READER STORY
Tackling the infamous Van Zyl’s Pass for the first time creates more than its fair share of stress, but that was only the start of a disastrous trip to Kaokoland for Gallie and Liz van Rensburg from Vaaloewer.
When the Van Rensburgs, part of a convoy of three cars, reached the foot of the renowned Van Zyl’s Pass, their levels of excitement and tension were sky high.
They had decided to take on that part of Namibia in Little Suzie, their 15-yearold Isuzu KB280 and a trailer. With them were their friends Hennie and Brenda Beukes from Vaaloewer in a Toyota Hilux 3.0 (double cab) and Johan and Janet Borman from Rustenburg in their 3.0 D-4D Fortuner.
Little did they know they were about to encounter major drama.
Gallie tells us what happened on that fateful trip...
Conquering Van Zyl’s
We finally reach the beginning of Van Zyl’s Pass where Hennie and Brenda offer to take the lead. Johan and I walk ahead to determine the safest line between the stones and rocks, and the Hilux gets through without any difficulty.
Johan and Janet are next and, because their Fortuner is the newest model of the three and therefore equipped with stateof-the-art technology, they get down pretty effortlessly and without any real difficulty.
Then it’s our turn. There are four of us in Little Suzie. My wife, Liz, my daughter, Lindie, Oscar the dog and me. With that trailer on the back of the Isuzu, which has itself seen better days, I almost feels as if I’m driving a tank. In places, I only have three wheels touching the earth and I can easily imagine overturning the vehicle if I make even the smallest movement in my seat. But we finally make it, and an hour or two later, we all successfully make it down the pass.
We enter Koakoland with relief and camp in the dunes in the Hartmann’s Valley where foxes roam. From here, we travel through the Marienfluss and visit the green drum, the orange drum and the blue drum.
On the way to the red drum, we pass an old green hand water pump and I contemplate stopping to see if it
actually pumps water, but decide against it as I don’t want to hold everyone up.
Oh no!
At one stage, we drive through a dry riverbed. As we exit the riverbed, our bakkie slumps to the right... and the next moment we come to a standstill.
We investigate and see one of the U-bolts holding the rear axle to the coil spring on the right-hand side has fallen off, while the other one is clinging onto the spring, but very distorted.
The situation is very clear at a glance: we’re stranded as we don’t have two U-bolts or the tools to fix it. We also don’t have a satellite phone and therefore there’s no way to call for help. We decide to send Hennie and Johan ahead to ask for help at the nearest town.
They get to a petrol station and towing service at Kamanjab, but these guys want R40 000 in cash before they lift a finger. At Opuwu, they find an alternative, but they want R15 000 to come to us to fix the bakkie. Johan decides to accept this quote, but as he only has R4 000 cash with him, he puts it down as a deposit.
The owner confirms they have a 4x4 vehicle, a GPS device and a satellite phone, and that they’ll find us with our GPS coordinates. Our friends leave, believing we’ll join them again within the next day or two.
Shortly before we left South Africa,
I had an awning fitted to Little Suzie and now, stranded in Kaokoland, I am so grateful for that. Our food supply is sufficient, but I’m a little worried about our water situation. In this oppressive heat, we only have enough for three, maybe four days. Fortunately, the solar panels provide electricity to keep the freezer and lights running.
I go for a walk in the surrounding mountains and dry riverbeds and come to the conclusion that lions and leopards roam the area. So, we need to be careful. Especially Lindie and Oscar, who go for a run every morning.
Finding the culprit
It was evening and it was morning. The second day.
I wake up with new resolve. I want to look at the problem, but I also want to convince Lindie not to go for a run. She does, however, and heads to the dry riverbed with Oscar. At least she’s carrying a stun gun for protection.
About half an hour later, she’s back, her eyes as big as saucers. She goes to show me to me the tracks a leopard and her cub left as they walked past – it’s barely 100 m from our campsite.
In the meantime, I get under Little Suzie to investigate. And then I see what’s wrong: the previous owner added two extra leaf springs, but the installer didn’t use longer U-bolts to hold it together. This means that he has only secured 60% of the nut’s length and it makes me mad. Especially as I had the bakkie checked at a well-known national service centre before setting off, and they assured me they had checked every single screw and nut. >
I go for a walk in the surrounding mountains and dry riverbeds and come to the conclusion that lions and leopards roam the area.
Time to make a plan
It was evening and it was morning. The third day.
Lindie went running again. I decide to concentrate today on finding something I can do with my 10 thumbs to save us from this dilemma. I walk back the way we came to the water hand pump. I can see there are two U-bolts holding the steel pipe to the pump. I take them off to see if I can devise a plan to use them.
I use Little Suzie’s tow bar to bend the U-bolts so that they fit on the axle, but then a big problem halts my progress.
The shaft has turned sideways and the coil spring looks about ready to jump out. If I fiddle with it and try fixing it with some wire and something goes wrong, somebody could get badly hurt. Because I have to crawl under the vehicle to get close enough, it means I could lose a finger or even a hand should the coil fly out. And then I’m not even talking about the possible damage to my face. I would still take the chance, but there’s no way I’d take a gamble with my wife and daughter’s safety.
We will just have to endure the heat and stress for a bit longer. But we keep believing our rescue is imminent.
“They’re here!”
It was evening and it was morning. The fourth day.
I get up early and look at the problem again and climb the mountain to look for a piece of wire that might inspire me to have another go at the problem (without alerting the women). But I don’t find anything.
I also see a plane flying high above us and suspect they might have launched a rescue effort to search for us. I wave at the plane, but I don’t get any response.
Our water supply is getting very low, and the ants and insects do everything in their power to steal Oscar’s drinking water and food. We sit on the wheel and spare wheel of the bakkie to steer clear of scorpions and insects.
I think of an article I read about someone who was in the same situation in the desert. Fortunately, he had a satellite phone and could arrange for someone to drop the spare part from a plane. That could have worked for us, but hey.
Lindie climbs back up the mountain in the afternoon and suddenly her screams echo: “They’re here! They’re here! “
We all run up the mountain and, a short while later, a Land Rover stops with two Dutch teachers asking if they can help. We tell them about our dilemma and they decide to set up camp about 50 m from us until help arrives. We give them true South African food and wine, and their presence allows us to relax for a little while before we turn in for the night.
To our rescue
At 1 am, sudden light blinds us as we lie in Little Suzie. Lindie’s jubilant voice wakes up the entire Kaokoland. “They’re here!”
We welcome Johan and Janet in our pyjamas. They’re exhausted and don’t even want coffee. They just recline their seats and say they’ll see us at six o’clock.
Early morning, we wake them up with coffee and rusks. The Dutch also join us to share in our happiness.
Johan brought spare parts and tools, and we get to work. Two hours later, Little Suzie is ready for the road.
Johan and Janet tell us that when they still hadn’t heard from the towing service’s owner after four days, they drove back to hear what was happening. The owner told them he couldn’t locate us and that we were no longer in the same place. What a bunch of rubbish!
I bend the water-pump’s U-bolts back into shape and put them back. So, if you drive past there, think of us. I was also afraid the Namibian police would come looking for me if I didn’t return them.
We go to confront the towing service’s owner. I was pretty hot under the collar as this man put my family’s life at risk. He did not want to admit to anything however and, as all his staff were present, we were in the minority and I have to give up the deposit and leave. He doesn’t have a 4x4 vehicle, satellite phone or a GPS. He simply stole our money.
Nevertheless, we learnt an important lesson with this experience. Even if you have more than two vehicles on such a remote trip, it’s still important to take a satellite phone so you can communicate with the outside world.
We are so grateful for friends like Johan and Janet. They didn’t let anything stop them from coming to our rescue – and travelled alone through those mountain passes at night. Nobody could ask for better friends.