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There you have it, I'm sure a lot of excuses will follow shortly... No seriously, Bertha is not called BIG Bertha for nothing - valient effort everyone that at least attemted Bertha!

So, we camped at Rosyntjie bos that night, here are a few shots of eveyone sorting themselves out, after loooong discusions of Bertha of course.

Two victorious ISUZUS!








Again we were greeted by a glorious Kalahari sunset:

It was a 'sideshow' off the route Dreamer. The elderly fire engine, after seeing the lack of success of some of the more qualified, decided to decline the now well churned up run. Nothing to prove.

Thanks for the nice comments everyone

Great clips of the Big Bertha trial WKK & Muller

More superb sunsets Switchback

Just a few more of Big Bertha from me before moving on....

Big Bertha 5 - Scouter & Co 0


Bog Bertha 3 - Donald & Jo 0


Big bertha 1 - WKK 0 ( Note Switchback in action with his camera)


Big Bertha 0 - WKK 1 (With Muller filming & Swichback cheering)


A big round of applause went out to all who tried....

So...after all the excitement of Big Bertha, here's something more tranquil. Enjoy Day 2 clip 3.

Scouter - ....what a return home!!! Hope things are ok now!

WKK - superb videos - thank you!

Barcud - your build up commentary and pics are brilliant! Thanks for sharing!

Switchback - awsome scenery pics!

I'm a bit behind.....so to catch up....a couple of pics of the road to Bertha.....





A pan we stopped at on the way to Bertha.......we had lunch under a tree over looking the pan.....and then just relaxed and chatted - got to hear some great stories from Aubrey.....



Some of the crew....



The road already done.....



The guys have already posted some great pics of the attempts at Bertha.......some had more attempts than others......so just from a different perspective (and sorry the quality isn't great and the editing needs WKK's great touch!)........and yes, it is 3 attempts from inside a rocking and rolling Prado........who will be back to finish a job not completed......

And a couple more pics from around the camp.....

Hope this works.....

@Scouter, Jo; Doing the videos is only a pleasure!!

Great footage Jo! The sound track says it all...lovely to hear that although you didn't conquer Bertha, she didn't break the high spirit in the car...and that's impressive. Well done to you both!

JO - ha thanks, hopefully its ging to settle down a bit now I hope - seems cat ran into something very hard and sharp during the night and split his jaw open down to the bone - 3 stitches but at least the geyser is sorted and so is the alarm - phew !!

Will try and post some photos today - need to sort throught them though cause with 3 cameras there are a LOT - we do have some nice ones of you and your dad when you were driving in front of us though

rusky - it WAS a long way - I had to inform my bladder VERY severly that I was not going to go ANYWHERE during the night so it better behave - and it did We did do one large expedition on the 2nd night at Rosyntjiebos before we went to bed where my SO turned the Landy so the brights were shining towards the loos and the spots were shining off to the sides of the loos and I think all the ladies went off together - that was ok

We went up Bertha as we were lined up from the morning, and the second Isuzu went up AFTER the first few attempts of the Toyota, Landy and Prado... Any other excuses...

Indeed... the sequence of attempts on Bertha was as per my footage. Both the Landy and the Prado had a few runs on the dune before I had a chance. My first failed attempt was due to wrong gear selection and hesitation to change gears at a critical point - my mistake. My second run was easy enough.

Seems like this thread can't get away from Bertha! Been at Rosyntjiebos camp for some time now so here's my next installment: Day 3 (Rosyntjiebos camp to Witgat camp.) Enjoy.

KG's magic eye muti worked together with a myprodol.

"Muti" is derived from the Zulu language but is commonly used in South African English and Afrikaans - as a slang word for medicine in general. Myprodol is a pain killer tablet by brand.

I woke up on the Wednesday morning with a sore eye and tried to 'ride it out', but it got worse, so I didn't want to mess with it and cause any emergency so I asked KG for some eye drops administered by Son Godin on the trail and took a pain killer. They seemed to sort it out.