Matroosberg 4x4
Hi Jeep Club Members
Trip Report written by : Stephen Geldenhuys
Hi Everyone - Craig asked me to write a trip report - so here it is. Sorry if its too long, too short, full of grammatical errors, or just downright boring. Blame Craig if this is the case!
At 8am on Sunday morning we pulled into the ENGEN garage on the N1. A few other jeeps where already waiting. This was my third trip with the Jeep Club - so I was looking forward to another awesome adventure. I decided to invite my father and brother (my father drives a Ford Ranger, and my brother a Freelander - so I figured it was time that they see how the jeep guys do it ) , my adventurous wife , Bianca, also came along.
After a quick cup of coffee we headed of to Matroosberg, driving in convoy. It's a beautiful drive - and the mountains looked stunning in the early morning as we came up to the tunnel. In total we where 9 jeeps -
1st - Ian Newton - Green wrangler 2dr
2nd - Jurgen Hontsch - Silver Cherokee
3rd - Paul Lipari - Green XJ
4th - Reagan Anderson - Craig Parsons - Orange Wrangler Unlimited
5th - Vaughan Deyzel - Green Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited
6th - Maurice Paliaga - Black Rubicon Wrangler 2dr
7th - Herman van Niekerk Blue wrangler 2dr
8th - Myself Black Wrangler 2dr
9th - Bes Bezuidenhout - Commander 5.7
We cruised over the Du Toitskloof pass and then on to Wochester. Through to Ceres and on to the Matroosberg mountains.
On arrival we did all the basic checks and changed our tyre pressure , signed the indemnity forms and got going! Just to break away from the subject a little - they basically get you to sign a indemnity form because of the fatalities that occur on the mountain.. I was conveniently informed of this when I was already half way up the mountain. Thanks Craig. When signing it I thought its a pure formality, but turns out its a big risk factor and even last year they had a fatality.They want to make sure you don't come back from the dead and sue them .
So - we where off! The trail starts of with a little winding gravel road but quickly gets quite steep as you hit the base of the mountain. I switched over to low range - and basically just crawled along with the convoy up to what they call Landrover Hill (I can only assume that is where they normally leave the broken down landrovers). I told this to my brother and he wasn't very impressed.
From there it keeps getting steeper , and there are a lot more bigger rocks in the trail. The views as you climb are quite spectacular - and even though we weren't very high yet , we where climbing at quite a fast rate - and you can see the valley and sheer rock cliffs as you slowly climb. Not too long after Landy Hill. . . the guys in front of me stopped - I got out to find out whats cooking... only to find out that something was really cooking and that Herman was smelling something burning in his jeep. My brother relished the opportunity to to inform me that apparently jeeps don't make it much higher up than land rovers it seems. To everybody's relief Herman discovered it was his fridge that was shorting out a fuse. So we where off again.
We continued to climb quite steeply from here on till a point where the trail turns and almost runs along the mountain as opposed to straight up it. It continues to climb but at a lot less severe angle. At this point , my father and brother thought it was all quite extreme - little did any of us know what was to come.
We carried on at a slow pace - and finally came to a place called Groothoekkloof. Theres a nice clearing and we all stopped to take a break. Walking to the edge I realized that there is a sheer drop and cannot even try to estimate how far you would fall if you where to slip down there. For a second there I actually felt a sense of vertigo as I realized I am standing on this precipice.To say the least - the view is unbelievable and when you shout you get an amazing echo that bounce back. As you stand there you can see eagles flying below you and mountains stretching out for miles. This is the spot where most of the deaths happen - people get a little too relaxed , stand close to the edge and slip.
I figured this is where we would be having lunch. But no, we decided to head on a bit higher - and then have lunch about 30 minutes later. Up to this point the trail really isnt a big deal - theres some steep climbs and thats about it. But from this point on the trails difficulty level definitely goes up a notch. As we started off again we immediately got into much more rugged terrain and a steep climb with lots more loose rocks. Some big dips and boulders lying around. At the top of the next plato you get a type of T junction where you can either go right to the highest point in the mountain or left on a circular trail. We headed left.
Here it evens out a little and basically you're almost driving on type of a plato and driving along the top of the mountain. On both my left and right side we had amazing views stretching for probably over 200kms. The air is also wonderfully fresh. In a way the landscape started to change here quite dramatically - where before there was a lot of plant growth - here its mostly very low growing little hardy plants and these big rocks and boulders everywhere. In a way it almost feels like a type of lunar landscape or something. Its quite hard to explain.
So we headed on - the trail getting ever rougher . At this point we got to some fairly technical rocks that we had to scale and we all crawled over them nice and slowly.
We stopped to have lunch - which by this time was quite welcome as we had already been driving for about 3 hours. Our progress had been really slow - and although Bes Bezuidenhout would disagree - at that point we had done about 7.5 kms only. After taking a 10 minute break and wolfing down some food - i took a stroll around to check out the place.
As I came around a massive boulder I found some of the guys already piling rocks . At first I really didnt comprehend what was going on - because they where piling rocks on a seriously angry looking pile of other rocks. Its very steep and basically runs in between and up these 2 massive boulders. At first I thought that Ian was just going to try and get to the top of this crazy angry pile of rocks and then somehow come around again and join the rest of us. This was not the case - this was basically the gateway to the rest of the trail - and if you didnt want to go up - you would have to take the escape route which we already passed .
A weird nervous murmur went through all the drivers (well... ok maybe just me) But it seemed that everybody was checking out this situation quite carefully - and already thinking - "Am I going to do it, or take the escape route" ... "Am I going to risk it .."
Finally we stacked enough angry rocks on the other angry rocks and Ian got going. At first he struggled a little to get his line right , and we also found a few more places that needed some rocks - so we piled them in. But then after a few minutes his Tj got traction and he clawed his way up very smartly. All to the cheer of everybody there. Actually thinking back to it - he made it look really easy.
Then it was Jurgen turn. To be honest - I really thought that Jurgen would take the escape route - just purely because his jeep is not that high off the ground and don't have big 33 / 35 inch tyres on it. But, I obviously don't know Jurgen well at all because he charged those rocks like a man on a mission. His silver cherokee did take a bit of time to get grip and find a line where he cleared all the rocks - but amazingly when it got traction it just powered up there... I think this was the point when most of the rest of us where like - look if Jurgens gonna do it with his almost stock Cherokee- then we sure as hell can't back down !
So we started going one by one. Paul decimated the climb with ease, Reagan took the escape route, Vaughan took a perfect line and made it look like childs play, Maurice also crawled up fairly easily , Herman took the escape route, Bes charged the climb with his Commander - which weighs like 3 tons or something - and made it to the top without a problem.
Then it was my turn. I had a plan - I knew what line to take, I knew I had to just ease my foot on the petrol and keep it steady. I was ready! I got my jeep and started up the incline - craig was giving directions to everybody from the top and shouting "left, straight , right! " I got going , as I got about half quarter of the way up - I felt myself loosing traction. Started sliding back . Tried again . Crept up a little but then started spinning again. The tyres spinning on the rock and rock parts being flung everywhere. I finally realized why it would be wonderful for my 2003 tj to have diff locks! Another slight problem I have is that I don't have the ability to ease my foot onto the accelerator ... yeah... enough about that. So , I changed my line, gave it some gas - well actually a lot of gas and it gripped. All of a sudden the jeep launched forward and I was bronco-busting my way up. Bouncing over the rocks and powering forward . Next thing I know I am near the top and in between the blur of going past Craig , and rocks flying and tyres crunching , I remember thinking "oh s!@$ , both my front tyres are off the ground!" Video footage I reviewed later revealed this to be true. And then through the dust and the noise of people shouting I was at the top . I was breathing heavy and shaking from the adrenaline! Such a awesome rush.
In hind sight the line I took was wrong, my control of my accelerator sucked , and overall it was not very pretty - but even so - it felt so goooooood to get to the top. By far the most extreme 4x4ing have done to date. (even more extreme than when I got stuck in that river bed with the water up to my door handles there in Melkbos!)
We all took a few minutes to recompose, change our underpants , drink some refreshments and then we started off again. I am going to cut this a little short now for the sake of not going into too much detail - but basically from this point forward the trail is just a whole different beast. There is hardly a trail road - and you are basically just going over rocks and boulders. The views are beyond epic and really can't be described. The driving - extremely technical, needs high level of focus , and unbelievably fun.
You then drive through a place called "Die Poort" basically a narrow gap between two huge boulders that form a type of corridor. From there you actually start going down a little and this part of the route is really quite rough. There is one specific drop thats probably about 4ft high or so thats really steep. When going down it really does feel like you might flip forward or something.
And so it went on until we got back to the original T-junction where we turned left. At that stage it was already 6pm - and I measured we had only done about 12.5 kms!! So that should give you the idea of how rough going it really is. From there we started back down. To say the least - when we got back to the first half of the trail - it really felt like a absolute piece of cake after the chaos of rock and boulders we had just fought our way through - and we cruised down at quite a quick rate.
The entire trail (If I remember correctly is about 24kms or so). It took us basically the entire day from 10:30 - 6pm to do the whole route.
Tired, dirty, thirsty - but most importantly happy we all reached the bottom of the mountain.
I can't wait for the next one.
Cheers
Stephen Geldenhuys
We were also informed that we were the first group to do the circular route in 2011, whci explains why it was in such bad shape.
Thank you to all the Jeep Club Members who attended and I am sure this one will go down in our books for 2011 as one of the top trails for the year. Enjoy the Pics
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