Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2015 i Caravan and Outdoor Life

THEIR NOMINATION - Swadini Forever Resort, Limpopo Doug & Pat had the following to say about Swadini: My wife and I recently spent ten wonderful days in this great park. It’s situated at the base of the Blyde River Canyon between the mountains of the Drakensberg, which makes for spectacular sunsets and sunrises. We were impressed with the smart reception area and the friendly staff at the booking office, where we were told we could choose our own campsite. Well, what a choice there was. There are raised stands with brick paving, lower paved stands or neat grass stands. There are lots of wonderful trees to camp under. Most stands are large enough to take any rig and there’s no shortage of power points. There are six ablution blocks in…

Akatspoegie from the start of the R62, nestled between the ridges of Cogman’s Kloof in the Langeberg, and bordered by two rivers and a verdant stripe of vineyards, you’ll find the laid-back town of Montagu - a place also known to many of us through the ever-popular Montagu Dried Fruit label. It’s also where you’ll find the Montagu and Avalon hot springs on the Touwsriver Road (R318) at the town’s edge. But, be warned: a visit to these facilities costs R50 per head as a day-visitor, and a lot more for an overnight stay. Fortunately, Baden Klub, 10 kilometres from Montagu, also has a hot-spring pool, is no longer a private venue, and is much more reasonably priced! Back to the subject of this review... although Montagu Caravan Park is…

If you remember the Volkswagen-Kombi-based Jurgens Autovillas, you probably think of them as the typical tourer of itinerant pensioners of the 1970s. Autovillas were slow, cumbersome and with looks that only a mother could love. They had none of the ‘cool’ factor of surfer buses or hippie vans. But these miniature mobile homes have a special place in the South African motoring and caravanning heritage. They were highly innovative in their day, and the design was even produced under licence by Karmann in Germany. Lately, Autovillas have been attracting attention among vintage Volkswagen enthusiasts both locally and overseas. The ultimate uncool car has finally become cool. And so it was that groups of Volkswagen Kombi enthusiasts convoyed from Johannesburg and Cape Town for an Autovilla tour to Bloemfontein on the…

ACTIVITIES IN AREA Bird-watching 4x4ing Horse riding Game watching – Wild Horses of the Namib 20 km away Hiking and mountain biking Beaches 120 km away in Luderitz We were in high spirits after having lunch in Helmeringhausen (about 100 kilometres north of Aus) when our old Landy’s intermittent fuel-starvation problem returned to rain on our parade. However, the frustrating stop-go motion didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for the expansive plains ringed with rugged, flat-topped mountains that we were driving through en route to Aus. Rolling into the campsite down the road two hours later, we were bowled over by its location among a series of massive-boulder stone hills: a mountainous mélange of Paarl Rock and the tawny, stone midden-like hills that surround Springbok in the Northern Cape. And, as the…

Despite the Kia Grand Sedona’s fairground ancestry (it was originally launched in SA in ’98 as the Kia Carnival), this new model presents a serious push by the Korean brand into the MPV sector. The third-generation model was recently introduced to the SA motoring press in a launch that saw the test fleet travelling from Joburg to Clarens and back. It’s a clean-sheet redesign, built on a brand-new chassis. First impressions are that it’s a really big station wagon, avoiding the typical boxiness of many MPVs. The front end borders on sporty, thanks to wraparound headlights and what Kia refers to as a‘tiger-nose’ grille. But, aft of the A-pillar, the Grand becomes a little more slab-sided and utilitarian in line.The new model’s wheelbase is 40 mm longer than its predecessor,…

When a young Brian Courtis, now the recently-retired MD of Natal Caravans, used to visit his father (then one of the founders and directors of Natal Caravans) in the mid-to-late 1960s, he met Jenny Krull. Little did Brian realise that he would one day be making a 50th service anniversary award to this efficient, charming and attractive young lady, who, at the tender age of 18, recently widowed and the mother of a tiny baby, was working at the company as an extremely competent Girl Friday. He was also not to know then, that a few short years later, in 1968, Jenny would be typing a letter, dictated and signed by Eric, his father, confirming Brian’s appointment to the position of Sales Manager of Natal Caravans. At a presentation function…

We're looking for South Africa's best caravan parks, and who better to judge than you, our readers? It'll be easy to take part. All youneed do is send us details of the park you feel is on top, plus the time when last you visited it (no more than 12 months ago), and why you feel this venue deserves honours. If you have a high-resolution photograph showing you and your family at the park, feel free to send this, too. By entering, you put yourself in line to win R1 000 every month, courtesy of Cara-Sure; and, if you're a client of theirs, you'll win an additional R1 000. Cara-Sure is SA's favourite leisure-vehicle insurance companion, specialising in caravans (on- and off-road), camper trailers and motorhomes. Go to www.carasure.com for…

When you take a 30-year old Land Rover campervan on a long road trip, you expect to face the odd mechanical problem. Of course, you’d prefer it not to happen on day two of a 5 000 km, 30-day odyssey; but clearly, we have little say in how these things turn out. After stopping in a poort some 40 km outside Sutherland for breakfast on the side of the road, my life-partner, Annette, and I experienced the first of Rovik’s (Roving Viking) old-Land-Rover idiosyncrasies – it is not keen to start after mid-length stops. Luckily, we had one of those spare battery packs, and after an hour of patience-exhausting poking, prodding, twisting and praying, the old boy gave up his resistance to our charms and we were on our way…

We set off one February morning before dawn, under a soft drizzle. In front of us lay a holiday spanning 20 days and eight campsites. We’d been over our 10-page checklist umpteen times and prayed for a safe trip, so all that was left was to enjoy the ride. My wife, Jenny, and I are pensioners, and we were accompanied by Stevie, our 25-year-old laat-lammetjie. Our horse for this trip was a little Daihatsu Terios called Cheeky, for towing our caravan: a Sherpa Tiny. Our cruising speed for this little rig is 85 - 90 km/h depending on road conditions and wind direction. A bit slow, but a consumption of 8.5 l / 100 km makes the sedate pace easy to swallow. We meandered some 600 km down to Queensburgh…

We were going to spend Christmas in East London. After checking the distance to that city, we decided that we’d spend a night or two at Elliot. And, once that decision had been made, we looked up that town in the book On Route in South Africa to see what there was to be seen there. The answer, we found, was Gillie Cullem Falls, a spectacular 80-metre-high waterfall surrounded by lush indigenous forest, just 18 kilometres from the town. We googled the falls and found a few mentions, but not a single photo. This intrigued us, and made us determined to see the falls, so we set off to East London. (For those of you who don’t know the drive down to Elliot, in the lower Drakensberg, the views are…

Judging by the number of trailer and caravan manufacturers building so-called gravel-roader and off-road caravans and trailers, the spirit of adventure has never run higher among South Africans! Initially, most of these were being towed by big SUVs, Land Cruisers and the like, but on recent country travels we noticed that many owners seemed to switching to more economical tow vehicles, including midsized SUVs. Economically, it just makes sense! This new trend also includes what we call ‘soft-roaders’. These look like SUVs and 4WD, but don’t have low-range or massive ground clearance. That said, soft-roaders are perfectly capable of tackling gravel roads and good tweespoor tracks. These vehicles often run in 2WD until wheel slip is detected, at which point they engage 4WD, thus combining the benefits of front- and…