Camelthorn was a great campsite. After trying to fix my intermittent starting problem, the engine would not start when I tried to leave. I try various things including hitting the starter motor with a hammer. Eventually it starts but I cannot figure out what the problem is. I suspect a solenoid problem in the starter motor, but I am not sure. I drove the six kilometers of sandy road out of Camelthorn. I stopped at the bitumen road, and pumped up my tyres a bit. I was headed to a wild camp on the Boteti River which looked pretty good on iOverlander. I eventually got there, but figured I had approached it by the wrong road. The Boteti River has been dry for a few years, so it didn’t look very inviting. I tried another iOverlander wild camp further on, and I did find that, but there was a guy with a truck digging up sand out of the river bed. I crossed over the dry river to the other side. I found a campsite, which wasn’t really very good. It was early to stop, but too late to head to Nxai Pans, so I stayed. It was a hot but uneventful night. I don’t think it dropped below 20C. The days are getting warmer 35C at least.
Next day, Saturday, I got going early at 7:30am. Again I had starting problems, but I got it going. I crossed back over the riverbed and worked my way up the bank along a track until I rejoined the road that paralleled the B300. I could have taken the road back to the village,but the map showed it continued for a few km eventually meeting the B300. I decided to follow the road,I should have turned back to the village.The road got narrower and more overgrown as I went further along. About 40 minutes later after scrapping along lots of bushes, I rejoined the B300. Then it was about 4km to the A3 the main road from Maun to Nata.
50km along the A3 I got to the entrance gate for Nxai Pan. I talked to a very helpful lady at the Xomae office. Despite my complete lack of preparation, I managed to get two nights camping, one at Baines Boababs and the other at Nxai Pans south camp. It’s not cheap, with the park fees and campsite fees it’s about $A100 a night. However when I rode the Mawson trail, I avoided staying in the only caravan park in Clare. That was because that caravan park, the Big4 charged $A75 per night for a tent site (I have recently heard that now demand a two night minimum). So $A100 to stay at Baines Boababs seems cheap.
It was a sandy road in. I lowered my tyre pressures twice. I got to Baines Boababs rising out of the Nxai Pan. It’s a smaller version of Kubu island. The Boababs, which are more than 1,000 years old look magnificent. It was a 4km drive across the pan to campsite number 3 , my campsite with its own Boabab.
