We’re on day three of the Put Foot Rally and so far everything has happened rather quickly. Registration Day (check out all the crew photos here) was on Monday and we departed from Camps Bay High School in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Since then we’ve covered about 1 500 kilometres. We’re now in Windhoek after taking on the long, flat, black tar carpet that dissects Namibia from the Vioolsdrif border. There’s not much too see from inside your car on that stretch of road, except to wave to other Put Footers and check out their rides as they go by. Luckily, the rally always produces some of the craziest, most ridiculous and just plain awesome wagons. These are my favourites this year:
Kübel Crew
The ‘VW Resurrectors’
I’m still not sure what type of Volkswagen this is. All I know is that the three Namibians inside bought it for R5 000 on a scrap heap in Windhoek and turned it from rust bucket into, well, this. Being Namibian (a.k.a nuts), they then drove it down from Windhoek to the start line in Cape Town, only to turn it around the next day and head back as the rally kicked off. At least they managed to squeeze in a Camps Bay surf session.
Sole Sisters
The ‘Before and after candidate’
This entire car is covered in pink velvet. I kid you not. It’s currently on the hot dusty road in Namibia where the dirt even sticks to the roof of your mouth. The colour spectrum is going to get interesting.
Channel 4 News Team
The ‘Keep you up to daters’
Breaking news: Anchorman just hit Africa. OK, so the car itself isn’t that exciting but it’s a news van, full of actual news types providing the #PutFootRally Twitter feed with some incredibly insightful insights, which is crazy enough for me. My favourite so far:
‘The only way you can get HIV from a toilet seat in Africa is if you sit on it while the other guy is still on it.’
Team Reckless
The ‘Stealth moders’
I wasn’t sure if these guys had just squeezed a Merc into a rather large pair of leopard print undies or if they were preparing to go stealth in Etosha National Park. Then I saw their moustaches and the stealth mode notion went out the window. You can see those Tom Selleck’s from Mars. I wish I had one.
Pistons of Fury, Nam X Stream, DTours, Timu Timu
The ‘Classic collection’
Once again, the VW Westfalia-style is a firm favourite. Sure, they only do 80 km/h but when you’re travelling in something that makes you look like you just banged Blondie (the whole band) in the parking lot at a music festival on a Rock ‘n Roller bed, who cares?
Blondie aside (or on top), the cars this year really have been impressive, and vast. Ranging from this:
Wachizungu
The ‘Worst-case scenarios’
I have no idea where these guys think they’re going. A jungle in Borneo maybe? That said, I know where to turn should we need extra fuel, tyres or a fully kitted marble-topped kitchen sink.
to this:
Mini in Motion
The ‘Speed humpers’
This isn’t your average Mini. It’s a 1977 Austin Mini called Roelfie. It’s got raised suspension, engine stabilisers, a high-capacity rally radiator, wider rally tyres, electronic ignition kit, head conversion and a pair of sexy carbon fibre racing stripes. If this guy doesn’t make it to the finish there’s a mechanic somewhere that needs to be shot.
And then there are these guys:
Bush Barons
The ‘African inception’
In case you were wondering where the Put Foot Rally takes place, the guys from Barons made sure we wouldn’t forget by turning their entire ride into an African safari sunset. This means that when they’re on the road they’re in Africa, in Africa. Wrap your brain around that.
In a crazy case of coincidence (wink, wink) the Put Foot Rally HQ vehicle (the one I’m in) has the same design. This year, the Put Foot crew consists of Rally Chief Daryn Hillhouse, Ambassadoro numero uno, Mike Sharman, the latest Put Foot Rally Ambassador, Levon ‘Where the heck are you?’ Rivers and myself.
Joining us we’ve also got Craig ‘See you later navigator’ Scarterfield, Chase ‘Shut up’ Feus, who has managed to mouth all of 10 words since we kicked off and Dawie Olivier, whose been released from the Graaf Reneit jackal appreciation society for the next two weeks.
Today we leave Windhoek behind and up to Toshari Lodge in Etosha for the second Checkpoint Party. It’s set to be epic, but more on that later.
Follow the @PutFootRally on Twitter, check out the hashtag #PutFootRally (warning: may induce a severe case of fomo) and myself @TysonJopson as the adventure continues …
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