Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i Caravan and Outdoor Life

Beauty at Bivane Dam Some places in our country are so beautiful that we want to share them with your readers. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do. We have a kayak that is part of our roaming lifestyle. How it came into our lives is a story for another day, but let’s just say that suddenly all the destinations we visited had to have flat water. To find a good spot to take the kayak out for its maiden voyage, we worked our way up Natal from the seaside. The water in the first dam we found, Wagendrift, was very low, and we had to carry the kayak a long way in mud. Needless to say, this was not a successful first try. So, we headed…

Rondeberg Caravan Hire Rondeberg Holiday Resort now has a permanent caravan on site that you can rent. Situated just north of Clanwilliam near the Cederberg Mountain Catchment area, right next to the Bulshoek Dam, the resort offers various accommodation types, including chalets, stone cottages, a waterfront house, and camping and caravanning. There are four types of camping and caravan stands to choose from. And if you do not have your own caravan, why not stay in their unit? The Gypsey 3B unit has a double and single bed, electricity, stove, bathroom, and full tent. Go to www.rondeberg.com for more information. Business is booming Dibiki Holiday Resort has had an incredible start to 2017, with the resort reporting occupation figures of between 80% and 91% percent for the first months of…

Last month's WINNER Congratulations to Okkie Stevens, who correctly identified the image as the Cape Columbine Lighthouse at Paternoster on the West Coast. For more than 80 years, the Cape Columbine lighthouse has stood guard over the West Coast villages of Paternoster, Saldanha, Tietiesbaai and St Helena Bay. Before it was built in 1936, this stretch of coastline in the Western Cape was infamous for shipwrecks. At least five big wrecks have been recorded in the area, including the legendary Lisboa, that sunk in 1910. The Lisboa was said to have held a large shipment of port, and local lore suggests that when she went down, the sea was turned red from the sweet wine. Locals on the shore apparently also grabbed their fill of intact barrels! Today, the Cape…

Are you tired of reading about a superb campsite, only to discover the words “only accessible by 4x4 or vehicles with high ground clearance”? You gnash your teeth in frustration, because you only have a road caravan, or a small sedan and trailer. Well, then let me tell you about Stilbaai and Jongensfontein – two small seaside towns with great caravan resorts accessible by tar all the way. Stilbaai lies alongside the banks of the Goukou River Estuary, and the smaller village of Jongensfontein is a mere 16 kilometres away. Both are part of the famous Garden Route, about a four-hour drive from Cape Town. Situated 26km off the N2 between Riversdale and Albertina, Stilbaai with its shallow bay, long sandy beaches, lagoon and Goukou River, offers swimming, sunbathing, surfing,…

It is nice to see a resort like Richards Bay Caravan Park, which is already a popular seaside holiday destination, continue to upgrade. It’s no surprise that Richards Bay achieved 3rd place (KwaZulu-Natal) in our Readers’ Resort of the Year 2016 awards. Set in an ever green lush environment with excellent weather, perfect for families and pensioners all year round, the campsite has in the past year improved even more by adding new facilities such as their “big five” hall with an entertainment bar, and a games room with an adjoining TV room for those who want to watch sports or series. The latest addition to their resort is a BMX track! The children will have hours of fun driving around the neatly-built course. The track is lined with tyres…

Surf and turf paella (serves 6) Ingredients – flatbread • 6 free-range chicken thighs, skin on, bone in• 100g chorizo sausage• packet of streaky bacon• 12 large raw shell-on prawns• 500g mussels (cleaned)• 500g rice• 1 onion• 5 cloves of garlic • ½ a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley• Leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme• 2 litres organic chicken stock• 2 large pinches of saffron• 1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika• 2 handfuls of fresh or frozen peas• 2 lemons• white wine• plain flour Method 1. Quarter the chicken pieces and season with salt and black pepper; then dust with flour. 2. Heat oil in a large, deep pan on a medium heat and fry the chicken until golden brown and almost completely cooked. Remove chicken from pan and remove pan from heat. 3. Peel and chop the onion and garlic; finely chop the parsley. 4. Prepare the…

I recently went for a hike at one of my regular spots – Newlands Forest, just 10 minutes’ drive from my house in Observatory. My wife and I go jogging here at least three times a week, and often for a hike over the weekend as well. We have two dogs who need a lot of exercise, and all of us love the outdoors (the dogs would have loved our recent Baviaans trip, just check the picture below!). It’s safe to say that we know the forest pretty well, and we have traversed the popular roads and paths extensively. But one day recently, we made a small change to our hiking routine. Instead of following the usual zig-zag road through the forest, we headed straight up, and when we were…

I had been stuck behind my desk for too long. The workload of the first quarter of the year had nailed me to my chair. And, with the added frenzy of expos and shows all over the country, I was in serious need of some nature time. Apart from a very enjoyable weekend at Rondeberg Holiday Resort, I had done almost no travelling! So, you can imagine my delight when Jan Groen, the general manager of Travelstar, let me know that they had a brand new Navi motorhome ready to take out for a test drive. I’d seen the latest model from their workshop at the shows, and had been itching to get behind the wheel of the smallest unit in their stable. I was to pick up the van…

I see a lot of caravan parks and campsites. But, every now and again, a place comes along that’s so magical you want to keep it greedily all to yourself. One of these is Coral Tree Camp, high up on its own little ‘shelf’ on the forested mountainside in Magoebaskloof in the Limpopo province. The camp is deep in the kloof and only accessible by 4x4, which helps to maintain its “Top Secret” status. I towed the tough Gecko Off-Road caravan up to Coral Tree using 4x4 low-range. The Gecko’s weight out of the They had horses and stables on the farm for many years, and later, after selling the horses, they decided to turn the buildings into the now popular Herb Cottage. It’s quite a steep climb up through…

At the end of Part 1 of this project, the teardrop caravan shell was basically ready, and would soon get an outer skin of 6mm ply over the polystyrene. But before that, we moved to the inside. I wanted to keep the cabin area filled with as much light as possible, so I fitted two roof lights. In the picture you can see the inside after the ply had been given only two coats of Woodoc. This is an excellent medium to work with, and if four coats are applied, it will not mark easily. It does not like sunlight much, but is great on interiors. At the back wall you can see there is more than enough space for two pillows. There is 950mm of space between the top…

Is it worth restoring a ’62 RAVEN? My late dad, Bill Paterson, bought a Safari‘Raven’ caravan new in 1962 for the princely sum of R1 162. It’s been in our family ever since, having taken us to many wonderful places before it was retired to become a storeroom. Okay, he had a few extras fitted, such as an awning for R80, a fire extinguisher for R3.10, and a towbar for R9! We have all the original receipts, licence papers… even the weighbridge certificate which shows a tare of 1 950kg. I’d like to haul it out into the sunshine again, to renovate it and perhaps use it for accommodation while living my dream job as a professional wildlife guide. I’d like to get back onto the road; think it’s worth…

WIN!  Have you been here? If you think you know where this photo was taken, enter our competition now! CAN YOU GUESS WHERE this picture was taken? Each month we will place a picture, and if you correctly identify where we are, you could win an amazing prize from Suzuki. Our first prize is a slick multi-tool set, with all the extensions you need when going camping, caravanning or 4x4ing. Apart from the main multi-tool fitted in a pair of pliers, you also get a mini keyring multi-tool. Enter the competition now, and make sure you get next month’s Caravan & Outdoor Life, where we will not only reveal the winner and the location, but also give you loads of interesting information about where we are and the surrounding area.…

There is a place in the Klein Karoo, a place of solitude and peace, where mountain zebra roam. A place very close to South Africa’s port capital, Calitzdorp, and yet so quiet at night that you’d never guess a town lies within 30km of its boundary. It’s called Gamkaberg Nature Reserve, a real gem in the Cape Nature stable. Gamkaberg is an isolated range lying between the Swartberg and Outeniqua mountains. The reserve covers more than 10 000ha of rugged plateau, incised by deep ravines. Since 1974 it’s been set aside to conserve a local population of endangered Cape mountain zebra. Four South African biomes are represented: fynbos, succulent Karoo, subtropical thicket and evergreen forest. And one can camp here! However, the two sites (maximum four people each) are more…

After purchasing the caravan and looking at the overall dimensions, it was clear that the road to off-roading would be long – but I like a challenge . Firstly, I had to do my homework to some extent to remove the two axles. My first order of business was to strengthen the chassis of the caravan to help it cope with rough roads, so I took 50mm x 50mm x 5mm angle iron and ran it from the front of the chassis to the point where the axles stop. The angle iron was boxed to the section where the axles are bolted to the original chassis. I then measured the wheel arches to determine what space I had to work with, as this would determine what tyre size I could…

Tent heat reduction A few months ago, we sent in a request for comment regarding reflective sheeting used to keep the inside of our tent cool in summer. We bought a cover and found that the silver coating started to shred and crack. Along with this, there was a loss of waterproofing. We had many replies from the magazine but nobody had an answer to this universal problem. We decided to try out 95-100% shade cloth and bought enough to cover the entire tent and caravan, with a bit extra to supply some more shade over the veranda. We had it made up and used our old reflective sheet as a template for eyelets. The 3-metre-wide shade cloth was joined using webbing and we reinforced the entire edging with the…