VAATJIE / Outrek Pad – 3 September 2011

With the 2011 AAWDC Cape Interclub Family Day looming in November, the 4x4 Cape committee members decided to arrange a points event at Vaatjie / Outrek Pad 4x4 to test its club members’ skills and to help them decide who should be encouraged to represent the club at the interclub challenge.

After the first few days of spring resembling stormy monsoon weather to some, the morning of the outing started off a bit warmer, but overcast.   As the vehicles started to gather around 13h00 at the entrance to the farm, the sun came out and chased away the clouds leaving a perfect afternoon.

About 16 drivers registered to participate, where quite a few couples swopped over with their navigators after each completed gate to give the navigator a chance to drive.   The committee had laid out 7 ‘gates’ with various obstacles and challenges making up each ‘gate’.   Marshalls were selected to ‘invigilate’ at the gates, where the driver started off with 100 points at the beginning of the gate and had points subtracted for every infringement that occurred.

Gate 1 required the driver to navigate a course whilst blindfolded.   The navigator had to act as the driver’s eyes and guide the driver around the course from the passenger seat using verbal commands only.   In some instances it appeared to be the case of the blind leading the blind, but proved to be a lot of fun without any injuries or fatalities.

Gate 2 involved a water crossing, some tight cornering and a bit of spadework, where both the driver and navigator had to take it in turns to fill and tie off a sandbag within a specified time.   The course was quickly modified to exclude the water crossing after 3 different vehicles embedded themselves in the drink.

In Gate 3 participants had to successfully carry a bowl of 5 loose tennis balls strapped to the vehicle’s bonnet across a course made up of various ups and downs and sharp bends.

Gate 4 was designed for those drivers who like living on the edge and who don’t mind looking at life from a different angle.   It involved having to traverse around and obstacle with two wheels elevated about 30 degrees on a wall of an embankment as well as few more side-inclined challenges.   Tall, top heavy vehicles were not encouraged to attempt this course.

Gate 5 involved some steep slopes, tight bends, mud and traction, followed by some precision driving reversing into a tight parking zone.

Gate 6 resembled an egg-and-spoon race, but it required the driver to negotiate an articulating course whilst the navigator had to balance and egg on a spoon in an outstretched arm out of the passenger window.   Although it was a very time-consuming exercise, most participants were successful in returning an unbroken egg to the marshal at the end of the gate.

Gate 7 was the final official challenge of the day and it involved stopping and re-starting on a steep slope as well as letting out all that pent-up stress with a bit of target practice using a ‘catty’ (or ‘slingshot’ to the more refined).

At the end of the event, when the gate poles, signs, etc, were being packed away the odd few people decided to tackle one or two of the farm’s ‘Big Daddy’ obstacles – JUST BECAUSE THEY COULD !!!!!! 

After a great afternoon of fun and sun we headed off to the Vaetjie lapa for a ‘chop ‘n dop’ evening where we shared many tall and wide stories of the day’s events.

A big “Thank You” and thumbs-up to the committee members who planned the event and set up the obstacles, the marshals for their ‘unbiased’ input and to all the worthy participants, without whom the day would have been a non-event.

~ FLUFFLEA, over and out ! 

(with SWAMBO’s “Terroris”: Terios AWD manual)