A pleasurable, romantic day cruise through a wilderness area beckoned for Durbanite Nick Meyer and his partner − until they took a shortcut to near disaster. He picks up the story:

As lovers − of the adventure that off-roading offers us, of course − a friend, Juli Cruise, and I decided to spend New Year’s Eve in Port Nolloth before exploring the Richtersveld for a couple of days.

A pleasurable, romantic day cruise through a wilderness area beckoned for Durbanite Nick Meyer and his partner − until they took a shortcut to near disaster. He picks up the story:

As lovers − of the adventure that off-roading offers us, of course − a friend, Juli Cruise, and I decided to spend New Year’s Eve in Port Nolloth before exploring the Richtersveld for a couple of days.

Although we are both in our mid-fifties, we believe you are never too old to enjoy life. Therefore, we stayed at the local hotel and had a great New Year’s Eve dinner before our jaunt.

New Year’s Day, after a visit to the Orange River mouth, saw us staying overnight in chalets at Sendelingsdrif, on the banks of the Orange River in the Richtersveld Transfrontier National Park.

Around the fire that night, we planned our trip the next day at the hand of a map we had bought at the park’s office.

What we had in mind was a seemingly easy day cruise to De Hoop and Tatasberg − both on the banks of the Orange River − and, time permitting, back to Sendelingsdrif over Helshoogte.