Punda Maria Recovery Exercise March 2021

At our last camp of our first trip in Kruger, Punda Maria, we got ourselves literally in a sticky situation.

When we drove around the campsite to find a spot we liked we got stuck…. seriously stuck… seriously stuck in the mud.

We think it was a combination of the ground being soaked from the excessive rainfall in the last few weeks and possibly a trench that hadn’t been compacted well enough and now sunk away under our weight. Afterwards we saw that, on the spot where we wanted to park, another car must have gotten stuck too because there were very deep tracks in the saturated soil. 

As Stefaan got in reverse to back up into our perfect camping spot, the wheels spun themselves in the mud within seconds and Trokkie sank with her belly onto the ground. 

Luckily our neighbouring campers seemed well experienced in stuck vehicles and while the men got into digging and hauling logs, the women took video. (We hope they still will send their videos to add to ours. We left our card but unfortunately  forgot to take down their contact details.)

We don’t have max tracks as Trokkie is quite heavy. We saw alternative methods to get wheels out of mud and Stefaan had some made (steel grips you strap onto the wheel – unfortunately it didn’t work and we lost one in the mud). We also have hydraulic jacks on all four corners, which we hoped could help lift the truck to stick logs and other stuff under, but the ground was so soft and muddy that whatever we pushed under the jacks, got just pushed deeper into the mud… no help at all.

Eventually it all got back to basics: digging in front of the wheels, pushing logs in the channels and try to pull with another vehicle.

All glory went to Gavin and his land cruiser who pulled us out. I think that the cheers from the team, as Trokkie got out of the mud, must have reverberated around the campsite!

We bought a bottle or two as a thank you and joined the team for a drink and a bite afterwards: thank you to Gavin and the team for helping us out that afternoon!! Kudos to you guys!