Seasons – Page 11 – Clancy Abroad

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The Tale We Didn’t Tell at the Time

It happened a few days after we left Jo’burg, when we were heading for Botswana. We didn’t tell anyone at the time because we didn’t want our parents to freak out, but we did tell them as soon as we got home. And have been dining out on the tale ever since! Ha!

We weren’t laughing about it at the time, but nothing was taken and Greg was okay, so we’re regarding it as a lesson we needed to learn.

I did write a short post the day it happened, and have just added it to the blog

So … we were in Kuruman which is south west of Jo’burg. Not far from Kimberley where there are diamond mines. We wanted to get a spare tyre and were told about a place, but were warned to be careful. It was a pretty dodgy part of town with lots of people and cars. Another guy who was working in the car park also warned us to be careful.

I stayed in the car, Greg went and got the tyre and while I was momentarily distracted as he was walking back to the car with the tyre, some little bastard tried to reach in through the open car window on the driver’s side and grab whatever he could. He didn’t get anything and I then made sure both windows were up and both doors were locked while Greg went to another shop to see if he could get some inner tubes.

While he was gone, someone came up and begged for money, and someone else told me there was something wrong with the back of Clancy but I just ignored both of them and waited for Greg to get back so we could get going. When he got back to the car, there were a few guys near him and I thought I’d just wait until they went past and then unlock his door. But they were after his little backpack and tried to grab it. It had his passport, credit cards and wallet in it and there was no way he was letting his passport go!
If it had just been cash he might have. So he held on, got pushed to the ground and ended up rolling under the car and started yelling out ‘Help! Help!’. Good move – that got rid of the guys and got people to come and see what was going on. Meanwhile, I’m sitting in the car too scared to unlock the door because I thought if I did that, the guys would grab whatever they could out of the car.

So Greg rolled right under the car and came out on my side. Few scratches but that was all the damage, apart from a broken strap on his backpack. About 20 people came to see what was happening. In hindsight, I should have just leant on the car horn and made loads of noise. That would have either scared the guys off, or got people to us faster, so see what all the noise was about.

Lesson learnt – now when we’re in a town or village, we don’t carry a bag, we keep our passports hidden inside the camper, and keep our drivers licences hidden near the drivers seat because cops want to see them when they pull us over. We only carry enough cash for whatever we’re planning to buy, or take one credit card if we’re buying groceries or other large purchases.

We were really lucky.

Heading home

We’re on our way home. Currently sitting in our favourite airport, Changi

We’ve discarded stuff, cleaned up, packed up and left Clancy locked up in storage until we go back to Joburg in 5 or 6 months. We’ll be sure to bring keys with us next time.

Compared with the 90-ish kgs of stuff we took over with us, we are bringing a mere 10kgs home, plus our laptops. No checked bags, just one very light 5kg travel pack each.

We were very lucky that on this trip, our problems were minimal. 5 punctures compared with 12 on our last trip, and we had none for the last 4 weeks. Last time, we got our final puncture 2 kms from our final destination! A minor radiator problem that a bottle of Bars Leaks fixed. Inevitable wear and tear on our dear Clancy, but that’s always going to be a feature of overland travel.

Here are a few random stats –

Nights we have spent in Clancy since Greg finished building him – 100, over our 2 African trips and the 2 trial runs we did at home.

Kms driven since we left Cape Town in mid-February – 13,800

Number of punctures in 14 weeks of travelling in Southern Africa – 17

Kgs of bread flour used to make our (almost) daily bread on this trip – 10

Number of butane gas cartridges used on this trip – 8. We were able to use our electric hotplate a lot more than we thought we would.

Thanks for travelling with us, it’s been a really great trip. See you next time!

Manyeleti Game Reserve

Leon at African Bush Backpackers told us about Manyeleti and recommended it as a good place to spent a couple of days. It’s just west of Kruger’s Orpen Gate, but can also be accessed from the south via the R40 and some side roads. Our host at Hippo Waterfront Lodge recommended that we avoid the R538 between White River and Hazyview as it’s busy, may have a lot of livestock wandering across the road and can take long time to drive a short distance . We’ve learnt to listen to advice from locals!

After we left Marloth Park, we spent a night at Panorama Rest Camp, a lovely campground near Graskop. It had a horizon pool overlooking the kloof gorge, good facilities including coin-operated washing machines and dryers (which we made very good use of) AND beautiful azalea hedges that were in flower when we visited. Some were 3+ metres high! We were planning on driving north to Blyde River Canyon, then to Manyeleti, but when we got up the next morning it was so foggy we could barely see a car length in front of us. So going sightseeing seemed a bit pointless, and we’ll add Blyde River to our ‘to do’ list.

We crawled down the R533 and heaved a quiet sigh of relief when we were low enough to be able to see a decent distance in front. Headed north on the R40 to Acornhoek where we stopped at a shopping mall and stretched our legs and met a very dapper Car Guard … bow tie, shiny shoes and a lovely man. When we got back to Clancy, he was standing close by, talking to a young Austrian woman. She took a photo of us with the guard, his son and his son’s friend.

Then along the R531 to Orpin Gate. The entrance to Manyeleti is on the right, just before the gate. We paid the day fee of R55 per person, got a map of the reserve and drove south to Main Camp. Manyeleti Gate is about 4kms south of Main Camp.

There are several private lodges/tented camps/other accommodation in the Reserve in addition to Main Camp, which offers cabins, rondevals, campsites and Senate, a tented camp area. We parked Clancy on one of the campsites, which is a large area with a cold water sink, braai and paved area. Ablutions nearby were okay and people staying at Senate share those. We paid R250 per campsite per night – they charge per campsite, not per person. We only paid the day fee for our first day there.

The day we arrived, we went on an afternoon game drive, being very mindful that the camp’s gate closes at 6pm. Saw a huge herd of cape buffalo and wildebeest, antelopes, a couple of elephants. Next day we went out earlier in the afternoon and found a big group of elephants in some scrub. Largest group we’ve seen! There were 4 or 5 babies including one very tiny one, and I guess the rest of the females are pregnant. They weren’t too bothered by us, or rather, by Clancy, and we sat and watched them for ages.

Poor Clancy has had a bit of radiator trouble, a small leak, nothing too serious, but we’ll be bringing a replacement radiator to add to the spare parts collection. Greg bought a bottle of Bars Leaks when we were in Malalane, just out of Marloth Park, so he added the contents to the radiator …. problem solved. Magic stuff.

We spent our second-last night at Elangeni Holiday Resort, just off the N4 west of Nelspruit, then drove the 250ish kms back to Joburg to the place where we store Clancy and camp when we’re here.