Bots on the cheap grid

 

Bots on the cheap was originally an idea by Paul Oxley, to go and experience a large portion of Botswana as cheaply as possible.  The idea was to stay outside of the main parks (who charge exorbitant fees) and visit the less travelled places and hopefully see a lot of game at the same time.  Initially many were keen but as time wore on most dropped out for various reasons with the biggest shock being Paul dropping out due to work pressure.

 

With Paul gone Francois stepped in and started organising things and harassing Paul for as much info as possible.  When Riaan dropped out of the long trip, (the only other person besides myself and Paul who was going to do it) then I had to decide whether it was worth my while to drive for 4 days to have effectively about 6 days in Bots.  Thankfully Francois stepped in and said that he would go on the long trip   We eventually ended up with 7 vehicles on the trip, with 5 of them supposed to drop out after 8 days.  The participants were as follows:

 

Francois van Driel – Defender 110 Tdi Hard Top

Darryl Lampert – Defender 110 Tdi CSW

Riaan and Catherine Botes -  Defender 110 Tdi Bakkie

Gregg Howard, Andrew and two kids – Land Cruiser 4.2 Turbo Diesel with trailer

Geoff Hill – Mazda 2.5 Turbo Diesel

Morty, Marianne and Jaque – Defender 110 V8 with trailer

Kobus/Jaco and Stan – SsangYong Korando

 

The original route was as follows:

 

Day 1: Jhb/Pta to overnight at Khama Rhino Sanctuary via Martins Drift,
Palapye and Seronga.
Day 2: Khama Rhino Sanctuary to overnight at Kubu Island via Lethlakane.
Day 3: Kubu Island to overnight at Leroo le Tau via Mopipi, Rakops and
Khumago.
Day 4: Leroo le Tau to overnight at Maun (Audi camp).
Day 5: Maun to overnight at Drotsky's Caves (via Tsao).
Day 6: Drotsky's Caves to overnight at Guma Lagoon Camp via Nokaneng.
Day 7: Guma Lagoon Camp to overnight at Tsodilo Hills.
Day 8 (SHORT TRIP): This is where the two trips split up. The short trip
leaves for home to overnight at Ghanzi via Toteng.
Day 9 (SHORT TRIP): Ghanzi to Jhb/Pta via Kang, Sekoma and Lobatse. This is
another long day (about 1000km's), and you'll have to leave early.
Alternatively, you can sacrifice one night at Tsodilo Hills and head back a
day earlier.
Day 8 (LONG TRIP): Tsodilo Hills to overnight at Seronga via the ferry over
the Okavango at Mohembo.
Day 9 (LONG TRIP): Overnight at Seronga. Mokoro trips can be undertaken
here.
Day 10 (LONG TRIP): Overnight at Seronga.
Day 11 (LONG TRIP): Seronga to overnight at Kasane via the Linyati River and
Ngoma Bridge.
Day 12 (LONG TRIP): Overnight at Kasane.
Day 13 (LONG TRIP): Kasane to overnight on the Hunters Road.
Day 14 (LONG TRIP): Overnight on the Hunters Road.
Day 15 (LONG TRIP): Hunters Road to overnight at Nata. (Only a limited
stretch of the Hunters Road will be done.)
Day 16 (LONG TRIP): Nata to Jhb/Pta.

 

 

I took R5000 and P710 in cash and came home with R2500.  This however did not include diesel costs as I often filled up with my credit card where possible.  It is definitely worth taking pula with you as most places will accept rands but give you an exchange rate of 50c to the pula.  I had taken too few pula and had to bum some off Francois (thanks) and otherwise get ripped off when converting or exchanging.

 

Day 0 Friday 20th September

Cape Town – Alberton

 

I left Cape Town at 04H45 and planned to get to JHB in a day.  My timing was hampered quite a lot due to roadwork’s on the N1 mainly between Laingsburg and Beaufort West.  I went through 12 stop/go’s and was stopped by 10 of them for an average of about 10 minutes each.  Traffic was light until I got to Bloem where I experienced heavy traffic coming from Gauteng and the usual overtaking on solid white lines.  I finally got to Gregg’s house in Alberton around 22H00.  Gregg was still packing his trailer and I set about repairing my 29 MHz antenna with a bolt harvested from Gregg’s toolkit.  We went to sleep around midnight.

 

Day 1 Saturday 21st September

JHB – Khama Rhino Sanctuary

Camping cost: – P55  (Wood P12 a bag !)

Ablutions: - Reasonable

Road Conditions: - Tar all the way except for the last bit of dirt to Khama.  In Bots cows, donkeys and goats are a major problem on the roads in both north and south with wild animals adding to the problem further north.  Driving at night on tar at high speed is like playing Russian roulette with an automatic.

 

Woke up at about 05H30.  Geoff Hill and M,M&J met us at Gregg’s house and we all left for the Petroport.  Met up with everyone at the Petroport and it was funny to see how your perceptions of what people look like are often wrong.  We ordered toasted sandwiches at the Steer and I spent a bit of time helping to find common frequencies amongst those who had radios.  Francois’s vhf radio wasn’t working and I determined that the antenna crimp was shorting.  His 29MHz was working so we decided to leave the VHF and try and fix it later that evening.  When I first saw the SsangYong Karando with it’s large “box” on top of two roof bars I said to Francois that the first rutted sandy tracks we hit it would end up on it’s roof and I suggested that he tell Kobus to make sure that only the light stuff is packed on the roof.

 

We left the Petroport in convoy with Morty leading us.  We battled along slowly behind Morty’s V8 landy @ about 90-100 km/h.  Whether it was lack of power or concern about fuel consumption we are unsure but at least it meant we all had great fuel consumption figures ;-)

 

The border crossing at Martins Drift was a formality and we passed through without any hassles.  We stopped at the Serowe hotel to pick up our meat, which had been pre-ordered from Basimane Butcheries in Serowe.  It took a while to sort it all out and pay but this was done without too much hassle.  Included with the meat were permits allowing us to take the meat from south to north and then back south again.  These were necessary to prevent confiscation and burning at the Vet fences, which are scattered throughout Botswana.

 

We then headed off to Khama Rhino Sanctuary where we checked in and paid.  Khama was quite expensive (relatively speaking) and I paid P55 for one person for the night.  I also bought a small bag of wood for P12, which was a bit of a rip-off.  After everyone paid we headed for the campsite area.  At the campsite area several “scouts” (including myself) headed off looking for the ultimate campsite ;-) After much driving around and discussing options we ended up in two adjacent campsites fairly close to the ablutions.  My feelings at the time were that if this is how long it takes us to decide on a campsite imagine how long it will take to decide on something important.  Separate campfires were lit (which didn’t bode well although luckily this was the last time) and we got on with the task of cooking our food.

 

After dinner some new vehicles arrived at the campsite and one of the guys came around to chat to us.  He seemed like a nice guy and was quite friendly.  Only after he had left did I discover that it was Gerard Ceruti and I felt a bit embarrassed that we hadn’t introduced ourselves and offered him a drink.  Later he came around again and I apologised.

 

My microphone from one of my radios was playing up so I stripped it and affected a makeshift repair.  Later that evening I went to have a look at Francois’s VHF radio and see if I could sort out the crimp and prevent it from shorting.  I had recently purchased a new gas soldering iron and had a chance to break it in.  I tried a number of different ways to try and salvage the crimp but eventually we ditched it and soldered the centre pin directly to the centre core of the co-ax and soldered the braid to the outside of the connector and then wrapped it up with tape.  I told Francois it would be better if he had already had kids and he decided to wrap some tinfoil around the connector to try and reduce the RF within the vehicle ;-) We fitted the antenna to the radio and tested it and it worked fine with no crackling.

 

We then discovered that the co-ax was not routed correctly for Francois to close his door so instead of unsoldering the connector and starting again I suggested to Francois that we just remove the bottom hinge of his driver’s door.  We did this (much to Geoff’s amazement) and then reseated the door.

 

We finally went to bed just before midnight.

 

Day 2 Sunday 22nd September

Khama Rhino Sanctuary – Kubu Island

Camping cost: – P50 – an extra night was only P10

Ablutions: - BK

Road Conditions: -  Dirt most of the way and with the pans dry the road was easy besides one or two short sections of thick sand.

 

Next morning we left and headed for Kubu Island. We stopped at the Shell Garage in Lethlakane for fuel.  It took a while to fill all the diesel vehicles especially since a local was busy filling a 500l tank on the back of his bakkie.  They accepted credit cards.

 

We stopped for lunch at the lookout point over Sowa pan.  Kobus advised that his vehicle wasn’t engaging 4x4 amongst other minor electrical niggles and Morty advised that his fuel tank was leaking.  I gave Morty some gas tank and radiator repair to fix the leak and raised Johan on the radio to get in touch with the Ssangyong mechanic to help resolve the 4x4 problem on the Korando.  The mechanics phone was on voice mail but Johan said he would keep trying and radio me when he made contact.  He contacted me a short while later and relayed from the mechanic that the problem was likely to be three plugs from the wiring loom, which connected close to the transfer box underneath the vehicle.  We decided to try and affect a repair once we got to Kubu, as the road was unlikely to require 4x4 until then.  We got to the Kubu gate and met some other overlanders who advised that the bottom route was dry.  Driving towards Kubu I had visions of miles and miles of blazing white pan with a island slap bang in the middle.  I was a bit disappointed to see lots of grass in the pans with the local’s cows grazing. 

 

When we arrived at Kubu we were met by the local guide who showed us where the campsite was.  Shortly thereafter the local accountants arrived on bicycles in a blaze of dust.  We paid for one night only as some of the group were already making noises about moving on the next day.  Morty gave Kobus and Stan a bridging ladder so that they could make a ramp to get under the Korando to check on the loom.  With some help from Riaan they removed the wiring loom.  It had pulled free beneath the vehicle and the prop shaft had chewed up some of the wires causing the electrical problems.  I spliced in some wires from an old loom that Riaan had with him.  Kobus and Stan refitted the loom and tested it, everything seemed to be working perfectly.  I went for a walk as the sun was going down to take photos.  The pan and the baobabs are very photogenic and I enjoyed photographing them!  I got back to camp after dark and prepared to braai.   Some of the guys were complaining about the chicken saying that it was tough.  I cooked some rump in my pan and it was excellent. 

 

 

Old Men

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soaring Giants

 

 

 

Nightfall

 

 

After dinner a debate started about whether to spend an extra night at Kubu or rather spend two nights at Audi Camp in Maun.  Some didn’t want to stay at Kubu as it was hot, dusty and had no facilities and people felt they had seen everything to be seen (although some had yet to leave the campsite).  Kubu Island was one of the places I had really been looking forward to spending some time at ever since seeing Johan van Staaden’s pictures of the area.  I can understand that some people may not find harsh, desolate areas beautiful but for me the main point of the trip was to see places like this and be away from civilisation and facilities. I was also keen to stay an extra night at Kubu as I was still trying to recover from my drive up from Cape Town.  The debate carried on for a long time with various options being discussed.  Most in the party were keen to get to Maun as they thought they would be closer to the delta and start seeing some game.  Geoff (who was the only one who had been in Maun before) advised everyone that the delta was still pretty far from Maun and that they would be unlikely to see much game in the area.  Eventually the majority decided that they would only spend one night in Maun but that they would spend two nights at Drotsky.  In view of the fact that we weren’t spending another night at Kubu it was decided to leave late the next morning (at 11H00) in order to give everyone a chance to explore the island and take some photos.  I read some info about the Island from my Mike Main book and the archaeological remains on the south side of the island sounded interesting especially to Gregg who was interested in remains and fossils.  Most of us went to bed around midnight.

 

Day 3 Monday 23rd September

Kubu Island – Maun (Planet Baobab in Gweta)

Camping cost: – P22

Ablutions: - Good

Road Conditions: - Corrugations, sand and deep ruts were the main challenge with a little bit of mud just off the main tracks.

 

The next morning I had planned to get up early before sunrise and take some photos.  This didn’t happen, as I was still quite tired and slept late.  After I got up and packed I went for a drive around the island by myself to first orient myself and then on the second trip around I started stopping, walking around and taking photos.  It was too late in the day to get any decent photos but I enjoyed exploring the different clumps of baobabs.  I haven’t seen these trees for many years and they are certainly impressive.  A couple have died and rotted away and it was almost sad seeing these fallen giants and wondering about all the things they must have witnessed in their long lives.  I was really sorry that I wouldn’t be able to spend another evening as I was really looking forward to taking photos in better light now that I had a better idea of what Kubu had to offer.  We all met up back at the campsite at 11H00 and left for Maun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along the way we crossed through a vet fence and then drove parallel to the fence for a fair distance.  The sand was thick in places and at some points they had short “escape” routes around thick patches of sand.  The problem was that some of these “escape” routes had even thicker sand.  We were keeping a fair distance apart to stay out of each other’s dust and suddenly Francois radioed us to tell us that the Korando had disappeared.  I joked saying that it had probably fallen into a dust hole and sure enough we found it stuck on the middelmannetjie on one of the escape routes.  I drove past the escape route and then reversed back into it to position myself to pull the Korando out.  I told Kobus to fetch his recovery strap, as he was the one being recovered.  He dug around in his roof rack box and eventually arrived with a strap that I would be scared to tie my luggage down with.  It was about 3m – 5m long, about an inch wide and a mm or two thick.  It had loops on each end but I couldn’t even pass my pinkie through the loop never mind a shackle.  I fetched my 10m tow strap and bow shackle and tried to fit the shackle to the recovery point on the front of the Korando.  The recovery loop on the Korando was too small to accommodate a normal shackle but luckily I found a small D shackle about 4 – 5 cm’s in length and managed to attach the strap to the recovery loop.  I gave him a very gentle pull, as I was worried that I would rip the “recovery” point off the Korando and he came out of the sand quite easily.  He received quite a bit of ragging but seemed to take it in good spirit.

 

Later on we reached a section of the pan that had some deep rutted tracks.  Francois was driving in front with Gregg behind him and me behind Gregg (Kobus was behind me).  Gregg had chosen a line with some heavy ruts and sand and I was eating a lot of his dust especially with him towing his trailer.  The tracks to the right looked a lot better and once I was in them I speeded up and overtook Gregg glad to be out of his dust at last.  Francois in the meantime had stopped, as he wanted to film us driving towards him across the pans.  I pulled up next to Francois, grabbed my video camera and was about to jump out when Francois suddenly shouted that the Korando was on its roof!  I thought he was joking and carried on getting out looking behind me.  At first I just saw a large cloud of dust and then as it settled I saw that the Korando was indeed on it’s roof.  Francois and I jumped back into our respective vehicles and raced back.  On the way back I had visions of broken necks and serious injuries and started mentally going through my first aid kit.

 

When we arrived on the scene we found Kobus and Stan standing next to the Korando looking a bit shocked.  We asked them if they were okay and Kobus replied that his right thigh was sore and that his back was also feeling a bit tender.  He also had two fingers on his left hand, which had minor cuts and were bleeding.  Stan was uninjured, just quite shocked.  On further inquiry it turned out that Kobus hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt and when the Korando overturned he had ended up underneath Stan (i.o.w lying on the roof on the passenger side) who was still suspended by his seatbelt.  His first words to Stan after the accident were something along the lines of “You bastard, you were wearing your seatbelt”.  Once Kobus moved out of the way Stan released his seatbelt and landed on his head  (Note to remind Stan about gravity ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riaan covering the oil spill

 

Jammer Skattie

 

The Korando looked a bit worse for wear lying on its roof.  I enquired where the jerry cans where and also asked where the battery was located so that I could disconnect it.  The jerry cans were inside the vehicle and the battery was under the hood.  I could smell battery acid and was a bit worried about sparking.  We got some fire extinguishers and then proceeded to unload the back of the Korando in preparation for getting it back on it’s wheels.  Once most of the heavy stuff had been removed I positioned my Landy so that I could winch the Korando back onto its wheels.  We first winched it onto its damaged side and then repositioned the cable and winched it back onto its wheels.  Once it was upright we popped the hood and I disconnected the battery.  About 3 – 4 litres of engine oil had leaked out through the air filter and the battery was leaking slightly.  It looked like a couple of other fluids had leaked as well but I couldn’t make out what they were.  The windscreen had shattered but was “laminated” so it was still fairly intact.  Overall the vehicle had maintained its shape pretty well, I don’t think a Defender would have been as lucky.  With the viewable damage to the vehicle and the unknown damage to motor and suspension we decided to tow it rather than try and start and drive it.  I contacted Johan Strumpfer and asked him to phone the SsangYong mechanic and ask him if we needed to do anything special if we wanted to tow it.  He got hold of Abri who replied that if it was manual then we could tow it without a problem.

 

The roofbars and roof “box” were badly damaged and it was decided to leave them behind, as it would have been difficult to carry them or re-attach them.  I asked Gregg if he would mind towing the Korando as we still had a fair distance to go and out of all the vehicles he had the most torque for towing.  He agreed and after a short discussion Francois agreed to tow Gregg’s offroad trailer.  Gregg had a collapsible tow bar, which proved very handy, as towing someone through the pans with a strap would have been more difficult.  We connected the two vehicles, attached the trailer to Francois vehicle and headed for Gweta.  Stan volunteered to steer the Korando behind the Cruiser.  It was a shit job as the windscreen had holes and the driver’s window was down.  Stan “drove” most of the 60 km’s to Gweta with a t-shirt over his nose and mouth so that he could breathe through the dust.  At some stages travelling behind them they would just disappear in a massive cloud of dust and I would make a note to bypass that spot if possible. 

 

 

Francois,  ready to tow Gregg’s trailer

 

 

Roofrack and bars

 

On the drive to Gweta I started thinking about what could have caused the accident.  Before we left I checked the tracks that the Korando had made before it rolled and came to the following conclusions:  Judging by the tracks the Korando had made before it flipped, it seemed that either Kobus had been trying to get out of the ruts to avoid the high middelmannetjie or he had lost steering sensation in the thick sand which lined the ruts.  In either case his wheels must have been at full lock or close to full lock to the left when he was driving in the deep ruts.  As his vehicle left the deep ruts it simply turned sharply to the left  (the tracks showed this and was confirmed again in Pretoria when we watched Francois’s footage after the accident).  With the speed he was doing and the heavy roofrack it rolled sideways and landed on its roof.  My feeling is that a combination of driver inexperience and a heavy roofrack caused the accident.  One could also argue that the low ground clearance caused Kobus to worry about getting stuck on the middelmannetjie again.

 

The plan was to tow him back to either Nata or Maun but as things were going slowly we decided to look for a place at Gweta.  When we got within about 15 km’s of Gweta I got a cell signal and decided to call Paul Oxley and ask him if he knew of any place close to Gweta where we could camp for the night.  He said that Planet Baobab was our closest spot and that’s where we headed.

 

We got to Planet Baobab in the late afternoon and booked a campsite.  The place seemed quite pleasant but we were a bit worried about overland trucks arriving.  We set up camp and started discussing all the various options of how to get the Korando back to SA.  At sunset a couple of elephant walked past the camp on the way to the waterhole, I was tired (as were most of us) and never bothered to reach for the camera.   Kobus had phoned his insurer and they would only recover from the border.  Many options were discussed including leaving the Korando and taking Kobus and Stan on the rest of the short trip leaving them to worry about recovering the vehicle on the way back.  We also contacted Paul again and asked if he knew of anyone who could get the vehicle back to SA.  He got in touch with Brian Cotton who was unable to recover the vehicle but offered to rent out his trailer.  Eventually after many phone calls Kobus and Stan got one of their fathers to drive up the next day and then tow them back to SA.

 

In the meantime Geoff had enquired about dinner at the restaurant.  As it had been a long day most of us opted to have dinner in the restaurant with I think only Riaan, Catherine & M,M & J staying and braaing.  They offered us chicken, chips and vegetables for P38.  When the food finally arrived we each had a tiny single piece of chicken, a couple of beans, some other veg and a couple of chips.  It was certainly not enough to fill any of us and was a ripoff at the price.  The cutlery was also filthy and most of us ate with our fingers.  When we were finished we stood up to leave and pay.  The lady in charge of the restaurant arrived and asked us if the meal was okay.  I replied that the food was fine, just that the portions were very small.  When we arrived at the bar to pay we discovered that she had dropped the price from P38 to P27.50.  It was a nice gesture and unexpected.  We went to bed fairly late as usual.

 

Day 4 Tuesday 24th September

Planet Baobab – Drotsky’s Caves (Gcwihaba Caverns)

Camping cost: – Nil

Ablutions: - BK

Road Conditions: -  Tar road to Tsao.  Lots of domestic animals on the road.  For offroad sections see below.  The road to Drotsky’s is being upgraded and might soon be an easy drive, which is a pity as more people will visit and they will probably start charging for camping.

 

The next morning we said goodbye to Kobus, Stan and the Korando and headed for Maun. About 10 km’s down the road Francois had a near miss when he looked down to get something and left the tar road at about 100 km/h.  He had the presence of mind not to panic and managed to drive back onto the tar without incident.  His wheel alignment was badly out, (probably from the ruts the day before) which caused a bad pull to the left.

 

We got to Maun and headed for the Spar.  I bought a couple of cool drinks and a 2l ice cream.  The Steers was next door and a bit too much of a temptation seen as it was lunchtime.  We bought some burgers and stood outside the shop eating them.  When we were finished we headed to Riley’s to fill up.  It took a long time for everyone to finish shopping and filling their water and diesel tanks.  While we were waiting one of the mechanics from Riley’s struck up a conversation with Riaan as he was originally from Durban and saw the number plates on the Landy.  I wasn’t really listening to the conversation but when he mentioned Seronga my ears pricked up and I heard him say that when we get to Seronga we should look out for a guy called Willy.  We eventually left Maun and headed for Tsao.

 

At Tsao we turned onto the dirt road heading for Drotsky’s.  The road started off fairly well but after a couple of km’s the sand got thicker and my water temp started rising.  We all stopped and let down tyres and after that things got a lot easier.  We were driving on quite a wide sand track.  We came to some No Entry signs on either side of the road and ignored them and carried on straight.  A small track led off to the right from the RH no entry sign and someone had added an arrow to the RH side of the white bar.  I checked my GPS as I drove past and noticed that one of ASPW Botswana Contimap waypoints (B7) marked that spot.  I didn’t think anything of it at the time but noticed that we were moving left of the Contimap waypoints.  I have used the Contimap’s before in Kaokoland, Namibia and the Richtersveld and they have often not been accurate so I wasn’t worried as Francois was navigating using Veronica Roodt’s maps.

 

The track narrowed to a two-wheel track and we eventually got to what looked like a small woodcutters camp.  Francois questioned them and they said that the road ended up ahead and that we had come the wrong way.  We discussed a couple of options and consulted the maps.  I noticed a track leading from the south to waypoint B6 on the Contimap and seen as we were about 15 – 20 km’s south of that point and had gone past a turning to the left just before we reached the woodcutters camp I suggested that I recce the track and see if it led towards waypoint B6.  The others agreed and I headed off. 

 

The track was at first fairly good but then started getting quite overgrown.  According to my GPS I was heading in the right direction to get to B6 so I carried on.  The track started to get really overgrown with lots of bushes and thorn trees adding to the scratches.  I had now driven for about 10 km’s and was about 8 km’s from waypoint 6.  Everything was looking good and I was about to radio to the guys to start following me when the track started to fade.  For about a km or so I would lose it in the thick bush and then find it again a bit further on.  The track was following stakes placed in the ground at regular intervals, and I thought these could indicate a buried pipeline from the Xhaba borehole.  Eventually the track got really rough and faded badly.  I was running my tyres at quite low pressure due to the very sandy conditions but was worried about punctures from all the thorn trees and bushes that I was driving over.  I radioed back to Riaan who had driven along the track a fair way to keep radio contact and told him that I was turning around to come back and that the track was not passable.  To just turn around was not possible because the bush was really thick and for the last couple of hundred metres I had been driving over thorn trees (some as thick as my wrist) which had grown over the track.  I started to try and turn around but had to make a circle of about a 100m.  When I got to the point where I thought I had stopped I couldn’t find the track anymore.  At that point I should have stopped and got out of the Landy and walked around to find the track but I was worried about delaying the rest of the group and instead drove around a bit trying to find my tracks.  I had a waypoint from a couple of hundred metres back but in very thick bush travelling at low speed GPS navigation was difficult as your direction indicator is not accurate.  Eventually I realised that I was “lost” and unable to find the track back.  Riaan had started to head back so I radioed him and told him what the situation was and asked him to stay put.  I found my way back to the waypoint I had created and then using the sun in relation to Riaan as well as walking through the bush I managed to pick up my feint tracks.  When I got back to my vehicle I noticed that the thorn trees had pulled off both rear window rubbers, which were hanging by a thread.  I pulled off both of them and put them in the vehicle lest they should be ripped off again and started to drive back.

 

 

“Look Ma,  no rubbers”

 

In the meantime the rest of the group had started to head back the way we came.  Riaan waited until I joined up with him and then we headed back together.  When we got to the main track I radioed Francois and he advised that the rest of the group wanted to bush camp for the night as it was getting late.  He and I had discussed over the radio the ASPW waypoints and I felt sure that waypoint B7 was the correct place for us to turn.  I asked him to go to that spot and take a waypoint so that we could compared it to B7 and see if it matched up.  It was now dark and I turned on all my spots as the road was bad and we were travelling quite fast.  The outside pointing roof rack floods lit up both sides of the road very well which I was grateful for as I was worried about animals.  Francois reached the No Entry signs and noticed that on the RH sign, besides the arrow pointing to the right someone had written the words Drotsky’s Caves/XaiXai.  We now knew that we had the correct turnoff.  In the meantime Riaan and I had been discussing the option of driving on instead of bush camping as both of us wanted to spend two nights in one spot instead of bush camping, breaking camp the next morning, driving for a couple of hours and then having to set up camp again.  Both of us agreed that we would like to push on to Drotsky’s but that we would run it by the others and see if they were happy.

 

We got to the bush camp area just off the road at about the same time that Francois arrived back from b7.  We discussed with him and the others about Riaan and I driving on ahead and no one felt it was a problem.  Francois was keen to come with but I think he felt responsible for the rest of the group and decided to stay and bush camp.  I loaded the Conti waypoints onto his and Gregg’s GPS’s, said goodbye and Riaan and I left at about 19H00.

 

We got to B7 and turned onto the track.  We started to see some game and turned it into a bit of a night drive.  I got out my 800000 CP Hotspot and started scanning for game.  We saw African Wild Cat, White Faced Owls amongst others, various buck, Spring Hares, Nightjars and Wolf Spiders.

 

At about 21H30 my tyre pressure alarm went off for my back left tyre.  I stopped and checked it and it was totally flat.  The inner sidewall had been ripped (by I think a log I had driven over) in several places and the tyre was basically trashed.  Riaan helped me change it and we spent a bit of time waiting for his Truck Air to pump my tyres up a bit.  I have a Thomas and ARB compressor however in my haste to get my rewiring done before I left I never installed the Thomas with a relay so it was overheating the switch panel and cutting out.  My ARB was installed and working correctly with a relay however I still needed to complete some of the piping before I could use it for pumping up tyres.  We got going again at about 22H00.  The track was quite sandy and very overgrown and Riaan and I were thankful to be travelling it at night when it was relatively cool instead of in the heat of the day.  We passed waypoints B6 and B5 however at B5 we should have been turning left towards Xhaba borehole.  A couple of hundred meters further down the track we found the sign and turning to Xhaba borehole – at least we knew we were on the correct track.  We passed the Xhaba borehole and had 27 km’s left to go.  Suddenly the track started heading north and I got worried that perhaps we had missed a turnoff.  I stopped and Riaan and I checked the map and compared waypoints.  The GPS was showing about 20 km’s to Drotsky’s whereas the map was showing 27 km’s.  I suggested to Riaan that we carry on the track for a while and see if it started swinging west as we had to “waste” 7 km’s to get there.  Eventually the track started swinging to the west and we both breathed a sigh of relief.  Somewhere along the track a branch hit my left hand side mirror and shattered it, the mirror had been tucked in but the branch hit it against the side of the Landy and broke it.  We got out of the dunes and down into a river bed and the temperature dropped considerably which was quite a relief as it had been quite hot until then.  Eventually we arrived at Drotsky’s at about 00H45.  It had been about 5 hours (minus stops for punctures and map reading) of hard driving but we had finally made it.  We put up our tents and Catherine made us boerewors sandwiches for dinner.  We ate and went to sleep.

 

 

 

Day 5 Wednesday 25th September

Drotsky’s Caves/Gcwihaba Caverns

Camping cost: – Nil

Ablutions: - BK

Road Conditions: -  as above

 

We woke up after good nights sleep and were happy that we had driven through the night, as we would now have two nights in one place for the first time since the trip had started.  We had a slow morning not doing too much except slowly preparing to enter the caves.  By the time we were ready we looked like we were about to mount an expedition of epic proportions.  Between the three of us we had several torches, light sticks, spare batteries, food, water, cameras and video cameras.

 

I think we entered the caves at about 10H00 and were immediately struck by the massive drop in temperature between the inside and outside.  The difference must have been between 10C and 15C.  We found a visitors book and pen in a plastic box and read some of the comments people had left.  We then started exploring deeper into the caves.

 

The stalactites, stalagmites and columns were amazing.  I had last visited Kango many years ago and this brought back memories of those caves although this experience was far richer as it was far more remote, totally non-commercial and far fewer people had been stomping through them.  We followed a yellow piece of what looked like fishing line from cavern to cavern having to crawl on hands and knees through some of the passages.  We got into a cavern filled with large stalactites and it looked like someone had turned Stonehenge upside down and put it into the cave.  We tried turning off all our lights and the blackness we experienced was complete.  We agreed that if you were lost in the caves without a light you stood little chance of finding your way out unless you happened to find the yellow string.  Even then the chances of braining yourself on the way out was very high.  A small number of bats were flying around but not as many as I had accepted in caves of this size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riaan standing in the inverted Stonehenge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note the mini maglite !

 

 

 

The ghost of Drotsky’s

 

We finally got to what they called the pit and Catherine and I decided that it was not for us.  Riaan was keen to explore a bit further but with a 8 – 10 foot drop down a sheer face he wasn’t sure if he would be able to make it back up.  We decided to turn around and head back.

 

 

The PIT !

 

We got out of the caves at about 12H30 just as the others arrived.  It had taken them about 4 hours to get there.  We had lunch and I strung my canvas groundsheet between my and Francois roofracks for more shade as it was very hot.  I decided to remove my stuffed tyre and fit the tyre from my bonnet instead of waiting until I got another puncture and then having to waste time doing it.  I spread out my plastic groundsheet and got out my tyre pliers.  I have used them a couple of times before and they worked very well.  This time in front of everyone I battled like hell to break the bead and ended up gouging some chunks out of the rim.  With lots of help from Geoff, Francois and Gregg and some chirping from the others I struggled and struggled to break the bead.  It was stinking hot but I was now on a mission to change this bloody tyre.  I decided to try the hi-lift jack and after several attempts, modifications of technique and good advice from Gregg and Riaan we finally managed to break the bead.  To break the second bead was also not easy but we finally managed it.  With a lot of help from Geoff in particular, we finally got the tyre off the rim but managed to damage the casing of the tyre sensor at the same time.  Once the tyre was off I noticed that the inside of the tyre where the bead had seated was badly worn.  I also scooped out at least two to three handfuls of shredded rubber and noticed that the tyre seemed to have welded itself to the rim which was why it had been so bloody difficult to remove it.

 

The damage to the tyre was my own fault.  I had been running my tyres the whole day at pressures, which were too low for the type and speed of driving, I was doing.  I hadn’t pumped them up again because neither of my compressors was working properly and I didn’t think it would matter.  They had survived driving over numerous thorn trees and they were now invincible.   I suspect the tyre had been moving on the rim due to the low pressure causing excess heat and effectively “welding” it and destroying it from the inside out.  The log that I had driven over was the last straw and the tyre was destroyed.

 

Refitting the spare tyre off my bonnet to the rim was a lot less effort and with a lot of help from Geoff I managed to do this quickly.  When it came to popping the bead back on I asked Francois if we could use his aircon compressor as mine were still out of action.  He started the Landy and I started pumping up the tyre.  After a couple of minutes he got worried as his alternator was making funny noises and sounded like it was running a bearing.  He stopped his Landy to check the alternator and I asked Morty to help pop it back on with his diving cylinder.   I now had a spare in case I needed one.  I briefly considered leaving my stuffed tyre at Drotsky’s but decided not to contribute to the already growing dump of tins.

 

The rest of the group decided to explore the caves and left with Riaan joining them.  Francois decided to stay as he was tired and feeling quite sick as he was still recovering from his flu.  I gave him some Ciprobay as he had a chest infection and the generic antibiotic he was using didn’t seem to be working.  He also wanted to have a look at his alternator and see why it was making such a noise.  He removed it with a bit of help and we tried to work out why it was making such a noise.  Francois had it “serviced” before he left, and he discovered that the idiot that had done the work had fitted the spacer after the fan instead of before it, causing the shaft to move and the fan to catch occasionally.  He changed this around and refitted it.  It still made a bit of a noise every now and then but was much better than before.

 

The BDF were on patrol and came visiting in two Land Rovers.  They disappeared and on the way back we met them and had a quick chat.  They were well kitted out and friendly.

 

Later that evening we started hearing murmurings that some of the group wanted to skip Tsodilo and head back to Maun.  Eventually they came round and discussed it.  The pace had been quite tough, the driving hard and it was hot and dusty.  Morty and Marianne were taking strain with Jacque and Gregg and Andrew’s boys were getting on each other’s nerves.  Geoff was also a bit worried about the long drive home.  The three of them decided that the next day they would head back to Maun and stay at Audi camp.  Riaan, Francois and myself would head onto Tsodilo Hills.

 

We had dinner and most headed off to bed fairly early.  Riaan, Francois and myself were about to go to bed when I suggested that perhaps we should go into the caves again so that Francois could see them.  It was 22H30 and the three of us decided to go.  This time I decided to leave the video camera as I wanted to try and get some photos.  I decided to take my portable power pack in my rucksack and my 800000 CP spotlight.  We gathered all our gear together and entered the cave.  It was amazing the difference a very bright spotlight made.  Whereas earlier in the day our torches had only scratched the surface of some of the caverns we now had daylight and the caves came alive.  We were all taking photos with me getting lots of help from Francois with holding the spotlight while I focused my camera and adjusted my flash.  We had a really great time and turned around again when we got to the pit.  We finally got out of the caves at about one in the morning and went to bed filthy dirty but happy.  I was glad that Francois had an opportunity to see them after travelling all that way.

 

Day 6 Thursday 26th September

Drotsky’s Caves – Tsodilo Hills

Camping cost: – Nil

Ablutions: - Semi BK

Road Conditions: - First half of the road was fine; the second half was very sandy and bumpy with a high middelmannetjie in places.  The road is in the process of being upgraded and should soon be an easy drive.

 

The three, who were leaving, left early in the morning about 15 minutes before Francois, Riaan and myself.  We drove back to the tar road in about 3 hours, which just shows that once you know the road conditions and directions you can move a lot quicker.  We said goodbye and headed North to Etsha 6 to fill up.  On the way to Etsha 6 Riaan started experiencing fuel starvation problems from his one tank and suspected that the sediment filter was blocked.  We slowed to about 80 km/h as he switched fuel between tanks.  We got to Etsha6 and filled up at the Shell Garage.  The diesel pump at the garage sounded like it was running a bearing but we all managed to fill up.

 

 

Shell Garage at Etsha 6

 

Dodgy diesel pump (with dodgy guy standing next to it ;-)

 

We left Etsha 6 and headed for Ncamasere, which was the turnoff we were taking to Tsodilo.  It started to rain so I stopped to put the rain cover on my tent – shortly thereafter the rain stopped. We left the tar at Ncamasere and started driving on a good sand road.  We were wondering what all the fuss was about until we hit the heavy sand a couple of km’s down the road.  They are in the process of upgrading the road but in the meantime the sand is very thick with a high middelmannetjie.

 

 

 

 

We drove through a small village just before we got there and then turned right through the Tsodilo “gate”.

 

 

A gateway with no fence

 

We arrived at about 16H30 and then spent some time driving around trying to find the correct campsite.  We found the museum and the ablutions but everything seemed locked.  While Francois and I looked around for a good spot to camp, Catherine decided to give the donkeys that were hanging around the museum some water, as they looked half dead.  The whole area around the museum was filled with cows, donkeys, goats and their associated droppings.  We finally decided on a spot behind the museum as it was next to a large baobab like tree, close to the ablutions (locked) and relatively free of cow/donkey/goat shit.  A sign on the museum door warned about clothes eating cows.  We set up camp and relaxed until the cows arrived.  The cows were quite inquisitive and started off by eating the black plastic bag that Francois had his water containers in.  We chased them away numerous times but it didn’t last long and they were soon back.  We packed away everything of value before going to bed. 

 

Shortly after we turned the lights out the fun began.  They (the cows) first tried to eat a bag of charcoal that Riaan had left out – this they attempted for most of the night with associated noises.  At one stage my whole rooftop tent was rocking as one of them was licking my seed screen (ate all the butterflies and insects off it) and then getting his/her horns stuck in my rooftop tent ladder.  The fun and games continued for most of the night with me chasing them away from my ladder a couple of times.

 

Day 7 Friday 27th September

Tsodilo Hills

Camping cost: – Nil

Ablutions: - Semi BK

Road Conditions: - 

 

In the morning I discovered that the cows had chewed through the flex for my fluorescent light, which happened to be tied to my rooftop tent ladder.  I now understood what some of the rocking was about.  We had a slow morning with not much being done besides Riaan cleaning all the gunk out of his fuel sedimenter.  The ablutions were opened up but only worked for a couple of hours a day as they were solar driven but had no storage tank for the water.  We checked out the museum and Riaan and Catherine bought a couple of curios.  At about 16H00 in the afternoon we all went for a walk around the female hill for a couple of hours and took some photos of the bushman paintings.  The area is very interesting and one could easily spend three or four days exploring it.

 

 

Tree bark

 

BK ?

 

 

 

Eland

 

 

Giraffe

 

 

Opportunistic

 

Autumn

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rhino

 

Shaman ?

 

 

 

 

A whale ?

 

We had also inherited a camp dog from the local village and while Francois and I plotted ways to kill it, Catherine and Riaan plotted ways to feed and water it without us seeing them ;-)

 

At about 18H30 a young black woman arrived in our camp.  She said she was an evangelist from Shakawe and was expecting 50 of her evangelist friends later that evening as they were driving by truck from Gumare. They never arrived so we felt obliged to feed her and give her something to drink as besides us the campsite was empty.  I offered her a cold Coke but she declined saying it was too acidic,  Riaan offered her a juice which she accepted.  She watched me making beer bread and mixing the ingredients.  When it was cooked I offered her a piece, which she accepted.  She bit into it and then spat it out and threw her piece back onto the cutting board saying that she couldn’t have anything with beer in it.  Riaan saw this and decided to make sure that she could eat the Soya stuff he was cooking for her so he gave her the box and asked her to check the ingredients before he gave her any.  We finished the meal with a prayer (a long one) thanking G-d for the meal, which we had provided.  She had found an open storeroom to sleep in and I gave her a candle and Riaan gave her a box of matches and we said goodnight.

 

Day 8 Saturday 28th of September

Tsodilo Hills – Seronga

Camping cost: – P22

Ablutions: - Good

Road Conditions: - The road from Ncamasere to Mohembo Ferry was good and mostly tar.  The road from the Mohembo ferry to Seronga was very bad.  The sand was white, which meant reading it was difficult and it was very rutted and bumpy.  You drive through many villages and often when you need to slow down for kids and animals you encounter the thickest sand.  We were told in Seronga that vehicles often break their suspensions on this section of road.

 

Riaan and Catherine left early after saying goodbye; we had had a good couple of nights together and had a good time.  The drive out did not seem as bad as the day before but it was probably due to the sand being cooler.  We headed north for Shakawe.

 

At Shakawe we stopped because Francois wanted to buy some cold drinks.  He went into the local bottle store whilst I watched the vehicles.  When he came out I decided to buy a couple of drinks and asked him what he had paid for them – he said P2.20 each.  I went into the bottle store and asked for 6 cokes and the price – I was quoted P2.50 each.  When I questioned this and told them that Francois had just paid P2.20 they said that P2.50 was the correct price.  I left them as I didn’t really need cold drinks anyway and was irritated at being ripped off.

 

We headed for the ferry at Mohembo.  Just before we got there we found a place that sold petrol and diesel however when asking were told that the ladies who usually sold it were off duty.

 

We got to the ferry and discovered that it was broken, however about 50m to the right was another ferry.  The ferry is free and offered as a service.  We drove on and Francois had to fend off a couple of locals who were insisting on a lift to Seronga.  He fobbed them off saying we weren’t going on that road but were sticking to the northern border (we only discovered after driving the road that it was the only one and that you ended up at Seronga which probably explained the looks of disbelief on the faces of the local lift seekers).  We took a couple of photos on the ferry and I noticed a small swallow, which had made its mud nest just under the eaves of the ferry drivers’ booth.  When we got to the other side we were about to disembark when a local in a hilux filled with people raced onto the ferry effectively blocking us.  What he was trying to prove I don’t know as he had seen us arrive and knew we wanted to get off.  After giving him a couple of dirty looks and asking him to reverse he obliged.  We had to fend off a couple more locals on the other side who were looking for lifts.

 

 

 

 

After we disembarked

 

The road from Mohembo to Seronga was quite potholed and sandy.  It was difficult to read as we were driving at midday and the sand was white, which meant little contrast.  I thought of Tom Sheppard’s mirror, which he used in the desert when driving at midday but the thought of setting up something like that in the heat was not appealing.  We stopped for a drinks break just outside one of the villages and Francois heard something hissing from the front of my Landy.  We opened the bonnet and had a look around but couldn’t see anything.  I kept a careful check on the gauges after that, to make sure it was not water escaping from the cooling system.  It turned out later that it was the aircon gas that had escaped, but seen as I hadn’t been using the aircon it wasn’t really missed.

 

When we got to Seronga it looked like all the other villages we had been passing through and we wondered where we were going to find accommodation.  I asked a local who told us to drive through the town and we would find a campsite.  I then remembered that the mechanic at Riley’s in Maun had told us to ask for Willy.  I stopped a local and asked him where Willy’s place was and he gave us directions.  We found Willy who showed us to his campsite.

 

We had reached paradise!  Just next to the grassed, shaded campsite was a large swimming pool.  The ablutions were excellent and free firewood was provided.  Francois and I had a quick shower next to the pool and jumped in.  It took us a while to emerge but eventually we reluctantly got out.  We got dressed and went to find Willy and Ann.  We found them on their porch overlooking a permanent channel in the Delta and they invited us for a drink.

 

 

Paradise ?

 

 

Paradise !

 

 

Willy was a professional hunter in the Delta for about the last 35 years.  What he doesn’t know about the area isn’t worth knowing and his stories make for interesting listening.  We eventually got away to make dinner after hearing stories about all the pythons he had caught in the campsite that were after his chickens as well as stories of the big 5 visiting their place.

 

We made dinner and were chased up to our beds early by the numerous mosquito’s’ that got high on our tabard and peaceful sleep and enjoyed biting us through our clothing.  Once in bed I lay listening to the village drums for a while before going to sleep.

 

Day 9 Sunday 29th of September

Seronga

Camping cost: – P22

Ablutions: - Good

Road Conditions: -

 

We woke up fairly early and headed for the Polers Trust camp about 3 km’s out of town to see if we could get on a mekoro trip.  We left all the money and valuables in my vehicle and headed off in Francois’s Landy.  When we got there we discovered that we didn’t have enough money on us.  It cost P150 for two plus a P20 service charge each + 10% VAT which brought the total to P209.  They also wanted to charge us P50 each to take us 14 km’s down the road to where the trip started but we decided to rather drive down ourselves.  We were warned that they couldn’t guarantee the safety of the vehicle but we decided to take a chance.

 

We quickly drove back to Seronga and picked up the money and then back to the Polers trust camp to pick up our poler and then headed the 14 km’s down the road to where the mekoro trip began.

 

We got on the fibreglass mekoro and our poler Doubl started poling us out through the reeds.  Hippo’s that come in from the main channels at night to feed make most of the channels close to shore.  In some places the reeds have grown back which makes poling a bit harder.  We starting seeing lots of birds like Squacco Herons, Lilly trotters, Pied Kingfishers,  Reed Comorant’s, Pygmy Geese, Fish Eagles and many others.  When we got to a open stretch of water Doubl stopped and gave us his rehearsed speech about the Polers Trust, the Delta and it’s animals, birds, fish, frogs and plants.

 

 

Later in one of the channels we came across a couple of local kids who were fishing from a mekoro.  We stopped and Doubl showed us the bait they were using and explained what fish they were likely to catch – so far they had caught nothing.  On the way to the island where we were to get out and walk,  Doubl chatted to us about all the animals and what to do if we confronted them.  He was unarmed but carried a VHF handheld with which he was supposed to radio back to the Polers Trust camp if he encountered any trouble.  He told us that as far as he was concerned the most dangerous animal was buffalo, as it never mock charged like elephant and lion.

 

We eventually got to NG12, which is a 120 km long island in the Delta.  Doubl “parked” the mekoro and we got out and had a quick drinks break.  We then started walking in single file behind him.  We hadn’t gone far when I saw some warthog run into a thick camphor bush.  When we got within about 10m of the bush Doubl stopped and quietly walked back to us.  He told us that a buffalo was in the bush and that we should follow him to bypass it.  I told him that we had seen warthog go into the bush but he insisted that there were buffalo as well and started to bypass the bush by about a further 10m.  Francois and I looked at each other disbelievingly and followed him.  After we had walked about 20m the warthogs burst out of the bush, I looked at Francois and smiled.  Just then two buffalo burst from the bush and ran away from us.  It had been pretty close, if we had carried on with the original path we were on it would have taken us within a metre or two of the buffalo and they may have charged us.  We now listened to Doubl with new respect.  When we asked him how he had known about the buffalo he said that he heard the ox-peckers on them.

 

 

Doubl Trouble !

 

Spider Web

 

 

Soaring

 

We carried on walking and saw zebra on a couple of occasions and more warthog.  We also saw lots of birds – mainly raptors.  It was extremely hot and humid and finally we stopped under some trees for a rest and drink.  After about an hours break we headed back to the mekoro via a different route, which was more in the open.

 

 

Elephant Damage !

 

Back at the mekoro Francois and I were both tired and Francois was feeling a bit sick.  I lay down in the front of the mekoro and closed my eyes.  Doubl started poling us back in the afternoon heat.  The sound the reeds made as the mekoro slipped through them was very relaxing and the only other sound that could be heard was the water dripping off the pole after every stroke.  This had been a unique experience and definitely worth the money.

 

We got back at about 15H30 and dropped Doubl off at the polers camp and headed back to Seronga.  Our campsite had been invaded by a large group of people who were friends of Willy and Ann’s as well as two other couples in a Disco and Hilux with a trailer.  We jumped in the pool and relaxed for a while.  We took a walk down to the permanent channel and took some photos as the sun went down.

 

 

 

 

 

Delta Magic

 

That evening we chatted to Willy and Ann who suggested that we pick up a bushman at the last village on the road to Linyati and enter the bushman concession area and spend a night there.  Later that evening we ate and were again chased into bed by the mosquitos.

 

 

Day 10 Monday 30th of September

Seronga – Bushman Camp

Camping cost: – P50 per day

Ablutions: - BK

Road Conditions: -  The road from Seronga to the bushman village was similar to the road from Mohembo – Seronga.  The road from the bushman village to the bushman camp was very thick sand,  very bumpy with a high middelmannetjie and lots of thorn bushes and other trees which scratched the vehicles. We crossed a channel which was bonnet deep on the Land Rover at it’s highest.  In the wet season getting to this camp could be a lot more challenging!

 

I woke up early and packed.  When I was finished I headed off for a shower leaving Francois eating his breakfast.  While I was showering Francois began watching the Seronga version of CocaCola Pornstars.  First the couple who had camped in front of us decided to go for a swim.  The man jumped into the pool and his wife or girlfriend then stripped off her sarong and gave Francois a bit of a parade in her G-string and skimpy bra before jumping into the pool.  Francois tried to look cool and disinterested but was battling to keep his Wheetbix in his mouth what with all the drooling ;-)  When she got out of the pool he got a similar show and in all this time the bastard hadn’t come to call me ;-)  The second contestant then started her Kalahari CanCan (as Francois christened it).  She was wearing a silk nightie, which barely covered her woolmark and proceeded to prance around the campsite bending over at every opportunity to show him her ample wares.  At this stage the second judge (me) arrived back from his shower in time to see our second contestant start packing up the camp.  She was folding away her tent and packing bags and putting them down a short distance from us.  Every time she came to put a bag down she would bend over and we could see all the way down her nightie, between her boobs. past her panties to the river behind her.  As the second judge had not seen the first contestant we were unable to come up with a winner and decided they should share the trophy.  This was a fitting start to my birthday and set us up for the rest of the day.

 

Before we left the local butchbaby who was camped in a caravan on the other side of our campsite came to ask whether either Francois or I had a welder under the bonnets of our Land Rovers.  It turned out she had broken the Camil suspension system on her Nissan on the road from Mohembo to Seronga and now needed a welder to repair it.  Francois went and had a look to see if he could “help” but the butchbaby was more interested in the two CocaCola Pornstars than Francois and he returned a short while later to carry on packing.

 

We stopped off to say goodbye to Willy and Ann and to buy some diesel from them as we weren’t sure if we would make it all the way to Kasane.  They kindly sold us some of their personal supply, which they buy in Maun but it cost us P3.50/litre.  We also bought a couple of cool drinks and took some pictures of their cute puppies.

 

 

Just as we were about to leave Willy spotted a pair of yellow-billed kites in one of the trees on his property.  The one was eating something and Willy asked to to have a look and see what it was.  It looked like a ball of feathers and I told him as much.  He marched inside swearing and cursing and emerged with a double-barrelled shotgun, walked closer to the tree and shot the kite, which tumbled, down to the ground dead.  He said that they had been preying on his baby chickens and had killed 3 or 4 in the last couple of days.  With that we decided to leave and be on our way.

 

 

Chickens – (-3)  Yellow Billed Kites (1)

Yellow Bill Kite – (-1)   Willy – (1)

 

We headed off on the road to Linyati and what was interesting was that the names and number of villages on the road bore no resemblance to either the Veronica Roodt or Contimap.  The road was fairly bad but we made reasonable time.

We finally got to the Bushman village (which was only recognisable from the other villages by Bushman walking around) and asked for Patrick, which was the name we had been given.  We finally found an old smartly dressed Bushman and asked him if he would take us to their concession area.  He replied that he was busy but would send us with someone else.  He introduced us to his nephew Colin (who looked nothing like a bushman) and told us that Colin would take us to the concession.  Colin jumped in with Francois and we headed to his hut to pick up his belongings.  He grabbed a mattress and bedroll and as an after thought went inside and grabbed his Birds of Botswana book.

 

We headed south from the bushman village deeper into the Delta. The track was very sandy and bumpy and didn’t look like it had been driven in a long time.  It was very overgrown in places and our vehicles picked up even more scratches.  We did however start to see a lot of game.  By the end of the day we had seen elephants, sable, roan, kudu, eland, buffalo, tsessebe, red letchwe, zebra, hippo, wildebeest, warthog, impala, steenbok, duiker, baboons and many species of birds.

 

 

 We got to a channel filled with water and the track led through it.  With my previous experience at getting stuck in water I would have preferred to walk it but Francois decided to drive through it.  I got out and filmed him driving through and noticed that at it’s deepest point the water came up to his bonnet.  I drove through with Colin filming me on Francois video camera and Francois taking photos.  It seemed quite muddy at the bottom but I made it through without a problem.

 

 

How to wade

 

We got to our “campsite” at around 15H30.  The campsite was a large circle of mainly jackalberry trees with open plain all around us.  A permanent channel was close by with hippo snorting.  We relaxed for a bit and Francois went to see an elephant that was feeding about 150m away and a herd of tsessebe close by.  I went for a walk around the trees with Colin.  He heard a bird call and said that it was a honey guide, which was trying to show us a beehive.  Sure enough we followed it for a short while and found a beehive in a hollow of a tree.  The honey guide was getting quite frantic but Colin didn’t look keen to tackle the bees.

 

At around 16H30 I wanted to go for a game drive and took Colin with me.  Francois decided to stay at the camp and have a shower and rest but said he would leave his radio on in case we saw anything interesting.  I went driving with Colin and in a very short space of time had seen an amazing variety of species.  When we came across a herd of buffalo Colin said that we should find lion close by.  I asked him why and he said that the lion in these areas enjoy eating buffalo and if they find a herd they will generally follow it and stay close enough to make a kill at night.  I didn’t really believe him but sure enough on our way back to camp we found two male lions lying in the shade of a tree quite close to the herd of buffalo and about 1.2 km’s from our camp.  I radioed Francois and told him but he thought I was joking.  When he realised that I wasn’t he jumped in his Landy and I guided him to where we were stopped.

 

 

We took pics and video of the lions and when the sun started going down we decided to head back to camp.  We arrived back at camp, Colin stripped to his underwear and shoes and watched Francois and I set up camp.  We eventually convinced him to help us collect some firewood, which he did.  When I asked him where he was going to sleep he answered “In the Land Rover”.  I had visions of Bushmen not being scared of any animals and sleeping in the open or at least under the Land Rover however Colin informed us that he was a river Bushmen and that their were too many lions in the area to sleep in the open.  Francois begrudgingly emptied the back of his hardtop and Colin made his bed.

 

It was now totally dark and Colin informed us that the buffalo were likely to head for our camp tonight, as they would feel safer from the lions.  A short while later we heard lots of snorting and bellowing and lions roaring and we thought that the lions were making a kill.  Colin however informed us that the buffalo bulls were calling the cows and calves into the centre and were forming a protective circle around them to prevent the lions from attacking.  We then started hearing the buffalo moving towards us and we continued to hear the lions.  We ate quickly and got into our tents not wanting to take sides between the buffalo and lions when they entered our camp.  The whole night I heard lion, hyena and jackal and wondered if they had made a kill.  It had been an eventful birthday and one that I will remember for a long time.

 

 

Day 11 Tuesday 1st of October

Bushmen Camp – Chobe Forest Reserve

Camping cost: – Nil

Ablutions: - BK

Road Conditions: - Various – see below

 

I woke up early and looked out my tent window.  A herd of impala were grazing a couple of meters from Francois’s Land Rover with a herd of tsessebe not far behind them.  Out my other window I could see an elephant about 100m away browsing from a tree.

 

We packed up and had breakfast while another elephant joined his friend a short distance away from us.  We left relatively early and headed back to the Bushmen village.  We saw a lot of game on the way back and I was joking with Francois over the radio that the only thing Colin hadn’t shown us was giraffe and leopard.  As we came around a corner we bumped into a herd of giraffe, which were feeding close to the road.  A short while later we came across a large tortoise and it took a bit of convincing for Colin to leave it as he wanted it for lunch.  We told him we were paying him well and that this tortoise was not going to be lunch.

 

 

Lunch ?

 

Running …………..

 

We got to the water crossing and Francois suggested that we let the diffs cool for a bit before attempting the crossing.  We got out and walked around and discovered fairly fresh lion tracks in the mud around the crossing.  After a short while and a drink I decided to go through first so that I could film Francois coming towards me as the previous day I had only got the rear of his Landy going through the water.  I turned my video camera on, changed into low second and hit the water at a fair speed.  About half way through I suddenly sank and lost traction.  I tried with front and rear diff locks activated but I was just digging myself deeper.  I was still filming and watched and filmed the front and rear foot wells filling with water.  In the meantime Francois had decided to try and pull me out from behind and had sent Colin (who stripped to his underwear again) into the water to attach the snatch strap.  My tow hitch was under water with my exhaust bubbling away happily and I don’t think Colin was able to remove the pin from the hitch to attach the strap.  He finally just looped it over the tow ball, which made Francois a little nervous for a snatch recovery.  At this stage I was still happily sitting in the Landy with the water filling up around me.  Francois tried a couple of pulls but he was battling for traction at the edge of the water in some thick mud. 

 

 

How not to wade or SS Spike

 

It was time to get out of my Landy and do some winching.  I got out into the water feeling secure because Colin hadn’t been attacked by anything yet.  I went to my winch and discovered that it was under about 6 inches of water.  I pulled all 38m of cable out but was still quite short of the nearest tree.  Colin brought through Francois’s two straps and we attached those – still short of the tree.  I went back to my vehicle and removed one of my straps and added it to the line and was now able to get the strap around a large fallen tree trunk.  I got back to my Landy, jumped in and slammed the door – big mistake – the splash inside the foot well wet the remaining parts of me that were still dry.  I attached the winch control, engaged second low and slowly winched myself out of the mud.  Once out we recovered all the gear and I prepared to photograph Francois coming through.  Francois came through with a dash of speed and we continued back towards the village.

 

 

A dash of speed !

 

We got to the village and dropped Colin off at his hut.  We had agreed to pay him P50 a day on recommendation by Willy at Seronga.  We gave him a P100 and explained to him that in future if people came through he would be paid P50 for the day regardless of how many people we took in.  He thought that he would get P50 from each person per day but we explained that as he had no facilities at the campsite,  no vehicle, no tent and no food P50 per day was a fair deal.  He agreed and asked us to send more people to him ;-)  If you do go please do not pay more than P50 per day for your guide and remember to take a ground tent with for them to sleep in.

 

We left the village and headed for Linyati.  The road out of the village got much worse and we encountered very thick sand.  A couple of km’s outside the village we came across the Hilux towing a trailer and the Disco that we had seen at Seronga.  The trailer was “stuck” in the sand and the Hilux driver had a very dodgy looking strap, which he was attempting to recover it with.  His track mats were also out and I am not too sure what he was planning on doing.  We also noticed that his rear door on his canopy was missing and he advised us that it had broken off on the Mohembo to Seronga road!  The Disco driver was on crutches and offering advice.  We got out and offered to help.  The first thing I asked was what the tyre pressure was and they replied that they hadn’t let their tyres down because they were worried about sidewall punctures.  I replied that they were unlikely to get through at all without letting their tyres down as we were told that the sand got much thicker further down the track.  We checked the tyre pressure on both vehicles and the trailer and the average pressure was around 2.7 bar.  I told them to go down to 1.5 bar all round with the rear of the Disco down to 1.8 bar as it was packed quite heavily.  We helped them lower the pressure and then told the Hilux driver to rehitch the trailer and carry on driving.  He at first wouldn’t believe me that the trailer didn’t need to be recovered from the sand and that the lowered pressure would do it.  I told him to try and he drove out easily.  We asked them to let us pass, as we had to get to Kasane that evening whereas they were heading for Maun.  I felt a bit guilty leaving them especially as they didn’t seem to have a clue but they were adults and had made the decision to come this way so that had to live with the consequences.  Before we left the old boy’s wife asked Francois why we men drove roads like these – Francois just smiled and walked away. They thanked us and we drove off.

 

A while later we came to the Selinda vet fence.  We signed in and drove through deciding to stop for a drinks break to see if we could see the Hilux and Disco.  They arrived a short while later and commented that the driving had been a lot easier with the pressures lowered.

 

We left and started driving through the Selinda reserve.  The sand was the thickest we had encountered so far with the track heavily overgrown.  You had to drive at speed to get through the sand, which meant that the vehicles took quite a hammering from the encroaching trees and bushes.  It was a tough, hot drive and we saw little game besides steenbokkies and giraffe.  We did see what looked like blue and black kites pegged in the ground at regular intervals and Francois advised that they were tsetse fly traps.

 

 

Tsetse Fly Trap ?

 

We finally got to the turnoff where you could go right to Maun or left to Linyati and Savuti.  We turned left and headed towards Linyati.

 

 

Selinda Reserve

 

From here we started seeing a lot of game (mostly elephant and impala) and just about every corner we drove around we ran into another herd of elephants.  We had been advised to stick to the main road and stay away from the photographic and hunting concessions as the staff from these places could get a little nasty if they found you wondering around their area.  We followed our noses for most of the way until we got to an old wooden bridge.  The riverbed that it spanned was dry so we crossed that instead as the bridge looked a bit dodgy.  Once across the bridge we had a debate as to whether we should go straight or turn right.  The signs for the transit route were unclear so we eventually turned right in the hope that we would stay away from the concessions.  We ended up driving in a wide riverbed that was full of game.  Throughout the day I guess we must have seen about 40 – 50 herds of elephant as well as a lot of other game but mainly impala, kudu and giraffe.  It was getting late and we didn’t really have a clue where we were but we were heading in the right direction.  We came around a corner and down into another river bed and there on the right in the distance was a massive herd of elephant and zebra at a waterhole.  Behind the waterhole I noticed a thatch lodge built on stilts overlooking the waterhole.  We debated whether to turn around or head towards the lodge and ask for directions.  As it was already around 16H30 and we still had a very long way to get to Kasane we decided to go and ask for directions.

 

Picture the scene:  you are sipping your martini on the veranda of a lodge overlooking a waterhole full of elephant and zebra that you have paid USD600 per night to stay in when a couple of scruffy looking Land Rovers come racing towards you driven by even scruffier looking drivers who haven’t washed for a day or so.  One would have thought it would have been the ultimate African experience for the guests at the lodge but sadly the Land Rover Game Viewing vehicle that raced out to meet us didn’t think so.  A very smartly dressed guy in some Kings Pool branded clothing stopped and jumped out.  I put on my best smile and asked if we could come in for a drink as we were doing a pub-crawl of the pubs in the area for a braaigrid article I was writing for a mad bunch of Internet friends?  I really said politely “I think we are a bit lost, how do we get to Kasane?”  The guy was really quite nice but explained to us that his guests were paying USD600 a night and for that they demanded a little exclusivity and two scruffy guys in scruffy Land Rovers driving up to their waterhole and disturbing their elephants was lowering the tone somewhat.  He said we would have to head back to the wooden bridge (about three hours drive) and then head straight along the road and not turnoff and eventually we would get to Kasane.  I explained nicely that it was a long drive back and we probably wouldn’t make it before dark in which case we would have to bush camp in their nice concession.  He saw things my way and decided to give us a short cut back onto the transit route.  He drew me a nice map and happily said that we would be unlikely to make it to Linyati before nightfall.  I thanked him and we left.

 

His shortcut turned out to be one of the worst roads we had travelled on.  The sand was incredibly thick and the track was bumpy and full of donga’s. To add to the fun we kept on bumping into herds of elephant with young and the cows were raising trunks and flapping ears at us as we crawled past.  Eventually we realised that we weren’t going to make Linyati by nightfall and stopped for a drink and some food.  After our short break we carried on and came around a corner only to find an open game-viewing vehicle filled with tourists bristling with cameras in front of a large herd of elephant with young.  The gentle throb of our Tdi motors, caused them to all turn around and glare at us.  I gave them my winning smile and waited as they were blocking the road.  Eventually the driver pulled off the track and we drove past slowly trying not to scare the elephants.  I wish I could have videoed the looks on some of the guests faces.

 

 

The shortcut !

 

We finally hit the Linyati cut line and knew that it wasn’t far to go.  Driving up the cut line I came to a small rise and when driving over it nearly drove into the swamp.  We backtracked a bit and found a track leading towards the waypoint we had for the Linyati campsite.  Suddenly two vehicles approached us from the front, the first looking like a game viewing vehicle.  I thought they were probably on a night drive and wondered if we had finally been bust.   I drove through a deep trough of water and then stopped to talk to them but the first and second vehicles just drove past me.  The second vehicle was an old Cruiser or Trooper filled with tourists and it certainly didn’t look like park officials.  We drove on and finally saw a fire burning on the left.  We drove up to it and found four Dutch tourists who had a rental 110.  They told us that they were the only people at Linyati and that the people we had seen on the way in were heading for Moremi.  They also told us that a short while before some elephants had walked through their camp and they had all jumped into the Landy for safety.  We told them we were trying to get to Kasane that night but they told us that it had taken them a whole day from Kasane to Linyati and that we were unlikely to make it.  We said goodbye and headed for the gate.  We got to the gate at 19H00 and surprise, surprise it was closed.  We stood discussing our options and debating whether we should camp at Linyati or head on to Kasane.  Francois was keen to head on as he didn’t want to have to pay for a days entry and night’s camping at Linyati.  We were debating whether to just lift the boom and drive on when a Land Cruiser bakkie with three park officials arrived.  A large amount of sweet-talking later we managed to convince them that we didn’t want to pay their prices and would prefer to head on to Kasane.  They eventually relented and let us through without paying telling us to head up the cut line.  We left and thanked them.

 

We headed up the cut line in the dark with all spots and floods blazing.  We saw a lot of elephants, steenbokkies and rabbits.  I was not too keen to carry on driving as I was tired and worried about the animals but Francois was determined to get to Kasane so that we didn’t have to pay any park fees.  Around nine o clock I nearly drove into a herd of zebra who ran across the road.  We were getting very tired and liable to make a mistake.  At 21H30 Francois agreed to stop as he was also tired.  We were somewhere on the Chobe Forest Reserve cut line.  I got out the Landy, put up my rooftop tent and went to sleep.

 

Day 12 Wednesday 2nd October

Chobe Forest Reserve (cutline) – Kasane (Chobe Safari Lodge)

Camping cost: – P35

Ablutions: - Reasonable

Road Conditions: - Cut line was thick sand, the main road was high-speed gravel and then onto tar.

 

The next morning we woke at 05H30 in order to be moving on the cut line before park officials found us camped there.  We got going at about 06H00 and saw a fair amount of game about at that time of the morning.  We took a turning to the left off the cut line and headed for the main road to Kasane.  It started to rain so I stopped to put the rain cover on my tent – shortly thereafter the rain stopped.  We stopped to pump up tyres when we hit the main dirt road.  We drove through lots of villages and it was interesting to see the defences they had around their kraals of cattle, which hadn’t been so prevalent in other areas.  About 500m past a village a lioness ran across the road in front of me and I understood why the villages had all the defences.  We got to Ngoma gate leading into Chobe and managed to talk our way through without paying anything.  We were now driving on a good tar road through Chobe and it felt a bit too civilised.  We passed through the last gate easily and headed for Kasane.

 

Once in Kasane we stopped at the Spar and bought cold drinks and groceries.  I visited the local pharmacy and bought some Mefliam as I couldn’t find mine and needed to take it.  We then headed for Chobe Safari Lodge and booked in and paid P35 to camp.  We found a nice campsite in the bottom left hand corner right on the river and set-up camp.

 

My Landy was now beginning to smell,  not only from me but from the wet carpets from it’s swim the day before.  I stripped out all the carpets and mats and hung them on the railing to dry.  I also hung up my recovery straps to dry as my seat box under my seat had filed with water.  When I was finished the place looked like a Chinese laundry.  To add to the effect Francois wanted to wash some clothes so I strung up a rope as a washing line and he and I both did a bit of washing.  Other campers seemed to avoid us as we were definitely lowering the overall tone of the campsite.

 

We met a nice old couple from Richards Bay, Marty and Eileen Russell.  They had bought an old diesel Pajero, fixed it up a bit and then left Richards Bay in May this year for an East Africa on the cheap trip.  They had been to Moz, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, back to Tanzania, Zambia and then wanted to tour Zim but couldn’t get any diesel.  They had arrived in Kasane to fill up with diesel and decided to camp at the CSL.  They had some interesting stories to tell about the places they had been to and the things they had seen.  They had stayed out of the parks as they were too expensive (we could relate to this) and instead had concentrated on seeing fish, birds, graves and museums along with anything else interesting they found along the way.  We told them about the Overland Forum and Francois was trying to convince them to post a trip report.  He took down their details so that he could harass them later when they got back to Richards Bay.

 

A tame warthog with a sore leg came around later to visit, she had been wallowing in some black mud and looked pretty pleased with herself.  Francois was keen to put his mat on the ground and have a sleep and I told him I wouldn’t wake him if she came to lie down next to him ;-)  Later the warthog came by with her whole family and Francois thought he was doing our neighbours a favour by chasing them away from their camp only to discover our disgruntled neighbours who had been trying to film the warthog in their camp before Francois chased them away.   The vervets came around later and this time we left them to wreak havoc in our neighbour’s camp.

 

Our campsite position on the water was great.  We could see and hear hippo’s in the river, elephant’s on the island across the river, listen to fish eagles all day long and watch Pied Kingfishers catching fish in front of us.  It was truly another tough day in Africa!

 

 

Campsite at Chobe Safari Lodge

 

Chobe River at Sunset

 

 

 

Day 13 Thursday 3rd October

Kasane – Hunters Road

Camping cost: – Nil

Ablutions: - BK

Road Conditions: -  Hunters Road was mainly dry with only one or two wet spots.  This made driving fairly easy although certain sections were bumpy.  The black cotton soil was dry and you could see the ground below through cracks, which were sometimes a foot deep.  In the rainy season it would be an absolute nightmare!  The track was overgrown in places with some sections have bonnet high trees in the middle of the road – scratches were the order of the day.

 

We woke up to an overcast cool morning but luckily the rain stayed away long enough for us to pack up.  Just before we left it started bucketing down and I started wondering what Herbert Trafoyer meant when he said we would need a lot of luck if it was wet.

 

We went to the Shell Garage to fill up and unfortunately they didn’t accept credit cards so I gave them my last P50 and paid for the rest in rands getting ripped at a rate of 50c to the Pula.  A last trip to the Spar for cool drinks and we were on our way.

 

We drove to Kazangula and just before the border turned right onto Hunters Road.  We hadn’t gone far when we bumped into our first herd of elephants.  We then saw some carmine bee-eaters, kudu and a lot of other game.  We passed the Elephant Valley Lodge and saw a couple of elephant bulls browsing right outside.

 

The first part we drove fairly slowly as we were seeing a lot of game.  Later we speeded up a bit to between 40 and 60 km/h but still saw a hell of a lot of game.  We saw lots of elephants, kudu, zebra, impala, giraffe, warthog, wildebeest, roan, steenbok and duiker.  In addition to this we saw a lot of bird life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at Kazuma pan for lunch and walked around a bit taking photos.  It was quite overcast and their seemed to be a lot of smoke in the air as well which made the light bad for photographs.  When we arrived we saw a lone wildebeest bull that saw us and then went cavorting around the pan like he was on speed.

 

 

Kazuma Pan

 

Voetspoore van die Grootes !

 

In certain places along the track we drove over long pieces of wire and had to stop and remove them from different parts of our vehicles suspension.  The grass was also quite high and we stopped occasionally to clear the grass from under the vehicles.

 

We past the border post at Pandamatenga making sure we were on the Bots side of the road as we were not keen to repeat Herbert’s efforts at being arrested for being in Zim.

 

Just before we got to our campsite we saw four ground hornbills sitting in the road.  As we got closer they took off and flew in front of us down the road.  Every time we slowed down they would land and every time we moved forward they would fly in front of us.  We eventually speeded up and overtook them while they were flying as this was the only way we could stop this senseless behaviour

 

We finally got to our campsite at the kidney pan and set-up about 80m away so that we wouldn’t disturb the animals who came looking for a drink (not that the pan had any water in anyway).  Francois noticed that I had broken my front right-hand spotlight.  It must have happened when I was driving over the bonnet high sticks and short trees.  Another minor inconvenience but nothing to worry about.

 

 

Broken light

 

We set up our tents and decided that tonight seen as it was our last night in the bush we would burn all our wood and have a nice rustig evening.

 

 

 

I got out a fillet steak and Francois got out a T-bone and we left them on the Landy fenders to defrost.  It was a stunning evening and the sunset was beautiful.  When it got dark I asked Francois if I should put on a fluorescent light but we decided against it, as it would spoil the ambience.

 

 

Another tough day in Africa

 

Sitting in our chairs around the fire waiting for the coals to form I heard a rumbling noise.  I dismissed it as Francois NL fridge as the Danfoss compressor sometime makes a strange noise when it stops.  A short while later it happened again and I asked Francois if he had heard it.  He said yes but that it was not his fridge.  We both stood up and listened.  Suddenly we heard a lion growl within about 100m of us, this was followed by a loud roar.

 

In a matter of seconds the steaks were back in the fridge,  the campsite packed away and we were both in our tents – it was 19H00 !  Francois had the presence of mind to grab a tin of tuna and a tin of spaghetti.  I had climbed into my tent with my video camera, my spotlight, my laptop and a tin of cool drink.  This was not going to be a lekker evening!   I wondered if we weren’t being a bit silly but as Francois commented rather bang Jan then dooie Jan.   A bit later I got down after Francois and I both scanned for lions and got myself something to eat and more to drink.  I climbed back into the tent and started the trip report.  I finally went to sleep at about 23H00 listening to the lions roaring, hyena laughing and in-between Francois snoring.

 

Day 14 Friday 4th October

Hunters Road – Nata Bird Sanctuary

Camping cost: – P40

Ablutions: - Dirty and run down with no hot water

Road Conditions: - as above until we hit the tar

 

Woke up very early and lay in bed listening to the birds for a couple of hours.  Got up at about 06H30 and had breakfast and packed and then left at about 08H00.  A couple of hundred meters from camp I decided to stop and pump my tyres up a bit.  While I was busy Francois called me to see an elephant walking around our campsite.  We left and saw lots of game:  elephant, kudu, gemsbok, eland and lots of steenbokkies.  We met our family of four ground hornbills we had seen the day before and again they were acting stupid so we sped up to overtake them.   In one section we encountered quite thick sand and my water temp jumped

to 100C with EGT sitting at about 500C – the stupid Land Rover water temp gauge never budged.  After letting tyres down to 2 bar rear and 1.6 bar front the water temp came down to 90C and EGT down to about 330C.

 

 

Francois doing a bit of hunting along the way

 

Along the way Francois remembered that we were supposed to plant a geocache.  We had forgotten up until now but Hunters Road was as good a place as any.  We stopped near a pan and buried our cache at the base of a tree.  As it was the end of the trip we didn’t have too much for the cache but hopefully the next bunch will leave something a bit more substantial.  The cache is located at S19 19 40.5 E26 05 31.4 using the WGS84 datum.  It is located on the side of the tree away from the road.  Look out for lions before you try and dig it up !

 

 

View of geocache from road

 

View of geocache from pan side

 

We sadly left Hunters Road and pumped our tyres up before we hit the tar.

 

We got to the Ngwasha Vet Gate, which was our first one from North – South.  This one meant business and they immediately asked to see what we had in our fridges.  I advised the official that we had purchased all our meat in Serowe and had a permit to take it from South – North and back again.  I finally found my permit and showed it to them, which was lucky as Francois’s permit had Tippex marks under both North and South and they were giving him a hard time about it.  We had to go and walk on their wet sacks and take all our other shoes to be “dipped” as well.  They took down all our details but never asked to search anything, which was lucky, as I hadn’t hid my SA biltong.  The permit had worked and saved us a lot of hassle with unpacking and searching.  The tough chicken that everyone had moaned about now seemed worth it.

 

We got to Nata Bird Sanctuary and paid P30 pppn and P10 for the vehicle.  The first thing that struck me when we got into the sanctuary was where the fhk are all the birds?  Obviously with the pans being dry no birds are around.  The second thing that struck me is how shabby the ablutions are.  Everything is dirty and broken and it certainly seems like a good place to skip in future.  Francois and I briefly considered getting a refund and heading for Nata Lodge but decided against it as it was just for one night.  We actually saw a couple of pied crows so at least we know that Nata Bird Sanctuary has a resident bird or two.

 

Francois made some cheese and tomato sandwiches for lunch and then toasted them on the braai.  After lunch Francois had a sleep while I carried on with the trip report.  When he woke up we briefly considered exploring a bit but both of us were in sloth mode.  The weather looked threatening so we strung my groundsheet over my awning and made a small room protected from the weather.  We still had our steaks in the fridge from the night before and got them out.  Francois fried us some chips and chopped up some tomato and onion.  I fried the tomato and onion in my pan and then threw in the steaks.  We had one of our best meals of the trip and rounded it off with peaches and ice cream, which I had been carting around since Maun.  We washed the dishes and I then set up my gas shower as neither of us felt like braving the dirty, broken, cold showers in the ablution block.  The wind had died down a bit and I had a good shower out in the open.

 

After dinner we climbed on Francois’s roof rack and looked out at the pans.  The lightning in the distance seemed to have started a couple of veld fires and we watched them for a while.

 

I went to sleep feeling quite sad that the trip was almost over.

 

Day 15 Saturday 5th October

Nata Bird Sanctuary - Centurion

 

We got up early, packed and left at 07H45.  We got to the next vet gate and after a long discussion and showing our permits we got through without a search.  At the Dukwi (sp?) vet gate we were not so lucky.  They looked at our permits and argued that we still couldn’t take our meat through.  I told them to phone the vet listed on our permit but they said they didn’t have a phone.  Just then the guy who had just told me that they didn’t have a phone got a call on his cell phone and sheepishly removed it from his pocket and took the call.  When he was finished he said that he had no call units left.  His friend however was still chatting away happily on his cell phone.  While all this was going on they were happily waving through locals without a search included a refrigerated truck.

 

I was starting to get irritated and decided to use my phone and contact Joe at Basimane Butcheries in Serowe.  I called his cell phone but he had left it at home and his wife answered.  I then called Dr Segale on his cell phone and apologised for calling so early in the morning (it was just after 08H00).  I explained to him who I was and told him about the problems we were having.  He said to me that under no circumstances were we allowed to take our meat from North back to South.  When I mentioned that this contradicted what Joe had written on our forms and told us he said that Joe was wrong.  We now didn’t have a leg to stand on and I removed my meat from the freezer and walked to where they were supposed to burn it.  Francois’s description of what happened next sums it up well so I have included it.

 

Hmmm, picture the scene: We have just spent 20 minutes arguing with 3 or 4 "officials" about the meat. Finally, wanting to continue our journey, me and Darryl carry our meat to the pit to be burnt. One guy arrives with some twigs set alight on top of an old stop sign. Darryl takes one look at this "fire" and throws his meat in the pit with "I don't care, eat it if you want", and gets in the Landy and drives off :-). The fire guy looks at Darryl's dust, looks at me, and says meekly "but, I don't even eat red meat" (I'm thinking "yeah right"). So I painfully watched him as he first fetched some water with diesel fumes, which almost put out the fire, and then asked him to fetch some proper diesel. I then made sure he opened all the packets and poured diesel over EVERYTHING. I told him "If we are afraid of foot and mouth, we must do this properly and follow the procedures".

Another day in Africa...

 

Driving away from the vet gate I was fuming.  I was not cross with the officials as they were just doing their jobs but I was pissed off with Joe for having misled us.  I phoned him at work and told him what had happened.  He was very apologetic and said he would get back to me after making a call to Dr Segale.  

 

We got to Francistown and filled up with diesel at the Shell garage.  They took credit cards, which was lucky, as I had no more Pula.  We left and stopped at the Spar so that Francois could buy some canned beef for Lydia.  Lydia works in the food industry and was keen to try the Bots canned meat as it’s supposed to be one of the best available.  We left Francistown and headed for Palapye.   In Francistown I picked up a cell signal and had 3 messages.  All were from Joe who wanted me to phone him urgently.  I called him back and he told me how Dr Segale’s staff had given him a different story to what Dr Segale said and that he was sorry that our meat had been taken away.  He offered to compensate us but I said it was not the money just the principle that we had gone to a lot of effort to be legit only to find out that the “permit” we had with us was rubbish.  I also mentioned to him that everyone had been unhappy with the chicken that he had supplied and that it had been so tough to almost be inedible.  He apologised and said that he had used a new supplier and offered to compensate us for the chicken.  I said this was not necessary but that I would pass on his offer to the others.  He said he would contact me on Monday morning to arrange details of payment as he felt on principle it was the least he could do.  I am still waiting for that call.

 

The rest of the vet gates along the way just waved us through without a problem.  We got to Martins Drift border post in the early afternoon and besides a cop on the SA side asking us if we had any rhino horn we got through without any problems.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the only rhino left in Bots were at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary and that they were well protected.

 

Before we left Martins Drift I needed to pump up my back right tyre as it had a slow puncture.  I had picked this up on my tyre monitor and seen that it was going down slowly.  We pumped it up to about 3.2 bar and drove off.  A short while later I noticed that it was going down again a lot quicker than before and we stopped to pump it up again.  I still had a spare tyre that we had fitted to the rim at Drotsky’s however this tyre had also seen some abuse and I was a bit hesitant to fit it especially as it hadn’t been balanced.

 

We drove back slowly stopping every 30 or 40 km’s to pump up the tyre.  Francois’s aircon based compressor, which he had fitted before the trip proved invaluable and saved a lot of time.  Late in the afternoon we got to Potgietersrus and checked out a couple of the roadside tyre repair places but the looked dodgy in the extreme and I was unwilling to take a chance with them. 

 

We stopped at a garage and I decided to try and find and plug the hole myself.  I made up some soapy water and we poured it over the tyre.  We could have started a bubble factory with all the small leaks we picked up.  I plugged three or four of the main ones and then we got to the main leak where most of the air was leaking.  It had been a previous puncture that I had plugged and the air was leaking out the side of the plug.  I added another plug to the hole and the air loss slowed a bit.  Another plug was added and again the loss slowed.  After the fourth plug I decided that I was taking a hell of a chance and ran the risk of the whole lot falling out whilst driving.  I said to Francois we should just drive on and take it slowly.  We left and things seemed to be better although we still stopped every 50 – 60km’s to pump it up.  We finally got to Pretoria at 21H30,  it had been a very long day !

 

Lydia had cooked us a great meal with lots of vegetables and it went down really well.  We watched Francois’s video of the trip and had a good laugh about some of the things that had happened.  We went to bed around midnight and it felt strange to be sleeping in a proper bed again.

 

Day 16 Sunday 6th October

Centurion - Bloemfontein

 

We woke up, had breakfast and then started phoning tyre shops in the vain hope that one of them would be open on a Sunday.  After several we gave up and I decided to try Paul Oxley and see if he had any contacts.  Paul said he had a contact at TWAT in Cresta but that the guys cell number was at work.  He kindly offered to go and fetch it and give me a call back.  In the meantime I got thinking about my second spare tyre, which we had fitted at Drotsky’s.  I suggested to Francois that we pump it up and check it for punctures.  We did this and after checking it carefully in a large tub of soapy water found that it had no leaks.  I suggested that we fit it to the rear right and take it for a drive on the highway to see how badly unbalanced it really was.  We did this and took it for a fair distance on the highway at 120 km/h.  We picked up practically no vibration at all and when we got back and checked the pressure we found that it was still perfect.

 

Paul phoned back with the TWAT guys’ number so I thanked him and told him what we had discovered and said I would drive back without a spare, as I was unlikely to have any problems on the N1.  In hindsight I should have taken him up on his offer and contacted the guy.

 

I was also still concerned about my water crossing and the fact that I was in deep water for at least 20 minutes.  I told Francois I would like to check all the oils for water contamination before driving all the way back to Cape Town.  With lots of help from Francois, we checked the front and rear diffs, transfer box, gearbox and engine oil.  Both front and rear diffs had bad water contamination, the transfer box was fine but we changed the oil anyway.  We also blew out my air filter, which surprisingly was not too dirty considering the terrain we had driven through.  I dumped my tyre (in Francois’s yard) that I had destroyed on the way to Drotsky’s as their was little point in taking it all the way back to Cape Town. Lydia prepared us a very nice lunch with more veggies and after lunch I had a shower.  I left Centurion at 15H15 and the plan was to get as far as Colesberg.

 

I drove into the Shell Ultra City in Bloemfontein at 19H45, pulled up at the diesel pump and asked the guy to fill it.  I got out the Landy and noticed a large bulge the size of a grapefruit sticking out the side of the right rear tyre.  The tyre also looked a bit flat so I decided to give it a bit of air and move off the forecourt to repair it.  I pumped it up a little and replaced the valve cap.  As I was standing talking to the pump attendant the tyre exploded!  My first feeling was one of disappointment, as I had wanted to take a photo of the grapefruit sticking out the side of the tyre.  I then went cold realising that I had just been driving through a bad thunderstorm all the way from Kroonstad to Bloem.  What made it worse is that they had roadworks all the way and I had been driving between large trucks for most of the way with no yellow line to pull over in the event of a problem.  If the tyre had blown while I was driving, chances are it would have been quite serious.  I decided then that my guardian angel had been looking out for me and I wasn’t going to take any more chances.  My plan was to spend the night in Bloem and try and purchase new tyres in the morning.

 

While this was happening,  a guy in a small truck at the opposite pump started shouting and swearing at the pump attendants accusing them of stealing his cell phone.  He demanded to see the co-ordinator and said that none of the pump attendants were allowed to leave.  The pump attendants just looked at him blankly while he ranted and raved.  One of them went to go and fetch the co-ordinator and while he was gone the guy found his cell phone, jumped into his truck and drove off without apologising to anyone.  The pump attendants just shook their heads and carried on working.

 

I had a spare tube with me and asked the pump attendant if they had tyre-changing equipment.  He replied that they had and he would call the co-ordinator.  The co-ordinator arrived and asked if he must help me put the spare on.  When I advised him that I was all out of spares but had a tube,  he offered to help fit it.  We removed the tyre that had been leaking the day before and I grabbed the tube from my spares drawer.  The tyre changing equipment made it a breeze to remove the tyre however when we tried fitting the tube we discovered that the valve was too large to fit through the hole in the rim.  I was irritated with myself as I had the same problem previously and had purchased the correct tubes however when packing the Landy I had obviously packed the wrong one.  I asked the co-ordinator if he had any 16” tubes and he replied that he didn’t but that he did have 14” tubes.  He said he would fit a 14” tube for me.  I laughed and said it would never work however he told me that he had been repairing tyres for the last 16 years and that it would work.  He fitted the 14” tube to my rim, refitted the tyre and inflated it.  The tube exploded inside the tyre and we were back to square one.  I had now run out of options and phoned Philippa to give her the news that I would be pitching my rooftop tent on the Shell forecourt that evening and buying tyres in the morning.  She was understandably upset but said she would phone me back. In the meantime a suspect looking guy arrived with a rucksack and gave me the following speech: “ Hey master,  I can see that you got a couple of small “prolems” but I got some “prolems” of my own.  Any chance of a lift back to Cape Town?”  He had obviously seen my CA reg on the forecourt but the fact that my Landy was on axle stands hadn’t yet sunk in.  I told him what I thought of his “prolems” and suggested he find a lift elsewhere.

 

 

 

Philippa phoned me back with the good news that her sisters best friend’s parents lived in Bloem and were happy to put me up for the night.  I phoned Eric and he offered to come and fetch me.  He arrived a short while later and I transferred all the valuables into his car.  I gave the co-ordinator (Botha) R50 and thanked him for his efforts at sorting out my tyre and asked him to please look after my vehicle.  He said as they were a 24-hour shop and had camera surveillance that it wouldn’t be a problem and that my vehicle would be totally safe.  I thanked him and left.  I got to Eric and Mary Mckenzie’s house, chatted for a bit and then went to sleep.

 

Day 17 Monday 7th October

 

I woke early and carried on with the trip report.  I had breakfast and a shower and packed my stuff.  Eric picked me up at about 07H50 and we got to TWAT in Bloem at about 08H00.  They didn’t have MT’s in stock so I decided to fit 2 X AT’s to the rear axle, which would then also give me a decent tyre as a spare.  I paid R1700 each, which was daylight robbery, but at that stage I was not in a mood or position to bargain. The TWAT guys drove me to my Landy, which was still parked, on the forecourt (all items intact) and we removed the spare and back r/h tyre, which they then took back with them to fit the new tyres.  Everything was fitted and paid for and I was on the road at exactly 10H00.  The rest of the trip back to Cape Town was largely uneventful and I drove into my driveway at 21H45.  In total I had covered 6500 km’s.

 

 

Preparation for a trip like this

 

"Die manne met die lae chassis’s en die hoë deposito’s gaan suffer ! " Seriously, if you have a vehicle with low ground clearance and you are worried about your fancy paintwork then don’t do this trip.  If you have IFS then you are more likely to get stuck on the route from Seronga.  You will need an offroad fuel range of about 900 km’s or more depending on how often you get lost and how much additional driving you do.  Most of the places we visited don’t have water and in the places that do have water it’s often not drinkable.  Malaria is a major problem in the delta particularly around Seronga and the mosquito’s are quite capable of biting through your clothes so make sure you spray your clothes as well !

 

A note about tyres:  I was running BFG Muds, which have done about 80000 km’s.  This includes several trips to the Richtersveld and Southern Namibia and a trip to Kaokoland/Damaraland.  These tyres had a lot of rock damage from these trips and the sustained low pressure driving in Botswana (heavily laden) tends to open the cracks and cuts and makes them leak.  In general if your tyres are in good condition you should not have any problems, as most of the driving is sand.  You are more likely to damage your tyres driving through potholes on the tar roads then driving offroad.

 

Thanks

 

It’s not often that I feel the need to thank people when I have completed a trip (besides the people who have joined me) however this trip was different.

 

First,  to Paul Oxley for the original idea and for help before, during and after the trip.  To Gregg Howard for putting me up for the night when I drove up from Cape Town.  To all the guys who were on the trip,  it was great to finally put a face to the email persona’s.  To Eric and Mary McKenzie who fetched me from the Ultra City in Bloem and put me up for the night.  To Herbert Trafoyer for the excellent Hunters Road waypoints and track logs and for taking the time and effort to convert them to Mapsource format for me.  To my guardian angel for allowing my tyre to blow-out on the garage forecourt instead of on the N1 at 120km/h in a thunder storm.  A special thanks to Johan Strumpfer for pre, during and post trip help on a wide range of things from waypoints to propagation predictions to numerous telephone calls.  It’s always good going away on a trip knowing you have someone like Johan to rely on should any problems arise.  To Ian and James for almost daily comms.  To Philippa for allowing me to go by myself leaving her to manage the kids on her own..  To Lydia van Driel for putting me up in Pretoria and making us excellent food (with vegetables) !  And last but not least to Francois for taking the bull by the horns and getting things organised early on,  for taking over when Paul pulled out,  for organising routes and waypoints,  for leading us into temptation and delivering me from evil ;-)  For being a great travel companion, good cook, excellent dishwasher, oil changer, tyre pumper upper and host!  I look forward to the next trip ……….