JK Trail Run - Serendipity Eco Trail

The day started with a fresh 5am wake alarm waking us up. We got ourselves out of bed and back to life and headed downstairs to pack the Jeep. With everything in we headed down to an Engen garage with a 24 hour Woolworths to fill up the Jeep and get some snacks and drinks for the day. Two blocks from my house I realise I left the GPS on my desk. Luckily we realised this sooner than later, and so we turned back and fetched it. We then get to the garage, fill up, buy food and then hit the road to the first rendezvous point for the day. As we get there we see FrancoisVN is already there. We 'meeted and greeted' and as I was on the phone minutes after, MikeG arrives. With the 3 of us from our area ready, we hit the highway.
Not too far along and we get to another garage where we stop for breakfast and to wait for JeepNuts joining us from somewhere else.

As he arrives, we're all finally ready to head to the trail.

The trip there was very relaxed. There was hardly any traffic on the highway, and with the exception of one or two speed cameras, the trip was smooth cruising.
As we turn off the highway and make our way through the small town of Modimolle we see the mesa which a landmark in the area. When you see the mesa you know you're near Serendipity.

We finally arrive at Serendipity. As we stopped we made our way through to the office where we signed in and paid the fees for the day. Once the owner explained the route to us we headed back to the Jeeps to air down the tires, take tops down and get ready for the trail. 

Minutes into the trail and we're greeted by the first obstacle. The obstacle had a bypass route and the choice was neatly marked with a sign pointing in the direction of easy and difficult. Naturally we took the difficult route. 

We proceeded to climb out the steep slope to the top of the hill where we found ourselves gazing out over the Waterberg. We continued on and after going through the gate onto the farm we stopped for some pictures. 

Not much further along we ran into a Land Rover Defender and Toyota Land Cruiser trying to get through an obstacle. It was a fairly simple obstacle, however the Defender was struggling to get through as it kept getting into a cross axle situation, and without lockers or traction control that stops you from going further. But with a steeper, but smoother line the Defender eventually made it through. The Defender was kind enough to move aside and let the Jeeps go through. The Jeeps went through without any trouble. As this was the first obstacle where there would be some articulation I decided to disconnect my swaybar. To my surprise I realised that my electronic swaybar disconnect was not working. This was not an issue as the Jeep had more than enough traction as it made its way through the obstacle. 

We then started descending down a very nice steep slope only to be stopped halfway down by a huge convoy of SsangYongs that were negotiating their way through about 3mm of water.  So we took this opportunity to stop for a break and wait to let the SsangYongs make their way through. This was a narrow section so we couldn't simply drive past them. When they were eventually gone we continued through the valley till we eventually reached the dam. Again here we found the SsangYongs but they were stopping for a break and we went past them and onto the next obstacle. 

We then made our way down to the water section which was disappointingly dry. Only two crossings had any water deeper than about 30cm. The rest of the river banks were completely dry. Even the sections marked "caution deep water" were completely dried out. We did eventually come to some water that needed to be walked first. We drove through and then made our way through to a rather deceiving obstacle.

This obstacle was rather deceiving. It seems very simple when you approach it, but if you take the most obvious line you don't get up it because all four wheels are wet from a small stream just before it. So you just slip around on the rocks and don't get anywhere. If you take the less obvious line that's a bit steeper and bumpier, you actually get more traction and then you pass through easily. 

At this point the SsyangYongs caught up with us again. They really battled to get up this obstacle. We parked our Jeeps, got some snacks and enjoyed the show. Not one of them went through without some sort of minor damage. Whether is denting or badly scratching their front bumper, or scraping the entire undercarriage on a rock, they all took a beating. This is due to the fact that they had to put their foot down to get up the slope. Oddly enough they all decided to take the line the Jeeps decided not to use. Eventually they all got through, and so we moved on to finish the trail.

After we finished the trail we stopped at the picnic spot by the rock pools. We had our lunch and drinks, and had nice relaxing time under the trees by the river. We also took the opportunity to be Jeepers and have our tech talks. Bumpers, suspension and all joys of Jeep were discussed, praised, scrutinised and desired as always. We then got back to the Jeeps and headed down to the challenge trail. 

We negotiated our way down a steep rocky slope to the challenge trail. The challenge trail consists of two sections; an easy section and a pro track. The pro track is rather ridiculous and dangerous, so we went to do the easier section. The easier section wasn't as much a challenge as it was an attempt to squeeze the Jeeps through small spaces. However, it still needed to be negotiated carefully. Gingerly we made our way through and back to where we started. 

All in all it was a great day out. Was awesome meeting new people and having a day out with the Jeeps. Serendipity is a wonderful that caters for every want and need. Whether it's a scenic drive through the bush or an adrenaline pumping challenge, Serendipity has it all. I really look forward to the next JK Trail Run.