Driving across the Kalahari - not aviation but fun

[limeygal]

a locust ranger

from the Rhodesian crash article-very good btw

What's one of them?

[A Lutra Continua]

Red locust sprayers.

[limeygal]

Thanks

[ian16th]

One for Ex-A

Bots Car.jpg

This is a pic that I took this morning by the Uvongo Post Office. I park here while I check my P O Box and this Bots registered Mitsubishi is often here.

A hell of a long way to drive for the weekend!

[Alisoncc]

Always liked the way car number plates used to say where you were from when I was there. T for Transvaal, N for Natal, O for the Vrystat, etc. Then you'd get TJ for Johannesburg, TG for Germiston, ND for Durban, CT for Cape Town, etc. And if a long way from home and you saw another car from the same town as yourself then you would hoot and roar as you passed them.

On one occasion driving down near Bloemfontain in a TG car we passed a TK car - TK Transvaal Krugersdorp, and the guy I was with, Coetzee by name, waves them down & hops out to chat as he had rels in Krugersdorp. It was always very friendly, except for the yarpies from the Vrystat - Orange Free State, that is. Used to refer to them as ropes - thick, hairy and twisted.

Alison

[ian16th]

Natal and maybe W Cape are now about the only 'old' provinces that have not moved their borders or changed their number plates.

I was advised to change mine ASAP after arriving, but definitely before Xmas! When the Vaalie's arrived.

Apparently we are going to get new plates in KZN because the system has used up nearly all available numbers.

Not a problem yet with Port Shepstone (NPS), we are only in the 80,000 range, and they seem to be re-issuing old numbers. I got an 84,000 number 2 years ago and I've seen brand new cars with 4 digit numbers.

[Ex-Ascot]

Ian we call our motor 'Nora' from the Royal Air Force Club.

Nora Batty, 128 Piccadilly for those not in the know.

[Dushan]

By now all the sump oil was in the cylinders. Removed the plugs and slowly cranked her over by hand, trying not to lose too much oil. After a few hours thought it safe to refit the plugs and try for a start. Luckily the battery hadn't drained it's contents. After a while she fired with clouds of black smoke, but she was running. Land Rovers for ever.

Rob, Rob, is that you? Are we all being tricked here into a nice little board site, and then wham! All banned and Locked out for ever?

[Alisoncc]

Only get banned here if you consider any of the Japanese 4wd's as being better than a Landy.

[A Lutra Continua]

Funny enough, you don't see many Landies around these parts any more. Just not as tough and reliable as the Land Cruiser.

[500N]

Funny enough, you don't see many Landies around these parts any more.
Just not as tough and reliable as the Land Cruiser.

When we had one, they were tough, except the parts that kept breaking like half shafts and axles.

Then again, we put it through hell but even so.

Land Cruisers have taken over in Aus as well and I have spoken to people who used both, before and after the Cruiser
came out and what we found in the UK was the same as they found here.

I still love them,a mate still has one in the NT !

[A Lutra Continua]

Used to have a SWB Td. Never again.

[500N]

LWB Series IIa, I think we purchased it in 1969 from memory.
I still remember the first time it drove up the driveway.
A big step up from I think a Station Wagon Cortina !

[19downbubble]

Not on the scale of the Kalahari, but many years ago in a town somewhere near Mohave, a shop had a spiral-bound, letter-sized, locally-written book on US army forts and other little-visited installations across California and Arizona. Decided to visit all we could in a week, and went from one to the other across spectacularly desolate landscape. Was intercepted by some kind of ranger who, once convinced I was just a nutty tourist, advised us to not approach any vehicle in the desert, and divert to a town if we came near any light aircraft. Searles Valley, Quartzite and the camps around the DTC/CAMA, up to the gold-mining area past Palm Springs, the tunnel through the mountain at Burro Pass (and met the old lady), and so on. Great time. Gold miners were a bit territorial. 2400 miles in 8 days, mostly unsurfaced. The 4x4 rental was a mess, though.

[Ex-Ascot]

Land cruisers mainly here as well. Land Rover parts are difficult to get. Rest assured Alison we have a LR series 4 long base in Greece. Started life here in Africa actually. Driven it backwards and forwards UK - Greece a few times.