As soon as Hertzog in the Carnarvon district heard of the approach of De Wet he trekked up towards the Brak to meet him, having first detached a portion of his command under Brand to make a circuit through Britstown.  Brand was followed by B. Hamilton, who had been set on to his trail, but regained touch with his leader on February 20, when the news came that De Wet was in difficulties and that the raid must be abandoned.

Hertzog and Brand joined forces across the river and trekked to the east, having thrown Plumer off the scent for a day.  On February 25 Hertzog crossed the railway.  Three Boer leaders were now groping for each other in the Fog of War:  De Wet, Hertzog, and Fourie, who had been left behind to do what he could to extricate the transport which De Wet had been compelled to abandon when he crossed the railway westwards on February 16, and who had been lost sight of by the British columns.  The forces of gravitation are, however, irresistible, and as Hertzog and Brand could not be long kept apart, so also De Wet, Hertzog, and Fourie soon came together.

De Wet trekked along the left bank of the Orange for nearly sixty miles, but found every drift impassable.  On February 26 he reached Zand Drift.  A fortnight previously a sudden flood had checked his pursuers, now another flood was checking his retreat from them at the same spot, and he was hemmed in by a swollen river and a dozen active columns.  Most men would have yielded to the situation, but his tenacity of purpose never faltered.  Early on the morning of February 27 Hertzog, who had picked up Fourie a few hours before, joined him.

After crossing the railway Hertzog made for Petrusville, where he heard that De Wet had passed through the town on his way south, and followed him.  About twenty miles away on Hertzog’s right flank a column under Hickman was marching on Zand Drift, and had it not been suddenly diverted northwards by orders from Lyttelton, it must have forestalled him at the Drift, as it was working on interior lines.  The change of direction was made before Hertzog’s presence in the vicinity became known to Hickman, who on sighting a Boer column on February 26 again changed direction to pursue it.  A second column was soon descried, and later in the day, about the time that De Wet reached the Drift, a considerable Boer force was sighted.  It was composed of the two columns already seen under Hertzog and Brand, reinforced by Fourie, who had emerged from the Fog.  Hickman’s pursuit failed to prevent the three commandants joining De Wet at the Drift during the night.