Seasons – Clancy Abroad

Wild camp on unused Rd to to Segaigai to Weesgerus to Johannesburg

I didn’t get any internet overnight in the wild camp. The local cell towers were 2G. I had this happen before in Zambia, and Angola finding 2G. Australia shutdown our 2G ten years ago, and even 3G last year. Anyway 2G is pretty useless for data.

I headed down the highway to Serowe. After getting slightly lost in town blindly following the GPS, I got to the Spar supermarket. Although there was a supermarket in Nata, this Spar supermarket was the first supermarket in a month that was close in its choices of goods to a supermarket in South Africa. I got some decent bananas, some pink lady apples, some tinned pineapple.

I continue on towards Palapye. I wander around a couple of shopping centres. Palapye is so big now, not the dusty town I visited for the first time ten years ago. I decide I am going to head to Segaigai which is a reserve and campground maybe 5km out of town. There is a campground in town, but the couple of times I have visited it, it has gradually gone downhill. Its good to stay in Palapye as its about 120km run to Martins Drift border crossing, and then its about 230km to Weesgerus caravan park which is not expensive (unlike anything in Bela Bela) and is a reasonable under 200km run to Benoni. So I whatsapp Segaigai, but I don’t get an immediate answer. So I decide I will head out there anyway. However on the way I get a message saying its OK for me to camp, and I tell them I will be there in 15 minutes, but it takes me much longer because I get lost. I get caught blindly following the GPS again getting stuck on roads that are not passable. After about 40 minutes of driving around I finally get there. Its a nice campsite, and after a little while James who is a New Zealander and runs the place introduces himself. He has been there about five years.

Later in the evening James takes me to the enclosure to feed the porcupines. I had never seen porcupines (they are nocturnal so that’s possibly one reason). They have six in an enclosure. We spent an hour feeding them, cabbage, apples. They are so tame that you can hand feed them apples. They are sort of scary looking, but quite friendly.

Next morning I was up at 5am, and got on the road by 6:30am. Crossing Martins Drift can be a bit crazy, its hard to predict what might happen. When I got close to Martins Drift, I drove past the 3km long queue of trucks waiting to get across the border. Lots of Zambia trucks driving copper products to Durban. In the Botswana side of Martins Drift there were about 3 cars and loads and loads of trucks. In the South Africa side it was the usual truck chaos. You squeeze your way through to a park. The passport side of crossing into South Africa is simple. The vehicle bit is trickier. I needed a TIP (Temporary Import Permit). I got onto a customs guy who was reluctant. However he came out to look at the vehicle, mostly to see that the registration number was right. Then he plugged away for about 30 minutes and eventually I got my TIP. Then it’s squeeze into the truck queue for the police check on the way out. The police were not interested in me this time (they have other times), and I was out into South Africa. Of course on the South Africa side there are 4km of queued trucks, plus food stalls and all sorts of other chaos. 8km down the road there is another police stop. I didn’t get stopped, but the trucks in front of me did. What is the point after you have gone through Martins Drift and all the checking, including a police check, do you need another police check just down the road?

230km later, and about 4pm I rolled into Weesgerus. Weesgerus is a strange caravan park that is a sort of 1970’s caravan park in Australia, full of 1970’s caravans and Afrikaners. It has a couple of swimming pools filled by hot springs. I probably have been there four times and I have never swum in the pools.

Next morning it was the final 180km run to Joberg. You pay tolls about 3 times on the N1 (about $A12 all together). It’s is full of cops pulling people over (didn’t happen to me this trip, but has before). The N1 gets a bit hairy and busy close to Joberg, at least for a very slow 1987 Landcruiser, but eventually I am on the R21 and exiting at Benoni.

Trip ends, back in Benoni packing up and fixing things

Kukonje Island to wild camp on unused road

I camped for two nights on Kukonje Island. Someone drove past the first morning early at around 7:30am. The sign on the side of their bakkie said something about conservation, but anyway I never saw them again. The other camper that was nearby moved out later in the morning leaving just me.

I attempted to fix the intermittent problem of the engine not starting. So I pulled the fusible links apart and filed clean connections. It got hot in the afternoon, probably got to 36C. I had a shower in the evening using my hot water supply in the roof water heater, and I had to add colder water to it , it was so warm. When the sun set, a warm wind sprung up, it was way to hot to sit inside the camper. I sat outside until about 9pm, and even then it was about 29C.

In the morning when I got up it was about 20C. I have to wait until I get enough sunlight on the solar panels before I can turn on the starlink. My two AGM batteries, now nearly 7 years old are just not much good any more. I packed up and headed out. It was back the way I came 10km across the pan until I turn south. I noticed just as I got to the pan tracks of someone who had driven maybe 10m off the main track, and had got terribly bogged. I met a car coming the other way crossing the pan.

I turned south towards Makobelo, about 50km away. At Makobelo I stopped at the small supermarket looking for something to boost my supplies, but there really wasn’t much. I then turned south again towards Mmashoro. It was about 70km, along what Tracks4Africa said was just a track, but actually was a pretty good road. I stopped for lunch part way along under a track that ran under some powerlines. I pulled out onto the bitumen A14 at Mmashoro. About 30km down the road I was going to stay in a wild camp that I had found in 2019, and stayed twice. I had added it to iOverlander, and a few people had used it since. The road going in however had got more overgrown, lots of bashing the sides of the camper.

Maybe I have fixed the intermittent starting problem, it’s worked OK all day. Maybe all the Strange things I did like rocking the car in 4th gear and banging the starter motor with a hammer were a total waste of time?

Leaving from the high point of Kukonje island

Someone who drove 10 m off the main track and got bogged

Planet Baobab to Eselbe camp to Kukonje Island

Planet Baobab was a great campsite. I managed to charge some things having 240v power. It was about 90km to Nata. Along the road, maybe 10km out of Nata I got stopped at a road block. It was Dept of Wildlife who were checking for poachers and other illegal activities. They said it was a bit common in this northern more remote part of Botswana. Then into Nata where I drove first to the Choppies supermarket. There I was approached by a guy who wanted to regas my airconditioning. He was enterprising, didn’t believe I didn’t have airconditioning, and I had to lift the bonnet to prove I didn’t. He then wanted to sell me tinting, but I told him I wasn’t interested, I could only do the side windows and they spend most of their time part way down. I got supplies at Choppies, but there was still stuff I couldn’t get. I got some apples, they were good, also bananas, but they are just so ripe,it’s such a long journey from South Africa. I looked at the chocolate donuts, but I have had bad experiences with chocolate donuts before in Botswana. I then headed to a water supply place to top up my drinking water. It was $A0.10 per litre, so I filled up my 20 litre container.

Then it was a drive up to the northern part of Nata to Eselbe camp. It is a nice campsite, Rupert who runs it is a nice guy. It’s camping and backpackers, it’s a bit hippy. I did some repair stuff. I am trying to find ways to cool the camper at night. The camper gets to 39C and it retains its heat, so I have brought more fans this time to try to blow cool air into it after the sun goes down.

Next morning I paid Rupert and he gave me some good information on how to get to Kukonje Island, and that I should not deviate from the main track. The pans are notorious for bogging people in incredibly deep mud. I had much trouble starting again, and maybe I am narrowing down the problem, maybe it’s those pesky fusible links again. South through Nata, with another quick stop at Choppies. Then south on the A3 with lots of road works. This is the difference between Botswana and South Africa. Botswana might have bad roads in places, but they seem to be doing something about it when in South Africa, almost nothing ever gets done.

I got to the vet fence and then turned right. Rupert from Eselbe had warned me there might be some difficult creek crossing, but everything was dry. One was steep, but not hard to cross. It was about 50km along the vet fence. There are lots of vet fences in Botswana stopping cattle from some areas mixing with other areas and spreading disease.

Eventually I got to the end of the vet fence headed south. About 5km along I had to turn right onto the track towards the pan and Kukonje Island. There was an abandoned vet fence control area with abandoned buildings. Onto the pan. It looked OK. However you could see where people had left the main track, they had started to sink into the pan. The vet fence continued onto the pan, but was falling down for large pieces of it. It was a 10km drive to Kukonje Island.

When I got to the island I found it had been a park with rangers and designated campsites, but it had all been abandoned. I passed a camper at one campsite (I had not seen anyone else for an hour or so). I continued past and went to campsite 4 near a large Baobab. The flies are a bit thick around here, the only animals on the island I think are cows.

Heading across Sua Pan to Kukonje Island

Nxai Pans south Campsite to Planet Boabab

I got up early and got to the waterhole a bit after 7am. There were lots of ostriches, zebras, a few wildebeests and later an elephant wandered along. There also were lots and lots of birds. They were different birds from the waterholes in CKGR. I thought at first they were milling around but they were not. If I followed individual birds they were flying in getting a drink then flying back to a distant location where there were new birds coming from. They were ring neck doves. Also on the way to the waterhole I saw my second ever wild dog. I tried for a picture, but he was too far away. Then when I was at the waterhole, I was looking away from the waterhole looking at the ring neck doves and I saw another wild dog. I watched him/her for twenty minutes through binoculars. It looked young. It was interesting there were several 4wds looking at the waterhole, while in the opposite direction was one of Africa’s truly rare animals, and no-one noticed.

I went back to the campsite to top up with water. I was speaking to a South African and she said yesterday it got to 39C. I keep looking at Gaberone weather, but of course that’s way south from here. After loading up I tackled the approximately 40km drive down the sandy road back to the highway. Even though I had lowered my tyre pressures, I still had to engage 4wd a couple of times. It took me until about 1pm to get back to the highway. I pumped up my tyres and headed towards Gweta. I got fuel at a new service station out of Gweta. It had an attached supermarket, and would not have looked out of place in Australia. Its a sign of how Botswana is progressing. 5km past Greta I arrived at Planet Boabab. This is a large well run campsite (with rooms as well I believe). Cheap at 130 pula ($A15) . It had power! I have not had power since South Africa 3 weeks ago, its been all solar (especially since I don’t have a working alternator). Great hot showers, nice campsites, and good wifi.

Baines Boababs to Nxai Pans south campsite.

It was a great campsite at Baines BaoBabs. Isolated, You are essentially on an island in the middle of the salt pan.

I headed off around 9am. Saw another vehicle (who was probably from camp 2) at Baines Boababs. Then it was the 14km track back to the north/south track. Then back onto the north track for about 20km to Nxai south pans. Along the road I saw a dozen or so Giraffes , the first ones I had seen since the CKGR. I went to the office to show my paperwork, and found they have a shop. I am really in touristville here. I bought a cold ginger beer. There were elephants wandering around the admin buildings. I drove the 3km to the campsite. I set up, and the afternoons entertainment was having elephants wander past every few minutes. I went to the ablution block that was carefully defended with lots of spikes to keep the elephants out. One elephant just across from me pushed a tree over for it to fall near a another camper. It was non stop elephants.

Later in the afternoon I drove to the water hole where there were more elephants, and ostriches and Cape Buffalo, and springboks. There were about ten other 4wds parked at the waterhole, most of them rental 4wds.

Spikes outside the ablution to protect it from elephants

Elephants eating the local trees. Very unappetizing, just wood.

Camelthorn to wild camp on Boteti River to Baines Boababs

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.

At Camelthorn they were growing prickly pear for their fruit

Camped in the dry riverbed of the Boteti

Camelthorn Farmstay

A day stationary. I fixed some things. I fixed the float in the right hand water storage tank. I had changed the float last year, but I installed it the wrong way, so I changed how it worked, and now I can fill that tank up. I cleaned up the connections to the starter motor to see if it fixes my mysterious not starting problems when it’s hot. I fibreglassed yet another mud flap mount, probably the third time I have done the right side. As well I did lots of clothes washing. I also visited the waterhole both at dawn and in the afternoon. The dawn visit was pretty calm, not much going on, other than the 10+ hippos wandering about. The afternoon was the normal zebra madness.100+ zebras, 4 elephants,hippos and more. Crazy.

The electric fence protecting the viewing platform

Changing how the float works on the water storage tank

Powerline wild camp to Camelthorn Farmstay

The wild camp next to the powerlines was good. Quiet, a few cow bells, no people. I got going and drove the 10km back to Rakops. I arrived at the ATM. Joy! There was a queue. So I joined the queue (I think I was person number 6). I got out the maximum I could withdraw twice. The max withdrawal was about $A300. So equipped with all this cash I headed to another of the supermarkets. The first one has almost nothing. The second one was better stocked, and I bought some apples (I had run out a while back). I wanted some potatoes,but they only sold them in 10kg bags, so it was too much for me. I tried the hardware for some disposable gloves (greasing and oil changes) but didn’t see any. I contacted Camelthorn to see if I could get a campsite, and they got back to me to confirm. It was about 90km to Camelthorn. The last 6km was a sandy track, and I had to stop and lower the tyre pressures a bit.

So I arrived at Camelthorn, great campsite.They have a viewing deck that looks over a waterhole in the river that I went down to look at. There was close to 100 zebras, more than I had ever seen in a group.Plus there were a couple of Elephants, a couple of Hippos, some wildebeests , and a lone antelope.

I went back in the evening. There was a floodlight, and I could dimly make out an elephant and some zebra, but not much else.

I did some washing.Its been two weeks since I have had enough water to do clothes washing. The best of all was the shower. I had spent two weeks using a solar shower bag with 4 litres of water in it, it was great to have unlimited water.

The zebra and more from the viewing platform

Letiahau 06 to Powerline wild camp

No lions overnight. I finally figured out how to film overnight with the GoPro outside the camper,but nothing turned up. I got going early, leaving at 7:15am, it was a fair drive to the gate.

I remembered from doing this drive years ago, that this bit of the CKGR is not difficult to drive. Its mostly through pans, and not very sandy. I made pretty good time, having a couple of people pass me coming towards me. I eventually met up with an enormous Isuzu camper.It was twice the height of Clancy. I thought it was a Unimog truck, but no. I stopped to talk to them, and told them where I had come from. They asked about the sandy tracks, but I told them there is no way they would fit in the narrow tracks to Khutse.

I made it to the CKGR gate at Matswere. I paid the bigfoot lady with my rapidly dwindling amount of cash for the two campsites (bigfoot only take cash, no credit card) The I went to pay my fees for the park. They at least take credit card. However multiple attempts with multiple cards, and the machine didn’t work. So in the end (because I didn’t have enough Pula) I paid him Rand, which I had plenty of.

So onwards down the rough road to Rakops. I got to Rakops and the first thing I went to was the ATM – not working – dead. I had tried two ATMs in Letlhagkeng, both not working. I had paid so much Pula cash to people who wouldn’t take card I had used it almost all up. I was down to about $A20 in Pula. I tried a couple of places in town who said they did cash out, but they didn’t. I said about the non functioning ATM at one place and he said it was a power cut, but he didn’t know when the power would be back on.

So I decided I would spend my last Pula on a campsite about 6km out of town. I got through the first gate but was stopped at the second. 20 minutes of pressing the intercom and blowing my horn got me no response. So I gave up and tried the ATM again in Rakops – still not working. I decided I needed to hang around town, so I backtracked 10km towards the CKGR on the rough track to a wild camp on iOverlander next to some power lines. Seems OK, no lions only cows.

Oryx along the road, there were lots, multiple times.

Ostriches as well, try are so much taller than Emus

The massive Iveco, about twice the height of Clancy

Camped at the wild camp next to the powerlines

Piper Pan 02 to Letiahau 06

Again after another visit by lions overnight I was careful getting out of the camper, checking around for lions. No lions again this morning, but the lions have dragged things around and knocked over boxes. I later learnt that they have taken the solar panel cloth cover. After I left I searched up and down the track, but I could not see it. Looking again at the lion tracks left last night, I think there were some cubs as well.

I drove down to Piper Pan to find the pan with the most animals yet. I picked up the binoculars and the first thing I saw was an Africa painted dog (or wild dog). Never in my travels before in Africa had I seen one. There were antelope and Cape Buffalo spread all over the pan, and the flocking birds (yet to be identified) milling around the waterhole.

I took the long scenic road around Piper Pan, getting a better view on the other side. I continued north west. The road was corrugated and slow going, I spent most of my time in second gear doing 15kmh. After an hour I suddenly came across another vehicle. They were coming towards me. The first other tourist I had seen for 7 or 8 days. I pulled off the road for them so they could pass.

I was crossing another pan, when a leopard jumped out of a bush I was approaching and ran across to hide under another tree. Once he was in the tree you could barely see him, his camouflage was so good.

A bit later I came across two more vehicles coming my way, I again got off the road for them. There were more antelopes and kudi. The road is nowhere as sandy, I will have to pump my tyres up this afternoon. I have had them at low pressure for ten days or so. At 1pm I got to Letiahau camp, which was shady, but I don’t always like shady as I need sun for my solar panels.

Tomorrow I have to start early. I have nearly 80km to go to get to the gate.