so we have an early start this morning all packed up and ready to go the time is five quarter past
five we're gonna make it to springbok early this morning we are meeting up with Emma from runaway
blonde so we'll probably meet up with her a little bit later in the day and we're going to be heading
through to a town called pela where we're going to begin our journey on the namakwa 4x4 eco trail
it's been something i've been wanting to do for quite a while and i think for Emma too but you
know it's quite a tough trail and it's something you don't really want to do on your own so
we managed to actually align our schedules there and should be quite interesting we've
got our last little bit of a drive now through the namakwa land national park we're going to
leave the coastal park this morning and then we're going to head into the actual mainland
park but anyways join us on this episode as we begin our journey on the namakwa 4x4 ecu trail
this whole series is made possible by the power of redarc
and in part by bushtech canopies terrain tamer and eezi awn
our route today would take us on the caracal eco trail
which starts at Groenrivier and ends on the n7 just south of springbok this route
takes you across some pretty spectacular scenery in the namaqualand national park
through the darkness peaked the gentle glow of the sun
and as it slowly began to rise it painted the landscape around us with light revealing the
beauty of namaqualand this would be our playground for the next week and i couldn't be more excited
it is so worth waking up early in the morning to have beautiful views like this on the morning
drive but the best is here to come so the trail we're on right now is known as the caracal 4x4
route and it kind of crosses all the way from the land coastal park all the way into the land
mainland park and actually comes out just south of springbok um so it will cover a lot of the
really nice beautiful terrain in namakwaland so you can also drive through it in a day there
will be little markings on the side of the road with a little caracal you can kind of just make
sure you're on the right track but yeah so far beautiful we stopped we had a little cup of coffee
quick and by a little broken down windmill and very very cool and we're now going to be pushing
but for now just enjoy the drive enjoy the beautiful scenery
this was a route i did almost six years ago it was actually my first ever overland adventure
and it was as awesome and spectacular as that day the carscal eco route covers a huge section
of the namaqualand national park and really does give you an awesome sense of adventure
and definitely isn't too demanding on your vehicle it is something that you do probably need to do
in a day because there are no campsites along the way also bear in mind this route is not to
be confused with the namakwa 4x4 eco trail they are completely different and in different parts
of the northern cape we will be getting to the namakwa 4x4 eco trail later on in the series
what lay over the hill was quite shocking the locusts we had seen all the way over in
the eastern cape were also present all the way up on the opposite side of the country
in the northern cape it worried me because this environment is so sensitive
and i can't imagine swarms of locusts being a good thing for this part of the world
what a beautiful pass my word my word so coming from the wildeperdhoek pass into i think it's
called the messelpad pass insane you climb right up you climb right down you climb right up again
beautiful bends and waves in the road stunning but the locusts are back in force crazy crazy
to see ah these cliffs driving through here is absolutely spectacular this is so so beautiful
i can't even fathom what this pass would look like during the flower season i think there will
be properly mind-blowing stuff because it's already incredible just as it is right now
just like that our little adventure with Nicky was up
from springbok we would go our separate ways but what a great little detour
the next chapter of our adventure was about to begin
after we said goodbye to Nicky in springbrook we made our way down the in 14
towards the town of Pella where we would be meeting up with Emma the runaway blonde
so it was really great meeting up with Nicky and getting to do a bit of exploring together he gave
us a few checks to do every day just to make sure that like the wheel nuts are tight and things like
that to make sure the battery terminals and stuff are tight and the battery bracket itself is tight
you know just kind of monitor the oil engine oil and stuff like that we're going to be
going through harsh terrain and stuff like that just keeping an eye on the vehicle
so we've got our little list of checks to do every morning and um yeah we are actually now on our way
to the town of pela where we will be staying at in clean pillar to kind of begin our journey we've
got an amazing journey ahead of us it's going to be hard it's going to be hot and it is going to be
beautiful so we are on our way to meet up with Emma the runaway blonde um she's already at the
campsite waiting for us there hopefully we'll have a rock to a campfire and all of that stuff
the further along the n14 we traveled the more the landscapes transformed and you can tell the
area has received good rain because the grasslands were thick and green and contrasted so beautifully
against the red sand and mountains i haven't seen this area so beautiful in my entire time
of traveling across south africa and if this is what it looked like alongside the highway
i cannot imagine what the scenery would look like once we got off-road in between those mountains
it's really stunning
as the mountains grew bigger and the date plantations formed around us
we knew we were close this area is actually famous for producing massive amounts of medjool dates and
the clean pillar campsite was situated on a day plantation i was excited to see what spot
Emma had picked for us and by the looks of it it certainly wouldn't be a disappointment
hello where's the beers sorry where's the beers
i'm doing dry season with you guys oh you can't give away our secrets we've
got to think that people are going to think we're cool we can bleep that out
we were exhausted after a full day on the road and luckily we arrived to a lit campfire and
even a snack platter i had a feeling that we would have to pick up our camping game with emma around
she seemed to be a lot more organized than us but we were grateful for some
extra company on the journey ahead today's drive is longer than the second day's drive
333ks this is emma hi the runaway blonde she's going to be joining us for the next part of the
adventure we're going to be doing the namakwa 4x4 eco trail so we're currently in klein pela camping
here it's a nice little base for us to kind of fill up our water tanks get recharged sit and
you know sit with the garmin sort out all of our mapping and our route and you know plan everything
for and i think it's quite a popular destination for everyone who wants to do the echo route
start here as well it's very central to the route yeah and there's some really beautiful arts i mean
it's epic i mean they're driving us inside the date plantations you will see tomorrow yeah so
yeah so we got it we got a nice day ahead of us tomorrow basically tomorrow we are going to
go into pela we're going to do the what is it the charles pass and then from the child's past we're
going to come back past and through clean fella and then we're going to properly begin the eco
trail basically we're going to be traveling along the orange river or the harip river
for a couple days we're actually only staying one night in the first part what's the camp now months
drift nine months drift and then we then we're staying in fuels drift we're gonna find a camp
there and then in part two we're staying at bacon which apparently i've heard is really amazing so
i think it's like in a cave or something or next to a cave yeah something like that so basically
the trailer splits into two sections this they one section is on the eastern side of the n7 and
the other section is on the western side of the n7 and basically runs all the way towards alexander
bay and on the west coast so we're going to see a variety of amazing locations and spectacular
scenery along the way and hopefully we're going to get to get quite nice and close to the orange
river and they've had some serious rain up in and mpumalanga and all of that stuff and that's all
flooded into the Vaal and vaall dam is open so hopefully we don't get flooded out or we
don't get any flash floods or anything like that coming down the river but we'll be aware of that
as we kind of proceed but hopefully we've got a nice vibrant orange river beautiful sunsets and
all sorts of things to experience so we should have a lovely adventure ahead of us um and
i'm hoping that over the next couple days i'll be able to walk you around
emma's vehicle nala and show you her setup that she's done on her vehicle it's very very cool um
she travels solo and has many wonderful adventures so we'll kind of show you a little bit of that as
well as we kind of get going through the series so anyways we're gonna ha settle in have dinner
i think the polls are pretty much ready and uh we'll catch up with you guys tomorrow morning
thank you so much for joining us on this week's episode of ROAM Overlanding i really hope you
enjoyed it and we'd love to hear what you think down in the comments below please remember to like
comment and subscribe it really helps the channel and i will see you on the next adventure cheers