1 March 2020
A beautiful summer’s day in Grabouw saw 10 vehicles and their eager occupants meeting at the Grabouw Country Club for a day of fun on the 4×4 trail!
Once the admin issues had been taken care of and the tyres deflated, we all enthusiastically set off, with Andy leading the troupe, into the beautiful countryside with the dam setting the backdrop to our day’s adventure.
Confusion quickly set in by the time we got to the first trail markers – an arrow pointing left and next to it an arrow pointing right! Mmmmmm…. which way to go? One of the drivers, trying to be helpful, pointed out that the manager at the country club had mentioned that the right arrows meant an easier trail and the arrows to the left meant a harder track. Well, with no other option, we decided to use this as a given and took the track to the right. Hilton and Laurence decided to be different and took the track to the left. We met up further along the track with Hilton being of the opinion that the track he had taken was a walk in the park.
Further along, there was a more technical ascent, and which most of the convoy decided to avoid and use the bypass. Dieter and Liechen, in their Landy, and Hilton and Mel, in their Cruiser decided they needed a bit more adrenaline than the rest of us and the challenge was on! Until they met their match of a big rock in the middle of the road! Not at all deterred, this challenge was met with steely resolve and both emerged relatively unscathed! Christoph also decided to tackle this more technical ascent, but very wisely took the bypass so as not to encounter the road-rock. The convoy eventually met up and took some time out to socialise, relive the road-rock experience and socialise with fellow members.
We proceeded along the track enjoying the beautiful views and the banter over the 29 Mhz radios. After a hairy technical descent (well, maybe not for driver Andy with nerves of steel, but definitely his wife J ) and some help given with wheel placement to the rest of the convoy, we very confusingly arrived back at the spot where we had departed the side-by-side left and right arrows. Andy was of the opinion that we had gone wrong somewhere as we appeared to have missed out a large portion of the trail (due to the fact that the trail was poorly marked in places).
After a phone call to the manager at the country club, we proceeded on in pursuit of the waterfalls to have a cooling dip and a picnic lunch. Once again, we came upon an arrow to the left and an arrow to the right, the repetition of which was beginning to frustrate us a little! Luckily, just at that point, the manager phoned us back to check if we had come right and Andy was able to ask which way we should take. In this case, it was easily established that the arrow to the left was the harder track and the arrow to the right was the easier one. With sighs of relief, we proceeded to the right (of course, Hilton went left!) and eventually turned off to the signs indicating the way to the waterfalls.
We parked our vehicles and after a short walk to the waterfall and a beautiful icy tea-coloured pool in which we gratefully dipped (not Hilton, big wuss!), we took time out for lunch as some members of the convoy were allegedly…. starving (Corne, follow my eyes!).
After an enjoyable picnic lunch, we proceeded along the track, this time with Saul as leader as his vehicle was at the front of the convoy.
We meandered, enjoying the drive and without incident, along the rest of the track until we got to the “Exit” sign and then proceeded out of the gate whereupon we all said our goodbyes, everyone well satisfied with a superb day’s outing of enjoying the views and the fellowship of our club comrades.
Thanks to everyone who attended today’s outing and made it a huge success. I sincerely hope to see some of the more elusive members on one of the next outings!