Almost stuck on the 4x4 route from Danger Point to Kleinbaai

There is a 4x4 route along the coast between Danger Point and Kleinbaai harbour, and I don’t think many people know it is there.

Nathali and I had driven onto the start of it a few times, just for fun, and always turned back at the same place. There is a big rock early on that I was convinced the Ford Ranger would not clear. So we would look at it, turn around and go home. But the road kept gnawing at me.

Then I had a week in Kleinbaai working on the house — I cannot remember now whether it was the hot tub or putting up the new fireplace — and one afternoon I ran out of enthusiasm. I bought a pie and drove out to Danger Point to eat it while watching the sea. If you have not been, that view is worth the drive on its own.

On my way out I saw the rock again. My better conscience, however, was in Gordon’s Bay.

I made it over. My immediate satisfaction became, a few seconds later, the realisation that I could not get back down it. Should have listened. Whatever the rest of the route held, I was committed. And there were no tyre tracks ahead of me, so no idea how long it had been since anybody came through.

The first stretch climbs onto sand up a narrow track, fynbos closing in and scraping down both flanks of the bakkie. I am not an off-road driver and I cringed at every inch of it. Then it got interesting. In places the track splits, and I withdrew a few earlier decisions — literally: I had to drive whole sections in reverse. In others you pick your way over sharp rock and pray the scraping underneath is not permanent.

It went on longer than I had expected. Near the end there is a dip: down, hard right, then up to the left. That is where I got stuck.

I rocked back and forth a few times in low range and got nowhere. Sitting in the bottom of it I had a very clear picture of myself phoning the fire brigade to come and fetch me — except the signal was bad, so I would have had to walk a fair way first. Then I reversed as far as I could, locked the diff, switched off the traction control and drove at it. A bit of scraping, and I was up and out.

It frightened the living daylights out of me. It was also the most fun I have had in that vehicle. This is why I bought a 4x4.

Would I tell you to do it?

Yes, with conditions.

It is doable by an amateur — I am the evidence.

Two things I would do differently. I would walk it first. It is a pleasant walk in its own right, and you would arrive at that rock and that dip already knowing what you are dealing with instead of finding out with your front wheels on it. And I would take somebody with me, which I did not — so in a court this story is only hearsay. None of this is news to anyone who does this properly, but I did it the other way round, so I may as well say it.

Beyond that: know where your low range and your diff lock are before you need them rather than while you are sitting in a hole. Expect fynbos down both sides — it is a coastal track, not a graded road, and the scratches are part of the story.

I went over the bakkie afterwards and found nothing permanent, which I suppose is what it was built for. Right on our doorstep, and hardly anybody uses it.