Day 8

Jamie - This was going to be a big day! It was finally time to buy all the camping gear that we had been anticipating for ages! We jumped in the Atos with Kelvin and headed for Outdoor World; a big supermarket type place just full of compressors, jerry cans, axes, fishing rods and all the other stuff that us lads love to just look at for hours at a time! This place was like heaven!

We basically went round the store while Kelvin told us what we needed and what was ‘cuck’. And trust me, when Kelvin says you need something, you take it, and when he says its crap, you stay well away! We bought a big cooler box type thing, an axe, some ammo crates to store stuff on the roof rack in, some grilling equipment and some mean looking wood saw along with a load of other random bits. By the end of our session, we had 7000 rands worth or so of equipment waiting behind the counter. I shakingly got my credit card out of my wallet and handed it across wondering what had just happened.

It was then time to head to the next camping / outdoor place type shop. Now if South Africa does anything well, its camping shops. This was another place kitted out to look like you had just walked into a forest or something. We quickly grabbed a winch rope and some other small bits and bobs, before stopping to admire the knife collection and then head out into the Johannesburg traffic.

We got back to base (Kelvin’s garage workshop area which is full of random cars and jeeps he is working on) and got to work prepping the Land Rover. We put on some funky looking green cover to protect the radiator and make us look like overlanding pros, before starting to tackle the removal of one of the benches in the back. This stubborn thing just stopped us fitting the cool box in the back, so it had to go. The thing is though, that all the bolts were stuck, so Kelvin, being the man he is, told us to stop wasting our time and pulled out his flame thrower gas burner thing and literally melted the bolts off in a shower of sparks and light. We watched on in awe!

So we ripped out the bench and went over to look at the engine. Our new gasket had arrived and we had to help drop the engine head back on. It all went fine until Kelvin went to clean off some rust with an air gun thing. We were all happily watching as he placed the nozzle to the side of the engine. He turned it on, put it to the side and then muttered out a swear word. We didn’t know what was going on until we noticed water peeing out of a hole in the side. This was bad, but Kelvin just coolly walked off. We all just stood there staring at each other, not daring to say a word. He returned with a smile on his face explaining how lucky we were that he just happened to have the right spare in stock which he then put in place.

That night we went back to Kelvin’s place where Sonia, his wife, had cooked us up some Spaghetti Bolognese. And wow, it tasted good! I decided to be extra cheeky and help myself to normal cheese AND parmesan cheese. We heard tales about Stu’s cousin, Thor, who had once cut a zip line wire… as his sister, Fallon, was whizzing down it. He also rigged up some parachute to the back of a quad bike and got his sister to be the guinea pig for it. The story ended with her sliding George of the Jungle style down a tree after the experiment went wrong and she collided into the top of it.

We then went for a coffee and a chat at Fallon’s place before heading home and going to bed.