Preamble
Gary and Sandra have been keen photographers for many years and have done various organised photographic trips throughout Africa when they could get breaks from work.
Last year we both decided that we would like to spend more time on our photograph but due to the costs associated with organised photographic safaris, we decided to start venturing on our own. So we decided that we would buy a Landcruiser 78 Wagon, aka Landcruiser Trooper in South Africa. We acquired the vehicle in January 2011 and are goal was to have the vehicle totally configured by March 2011, which is when we had planned a trip to the Kgalagadi.
Our new Landcruiser trooper, which I had named “BB” which was the new number plate’s first two letters which I decided stood for “Bush Bling”, came fitted with two standard fuel tanks holding a capacity of 180 litres. In addition to the already fitted spare wheel we requested a second spare.
Now we were ready to commence with the modification to turn our Trooper into our ultimate photographic vehicle that would take us throughout Africa over the many years to come.
During this time, we were not idle, we had camping stuff to buy, interiors to design and trips to plan.
After having done additional research obtained from various 4X4 publications and “word of mouth” recommendations, the first thing to do was the drawer system. We chose Frontrunner to install the drawer system. This conversion was inclusive of a drawer system that would take nine ammo boxes, a safe, a table, two gas bottle holders, bull bar and winch, rear bumper and space for two spare wheels, snorkel, 90 litre National Luna Fridge/Freezer, 60 litre water tank, seat covers and a dual battery system installed. The back bench seat was removed, so the platform of 1,7m created by the drawer system ensured that there was ample space created for us to use as a photographical platform. The following picture shows the interior before the drawer system was installed.
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| Trooper prior any configuration |
Our next improvement was to get a “game roof hatch” put in the Trooper so that we could pop it open from the inside and use it for our photography. This task was more challenging but we did eventually come across Balley’s. We dropped off our Trooper and one week later collected her with a perfect “game roof” as can be seen in the following picture.
We now needed to have a roof rack fitted on, but this had to be customised due to the “game roof hatch”. We visited Big Country. One week later we collected our Trooper with its customised roof rack on. In addition to the roof rack, “support rails” were fitted onto the roof rack bar, which enables us to clamp on our Wembley heads, which in turn holds our Camera and lens, and four points to fix our flashes on so that we could use the PocketWizards which would allow more movement flexibility as we could now get rid of some cables for the flashes which did help with the rather inclement weather we experienced on the trip.
Our Trooper was really looking the part now. We were now ready to experience our first trip.
TRIP
Left Lonehill at 11h15 after spending 2 ½ hours packing the car for the first time. Our heading was Kuruman via the N14. We experienced many road construction obstacles which probably added on an additional 1 ½ travelling time. We averaged about 100km per hour being loaded and concerned about the potholes and road works. After driving 544 kilometres we reached Red Sands Lodge in Kuruman at 18:00. We were happy with our travelling time considering the road works and the heavily loaded Trooper.
The next morning after a hearty breakfast, we left Red Sands Lodge at 9:00 and headed for Twee Rivieren in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park via Van Zyl Rus. We had spoken to the manager at Red Sands and he had assured us that the route via Van Zylsrus on the R31 was tarred most of the way. So we left the N14 and the route we went was Kuruman, Hotazel, Sonstraal, Van Zylsrus, Askham, Andriesdal and then Twee Rivieren. This journey was some 388 kilometres which took us nearly 5 hours. Unfortunately we again encountered a bit of road works and most of the trip was on untarred road. People think the roads in the Kgalagadi are bad; this was by far the worse piece of road we encountered on the whole trip. Eventually we reached Twee Rivieren at 14:00 and were happy to have arrived after many hours of corrugated driving and various rattling sounds from the Trooper. We put up our tent and enjoyed our well-deserved Gin and Tonics. The following shows our route there which is the blue line and the return trip via Uppington. The return trip was an additional 125km, but ½ an hour less travelling time even with all the road works on the N14 around Katu, due to the condition of the road.
We stayed at Twee Rivieren for two nights. We spent the next two days visiting as much of the park to the west of the route that we would be taking later on in the trip. We also let our tyres down to 1.5 bar, so the roads were not to bad to drive on.
Due to recent rains there was abundant water for the wildlife and we also experienced overcast conditions which in turn did put a damper on our photographic opportunities, but the game hatch was proving a huge success.
On our third day we packed up and made way to Rooiputs on the Botswana side of the Transfrontier Park. This was when we finally encountered some narrow sandy roads. We had never seen the Kalahari Desert so green, even the red sand dunes were mostly covered with grass. We drove some 35 kilometres and after one easy hour’s drive we reached our camping site in Rooiputs. For the Trooper, it was like driving on a tarred road, this car feels like it can go anywhere but the one thing we had to sort out was the rattling of the hi-lift jack!. As it worked out, my husband’s slip slop broke which was immediately cut up and pieces of rubber were then slotted in between the rattling bits of the hi-lift jack. Problem solved!
We stayed at Rooiputs for the next three nights. Despite the fact that we had rain everyday and night making the conditions for photography not great, we were glad to be in the bush and the fact that we were very happy with our Trooper and all its modifications, this far out weighted the rain. As for our camping equipment, we seemed to have planned that very well too. Having nine ammo boxes worked out perfectly. Three boxes were used for 4X4 equipment. The other 6 boxes were sorted by means of breakfast, lunch and dinner food and equipment. This made it easy so that when we needed something it was of easy reach. The 90 litre National Luna fridge/freezer was also a fantastic buy. We had stored food for 7 days and the freezer was only half full. We still had capacity for at least another 5 days. One of the best accessories was the ice tray that allowed us to have ice with our Gin and Tonics everyday!
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| Campsite at Rooiputs |
We got to see Morentoe, an old lion that was on his hind legs walking along the road with a very beautiful lioness that had a fresh scar on the upper part of her front right leg. We asked Rudi (working on the road who was in his third year at Rooiputs! Lucky chap) about the male Lion which he called Morentoe, and he said that he was getting on, and was interested in the wound on the lioness. He surmised that it may have been from a Gemsbok. We also saw Mustafa, a beautiful young male at Kji Kji, which is where he is usually found lying on a dune overseeing his domain.
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| Lion at Rooiputs |
After our third night at Rooiputs were packed up a very wet tent which took about an hour, and left for Polentswa which was 202 kilometres away. The roads were badly corrugated and due to the rains, there were many big puddles of water and/or muddy sections to try out.
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| Gravel road after the rains |
BB of course just drove through everything with no problem. Eventually we came across some German tourists whom got their rented Hyundai sucked into the mud. This was very exciting for us as we could now use the Trooper for its first rescue. We hooked the shock rope up and pulled out the Hyundai with no problem.
After about 3 ½ hours we reached Nossob camp where we filled up one tank of fuel and visited the local shop for some more fire wood. Around 15:00 we reached Polentswa on the Botswana side. Again, another lovely campsite with nice clean facilities. We put up camp and proceeded to do some game viewing.
Unfortunately over the next two days we did not see much game. We heard lions at night and even had “something” steal my husband’s shoe, which we left outside the tent during the night, but we did not see much during the day. On our last afternoon, there was a full rainbow behind our camp site so we decided that would make a great backdrop for our family picture!
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| Rainbow after the storm |
The last night it rained all night and we then decided that we needed to get a real tent when we get back as we had a little stream coming through our tent!. So once again, we packed up a very wet tent, cleaned up the camp site, had one look for the missing shoe, and as my husband’s slop was reengineered as part of the hi lift jack sound proofing, my husband wore my spare slops which was some 4 sizes too small!.
We drove through to Twee Rivieren which took the obligatory 3.5 hours. We filled up with diesel and started the trip home. We had done 1285.2 km in the park trying to find the game, and in fact the last game we saw was in the fridge at Nossob!
Once filled up, we set off for Upington then on to Kuruman which we reached some 5 hours later and stayed for the night. The next day, we drove straight through to Johannesburg and reached home after 5.5 hours having done 3246.3km for our first trip in BB.
Despite the not so great weather conditions which did hinder on our photographs, we enjoyed our trip. Our Trooper configurations were done perfectly and our camping equipment was well planned. We had some work to do on the cameras and how we manage them while taking pictures, and that tent, first on the list. We are now ready to really experience the African Bush in all type of condition.
