Average fuel on road @ 75mph = 16l/100km or 14.7mpg (not sure uk or US gallons)
Average fuel used offroad = 19l/200km or 12.4mpg
Offroad was around 45% of the 3700mi
Weighbridge showed the Caravan at +-1700kg, hence my heavy fuel consumption and a strong flippin 2 O clock wind whenever I was on tar.
We followed this river for around 800km, longest in the Southern Hemisphere - the Orange River, good thing NO Crocs or Hippos - too cold.
If Africa rivers will always make you nervous.
My son sucked the grease from my Towbar looks like "The Joker"
This is the Atlantic Ocean, the cold side of South Africa, also called the "Skeleton Coast" from all the shipwrecks.
We also then went to Namaqualand - sadly the worst rains in years meant the flowers were small, albeit still beautiful. All wild and in a desert / arid area.
I will walk 500 miles...
This next place was in the middle of nowhere passed an old Military base dating back to WW2. SA fought against the Germans. It's a natural hot water spring in the middle of the desert.
Massive nests built by community birds, scale wise that nest is around the size of a Pathfinder minus the bonnet.
Baboons, these guys are rather cheeky and often tear the canvas open of the tents and caravans to get to food. Teeth are big, don't confuse them with Monkeys they'll easily kill a PitBull dog or two.
39C was the norm, hottest was around 43C / 110f at 18h00 (sunset was 18h40)
Namibia is opposite the river, the river acts as the border marker.
Scale...the part where the trunk splits into two would be by your waste for a 1.8m / 5.9ft guy
We didn't see another vehicle for days, no cell signal woohoo.
Interesting image here...we were driving with tyres deflated to about 1.6bar / 23psi on all 6 wheels doing around 20km/h / 12.5mph and suddenly I stalled. The long and short is it took around 5+ hours (21h30) to get me out and the caravan moved 2m / 6ft. The sand nearby was just too soft and I and another vehicle (thank goodness 1st one in days) got stuck many times trying to get close. It was large sugar type grains. The pathfinder would just bog in low range. We had my car out after 2 hours but the caravan...We eventually slept right there and thats where the next pic resumes.
Remember there's NO lights, NO toilets, nothing and this night, no moon. Together with reports of a leopard sighting.
We got the caravan turned and pointing towards "Hard" ground. We eventually towed it with 3x snatch straps on it's skid plate towards the rocks in the distance, there we hitched it. I used an AIR JACK to lift the nose for hitching.
We camped here for a couple of nights - just us.
Some very tight areas, not being my caravan meant 8km / 5mi took 3-4 hours.
Some locals
Scars, none are there now, I waxed before the trip and all them came off.
Gemsbok, any hunters favourite - I don't like hunting...
My son on a hunger strike
AFTER playing in the sand
Some of the sharp rocky trails we did, look to the RIGHT. Quite slippery.
Riverbed fun
Enroute home
Anyways I hope you enjoyed the pics, I know not much of a write up, but hopefully IF a question arises then I'll add meat
.I've got a good couple of video clips you'll see on my YouTube Profile soon. Including a single massive rock descent (I had to go up after dropping of my camera person /wife) and an example of ABLS in action
If you guys feel the images are too small just say so and I'll fix em quick imo they are too small now that I've previewed my page.
Cheers!
thank you dieselfan!
