to have given it up. We had a pleasant drive to Garies and then onto the dirt road to Soebatsfontein and the search for a particular rock that was to be our camp site. We arrived somewhat late for Sundowners ( a complaint was made immediately to Russell who promised to do better for the rest of the trip). The site was a bit rocky which would not have been a problem except that we "amateur campers" had not closed the valve on the mattress properly and spent an uncomforable night feeling every bump. Greg and co. arrived at our rock at 12.30am and I must compliment them on their quietness setting up for the night because I think I was the only one who heard them (bearing in mind that our mattress had deflated completely by then after which little sleep was achieved in our tent.) To Russell and our fellow campers, thanks for a great and memorable weekend and for the good fellowship.   Cape Town to The Rock - by Edward & Karin Smuts Karin and I are the new kids on the block and with this trip being our first with the club, we waited in excitement at the N7 Engen One Stop Garage for everybody to arrive. Upon meeting Russell and the rest of the group, we set off in search of our mysterious camp site for the night, only known as "The Rock", to a privileged few.. Just before Citrusdal, we caught up with a group of Land Rovers, heading for the Cederberg. Margaret later recognized a certain Ian travelling in a V8 Land Rover that accompanied them on a previous Richterveld trip and immediately introduced herself over the 29 MHz radio. The reply, in contrast to Margaret's perfect English, came in typical friendly "boerseun" Afrikaans, "My $%& tannie! Hoe gaan dit?......" The scenery and landscape started to change gradually as we approached Garies, where after we turned off onto the gravel road to Hondeklip Bay. Soon thereafter we turned north towards Soebatsfontein, to eventually arrive at a delightful camp site (codename.."The Rock") with endless views, situated amongst granite domes. Everybody made themselves comfortable in front of the fire, whilst Russell, like a true lighthouse keeper, signaled a few of the late arrivals home with his torch. To our surprise the following morning, we found that Greg and company has quietly sneaked in at around midnight and made themselves at home on top of one of the granite domes. To Russell and our fellow adventurers, thank you for a well organized, relaxed and most memorable trip. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and will be back for more...   The Rock to Tierhoek via Steinkopf - by Roger French The group that had travelled up on Thursday, made up of the Short, Warren, Edwards and French families together with Russell, left "The Rock" at around 08h00, where we had over-nighted and joined up with Greg's group who arrived in the early hours. We travelled in convoy northwards through the Skilpad and Namaqua National Park via Soebatsfontein out onto the Messelklip Pass. We stopped at the old Stone Prison which is an historic site for a short break and walk around the ruins. We pushed on and rejoined the N7 at Burkes Pass and travelled north through Springbok with some of the party stopping for a bite and some last minute provisions. It turned out that being Good Friday, pretty much the only places open were the Springbok Café and the Spar shop, so the queues for the tills were horrendous!! Eventually we all gathered at the Excel petrol station just outside Steinkopf where we met up with the Sacker, Houston, Eliasov, Smuts families who had left Cape Town in the very early hours of Friday as well as the Ingram's, Hill's and Nel's who had travelled down from the Gauteng area. Once repairs to a puncture were completed and after Russell's welcome and briefing chat, we set off in convoy some time after 13h00 heading for the Port Nolloth turn off about a kilometre further north on the N7. Here we turned off onto the gravel again and stopped to deflate our tyres. After some 70 Kms of fairly good gravel which included driving over the Anenous Pass, we made the turn off north and headed into the beginnings of the Richtersveld!! We travelled on through increasingly desolate and dry terrain with the temperature also increasing. Russell lead us along the roads which after Lekkersing, turned into tracks to the Bakkrans caves situated in a deep poort where we stopped in the cool shade of the caves for a break and a chance for the children in the group to run, stretch legs and explore while some of the adults brewed tea or coffee. We moved on and not too far down the track we started an amazing climb up the spine of a mountain which, apart from being incredibly steep, unusually, had a fall off on both sides of the quite narrow track!! This got the adrenalin pumping especially for some of the passengers!! This section, about 5 Kms, took us just over an hour to cover. Eventually we got to the border of the Richtersveld Conservancy and travelled along this track for some time turning north again and entered the Richtersveld proper!! We travelled on and turned parallel to a range of mountains and eventually arriving as the light was beginning to fade at out stop for the night - Tierhoek [Tierkloof on T4A] Whatever the name, it is a magnificent camping spot, a broad V shape of river bed gravel sheltered by huge rock formations. We all quickly set up ground and roof tents and got the fire going and soon there were a variety of domestic sound, sights and smells. While some were busy stir frying and others concocting an exotic Thai style green curry, yet another family was thawing, smoking and spit braaing a "flatty" chicken in front of a roaring fire. The rest chose to wait while the fire died into hot glowing coals for a braai. Eventually almost everyone was sitting round the fire chatting for some time before drifting off to bed for a good nights sleep. Saturday dawned and the early morning mist and the distant mountains were a picture before the mist "melted" away as the sun rose, giving a warm glow to the rocks of Tierhoek.