Woopsie

Atlantis Dunes Outing

Some pics of a quick fun little outing to the Atlantis Dunes with Craig. his Hilux just got some new mods which needed testing of course...

Cars in the Park

Pepper-Anne is back on the road and shiny as new! She got herself a real Land Rover mechanic and a new carb, and now she purrs (well...almost...loudly shall we say?).
Andrew took her to The Cars in The Park in Pietermartizburg last weekend where she got to play with Kingsley's Landy. Kingsley is of course the Real Landy Mechanic who apparently can fix anything. here are some pictures of them planning their display for the event, in typical boy fashion.

The antics of Pepper-Anne

It seems we have not posted anything up here about Pepper in quite some time, and while it is true that she has been quieter than normal, she has been up to some fun!
In May Pepper took her first journey to the Free State where she did two 4x4 trails - one at Moolmanshoek Game Reserve, and the other called Rebellie, just outside Clarens.
For the full Moolmanshoek story, visit www.atekandy.blogspot.com
Andrew has been a little lazy in writing the Rebellie story, mostly probably because he is still cross with Pepper. She decided that the trail would be a great place to start acting up, specifically her carb, so every incline (and there were a few!) became a nightmare of stalling, screaming and shouting.

Pepper is in her new home at Ladysmith, which is rather cold, but nice for a change of scenery :)

Matroosberg Snow

2 weeks ago on we received an early morning SMS from the farmer at Matroosberg claiming snow on the mountain, as far down as the farmhouse.
We should have dropped what we were doing and driven through then, but instead planned to go the next day (Sunday) with Space! in tow.
Well, about 150 other vehicles had the same idea - seems his SMS database must be huge!
Quite a lot of snow must have melted during the day and night before we arrived, because there was not much snow left on the lower lying ground by the Sunday.
We braved the long, dark and cold drive there - imagine Andrew and I in pants/jeans, with tracksuit pants underneath, 2 pairs of socks, fluffy lined gumboots, about 5 tops with 2 thermal vests, thick tracksuit tops and waterproof thick jackets, beanies, scarves and 2 pairs of gloves each!! We also had a thick blanket in the cab which we used the whole time!
Surprisingly we were not cold on the mountain - the drive there was much worse!
Once we managed to get through the throng of people and up the mountain, it was stop-start a lot of the way as we all snaked our way up the mountain. At some times the mist was so thick you could only see the car in front of you, so you actually had no idea why you were stopping...again...

Here we are, silly monkeys, playing in the snow...


Here is Pepper-Anne playing in the snow


Here are my parents in the snow - she blends in quite nicely.

Atlantis Dunes

You know we cannot resist the dunes at Atlantis! The sun was shining (strange for June) so off we set with Pepper-Anne and her friends.
Adam joined us in his Series 1 and Nick in ....dare I say it?..... a Toyota!

This is what Nick the sometimes snob thinks of series vehicles:



But we all had a lot of fun! Sarah braved Andrew's wild driving excellently but eventually opted out! She drove Adam's vehicle and mastered it in seconds!

Nick is looking a little scared in this one! Although it may have been a reaction to all the chatter on the radio!
Poor little vehicle felt a little naked as her windscreen had been removed so Adam could galvanise the new hooks he had attached to the top for the new canopy. I'm told she looks very cute now with her new canvas top.



And my last comment on this adventure is that Nick's cousin's Land Cruiser broke down half way though the day.
Need I say any more on the subject?

Glen Oaks 4 X 4 Trail

Last weekend we were invited to join a 4x4 outing to Glen Oakes farm just outside Caledon. Don't think they realised what they were getting themselves into inviting crazy strangers like us!

These are all the cars we went with, which was fun for Pepper, because she normally only plays with Space: The Final Frontier, and other Landy's.





We drove up to a mud hole which challenge vehicles had gotten stuck in the week before. Pepper sniffed at the hole but decided to turn around and drive back to the trail. There was a little mud hole on the track which Pepper couldn't resist jumping into, only problem is she couldn't jump out. Charl and his "Jeep" Kaas had to pull Pepper out, which provided a couple of exciting pictures:





Charl looking rather freaked out as his brother-in-law Thomas attempts the next obstacle looking far too relaxed! Pepper decided to follow (push) Kaas into all the obstacles, which presented one or two problems occasionally. Kaas has a brutal-sounding 3.0l Ford V6, front and rear lockers and some decent suspension and tyres. Which means that he is a far more capable vehicle than Pepper, but Pepper being the Landy she is couldn't resist following Kaas everywhere. Which meant that the snatch straps, tow rope and recovery points were well used by the end of the weekend.



Here are Molly (Kaas's mommy) and Andrew playing in the sand



There were a few tricky obstacles where ground clearange and a big engine (and crazy driver) helped!



The manne relaxing after a hard days driving:



As usual, there is a cost associated with playing and this time was no different. Pepper decided to attack an obstacle far too fast, due to the fact that her carb-tappet-crankrod is not working too well. The obstacle won, and Pepper limped off with a cracked chassis. Chassis! But all is well now, and Pepper (the still dirty little girl) is ready and waiting for Sunday's points event.

Go visit this website for more pictures form Glen Oakes - thanks everyone who was intelligent enough to take a camera with them!
Click here

Pulling Out Toyota's

Pepper has not been out much lately, and when she has, there were no cameras around to capture the fun.
Last weekend we went to Melkbos 4X4 track to play a little and Pepper had lots of fun pulling a Toyota out of the sand. It got stuck 5 times in about 200 metres, so she was smiling a great deal! Luckily Andrew had through carefully when packing, and had brought the tow rope for Toyota's specially.

Here is a picture of the friend we would want to buy Pepper if we had the money!
Any donations welcome!



There are also a few new pictures of Cape Town on Pepper's parent's blog -> click on the link to the right.

Well done Pepper-Anne!

Well the computer broke as is to be expected, but preliminary investigations reveal that Pepper might have won (or worst case squeezed for second) at the Cape Land Rover Club points event yesterday.
If you scroll down to a post from May called "The next day" you will see pictures from our previous trip to the sand farm in Phillipi.
The terrain was much the same, but the obstacles were nicely set out, quite long and windy, and lots of fun!
Of course it helped that the course marshal Patrick set out the course in a 90 Defender. Wonderful to see the long wheel bases struggling for a change!
Two very surprising points to note, much to Pepper's glee: Andrew didn't get her stuck, and didn't cover her tummy in mud!

The Lost City

Pepper decided that a visit to the Atlantis Dunes was in order, seeing as that she has not been out to play for a very long time. Andrew invited ALL Pepper's friends, but as usual Space! was the only one who came along. I don't know what everyone else was afraid of: this is the view one sees as one drives into the dunes:



Yes, that is what it looks like, white white white everywhere.

It is very pretty and if you get there early enough then there are no tracks and you get to drive over virgin sand. By the end of the day there are tracks everywhere, but the next day it is all back to pure whiteness again.




This the view from one of the big dunes, with Table Mountain and Koeberg in the distance, and a very cute car on the right. There is a little hole to the front right of Pepper, she kept falling in but fortunately never had to be pulled out. I don't know what that thing on the left is.



Here is a pretty picture of a pretty car and all the aforementioned tracks. You can almost see the pretty drivers whose birthday it is soon.



This is Space! struggling up a little hill climb, which necessitated a little diff-lock use, after some reminding that the car had a diff-lock. Pepper unfortunately never made it up the hill, she was too embarrassed to try again and again and again...





This is Pepper driving between some flowery dunes, things got a bit scary when Andrew decided to go bundu bashing, but that can be left for another post.



Here is Space! and Pepper all ready to go home. Bye now: