Ga-Ma "trail" on Klein Pella, Northern Cape for the adventurous

[Bex]

I was thinking that I could do this next section with just my hands, but quickly realized that I would have to drive halfway through the other trail to retrieve my tools where I left them after finishing the trail.

Not much time after work, so it was getting a bit dark by the time I got to the work site.

My tools, a 14lbs hammer, 32mm koevoet (don't know the English for that), 20mm koevoet, rake and modified shovel.
The 32mm koevoet does most of the work.


After clearing some pointy rocks away I could get up the next ridge.


A glimpse of the river in the last light as I get up to the next level.

[Bex]

I tackled the path up to the view point from the other side this morning. On this side the path go straight up with only loose rocks, so it goes a bit faster than the other side.
All I do here is clear away the sump smashers and the sidewall slashes from a path about 2m wide.

This is what it looks like before start on it.


This is the same patch after.
It worked out to 30 min of work to clear out 30m, so 1min/m and I have about 800m to go.


Testing the bit I cleared, the incline is still moderate here, no kicking or slipping yet.



I've seen vehicles drive over terrain like this, but I have no wish to drive over those.

[Bex]

Nothing glamorous, but a good 60m further up the slope after an hours work.

[Bex]

Again it is difficult to show the true picture in a photo, here is the cleared section vs the rocks cleared away.

There is really no way to drive through without clearing the rocks away.

[Bex]

There were less rocks to move in the next stretch, so I managed about 400m more.


On my way up.

Ariving at the top.

Down again.

[Bex]

I am working on hte other side of the mountain now. It is more difficult though the climb angle is about the same, it is not straight up.

Ill try it with the Hardbody, but I will deflate my tyres a bit more before I do.


Alternatively I could go straight up , but then i have to make a path through this.



I set the camera on timer to be in the picture to provide some scale.

There has been some interest in the route so I want to try finish this section this weekend so I could start on a new one.
I also plan to drive out to Amam tomorrow to see if it is still possible to do the dune trail. It is about 60km from Klein Pella and offers a great sand option to add to a 3 day visitto Klein Pella.

[Ejay]

I was thinking that I could do this next section with just my hands, but quickly realized that I would have to drive halfway through the other trail to retrieve my tools where I left them after finishing the trail.

Not much time after work, so it was getting a bit dark by the time I got to the work site.

My tools, a 14lbs hammer, 32mm koevoet (don't know the English for that), 20mm koevoet, rake and modified shovel.
The 32mm koevoet does most of the work.


After clearing some pointy rocks away I could get up the next ridge.


A glimpse of the river in the last light as I get up to the next level.

Koevoet in s/suburbs english is a Gwala

[Bex]

Gwala I know , though I didn't think anyone on the forum would know what I was talking about.
What would the proper english name be ?

[Bex]

Please add an extreme section. A section for modified 4x4`s only. something that is a real challenge to do. 2km in 5 hours or something close to it. We need a NC Carnage Canyon

Will definitely test your track when I am in the area. Keep up the good work.

There is an bit of a kloof that could become a carnage canyon, I went over there to have another look at it today. I played a bit, but just on the first rock, the area is really not for normal vehicles.






I did get up onto it a bit





I would need to see some grade 5 routes before I would attempt to build one.

[EugeneMader]

Very interesting thread and thanks for taking the time to forge the new trail.
I will be doing the Namakwa Trail from East to West in 2 weeks time. Would love to add that to my route.
I will contact you via WhatsApp.

[Bex]

I did go to Amam today and had a blast on the dunes.

https://www.4x4community.co.za/forum...ing-still-open

[Riaan van Wyk]

The "gwala" word comes from the Zulu name "umgxala."
English a crowbar.

Hard work you have been doing Bex!

[Bex]

It is a hobby, so I cannot call it work. The wife says I am playing .
I enjoy it either way and get some exercise out of it.
AND I get to test out new 4x4 obstacles almost every day. Or at least till the harvest starts.

[Bex]

I need to break through a ridge and I have 2 options, around left or right.

Left is where the gap through is, on the right is by clearing away all the rocks around and behind the hammer.
Often it takes a lot of time just to work out which is the best option.

The gap on the left looks like the easier option, in the picture it even looks like you could just climb over it, but after 30 minutes it was clear that I was wasting my time, the rock is in flat layers that run parallel, and when you remove a layer the next is at the same angle and height so you got nowhere.


On the righthand side is a lot more to do, but at least when you move a rock you have made progress.


The progress after another 20 minutes of work.
At least when I tackle it tomorrow the decision have been made so I can do more actual work.

[Bogaards]

Doen jy al hierdie werk alleen?

Hierdie gaan 'n nice roete word!

[Bex]

Ek het 2 kolegas wat ook van tyd tot tyd help, ek is die enigste een wat dit as oefening/stokperdjie beskou, so ek is meer daar as die ander.

[Bex]

Another factor is the fact that the trail is an alternative route going home from work.


So when my wife calls after work and ask why I am so late from work I can honestly answer that I am on my way home as we speak.
Or more commonly as signal is poor at best, I can answer that I got stuck on my way from work when I do arive home.

[Bex]

Sometimes I finish clearing a section of the trail only to fi d when I try to drive through that it is too narrow. So I frequently drive through those sections to see if they are good even though I then have to reverse back as there is no space to turn around.

When I entered it I immediately railized I had to widen it some more, and even after that there was not much space to spare.




So then I reached the ridge I was busy with.
Reversing back out without a lookout was interesting.


I moved the Hardbody out of range af shrapnel and did some work on the ridge.

It took about an hour to reduce most of the ridge to rubble.
After this ridge there is only one more small ridge before I can add this section to the trail.
I am a bit nervous about testing this section with the hardbody though, there is a very steep climb with some technical bits that was hard to drive down with a bike.
There is some interest by some forum members that are planning to try the trail over the next 4 weeks, maybe some of them will try it with their more sophisticated vehicles.
If not I will have to change the angle of the climb a bit, but I would prefer to leave it as is as there is an escape route for this section.

[Bex]

We have a dune on the farm that we have given up trying to climb a long time ago, it is just not possible.
Then after the Amam excursion I started to think about it again and this morning I played on it a bit. The Dune is only about 60m high, and I managed to climb a full 12m with the 2.4 .



So I started to climb it from the side and driving it from the top down with tyres at 0.7 bar to make a track. There is no compaction happening, but at least I can make it more smooth for those with bigger engines who might want to attempt to climb it.


Starting at the top.


It is not much, but it is all we have

It is not far from the trail and can easily be included if you want to.

[Bex]

It's Done!.
I waited for the sun to get lower a bit before finishing up.


I cleared out the ridge and tried it out.


The next and last ridge took 20 minutes to finish, and I tested that as well.
Then the plan was to then turn around, but after the morning in the dunes I had only inflated the tyres to 1.3 bar, ideal for this kind of climb.
The nose was already pointed up the slope so I decided to just see what the first bit was like. It did dig a bit a few times, but felt good so I kept going and a minute later I was at the top.
There was a few moments where the heart rate would jump as you are going up a steep incline that is at the same time sloping to the right and then it gets steeper as you have to
climb over a crossover.
There is no place to recover, so don't even try this climb without diff lock engaged.

Then after all that excitement you get to the top, get out and try to take a picture to record the experience and just cannot.

I tried a few angles and failed.
I couldn't stop on the steep part of the slope to take a pictures as I wouldn't trust the vehicle to stay put.

This is looking at the climb from the bottom, the red line is where the climb goes.