This year’s Cape edition of the Defender Trophy explores a SanParks reserve, giving us a unique chance to explore incredible private camps and unmapped trails.
Having received the invite, it didn’t take long for office battles to ensue as to who would attend the 2019 Cape edition of the Defender Trophy. Held at a new and spectacular location every year, the event brings together an eclectic mix of characters, terrains and Defenders of every description.
This year, organiser Johan Kriek brought the Trophy to Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape – a massive 1 600km SanParks reserve crisscrossed with trails, bush camps, high plateaus and steep, dark forests. We were lucky enough to get special access to some of the more remote areas closed off to the average tourist.
A great start at Schotia
Having driven to Knysna to collect my driving companion and buddy Rob, I introduced him to the trusty steed we’d be living out of for the next few days: a 1994 Defender 110 V8, completely bare of any luxuries bar my 20-year-old cooler box, and a glorious V8 tune. We settled on the name ‘Troll’ for our truck, due to its gargling drinking habits, and set off. This year’s start would be at a magnificent haunt just outside PE called Schotia Safaris Private Game Reserve. With free-roaming rhino, lion, buffalo and luxury accommodation (in addition to a fantastic collection of Series Land Rovers), Schoatia proved to be the perfect start to our trip. They have a massive boma and game-drive vehicles (Land Rovers, of course) which ferried us to a dinner spot akin to the voting table on the Survivor TV show. On arrival, we had set up camp in tents with rhino and elephant just metres beyond the fence and got to know some of the characters who’d driven from every corner of SA to be here.
Addo Day 1 – Into the wild
The wake-up call was before 05:00, facing wet shoes, wet tents and freezing wet grass – but it would be worth every icy minute. At least that’s how we tried to convince ourselves.
Denne historien er fra August 2019-utgaven av SA4x4.
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Denne historien er fra August 2019-utgaven av SA4x4.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Uganda The Pearl Of Africa
This trip, the very last in the series of stories from Dan Grec’s two-year Africa round trip, details a scary mishap and some extraordinary wildlife encounters
Chewy, But Edible
Take another look at those garden pests
Auto Perfection?
Adding a six-speed auto to Mahindra’s workhorse ups the game for this value proposition
Defenders On Tour
The second 2019 Defender Trophy event kicked off in Limpopo and was unique in that participants camped in three different countries…
Rad Rig The Dream Catcher
Motorhome world’s one-of-a-kind luxury globetrotter
The Difference Between An Overlander And An Offroader
A very important distinction needs to be made between the offroader and the overland traveller; often the two are thought to be the same.
Steelmate TP-S9
Solar powered TPMS (External sensor)
Light on the dark side
VW AMAROK DARK LABEL
Monkey business!
Vervet Monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) are the most widespread of the African monkeys; occurring from the Ethiopian Rift Valley, highlands east of the Rift, and southern Somalia, through the eastern lowlands of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia (east of the Luangwa Valley), Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and all nine provinces in South Africa.
GREAT ZOOKS
There are a few mishaps as a bunch of Jimnys tackle one of Lesotho’s premier off-road challenges, Baboon’s Pass
