CAPE ESCAPE
To start this story, I’d better kick off with a disclaimer: I love Land Rover Defenders, finish and klaar! No evidence needed to ‘Defend’ the breed, after having had a lifetime of Landies, starting from early childhood in Kenya, up to my present home-made camper based on a 1984 V8.
So, when Johan Kriek, the founder of the Defender Trophy, invited SA4x4 to the Cape event (Patrick Cruywagen covered the Limpopo event for the magazine), I didn’t have to think twice before saying ‘Yes!’ Needing a co-driver, I asked my mate Alastair Barnes from my home dorp of Greyton to join me. After all, Al owns two Defenders (a Tdi and a Td5) plus a couple of 1958 Series 1s.
On the appointed day, we headed off over the Franschhoek Pass to the Gateway OffRoad Centre on the outskirts of Wellington. Owner Nekkies Smit is one of the major sponsors of the Cape Defender Trophy 2017, and had very kindly arranged for us to use a SWB Defender.
The Defender Trophy started as a simple three-day event for Land-Rover enthusiasts in Lesotho, in 2004. The brainchild of Johan Kriek, it wasn’t intended to