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“Operation 53” – Day 5 Mud, Sweat and Tears (Monday 9 March 2015)

1 The Planned Route From our camp alongside Ratel 72, were supposed to travel northwest towards Chitado and Espenhiera a distance of about 385km.

Photo 1: Having crossed the border at Calueque, we would have stopped by 72, and the turned south west again to join the original route – only a detoure of 34km.



2 The Actual Route

What appeared on the GPS maps and that on the ground were two different things.

I gave Jan the general direction to the coordinates of the road going north, and Jan found a

route between the shrubs, kraals, shonas and trees.

According to the GPS, we should have crossed the road going north, but this was nowhere

to be found. It was starting to rain, and we travelling is a low lying area which was already

wet from the previous night’s gently rain, or so we thought.

Hence we decided to turn around, and follow the known, accessible route we had used.

Getting stuck for one and a half days was perhaps a blessing in disguise, as it is understood

that ahead of us, there were 1 – 2km stretches of black cotton soil – something I definitely

would not miss.



Photo 2: Bostoe 2015 paying their respects.

Photo 3: Assembling the memorial cross.



Photo 4: Andre mounting the cross on the Ratel.

Photo 5: Andre and I paying our respects.



Photo 6: One of the best photos - complements of Andre!



Photo 7: RIP!



Photo 8: Making our way towards the road which would have taken us to Chitado.

Photo 9: Green: The planned route to 72. Purple: The route back to Calueque.



Photo 10: 380m west, and we would have found the track going north.



Photo 11: Casspir making waves.



Photo 12: The best 4 x 4, by far. Note the chicken being carried to the market.

Photo 13: One of the many forced stops – we should not have ignored the branches across the track.



Photo 14: Jan lifting the "modderplanke".

Photo 15: A local on a 125cc scambler came past us - much to our embarassment.



Photo 16: Not the mud build-up under Casspir.

Photo 17: The diff-lock did not synchronise, resulting in the right hand wheel not turning, and mud building up.



Photo 18: Jan's foot spa.

Photo 19: Chill out. We're not going anywhere in a hurry - our camp for the night.



Photo 20: Up early the next morning, ready for an early start. Spot the bush loo behind the bush?

Photo 21: Preparing dinner.



Photo 22: The road ahead.

At this point in time, Kolobe was out of the mud about 800m ahead of us, and Rooikat was not far ahead. Face the facts, we were not going to get out of the mud and it was time to get dinner prepared and get some shut eye. My legs were severely burnt, having washed off the mud every time I stepped into a track where there was muddy water. We made “keerwalle” in the tracks and took a jug and scooped all of the water out of the track trying to get it to dry faster, and to reduce the resistance from the mud. Mud was also dug out from under the axles. Around the vehicle was a mud pool from the scooping and the chances of having a bush bath were very remote. Challenge – how do I get into my sleeping bag without taking half the mud with me? Simple, having packed out the stretcher and sleeping bag, I settled for sundowner and let the mud dry. I then started scraping the mud off my legs, and this is the closest I will ever get to a Brazilian wax! It was time to get some shut-eye as the following day would start early and we would hopefully get out, provided it did not rain again.

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Operation 53 Day 5 Mud, Sweat and Tears (Monday …...2015/03/22 · “Operation 53” 5 – 22 March 2015 Page 1 of 15 Filename: Operation 53 - Day 05 v1.00.docx “Operation 53”