Lilli’s Quarry to east Machaila to West of Mabote to Inhassoro

The transit of the N222 is over. 380km of ‘road’, mostly at 30kph. Some of it only single lane sand track. It took 3 days from Mapai to Inhassoro.

From Lilli’s Quarry Slow to get moving this morning. I wanted to repack and check things from the chaos of tyre fixing yesterday. I also managed to get the new tyre set on the rim properly. Although it was cool at 6:30am it soon warmed up. I got going at 10:30am and plodded along the N222, at between 25kph and 40kph. I passed several Charcoal trucks going towards Mapai. Lots of Charcoal stacked by the side of the road. It looks like Charcoal burning must be big in this area. It reminds me of Angola where there was also lots of charcoal burning. The scrub either supports Cattle, or Charcoal burning. I passed a few schools, but lots of young kids (who should be at school) herding cattle.

One of the many slow moving Charcoal trucks

Eventually after lunch I got internet again at Machaila. I stopped and went through the pain of applying for my Malawi e-visa, which I will find out in a few days if I am successful. The hardest part is paying. Every payment requires and SMS from my Australian bank, and sometimes they take many, many minutes to arrive.

I got going after doing my e-visa, and headed though Machaila. It was larger, but not as large as Mapai. However I saw a woman carrying here baby, but clutched in her hand, was a smart phone. The internet reaches even here.

Collapsed bridge on the N222. And no there was not a replacement bridge.

The N222 got dramatically narrower. It became only single lane. My GPS wanted me to go down an even smaller road, but I thought I would stick to the N222. About 25km out of Machaila, I found a spot by the side of the road at 5pm and stopped for the day. The campers temperature inside was 29C.

Roadside camp east Machaila, its was 29C at dusk
the sandy section of the N222

Next morning I got going before 8am. The sandy single lane N222 continued. About an hour in a little car was coming the other way. I stopped to let them pass, but they got out and chatted. One was a South African who was trying to teach agricultural techniques to Mozambique, the other was his Mozambique assistant. We spent a long time talking about the problems in Mozambique, and how you couldn’t develop a project unless you had extra money to bribe the government officials with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After my chat stop, its was onwards, with eventually the N222 getting better as I closer to Mabote. There was internet in Mabote, but it was Vodacom, and I had a Movitel sim. Onwards through town and about 40km out I stopped to pump some water into the hot water container on the roof, so I could have my first shower in 3 days. 50 minutes later it was about get get dark fast, and I am desperately looking for a campsite. The scrub was too thick, and at the last minute I found an overgrown track into the scrub. I squezzed down it, and I has pretty hard to see from the road.

Camped on an overgrown track West of Mabote

The morning was pretty damp, lots of condensation. I am closer to the coast so maybe the nights are colder. I was only 50km from the N1.  I got to the N1 at Mapinhane. I then started looking for a seller to sell me a Vodacom sim. Lots of stuffing around, but an hour later I had a working Vodacom sim and some internet. I headed up the road aiming to get to a campsite about 82km away at Inhassoro.

Driving on the N1 north
A police stop on the N1, but they didn’t stop me

About 4pm I arrived at the campsite “Star of Mozambique”. Looks nice so far. I am going to stay for at least 3 nights. Weather is great Max 27C Min 13C.

Camped at Star of Mozambique

 

West of Mapai to Lilli’s Quarry

I was up just after 6am since it was such a terrible campsite. I topped up the clutch fluid (why haven’t I replaced the clutch slave?). I headed out the way I had come in. I stopped at a school and asked the teacher which way was Mapai, and he sent me on another 15km down a 4wd drive track that ended at Mapai. I stopped about 10km in and had breakfast in the sun.

Roadside stop for Breakfast west of Mapai

At Mapai I looked for someone to sell me a sim. Firstly I found an ATM, where I withdrew what I thought was $A125 but actually turned out to be about $A10. I was very confused with the exchange rates. Anyway $A10 was plenty to get me a sim, and a very helpful seller (Arlindo on Whatsapp +258 87 343 4345) got me set up with a sim, programmed my phone, and even answered questions later on Whatsapp.

Parked next to the bank in downtown Mapai

I drove down the road to park out of town and use the internet, and make sure it was working properly. The it was of to the service station to top up my fuel. Five attempts to pay with 4 different credit cards, and debit cards I finally paid them. Diesel is about $A2.10 a litre. I then went back into Mapai and tried to get a proper amount of money out, and with about 3 attempts I was finally successful.

Then I headed out of town. About 8km out I realised I had forgotten to stop and apply online for my Malawi e-visa. So I turned back a couple of kms, took a side track, reversed in meaning to stop for lunch first, and bang – I blew out my rear left tyre. Split in the sidewall, totally destroyed, even the inner tube. This is the hardest tyre to remove because of the bar that acts as a step, which has to be removed. It is also very hard to jack up when the tyre is totally flat. It takes a while. I decided to replace the tyre with a new tyre I was carrying on the roof. This was a mistake. I had to split the rim, and I was a bit out of practice. I struggled to get the new tyre on. During this whole process I was slowly gathering an audience of kids. At the end I had nearly 30 kids watching me, I mean I was the best entertainment in town. Of these 30 kids several were coughing. To go back a bit in time, the sim seller in town had a mask around his neck. I asked him why he had a mask, which he said ws sort of required (the Police were wearing masks). I asked him if everyone was vaccinated, and he laughed – nobody was vaccinated. So back to the tyre fixing I am surrounded by kids, absolutely none who had been vaccinated against Covid. So I decided the daylight was fading, and the Covid risk was rising, so I got the rear spare off, put the partly assembled new tyre on, got one of the kids to do up the bolts, and high tailed it out of there.

It was 28km in fading light to a sand quarry that Lilli (lilli-to-go.com) had put on iOverlander 3 years ago when she travelled this way. So I headed up the rough road, and got there just before it got dark. Nice campsite.

Almost dark at Lilli’s quarry

Escape from South Africa, or Nthakeni to roadside north of Mapai

It was a bit of a cool morning. I think I have become to used to having power and turning on the heater in the morning. I thus shamefully started the diesel heater for a while. I got moving a bit after 9am, visited the office for payment and a chat. Then it was off to Pafuri entrance to Kruger National Park. So after paying $A47 for the privilege of driving through 35km of the park to get to the Pafuri border gate, I arrived at the border.

I was very, very nervous. My TIP (temporary import permit) had expired 18 months ago. so I had specially chosen Pafuri because I didn’t think they had customs, who would question me on my expired TIP.

I was right. No problems getting my passport processed, and the Police gave a cursory inspection of Clancy, and I was on my way to Mozambique! At the Moz side I paid 1000 rand for a visa ( Facebook said 550R or 850R but who was I to argue). Then 200R for a TIP, and 100R for some other piece of paper from the Police. Then it was the cursory inspection of Clancy plus the request for soft drinks, to which I provided 3 cans of coke that I had prepared earlier for this very request.

Stopped for lunch along the Limpopo, it was too deep to ford.

Onwards towards Mapai. It is a rough slow road, barely a 4wd track in places. 25kmh most of the time. I was looking for places to stop for the night when I suddenly arrived on the hand operated ferry across the Limpopo. Another chance to be very, very nervous. I asked the guy in charge about shifting the diesel drums of the roof, to lower the centre of gravity, but he thought it unnecessary. So 700R (Facebook said 500R) I gingerly drove Clancy on the boat that did not seem big enough to support the 3+ tonnes of Clancy. However all went well and they poled it across the Limpopo and I reversed off the other side.

Crouched at the front of the boat, trying to not get in the way of the guy poling the boat across the Limpopo

 

It was getting dark and I was driving down tracks in the growing gloom. I got completely lost and ended up parked by the side of a track between a couple of villages. I would have to figure it out tomorrow in the light.

Almost dark, parked on an uncomfortable slope between a couple of villages – lost
My unsatisfactory camping spot early next morning
This is what it looked like on someone else’s crossing who had a drone.

 

Louis Trichardt to Nthakeni Bush camp

I was late leaving Zvakanaka Camping at 10am because I was trying to cook everything, because it was the last power I would have for I don’t know how many days. It was mostly downhill from the top of the mountain range driving on the N1. At the turn off to Pafuri I stopped at the service station, to fill up the last empty jerry can with fuel. Then it was a fairly quiet road. I plodded again at about 65kmh. I stopped for lunch on a side road, and only 2 cars drove past. Then onto Masisi. 3 years ago we got fuel at Masisi, but this time they were closed. They were having a landlord dispute, which they hoped would be solved soon, so they could open up again. Another 12km to Nthakeni Bush camp. No one camped here. They are expecting an onslaught of early school holiday people next Thursday, so I am a few days ahead of the dreaded South African school holiday rush.

Weather has been good, with most of the afternoon about 23C.

Roadside lunch spot

 

Camped under the Baobab

 

The Donkey boiler to heat up the hot water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polokwane to Louis Trichardt

I left again around 8:30am. This time it was impossible to avoid the N1, it is essentially the only road.  I plodded along again, pulling over many times to let people pass. It was only 110km to Louis Trichardt, so I was there again before lunch. I went to PnP and Checkers to get even more supplies. I am loading up as I am not expecting much in Mozambique since I am taking the inland route.  I then went to the service station and filled up the tank and four jerry cans with 115l of diesel, which cost nearly $A300 at 26 Rand per litre. After that I crawled up the big hill to Zvakanaka Camping, where we had stayed before 3 years ago. I was lucky to get in, because there is a big bicycle race tomorrow, and every other campsite is booked.

 

Modimolle to Polokwane

Another 170km on. I left Weesgerus at 8:30am, continued to potter along the R101, got to Polokwane around lunch time. I drove to Makros and got even more supplies, spending an hour or so browsing. Then it was off to the outskirts of Polokwane, to Boma in the bush campsite. Nice campsite, I was the only one there. I spent time in the sun going through the boxes, trying to get rid of junk, and throw it in the bin.

 

Johannesburg to Modimolle

I left late because there was always more things to do. I avoided the N1 and drove through Pretoria, then via the R101. I was trying to avoid police road blocks, which I thought would be more frequent on the N1. However there were several police road blocks on the quieter R101. I didn’t get pulled over though. The R101 suited me better, I could plod along at a low speed. I arrived at around 4pm at Weesgerus resort 3km west of Modimolle. It was an OK caravan park. Its hard to find caravan parks close to Joberg that are not expensive and over the top resorts.

Five weeks in Joberg

58kg of luggage

I arrived back in Johannesburg on May 1st 2020, two years and two months since racing back to Australia at the start of Covid. I had 58kg of luggage. That included one change of clothes, the rest was car parts etc for fixing Clancy.

 

Clancy had been sitting out in the weather for those two years and had taken a bit of a beating. The good things when I arrived. The cranking battery was good having spent two years attached to a solar panel. The deep cycle batteries were good, having been totally disconnected, but still had a voltage of over 13V. I hired a car for the first 3 days and drove around Joberg getting things like epoxy resin, car parts and tools.

 

I spent five weeks fixing things. The list:

*Replacing the hinge of the door. I had left the door siliconed up, because the hinge broke the day before I left. This included fibreglassing the aluminum edge back on the door.

*making a new lid for the roof box. The roof box was something I made at the last minute before I drove to Sydney to load into the shipping container. The lid was badly designed and leaked when it rained, so I had to extend the lid so it fitted over the top of the roof box.

New roof box lid

  • Repaint Clancy all over. The paint had faded over two years. Partly because it was painted so badly. I was still painting it the night before I left to drive to Sydney to put it in the shipping container.
  • Derust, I used rust converter on many parts that has rusted in the weather.
  • Replace the radiator. The radiator was leaking, and I had brought a replacement radiator just before Covid, but had never installed it.
  • Replace the tie rod ends. This caused a lot of problems. I sucessfully replaced the tie rod ends, but then it needed wheel aligning. Over two days and four different wheel aligners I found no-one could do it. Either Clancy was too heavy, or too high, or the rear wheels were too covered stopping the alignment targets being attached. Eventually the last guy I spoke too told me how to do it myself. I did and it drives quite well.

    DIY wheel alignment

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Numerous fibreglass fixes. I had many little pieces of fibreglass that needed fixing, or improving.
  • Replacing flap hinge. I needed to replace the hinge on both side flaps. I did one side, left the other side until later.
  • Replace the water pump and many valves. I am not sure what went wrong, but many of the 10mm ball valves got corroded, and the water pump died. I possibly think that because I pumped a bleach solution into the tanks before I left, and it probably sat in the lines and the pump, and corroded everything. I should have drained the water lines.
  • Installed the UV filter in line with the existing filter.  However I did not tighten it down enough, water got into the UV light and the ballast shorted, so it doesn’t work.
  • New inverter. Cabled but when I connected it up it blew all the fuses in the inverter. I pulled it apart and replaced all the fuses, reconnected it but something else blew. I have disconnected it pending further investigation.