Wide open space is just the tonic

AFTER 2020, a year of doom and gloom, a reset was needed. Not just a break, but a proper breakaway. Silence, space and as being as far away as possible from the madding crowd.

Ordinarily we would have headed down the N3 for our annual family holiday on the South Coast, but with a Ford Raptor at my disposal (as a motoring journalist), something more extreme was calling.

And then it came; a message on one of the 4x4 WhatsApp groups I’m on that a couple of members were planning to do the Namaqua 4x4 Eco route through the rugged Northern Cape.

Mention names like Pella, Pofadder, Eksteenfontein, Kamgab, Groot Melkboom or Ramansdrift and the Helskloof pass, and you know you are about as far from the city as you can get.

I excitedly scoured the 4x4 forums, bought some good, old-fashioned detailed maps and books, penning the trip with all the information and GPS co-ordinates and reached out to people who had done it before.

First thing you need to know is that you have to be completely self-sufficient for the time you’re planning to spend in the Richtersveld. Water, food, power, ablutions and wood must be taken along for the seven-day trip the group had planned.

Then the two other couples who were going along changed their plans and suddenly my partner and I were on