New 4×4 route for Marakele will open new horizons

An exciting new 4×4 route is in the pipeline for Marakele National Park. This route will take you across Marakele, starting about 15km East of Matlabas on the farm, Waterhoutboom, and ends on Matlabas Zijn Kloof in die South West of Marakale. This is one of the first projects in co-operation with Marakele Pty Limited to allow visitors to the park to their section of Marakele. Park manager, Hendrik Mugwabana, invited Die Kwêvoël along on this epic tour to establish the feasibility of a route of this kind. We set off the morning with a SANParks vehicle, loaded with parksboard officials and also the chairperson of the Marakele Park Forum, Dirk Laufs and another guest, as well as my own Jeep Cherokee with me and two friends. If I had known beforehand what lay in store for my own vehicle, I might have declined the offer. As it turned out, the Jeep, with its 3.7 liter V6 engine, handled this rough terrain better than the converted 4×4 of SANParks with its V8 Buick engine. The excellent traction control of the Cherokee also contributed to the ease in which a great part of the route was completed in low range, staying in drive. The automatic gearbox responded excellent and the temperature gauge stayed put at normal. Going down hill was a different story as my co-driver had to coach me over every bolder to prevent damage to the vehicle. Even here, in first gear, the vehicle responded well with its high torque at low revs, virtually stepping from bolder to bolder. Some work will have to be done in order for other 4×4 visitors to be able to use this road. But as they say, what is off road driving if you don’t hit the rough terrain? Visitors will stay over for the first night at Waterhoutboom where existing accommodation, originally built for Marakele National Park employees, will be restored and upgraded. From there the route winds up the side of one of the koppies through fynbos, including the lovely Bushveld proteas. This section of the road takes the visitor through the most amazing countryside with stunning views. Reaching the summit, the rest of the world has dropped away and one overlooks the vastness of the receding Bushveld. Here we had a breakfast break, comparing notes on how we experienced the trip so far. From here, the stretch up to the next farm, Mammiaanshoek, was undertaken with no definite road in sight. Over rocks and through the veld, with grass totally obstructing all view, we made our way up and down the contours. Streams had to be crossed virtually at their beginning, for the rest, the cliffs barred all access to the next ridge. From Mammiaanshoek we decided to take the route to Buffelspoort in stead of back to Matlabas Zijn Kloof, as this part of road was downhill the whole time. Due to lack of enough ground clearance we could land in difficulties. The Buick engine started overheating in any case. Roads were better defined as they were used years ago by the farmers in their normal sedans. However, skip maintenance on a road for twenty years and you’ve got yourself an instant 4×4 track. At this stage it is not clear when this facility will be added to the existing facilities at Marakele National Park. One can however be sure that it will be, just as we all experienced it, an exhilarating experience.