![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.overlandrover-westafrica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/IMG_3653.jpg\" "\\"IMG_3653\\"")
<\/a>Our shot of Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwean side<\/p><\/div>\n
The timing actually worked out very well.\u00c2\u00a0 Laura decided to hold to the original schedule and go to Victoria Falls on Saturday morning and I was able to reschedule my flight by one day and take Laura to the airport in Jo’burg in our rented Volvo at 8:00 AM on my way out to Vaal, the rural district south of Jo-burg where the festival was scheduled to take place.\u00c2\u00a0 It is worth mentioning the Volvo because it was, without any doubt, the only one present at the Land Rover Festival.<\/p>\n
As usual, getting there was half the fun.\u00c2\u00a0 I had obtained directions on-line how to get to the Malojeni Guest Farm, which was\u00c2\u00a0 the site of the festival, from the Oliver Tambo Airport in Jo’burg.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately I learned too late that for some reason my Blackberry could not download the full directions file so I had instructions about two thirds of the way.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I ended up in the middle of a very pleasant Vaal town called Meyerton.\u00c2\u00a0 After unsuccessfully trying to get directions from a service station I was able to close the distance simply by following a Land Rover I saw driving by.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 It was while en route at this point that the Woodstock analogy first occurred to me.\u00c2\u00a0 The line “going down to Yasgur’s farm” from the CSN song popped into my head at a small country junction where three Landys coming from three different directions converged and all headed up the same road.\u00c2\u00a0 Clearly, I was headed in the right direction.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Registration Line at 11:00 AM on Saturday<\/p><\/div>\n
The South African love of Land Rovers is such a phenomenon because of a couple of factors.\u00c2\u00a0 The South African Armed Forces was\/is a big user of Landy’s, and thus a source of slightly used “surplus” product for the population at large over a number of years.\u00c2\u00a0 Another factor in all of this is the South Africans’, specifically the Afrikaaners’, love of overlanding. This is one of the features of Afrikaan’s culture that we have really come to appreciate through our visits here and the knowledge of history that comes with that.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the defining moments of the Afrikaaner’s history was the “voortrek”, the overland journey taken by the Dutch settlers in the 1840’s to get away from the Brits that were encroaching in the more accessible areas around Cape Town where the Dutch had first settled a couple of generations earlier.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The Afrikaaners are a fiercely independent people and extremely proud of their heritage.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The “voortrek” became an fundamental part of Afrikaaner history and culture and by carrying through on their love of adventure and exploration of remote areas the Afrikaaners played a huge role in defining the African overland experience through pioneering trips into the some of the more remote areas of southern Africa, including Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and points beyond.\u00c2\u00a0 The vehicle of choice for most of this overlanding has been the Land Rover Defender. It is really an incredible cultural phenomenon, one that has led to the proliferation of a huge number of overland outfitters and suppliers in the country, not limited to Land Rovers of course but certainly favouring them.<\/p>\n
This title of the festival was “My Land Rover Has a Soul”,\u00c2\u00a0 (MYLRHAS’ is the acronym).\u00c2\u00a0 This illustrates the passion that South African Land Rover owners\u00c2\u00a0 have for their vehicles and that passion was very evident at the festival.\u00c2\u00a0 There were hundreds and hundreds of vehicles there on Saturday,\u00c2\u00a0 every model ever made well represented, Series, Defenders, Discoveries and big 130s, all boasting their own particular style and personality.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Some were very stock, others very customized and colourful.\u00c2\u00a0 But it is not really so much the vehicle, the Land Rover has just perchance become a modern day\u00c2\u00a0 expression of the Afrikaaner`s love of overland travel.\u00c2\u00a0 Afrikaans was the first language at the MYLRHAS festival, and the festival was really less about the specifics of Land Rover mechanical or body design than it was about overland equipment outfitting: tents, awnings, cooking equipment, storage, water systems etc. all things which the very functional Land Rover design is conducive to.\u00c2\u00a0 There was even an expedition wine carrier.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Other elements of South African\/Afrikaans culture were well represented\u00c2\u00a0 at the festival.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Virtually all the food came off from the “braai”, the ubiquitous SA barbecue.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed the air was so thick with charcoal smoke, whether from a couple of communal braais or the many individual ones at the various campsites,\u00c2\u00a0 that it was sometimes difficult to breath.\u00c2\u00a0 South Africans are crazy about braais, for boerwurst sausage, or burgers or steak.\u00c2\u00a0 They are also crazy about beer.\u00c2\u00a0 Canadians also love their beer, but here virtually everyone was walking about visiting the shops and displays at 11:00 o’clock in the morning\u00c2\u00a0 with a beer in their hand.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 This is not a culture I have any difficulty adapting to.<\/p>\n South Africans love their Beer and Braai<\/p><\/div>\n \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 M&M’s product line includes leather “expedition wine cases” for your Pinotage <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There were hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people, plenty of families with kids.\u00c2\u00a0 In addition to the food and expositions there were helicopter rides, and an air show.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 No\u00c2\u00a0 flying Land Rovers, rather some old, loud, single engine\u00c2\u00a0 planes that were unspectacular but steady, like Land Rovers would be if they had wings.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I sat down with my boerwoerst and beer lunch to listen to the live singer\/guitarist musician whose repertoire included Van Morrison, Simon and Garfunkel, Sting, and, incredibly, Led Zeppelin.\u00c2\u00a0 All good music for the white, baby-boomer audience in attendance,\u00c2\u00a0 But after he was done with the boomer stuff the musician switched to Afrikaaner folk songs and the response was enthusiastic, to to say the least.\u00c2\u00a0 I was treated to a real Afrikann`s culture moment, complete with beer and braai and songs about independence and overland travel. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 If there were any blacks there I did not see them, this seems to be\u00c2\u00a0 exclusively a white South African, Afrikaans cultural phenomenon.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In addition to the cultural experience, I was able to benefit from the collection of overland outfitters and suppliers.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 In addition to a better knowledge of the market I came away with a floor-mounting safe for our vehicle, as well as a lovely Land Rover cap that I have always wanted but never came across.<\/p>\n I did miss the Guiness Record shot.\u00c2\u00a0 The convoy apparently had 1007 Land Rovers of various vintages and models, ranging from Series from the 50s and 60s to just-off-the-line Discovery 5s and the new euro-styled Range Rover Evoque.\u00c2\u00a0 The line stretched for 24 kilometres between first and last Landy.\u00c2\u00a0 Apparently they are waiting to hear from Guiness if they have the record, but I can’t imagine anyone every getting more than 1,000 Land Rovers in a convoy before. \u00c2\u00a0 There are some videos on youtube…….<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n