KAA cut line to KAA camp

After leaving our camp on the KAA cutline, we continued North-west. After 9km we stopped to talk to three people who were surveying lions. A South African, and two Botswanan trackers. They were looking for lions so they could work out the distribution. The Botswanan trackers told us how they tracked the lions, and they showed no fear of tracking the lions quite close.

We got to the KAA gate of the  Kalahari Transfrontier Park around 1pm. The gate was surrounded by fences, all the gates closed, to keep lions out. We camped at campsite number 1, which had a toilet and a (broken) shower, and a basin with bore water. We were warned that there were lions around.

We setup overlooking the pan, there were no other campers around. We went to bed that night keeping a lookout for lions, but leaving a fair bit of stuff outside. During the night we heard lions several times. In the morning karen told me there were noises outside, so I got up and opened the camper door, to find three lions. Two of the lions were about 1.5m away taking turns to try to pull apart the folded up shower tent with their teeth and claws.

The three lions left. We didn’t see or hear any lions until four nights later, our last night at KAA campsite. We were awoken around 4:30am by two lions passing a couple of metres from the camper. We woke up again at 5:30am and drove to the nearby waterhole, but were stopped about 150m from our campsite by two male lions sitting either side of the road waiting in the dark. At dawn we followed the two lions to the waterhole, and watched them drink. Then we followed them in the camper up the road where they met up with the rest of the clan – in total 7 lions. Two males, three females and two cubs.

The two cubs who dragged the shower tent away from the camper and continued to try to rip it apart.
Mother lion looking on at the cubs
The jackel which visited camp several times
Sunset from KAA campsite
Putting out the solar panels early to get power.
One of the two lions we found waiting in the dark, about 150m from camp on the last morning
the two lions having walked up to the waterhole

 

One of the lion cubs amongst the 7 lions that we found another 100m away
Another couple of lions from the group of 7

50km west of Makopong to Mubuasehube Pan

We got going early, by 7:20am. We back-tracked towards Makopong, taking shortcuts along some fences where we knew the way. We were at a gate when a Toyota Landcruiser bakkie rolled up with a South African manager on board. He had noticed our tracks the previous day. He had left the front gate, the first we encountered, unlocked, because he was off firefighting. As a result we drove in. He kindly drove back to the front gate to unlock it (it was now locked) to let us out. It was great to chat with him.

We then drove the 40km back to Makopong, and then pumped up our tyres. It was then down the road to Tsabong. We refueled at Tsabong, then got some apples at Choppies, and then headed north to Mubuasehube park. The road was not too bad, but about 40km south of Mubuasehube, it got very sandy. Lower the tyre pressures again, and continue on getting to the gate at 3:30pm. We got our permit and headed to Mubuasehube Pan and our campsite for two nights.

 

 

Damage to the fibreglass from a piece of wood that jammed itself in

Our rescuer from getting lost on the track

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.

Assembling the split rim tyres, requires jumping on the split rim to get it back in
Karen working in the shelter
Camped with Bart at Airport en Route. Bart was from Holland, and has spent 13 years over many trips exploring Africa, and was great company.
Starlink dish fitted to the roof. 3d printed mount with 12v to 48v power supply.

 

The new mattresses fitted
Re-upholstered front seats with rip-stop canvas
Almost ready to leave, Friday night.
Despite high unemployment in South Africa, there is construction everywhere in Joberg
It was about 2C when we left Joberg. Clancy does not have a heater, so gloves are required for driving.
Roadside Goats
Informal Settlements
More informal Settlements
Seller at intersection selling oranges and peanuts
Roadside seller setting up selling brooms
The road south of Kameel
Some of the many Silos in Kameel. There are more Silos than people in Kameel.
Camped at Kameel

 

 

 

 

What a true paleo lifestyle and diet looks like

That abandoned family compound we visited just north of Tchitundo-Hulo comprised 6 or 7 domed huts, all with doors facing east, made of mud or dung or maybe both. The huts where people slept – one for the head of the family, the housewife’s hut and the boys’ and girls’ huts – had floors of the same building material. The head of the family’s hut was closed off with a piece of metal held in place with rope. The rest were open. One hut had a gourd and a piece of a vehicle’s tail light inside. We didn’t look in all of them, but the others that we did look in were empty. When we stayed at the mission campground just south of Ondangwa, there was a museum which featured a similar family compound of huts with labels and short descriptions. I’ve given the same names to the huts we saw here.

The storage huts had dirt floors. There were 2 grinding stones in the yard, bowl-shaped from use(which made my baker’s heart sing, I was more excited to see those 2 stones than anything else there!). One stone also had the hand-held ‘pestle’ with it. Nearby was a fireplace enclosed by stones, and an open shelter made of sticks with leafy branches forming the roof. There was also an enclosure for livestock in the south-eastern corner of the compound – a fenced off area made with the same thorny branches that made up the outer fence. In the north-western corner near a tree there were 4 tall forked branches – a couple standing in the ground, the others leaning against the tree

Scattered near the fireplace and a couple of the huts were several battered cooking pots, around 3 or 4 litre capacity. There wasn’t much evidence of ash or coal. Most of the other debris was rubbish and dung, a lot of dung. Broken bottles, bits of plastic, fragments of cloth. I wondered if the compound had been abandoned because it just got too dirty. The dung may have been left by roaming livestock after the family moved out.

In another compound nearby, we saw tent-like structures made of pieces of fabric and plastic over domed sticks and branches

We met ‘the locals’ when we were walking near the rock. We could hear voices higher up and a couple of kids saw us and let everyone else know. 2 young men walked down the rock, greeted us and then kept on walking. They were each carrying a sharp shiny machete and wearing sandals made of tyre soles and string straps and ties. Everyone else we met was barefoot. We kept on walking along the eastern side of The Rock and eventually heard more voices and chickens at another compound, but we didn’t get close enough to meet anyone there. We turned back and headed north east, a bit away from The Rock, and met 2 more women with a few little children at the edge of their compound. Mother and daughter perhaps, both still carrying babies. The older woman pointed us back to The Rock and seemed to be asking us for something, rolling her hands around each other.

We changed our course and walked past the place where we’d first met the kids and young men. By then there was a large group, mostly women and children and one man. Everyone except the man was bare chested and wearing fabric loincloths. The women had string tied around their breasts. The man was wearing a t-shirt. They also wanted us to give them something – water? food? my headnet to keep the flies off? Dunno. I had a little tin container of mints and gave it to a young woman. This group was heading back to their compound with their water containers but kept on calling out to us as we walked back to Clancy. They dropped off their kids and containers, then followed us for a while calling out, then eventually went back home.

These people were the most primitive we’ve seen, or are ever likely to see. They are herdsmen with cattle and goats, and some families also raise chickens. They don’t grow anything, we didn’t see any evidence of crops or agriculture. They are hunter-gatherers. They don’t use coconut oil or almond flour or make bone broth or drink alkaline water. And they sure as hell don’t buy Pete Evans’ processed packaged ‘paleo’ ‘food’ from the local supermarket. Sorry, obviously I’m not a fan of either the paleo diet or Paleo Pete.

Maybe they trade some of their livestock for goods – plastic water containers, lengths of fabric. The cattle we saw in this area were the healthiest we’ve seen in Angola. It’s currently the wet season and it looks like Spring for a lot of the local vegetation – bright green leaves at the start of their growth cycle. Close to The Rock, we saw a tall tree with some kind of fruit on it, but probably inedible as there was still a lot of last year’s crop on the tree. Of course, we have zero knowledge of edible flora there, and I’m sure the locals are eating well, they look healthy, but as Greg commented – where are they getting any carbs?

The locals
Grinding stone and pestle
another grinding stone
Thorn bush animal enclosure
Abandoned village
inside a hut
Fruit on a tree?