The Bundu Trail at Rust de Winter is not your friend. Gerrie van Eeden conquered it and deservedly got his sticker, but without the right vehicle and some good friends who know a thing or two, it will be tough.

When the invitation came to do the Rust de Winter Bundu Trail, I did not think twice. But now I’m not so sure… Turning back is not an option. This is a two-day overnight trail with enough rough and tough parts to make a softroader whimper over its light lager. And we’re tackling it tomorrow morning.

Late on a Friday afternoon we arrive at the ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) Club’s campsite at Rust de Winter in Limpopo - a stone’s throw from the Mpumalanga and Gauteng borders - and pitch our tents.

I am here with the guys from the Nissan Patrol forum. One of them is the well-known Oom Mac McMenamin. (His wife and friends call him Kagiso, but according to his ID he was baptised Winston.) This weekend he has given me the keys to his 1981 Datsun Safari, aka Lobo, while he and his wife, Amanda, will do the trail with his 2002 Nissan Hardbody.

We are joined by six Nissan Patrols, two more Datsun Safaris of about the same age, a Toyota Hilux and Prado, and a Jeep Overland guide vehicle.

Two of the vehicles that started the trail did not finish: the steering link of a Mazda Drifter decided to call it quits on day one and the old Hilux of the ATV Club also conked in. In all fairness, the Hilux has been accompanying everyone on this tough trail for the past 12 years…

Passion for a Patrol

The Patrol forum is not an official 4x4 club. It’s simply some guys that chat on the forum and go camping together.

The Toyotas and Mazda that accompanied us came along because there were some slots open on the tour – the bantering over the dependability of Toyota and Nissan went on all weekend. Mazda was not mentioned…

Early Saturday morning the guys are already up and at it. “Come on, do you really want to look at engines before seven?,” says Christo Boegman when asked to show his engine. He drives a 1995 4.5 litre Patrol. There used to be a 4.2 litre engine under the hood, but he wanted more power.

The Patrol guys are serious about their wheels and each one’s vehicle is his pride. They have lots to say about the capabilities of the vehicles, but these men can also show you that a Patrol is as tough as nails.

Even a 30-year-old Safari came through with flying colours.

There goes the convoy

Peter Claasen takes the lead in a 1956 Jeep Overland without windows and with tyres that have seen better days. This specially adapted “Bundu Truck 2”, with the 1993 Toyota Hilux, “Bundu Truck 3”, with which Cobus Nienaber brings up the rear will always accompany you when you tackle the Bundu Trail. Just accept it, since without them you will be lost in any case, as the trail is not marked.

From the campsite we turn right on a tar road and after a few kilometres left onto a gravel road. According to Peter the first 20 km of the trail is rather tame.

I’m just starting to itch to push the Safari up a mountain when we exchange the soft gravel road for a rocky road. Oom Mac suggests over the two-way radio that I put the Safari into low-range, “until we know better”.

No second invitation needed. The short gear stick ka-clunk’s all the way back and the Safari tackles the first hill. We reach the top quickly and everybody’s smiles are slightly wider now that they have felt some rocks under the wheels.

I am driving in the middle of the convoy behind Oom Mac in the Hardbody. Behind me is Christo and his daughter Annika in the maroon Patrol with the beautiful engine everyone wanted to look at earlier. I feel comfortable with these two guys not far away.

Oom Mac crisscrosses Africa on outreaches and Christo crisscrosses Africa for his job – he works on boreholes in the bundu. Apart from an old Bedford truck he only has Patrols and Safaris in his fleet.

A cellphone mast sits at the top of the hill. We drive down a stretch of cement road that the cellphone company has built here for access to the mast. It is the last “easy” road we will see for the next two days.

Lover’s Lane

From here we move fast on a jeep track in the veld before we reach Lover’s Lane. A steep descent with a sharp turn to the right leads you into the riverbed where you will drive for a while.

Cobus is standing at the bottom in the corner to show us the line down. I don’t know what to expect as I eventually steer the Safari around the corner, but the small stream is beautiful. And the riverbed is very narrow. The Patrols ahead of me only just fits through. The eroded banks rise above you on either side. It’s like driving down a hostel corridor with walls of mud and rock and a river on the floor.

Oom Mac relays a message from the front of the convoy: “If you keep the side mirror about 50 mm from the side, you should get through.”

The stream is not flowing dangerously fast, but if you stop to get out for a photograph, you have to be careful where you place your feet, otherwise you might end up calf deep in water. After a few hundred metres in the riverbed we climb out of the river up a steep, rocky incline.

One barely gets a chance to catch your breath before reaching the next challenge. Everybody drives up a steep rock face with ease and follows the road to the left. Just there you find some big rocks blocking the road. If you can’t go around it, you have to go over it…

Cobus is once again showing the line you should follow over the rocks. On the second attempt I have enough momentum to get over them and drive on with a big smile; the Safari is a monster. But the Mazda towards the front of the convoy is starting to play up.

At another big rock in the road the Mazda gave its all, breaking the tie-rod to its right front wheel. Christo van Rensburg who was in front of it in a 1998 4.2 litre turbodiesel Patrol is called on to tow it out of the obstacle. It’s game over for the Mazda.

Misfortune hits in threes

After a long wait we pass the cripple Mazda in the veld, one after the other. It’s not far before we come across more formidable rocks right in our way.

In a few places you have a choice between an easy and a difficult line. More than once, Grant Francis in his 1996 4.2 litre turbodiesel Patrol and Peter Connan in his 1996 4.2 litre petrol Patro show us how to make the difficult line look easy.

But then bad luck strikes for the second time. The prop shaft of Bundu Truck 3, the old Hilux, breaks against a steep incline. With a cool head and some good fortune, Cobus manages not to roll it and brings it to a halt against a tree next to the road. Peter Connan stays behind to tow the Hilux out of the bush and back onto the road. It will have to complete the rest of the trail as a front-wheel-drive bakkie.

A little further we stop in the field to eat the hotdogs that Peter Claassen makes while waiting for the cripple Hilux. After lunch we hit the road again - six Patrols, three Safaris, a Prado, a very old Jeep, a perfectly working Hilux and a limping Hilux.

A few sharp turns against a steep rock face force some bigger vehicles to back off and try again, taking a wider angle.

The next downhill is the final nail in the coffin for Cobus’ Hilux – the third stroke of bad luck. The steering arm breaks and once again the convoy grinds to a halt.

While we’re waiting for the Hilux to be moved out of the road, two lighties are looking for scorpions under rocks in the veld. With a loud cheer they find one with big pincers – apparently not poisonous.

4x4 in the dark

The sun is starting to set over the hills when we get going again. By dusk we drive through an overgrown valley and eventually when we get out of the bush it is pitch dark.

Louis Liebenberg with his 1984 Safari choose a line through the field around an apparently innocent mud hole in the road, and gets stuck. The water has turned the grassland into a marsh. The Safari is buried wheel deep…

Only after the second snatch with a kinetic strap does Oom Mac manage to get him out. We roll on to the campsite. A last rocky incline follows before we stop on top of a mountain from where the view is quite something, apparently.

But first we need to find a flat spot to pitch our tents and get some rest; tomorrow is another long day.

Leopard’s Gorge

The campsite on the mountain has two flush toilets (you need to fill it with buckets from a large tank). The showers are buckets that are hoisted in wooden enclosures. That’s how far creature comforts go. Other than that, you have bush all around you.

The next morning we see that the view is indeed quite something. The peak where we are camping rises above the Highveld where the borders of Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga meet. You see for miles over the Springbok Plains with Bushveld and thorn trees and grasslands as far as the eye can see. The shadow of the mountain shrinks as the morning goes by. After breaking up camp, we hit the road again.

We go quickly down a winding road till we reach the edge of the escarpment. The Renosterkop Dam shimmers in the distance and Leopard’s Gorge drops away in front of our feet. A few dare devils clamber down the ridge to see further down the gorge.

The road winds further along the top of the mountain. Here and there we reach an incline, but nothing more challenging than what claimed the Mazda and Hilux yesterday. At last we reach our final challenge, Man or Mouse.

This obstacle is supposed to be on the first day, but with us only passing it after dark last night on our way to our camp, we unwittingly all took the Mouse option.

Today we have to choose for real. A fearfully steep rock face towers above you as you stand at the foot of it. That is the “Man” option. Peter explained it yesterday: “You go up against the rock face to the left, or you can take the easy trail to the right and go wash the dishes at the camp.”

This is my last test with the Safari. All the Patrols switch on their diff locks with a big hoo-hah before thundering up the rock. The Safari has a limited-slip differential. No fancy buttons to push - only a short shift of the stick to ka-clunk into low-range and then you have to keep the wheels turning until you reach the top.

Without even struggling once to keep momentum Lobo reaches the top.

I receive my certificate with pride when we get back to the camp with everybody else. I tamed the Bundu – with the help of a Safari.

Lobo, the wolf

If the High-mileage Club had a class captain, it would be Lobo. This 1981 Safari of Mac McMenamin has done almost 1.3 million km. The engine was reconditioned at 800 000 km and it still runs as smoothly as on the first day.

When you experience first-hand what it is capable of on a trail where you need nerves of steel, you will have difficulty believing that it’s been around the block more than just a few times.

The name comes from a legendary wolf that wreaked havoc in America in the 1890s and escaped various attempts to catch it. Mac read the story in a book as a young boy and it stuck with him all these years.

On the Bundu Trail

Many a 4x4 gathering has been held at Rust de Winter. The gymkhana track and obstacles are well known among off-road enthusiasts up north. The two-day Bundu Trail is a different story.

How long is the trail and what is the road like? For 78 km your vehicle climbs up rocky inclines, idles downhill, only just fits through the eroded riverbanks and crosses a stream or two. You drive up and over big rocks and steer your vehicle between small, sharp rocks to save your wheels.

Where do I stay? A bush camp with only the necessary comforts on top of a mountain is your destination for the night while en route. There are bush showers but bring your own water. According to Peter, “the warm-water tap is broken”. The base camp has hot showers and ablution facilities with a swimming pool and a lovely lawn to camp on.

4x4 or 4x2? You’ll need a vehicle without any extra plastic trim (take off your running boards), strong tyres for the sharp rocks and enough ground clearance for a 3-year-old toddler to crawl underneath with ease. This really is not a route for sissies. Low-range is a requirement and a good dose of experience will serve you well.

How do I get there? Take the N1 north from Pretoria. About 60 km from Pretoria you take the Pienaarsrivier off-ramp and then turn right. A further 30 km and you find the Rust de Winter campsite on the right.

What can I see and do? The off-road challenge is the first prize, but being so close to nature and experiencing the views give you more reason to go.

Can I go on my own? No, only groups can do the trail and you will be accompanied by men from the ATV Club.

Contact: Peter Claassen 012 379 1715; 082 558 6814; www.4x4atv.org; admin@4x4atv.org.