Johannesburg to Kameel – North West

Only 15 days fixing Clancy in Benoni this time! I arrived Friday morning 18th August at 7am. David from Airport en Route – the campsite where Clancy is stored – picked me up at the airport. The first problem is that I had taken the camper key home with me last trip. I had lost the key, and for the second time was arriving in Joberg with no key to the camper. I managed to break in last time, but this time I was stumped. David suggested I get the locksmith from Oakfields shopping centre. Instead I drove down to the locksmith and in about 30 seconds he had it unlocked. For the next week I organised things to fix. I got the front seats reupholstered in rip-stop canvas for a cheap $200A. I got two new mattresses made for the bed, total cost $170A. New tyres, which required the old tyres to be removed, and the split rims derusted and painted, and the the new tyres mounted. I also set up the Starlink dish with a mount on the front of the camper.

Karen joined me on the Friday a week after I had arrived. Karen had been working up in Pretoria on a meeting with her new project. I had off-loaded some stuff with Karen’s colleague Andrea the  previous Sunday at lunch. However with Karen’s great help, we culled more stuff, and rearranged boxes, and after many shopping trips, managed to pack several weeks of food for Botswana in the camper.  We were aiming to leave Saturday morning, but on Friday night we realised we were nowhere near ready. On Sunday morning we left at 8am, on one of the coldest mornings we had in Joberg, probably around 2C.

It was 405km to Kameel, so leaving early on Sunday morning was good. We had a good run, plodding along at 75kph. Only one Police stop, with no problems. After refueling with Diesel in Delareyville, we arrived at Kameel around 3:30pm. It is a great campsite. The campsite hosts Patrick and Hercules are renowned for their home made bread delivered to campsites. We will stay here at least two days, as Karen has to be the digital nomad and do some remote work.