2023 – Landy recovery in Namaqua

https://inapicture.co.za/12a%20Recovery%20-%20Namaqua/index.html

Namaqua Coastal reserve

What a great place to visit! The beach camping is in the “middle of nowhere” – no water, no cell reception, no electricity, long-drop toilet and the best star viewing you will ever get.

I will link to the Namaqua photos shortly, but this story is about the exit journey.

We chose to exit via the “middle” gate which is off the middle of the beach sites. You leave the coast and travel for about 10 km to the park exit. One check out using the 2m radio and then you should get to Garies in about 50 to 70 km.

Road to Garies

Our GPS was supposed to take us on the 4×4 track to Garies, about 70km further. Instead we spent quite a few hours on farmer’s tracks that did not look like they had been used for the past year. We also had to open and close about 20x farm gates.

Things got a bit hairy when we ended up in a dry river bed with very soft sand.

Then it got even more challenging.

Almost into the river

We drove over a small incline and faced a river crossing that was flowing quite strongly. I decided to stop – a bit too late. The landy stopped and then started to slip uncontrollably to the left down the incline off the road. The thick clay-type mud offered zero traction.

We were fortunate to slip into a deep mud hole and a small tree stopped our slide.

The Landy sat at about 20 degrees and we still had 30 km to go so had no idea where we were.

After some choice words (like “oh dear”) we assessed our situation. Jean insisted we unpack everything before attempting a recovery- which could only be done forwards using the winch. Once clear of the tree, that process would expose the landy to the edge of the bank and possibly dropping sideways into the river.

The Recovery

After unpacking all of our things from the landy, I checked out the river. Here are some pics…. https://inapicture.co.za/12a%20Recovery%20-%20Namaqua/index.html

Although it was flowing quite strongly, the riverbed was small stones and no mud. Maximum depth was knee deep. It was icy though!

I worked out that the best angle to reduce the risk of a tip over was to hitch the winch to a tree on the far bank, and upstream of my planned exit point. This would keep some upstream angle on the ropes.

I ran the winch out to maximum and hitched my 10m recovery strap to an acacia tree. The distance was too far to use a snatch block which would have given us more leverage.

After checking everything, it was time.

I Used the winch about 3 times – each time edging out of the mud. The final pull was a bit scary as the landy slipped sideways again before gravity and traction helped to push into the river and onto a good part of the river. We packed the landy while leaving the engine running (exhaust was out of the water), and made a fairly clean exit out of the river.

I tidied up the straps and winch cable and we were eventually on our way again. Got to Augrabies Falls rather late but still in time to get to our campsite. Our landy lives to have some more adventures, but it was very close event, and a long way from phones, and recovery help.