Issue 17 opens where the tarmac ends and true grit begins. In the dusty heart of Botswana, a barefoot camper finds himself charging into the pitch black at two in the morning, waving a heavy metal camera tripod to wrest a food trunk from the jaws of a brazen spotted hyena. That midnight skirmish set the tone for an unforgiving push across the notorious Savuti crossing. Hauling a 1.6 tonne off-road caravan behind an Isuzu bakkie proved a brutal trial of momentum through power-sapping sand, axle-deep ruts, and washboard corrugations so violent they tore kitchen fittings clean from the walls before the convoy finally reached the sweet relief of tar.
Farther south, the vast Karoo unfolded in a completely different mood. The Sutherland Jaunt kicked up thick plumes of dust across the Tankwa plains, plunging down the dizzying gradients of Ouberg Pass and tracing the tight hairpins of Gannaga Pass up into the Roggeveld plateau. By Sunday, the desert dust gave way to biting cold and silent falling snow, powdering the veld in brilliant white as the convoy reached the giant optical eye of the Southern African Large Telescope.
Between these rugged tracks, new metal faced its reckoning. Toyota rolled out the flagship Hilux GD-6 Legend 48V, proving its stiffer chassis and heat-resistant dampers over high-speed Namibian corrugations and the rocky gullies of Kungwini. JMC made an imposing Western Cape debut with the hulking Grand Avenue double cab, Peugeot unlocked greater pulling power with the updated Landtrek, Nissan brought big-Patrol attitude down to family scale with the turbo Tekton, and the Suzuki Grand Vitara quietly shone as a modest, frugal everyday workhorse.
Rounding out the journey, the issue celebrates wild horizons: the newly proclaimed Grasslands National Park in the Eastern Cape highlands protecting critical water sources, Scottburgh’s transformed Crocworld cutting over 100 kilometres of fresh mountain biking trails, and Suzuki laying the groundwork for the Jimny faithful to conquer the Lowveld in 2027.
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