Ford Gravelog: a 2303km road test
Cape Town to Johannesburg with as little tarmac as possible. Well, that was the brief from Ford South Africa.
This could only mean one thing, over 2000km of gravel roads and it just so happens that Ford South Africa has the perfect vehicle for just such an occasion, the locally built Ranger.
Day 1:
We started our journey on a Monday morning at the Meerendal Wine Estate, situated on the outskirts of the mother city. My driving partner and I decided to grab the keys to the Ford Ranger XLT in double-cab guise. This bakkie features the brand’s latest, 2.0-litre turbocharged diesel motor which develops a modest 132 kW and 420 N.m of torque mated to the new 10-speed automatic gearbox. Inside, the XLT has niceties such as electric windows, climate control and a large infotainment screen that houses Ford’s latest SYNC 3 system as well as Apple CarPlay, a must-have for any road trip.
Our first point of order was quite a special one, the organisers of the event had decided that the fleet of Rangers would be put to work. Just outside of the small town of Moorreesburg, we entered a farm where the Rangers were all loaded with hay bales, which later we took to a farmer in the Karoo where drought had caused severe food shortages for farm animals. Loaded up we pointed the front end to the horizon and headed for a place called Tankwa, one of the driest and possibly most desolate places in South Africa.
Day 2:
The next morning we all got up early, ready to hit the road. My time in the XLT was over but I did have the keys to the brilliant Ford Ranger Raptor in my hand, my top pick bakkie of 2019 because it brought something different to the market, something that worked well locally. The vehicle has a different chassis to the normal Ranger, Fox performance off-road suspension, bespoke tyres and a 2.0-litre bi-turbocharged diesel engine that develops 157 kW and 500 N.m of torque. It shares the same 10-speed auto gearbox as found in the XLT. Our first stint in the Raptor was easy going as we still had hay bales on the back, we meandered up the Ouberg Pass, a tight, twisty and rocky path that saw us having to retighten the hay bales every so often. Upon arriving at the unsuspecting farmer we were ambushed by the tears from him and his wife as they believed that they were forgotten during this testing time.
After the humbling occasion, we continued on our journey and just outside of the small town of Sutherland, we encountered something that hasn’t been there in almost eight months, rain, a lot of it. The road quickly turned into a muddy river, the amount of water was mind-blowing although the Raptor enjoyed every minute of it and so did I. We fought our way through the flooded roads as we made our way to Nieu-Bethesda where we would be spending the night.
Day 3:
We awoke on a small yet picturesque sheep farm eager to get going and found myself with Raptor keys in hand once again. My driving partner and I did not complain because our first day behind the wheel left us impressed. Familiar to the Raptor’s characteristics, we decided to push it a bit. It deals with bumps and undulations effortlessly, the way it handles the gravel at high speed is noteworthy. The convoy experienced a few punctures along the route, which was becoming rockier than before. We soldiered on until we reached Otterskloof, a private game lodge nestled in the Free State, where we would be spending the night.
Day 4:
The last day and the longest day, which would see us conquer 800km on our stint back to Gauteng via the North West Province. Everyone was keen to get going as we couldn’t hang around as most of the media on the trip needed to catch a flight back to Cape Town later that evening. We hit the road and we hit it hard and fast as I found myself behind the wheel of the popular Ranger Wildtrak. The Wildtrak, was in my opinion, the odd one out as it came with tarmac friendly tyres resulting in it being tad bit squeamish on the gravel. The Wildtrak has the same engine and gearbox as the Raptor but it is a couple of hundred kilograms lighter, making it more responsive. It also featured heated seats, Apple CarPlay and a more stylistic interior.
Our gravelog was cut short when we reached just over 2000km. The roads from Klerksdorp were flooded and trying to navigate them would be too dangerous and in some cases, impossible. We had to divert and returned to the tarmac which led the beyond dirty cars to the finish line, Lanseria airport.
