Prince Albert, Southern Cape - Just getting selected for the annual Ranger Odyssey is an achievement.
A mere 38 candidates were selected from thousands of online entries to attend an intense four-day Boot Camp in and around this dusty little Karoo town - 29 South Africans, four Nigerians, two each from Mozambique and the Ivory Coast, and one Angolan.
The programme started on Thursday 18 June with detailed theory sessions on the 4x4 driving in general and the Ford Ranger - the weapon of choice for the Odyssey - in particular, as well as the basics of vehicle recovery.
And at the end of the day, when everybody was just starting to relax, they were told to carry all their kit, on foot, 2.5km to the overnight campsite and set up their tents for the chilly mid-winter night.
Friday morning started at 5am with a nine-kilometre trail run to get the blood circulating, followed by driver training in the dry bed of the Gamka river about 12km north of Prince Albert.
The instructors had laid out a series of challenging 4x4 obstacles, from soft sandbanks to rock-hopping and intimidatingly steep descents, particularly for those candidates who'd never driven a Ranger - or, for that matter, off-road - before.
GOOD OPPORTUNITIES
Which gave them several good opportunities to practice winching, using a high-lift jack, scissors lifts and recovery ropes to extricate a stranded vehicle - all skills that would be critical on the even tougher route of the 12-day Odyssey to the remote far north-western reaches of Namibia, starting on 23 July.
Day three was all about driving safely in convoy - particularly on dirt roads. Everybody took turns driving over the Swartberg Pass, through Groenkloof to Calitzdorp and back through the Seweweekspoort - so named because it took the pioneering settlers seven weeks to get their ox-wagons through it.
The Rangers did it somewhat faster - but then the road is a little better now.
By the time the candidates were rousted out of bed at 4.30am on the final day, they were fuzzy-headed with fatigue and lack of sleep, which made the in-depth GPS navigation workshop with the Garmin crew from Navworld even more challenging - but worse was to follow.
Each candidate was then put through a nerve-wracking interview with the judging panel - the instructors, media crew and a representative from Ford SA.
They'd already been rated throughout the four days on attitude, group interaction (the Odyssey is indeed a contest, but nobody gets through it without help from their fellow competitors) 4x4 driving ability and leadership skills.
And here are the 20 who made the cut:
Deborah Almeida, 29 - Luanda, Angola
Charlton Botha, 31 - Cape Town, South Africa
Ginette Chubb, 37 - Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Ismail Diara, 41 - Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Moyosore Fawol, 31 - Lagos, Nigeria
Johan Henn, 32 - Barberton, South Africa
Helena Higgins, 42 - Cape Town, South Africa
Melani Kruger, 25 - Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
Gavin Jones, 30 - Johannesburg, South Africa
Jacobus Muller, 28 - Pretoria, South Africa
Monica Nkosna, 34 - Pretoria, South Africa
Xoliswa Nontanda, 32 - Durban, South Africa
Mohammed Omarjee, 29 - Durban, South Africa
Giftson Onuiri, 31 - Lagos, Nigeria
Dino Ribeiro, 33 - Maputo Mozambique
Amogelang Senokwane, 28 - Johannesburg, South Africa
Simon Siaga, 31 - Magaliesburg, South Africa
Israel Skosana, 33 - Sandton, South Africa
Morou Taoua, 40 - Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Liane van Dyk, 23 - Pretoria, South Africa