Chapter 6: The journey is the reward

After trekking across the Southern Namibian countryside, the team arrived in Vioolsdrift, a small settlement situated on the border between Namibia and South Africa. Vioolsdrift is a popular stopover for travelers along the N7 Cape to Namibia route, it essentially functions as the border post for the two countries and there’s a bridge that crosses the Orange River and connects the small Namibian village of Noordoewer to the north-western Namaqualand area of South Africa.

All we could see, to all sides of us, were tall and spectacular-looking sandstone mountains as far as the eye could see. We felt particularly excited about putting the Karoo Special Edition Range vehicles to the test in this environment.

As we crossed the border into South Africa, which is along the banks of the Orange River, we drove straight into Richtersveld. Located on the northwestern corner of the Northern Cape, it’s a barren desert landscape that stretches for about 400,000 acres (or approximately 1,600 square kilometres). The area has the highest diversity of succulents in the world and is considered the world’s only arid biodiversity hotspot.

Richtersveld, in our opinion, is one of the most photogenic places in the world. It’s huge, sparsely populated and has a quiet, eerie and spooky feel to it because one can go for hours without seeing another human being. This place is particularly unique because it has diverse terrain- from flat, sandy, coastal plains, to rough and uneven mountains of volcanic rock. We spent the whole morning putting the authentic bakkies to the test by taking them across some of these terrains, that most off-road vehicles may struggle with, but the Karoo DAWN, DUSK and STORM passed with flying colours.

We were blown away by the vehicle’s performance, the heavy-duty suspension was put to work on multiple turfs and didn’t disappoint. The challenges were all absorbed by the suspension with ease. Even driving up the toughest mountains, the handling still felt very comfortable. Driving along off-road trails felt like a breeze in these bakkies.

We’re going to be stationed in Richtersveld for a couple of days to take in the sheer beauty of this place. Taking in the peaceful scenery before we tackle the most famous 4X4 routes in the country. It extends for an impressive 600 kilometres through this craggy terrain.

Join us in part seven of our ongoing blog