River Trip 6-10 August 2015 AKA Die Groot Trek

[JoshJ]

Yes. I think entry and exit co-ordinates are vital. Plus if someone can give an Idea of how many km in the river we will be driving and the distance between refill feul stations. Closest to entrance and from exit. This will help greatly with feul planning.

[Michael]

Josh
I have checked some of these distances

From PTA tp the Molotots entrance is 390km
The section of the Molotots will be 82km
From the Molotots exit back to PTA is about 450km

Dirk, I see you mentioned in the first post that the river section will be about 170km if we drive in both rivers? Is the option there to drive in the Groot-Letaba river?

[offroadbiker]

I am trying to first enjoy Bufffalo Gorge this weekend before I turn to the River trip

Ok ok seems lot of you are not going away this long weekend so you are planning for AUG

If memory serves me right I posted the Google images of exactly the route with entrance and exit points (p3), however pm me an e-mail addressand I will forward to you guys.

Fuel really should not be a problem as I was able to do last year with an 80L tank and got 1.9km/l in the river. I did however indicate on the map also where we should be able to re-fuel if required.

The Molotots is about 100km maximum, if we complete in say 2 days, we exit and drive aprx 35km to the Little Letaba which is about 70km. Kant not drive the Groot Letaba!!

I will speak to Chris Boegman this weekend as he is clued up with google to try and get GPS co-oordinates.

There is no dedicated spot for first night camp - remember the river is different each year depending on rainfall, so we usually drive max 3km to get the best spot and away from any settlement.

Closer to the time we will see who might go the earliest, one of the guys is from Tsaneen so he will hopefully be early...

If anybody wants to call or whats upp - 082 940 7921

[ricster]

On my 4.2 diesel, I'm working on Michaels 390 + 450Km = 840Km + 200Km ( from Alberton to Pta and back ) plus Dirks 170Km river section. To do this I'm working on using a total of 200L and 500ml two stroke oil. The 3.0L Diesels I think will be slightly better than that. But this is just an estimate. If I work on 1040Km ( traveling there and back excl river section ) at 15L/100Km, which should actually be around 14L/100Km, then I need 156L diesel. Then the river section of 170Km ( using Dirks distance ) at 25L/100Km, Then I need 43L diesel. That's a total of 188L. There is a 12L safety for good measure. So a total fuel average of 17L/100Km.

If I can achieve this I will be Uber happy. I will be carrying a few gerry cans incase, but I'd like to achieve this. I'm also not going to drive like an old granny either to ensure I get this. I want to drive like normal.

[offroadbiker]

According to my friend Google the last fuel stop is 20km before we enter the river (also on 2km before enter but could not confirm availability of fuel) so if one fills up there you need fuel for 20km tar and 100km sand, and then 15km gravel to closest pump again, so NOBODY should run out of fuel......

[Michael]

Thanks Dirk, that is good to know

Cedric, we should get at least 5km/L in the river and 6.5 - 7km/L on tar so Im not even going to take extra jerry cans of fuel.
So we will fill up our main and sub tank's before entering the river (should be 140L of fuel on board then) and should only use around 34L during the 170km of river.
That means I should actually get home with the fuel I put in just before we entered the river? If I calculate correctly I should only use 155L of diesel for the whole trip.....will be interesting to see how close I get to that

[Tinus lotz]

Low range soft sand ......mabe that koolstoof will smell 3.5km per liter but never 5.....regtig

[Michael]

Ok well I must confess I have not driven soft sand wit my Patrol yet, but lets see then how close I can come to it

[ricster]

Yeah I think 5 is a bit ambitious... maybe 4 is a safer bet.

My iron Maiden doesn't have the sub tank..... ... so 90L plus the jerries is all I got ...

[Peter Connan]

Why is it all the diesel okes are worrying about fuel, and all the petrol okes just carry on like normal (which is to say, driving from filling station to filling station)?