Into the wild: Land Cruiser 79 conquers the rugged Richtersveld

IT STARTED with a Toyota Hilux GR Sport III and ended with a Land Cruiser 79.

I had put in my request for a December car with Toyota during the launch of the GR Sport III knowing that we would again be going to remote places that required the type of vehicle able to handle the harshest conditions, had 4x4 and could tow an off-road trailer.

A couple of months later, during the last race of the South African Rally-Raid Championship, Toyota had a 79 Series as part of their fleet for us to follow the race and I happened to mention that it would be the ideal car to travel to the |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park in the Northern Cape.

Toyota asked whether I was serious, and a week or two later the booking confirmation came through.

We would be driving an icon.

LAND CRUISER EVOLUTION

Toyota recently made a fundamental change to the Land Cruiser 70 Series by slotting in a 2.8-litre diesel engine with 150kW and 500Nm and a six-speed automatic transmission.

There were howls of ‘sacrilege’ around the globe because going to a smaller capacity engine as opposed to the traditional diesel V8 would change everything the vehicle was about.

It did, but in a good way.

How the 2.8-litre diesl engine with 150kW changed the Toyota Land Cruiser 79:

The 2.8 is more powerful, responds better to throttle inputs and importantly, significantly more economical.

And if you are still in doubt, many comparative tests on YouTube around the globe underscore this.

There is still, for now, the option of a V8 if you’re not convinced.

Why the Graphite Grey Metallic 79 Series?

One of the reasons the Graphite Grey Metallic 79 Series was so appealing to me is that it had a canopy which would make our lives a lot easier when it came to packing space.

Along with that it was also fitted with ARB spotlights and the centre console had been replaced with a compressor fridge, which turned out to be a brilliant move considering the temperatures we faced.

The cup holders were also aftermarket that fitted into the door on the window sill providing a space for your drink and a place to rest your elbow, because while the Cruiser 79 is a beast, it’s not big on interior luxuries.

All accessories are Toyota approved and can be added when you place your order.

We would be travelling to one the most remote National Parks in the country, forming part of SanParks’ Arid Parks.

THE LOCATION WE CHOSE

The |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park has the lower reaches of the Orange river that forms the border between SA and Namibia flowing through it before it washes into the sea at Alexander Bay.

It’s almost as remote as you could wish for, entering the park though Sendelingsdrif, which is also the border, crossed by a pont, into Namibia.

I had done a lot of research on the web, YouTube and various forums and paper maps and the one thing that came through is that it’s hot in summer and that you need to be completely self-sufficient for your time on the river.

Sendelingsdrif, with a shop that sells the basics, is two and a half hours away. It’s only 35 kilometres but it’s a tough mountainous and rocky track so distance is measured in time and not kilometres.

For 10 days we would have to take everything with us, including water, food, emergency kit and of course wood, because you know … braai.

It meant that we would be significantly heavier than your average holiday to the sea and so the process began.

PLANNING FOR THE TRIP

My partner and I made lists, revised lists, budgets, revised budgets, menus, revised menus, routes and revised routes with Tracks4Africa on my GPS to ensure we would not be caught out.

Keeping things cold and frozen was priority number one.

I have two camping fridge/freezers and normally the 95-litre dual fridge freezer in the trailer is fine.

Not this time. So we decided to take the 85-litre fridge as a freezer in the back of the Cruiser to keep mostly our meat solid and the very important task of using a “Snova” container to make ice.

The trailer with a 105AH battery to run the fridge (set to 2 degrees) and lights is charged through an integrated DB board via a 100W solar panel and I then rigged a solar charge controller and cables in the back of the Cruiser to a 200AH battery charged via a 200W solar panel for the freezer (set to -10 degrees).

One thing that struck me was that there isn’t a single loop or hook in the loadbay to tie anything down.

We were going to drive rough gravel and rocky roads so I had to MacGyver, wedge and ratchet the battery, freezer, ammo boxes, extra water bottles, umbrella, cooler box, wood and everything else required for an extended remote trip, so that it wouldn’t jump or slide around like a jack-in-the-box.

THE TRIP

With everything packed and hitched, we left before sunrise with a 900-kilometre drive ahead to our overnight chalet in Kakamas.

There’s something that’s difficult to describe about driving a Land Cruiser 79 that’s loaded and towing an off-road trailer into the wilderness.

Perhaps it’s all the stories about its capabilities, fully accessorised for over-landing social media feeds or the Land Rover vs Toyota jokes , but either way, you know you’re attracting envious glances.

I could feel the weight as we picked up speed but at between 100-110km/h the auto box settled into sixth gear and had no problem. Passing trucks and going up steep ascents it changes down easily and keeps the speed with some engine noise in the cabin.

We had a lot of time to see what the Cruiser 79 cabin offered and well … it's pretty basic.

I enjoy old school, so the analogue instrument cluster, short stick to change from 2H to 4H to 4L, high-mounted manual seats, no buttons on the steering wheel, sliding air vent settings (think 80s Corolla) and vinyl floor covering, I liked a lot.

There are a few anomalies though.

I’m not privy to specification levels decisions or how they affect pricing but I do ask myself how much extra it would be on a vehicle that’s just above R1-million to put a mirror on the passenger sun visor, digital consumption and distance to empty gauge, exterior temperature gauge and cruise control would be handy over long distances.

WHAT THE LAND CRUISER HAS TO OFFER

There’s an odometer and an A and B trip meter that we used to old-school calculate fuel consumption from the 130-litre tank. Fortunately we were long before the 30 percenters and our maths still worked.

There’s one USB port fitted into the touchscreen infotainment system that we used to power the GPS and one 12V port.

We had bought one of those multi 12V USB plug adapters to keep phones, tablets, powerbanks and Kindles charged. When the gravel corrugations and rocky roads wiggled that loose we plugged in a small inverter that worked like a charm.

Still, every time you admired it from outside, and it is imposing, or turned the key and you had organised to overcome the “shortcomings” there was a satisfied smile putting it into drive.

It does have Tracks4Africa installed which we used to compare to our planned route.

The roads were relatively quiet except as we got closer to towns which saw one idiot pass me on the grass verge to my right while I was passing a truck.

It was quite an unexpected shock to the system when stones and dirt flew up chipping the windscreen as he squeezed his way in and continued to do the same to the cars ahead.

When we reached Kakamas, consumption stood at 12.8l/100km, which considering our weight, the outhouse Cruiser’s shape and mostly cross-winds, is more than acceptable.

From there Poffadder, Aggeneys, Springbok and Steinkopf beckoned before turning off onto gravel, sand and stone for the next 10 days that would test us and the Toyota Land Cruiser 79 to the extreme.