We got up early this morning so that we could head off for a 240km drive on gravel roads to Sossusvlei, hoping to get
there in time to sort out the campsite and then head into the vlei for sunset. Best laid plans....
The road from Helmeringhausen north is not bad, it’s not good either, best described as a bit of a bone-shaker. It passes through some pretty magnificent scenery though, real Africa, with acacia trees, huge tracts of grassland and distant hills and mountains, all with a crystal clear sky with blinding sun. The road changes colour every now and then, it can be grey, white, red, purple, yellow –the rocks here are different from those yesterday, the hills have changed too. There were very few people or vehicles on the road – in fact for the first hour we saw no-one, just some smoke rising from what looked like a small farmstead. All was going roughly to plan when after about 100km, on passing a gate in the road, the engine just died leaving us coasting quietly (if there is such a thing in a Mog) down a gentle slope. We stopped, stunned. Nothing like this has ever happened or even threatened to happen before. Now what? Ahead was empty, behind was empty – the GPS indicated a junction in the road about 20km further on, nothing else.
A quick look under the bonnet showed that the fuel pump didn’t seem to be pumping anything –the manual pump just seemed to be acting on air, not fuel. There was no vacuum in the fuel tank, so no problem there - I got under the truck to look at the fuel pre-filters, no water was in the bowls. At this moment a tour bus (basically a truck with a
passenger-carrying body on the rear) pulled up behind us – we were on the tourist trail! The drivers of these tour buses seem to always stop for overland trucks (many of them are ex-overlanders or would like to be) – he told us that there was a service station at the junction, while he was with us I re-tried the manual fuel pump, it started to pressurise, so I tried the starter – we had life again. Off we went, we had power but it was difficult to work out if we had full power or not, but lo and behold, 20km further on there was a large “Caltex” sign – a small fuel station at a place (basically it seems to be a single farm) called Betta complete with coffee shop, provisions – and a camp-site!
We pulled up on the forecourt and enquired if they had a mechanic – they’re all away at an auction today – would you mind if I do some work on my truck here? – no problem! So – after about 2 ½ hours work in the midday sun the pre-filters had been changed (cutting one open showed the filter to be BLACK with something), the main filters inspected (all ok) and the whole system including the injector pump bled. Would it start? It did – now would it run? We went for a test drive– up the road, down the road, up the road – all seemed well. Now what to do, it’s gone 2pm, it gets dark at 6pm, it’s another 140km to Sossusvlei on
gravel (so maybe 3 hours) with still some doubts in our minds as to how the truck is going to run – we erred on the side of caution and camped at Betta. Tomorrow we’ll really see if it’s fixed.
I strongly suspect that we picked up some bad fuel at Ai-Ais a week or so ago and that is the source of this problem. We’re intending doing some other work on the Mog at Walvis Bay when we get there, I’m tempted to drain the fuel tank completely and clean it out while we are about it.
The campsite here was a bit of a find – it’s really quite good – each stand has its own shade, sink, braii and elevated sunset-viewing platform! We watched the sun go down behind distant hills while we waited for the water to be heated by yet another donkey. The campsite seems to have its very own crow – it walks around approaching within inches – and even tried to climb the steps into the Mog at one point. It doesn’t seem able to fly but doesn’t seem to be hungry. Odd.
there in time to sort out the campsite and then head into the vlei for sunset. Best laid plans....
The road from Helmeringhausen north is not bad, it’s not good either, best described as a bit of a bone-shaker. It passes through some pretty magnificent scenery though, real Africa, with acacia trees, huge tracts of grassland and distant hills and mountains, all with a crystal clear sky with blinding sun. The road changes colour every now and then, it can be grey, white, red, purple, yellow –the rocks here are different from those yesterday, the hills have changed too. There were very few people or vehicles on the road – in fact for the first hour we saw no-one, just some smoke rising from what looked like a small farmstead. All was going roughly to plan when after about 100km, on passing a gate in the road, the engine just died leaving us coasting quietly (if there is such a thing in a Mog) down a gentle slope. We stopped, stunned. Nothing like this has ever happened or even threatened to happen before. Now what? Ahead was empty, behind was empty – the GPS indicated a junction in the road about 20km further on, nothing else.
A quick look under the bonnet showed that the fuel pump didn’t seem to be pumping anything –the manual pump just seemed to be acting on air, not fuel. There was no vacuum in the fuel tank, so no problem there - I got under the truck to look at the fuel pre-filters, no water was in the bowls. At this moment a tour bus (basically a truck with a
passenger-carrying body on the rear) pulled up behind us – we were on the tourist trail! The drivers of these tour buses seem to always stop for overland trucks (many of them are ex-overlanders or would like to be) – he told us that there was a service station at the junction, while he was with us I re-tried the manual fuel pump, it started to pressurise, so I tried the starter – we had life again. Off we went, we had power but it was difficult to work out if we had full power or not, but lo and behold, 20km further on there was a large “Caltex” sign – a small fuel station at a place (basically it seems to be a single farm) called Betta complete with coffee shop, provisions – and a camp-site!
We pulled up on the forecourt and enquired if they had a mechanic – they’re all away at an auction today – would you mind if I do some work on my truck here? – no problem! So – after about 2 ½ hours work in the midday sun the pre-filters had been changed (cutting one open showed the filter to be BLACK with something), the main filters inspected (all ok) and the whole system including the injector pump bled. Would it start? It did – now would it run? We went for a test drive– up the road, down the road, up the road – all seemed well. Now what to do, it’s gone 2pm, it gets dark at 6pm, it’s another 140km to Sossusvlei on
gravel (so maybe 3 hours) with still some doubts in our minds as to how the truck is going to run – we erred on the side of caution and camped at Betta. Tomorrow we’ll really see if it’s fixed.
I strongly suspect that we picked up some bad fuel at Ai-Ais a week or so ago and that is the source of this problem. We’re intending doing some other work on the Mog at Walvis Bay when we get there, I’m tempted to drain the fuel tank completely and clean it out while we are about it.
The campsite here was a bit of a find – it’s really quite good – each stand has its own shade, sink, braii and elevated sunset-viewing platform! We watched the sun go down behind distant hills while we waited for the water to be heated by yet another donkey. The campsite seems to have its very own crow – it walks around approaching within inches – and even tried to climb the steps into the Mog at one point. It doesn’t seem able to fly but doesn’t seem to be hungry. Odd.