overlanding – Page 2 – Clancy Abroad

South of Khutse to Khutse Game Reserve

I spent an hour or so trying other things to fix the alternator, but they didn’t work. So I decided I would continue on and charge the cranking battery with solar. I headed north towards Kaudwane were I could pickup cell phone service again. I stopped and rang BigFoot tours only to find that they had an office at the Khutse gate. So I drove there and much back and forth with BigFoot tours and the Botswana parks, I worked out I would stay 7 nights in Khutse GR. 3 nights at Khutse 01, 3 nights at Moreswe 02 and one night at Khankhwe. Then I would cross the CKGR (Central Kalahari Game Reserve) towards Ghanzi in the west.

I filled up with water at the gate, and then drove the 12km out to Khutse 01 campsite. Khutse 01 (according to iOverlander) is a prime location for lions working their way towards the waterhole about 500m from here. However in two days no lions, or sounds of lions. I saw some Cape Buffalo on the way in and some springbok. I drove to the waterhole at dusk this afternoon and saw some Elan antelope (I think) and some more springbok. I found an elephant skeleton next to the waterhole. Other than that it was been a relaxing two days being stationary.

south of Khakhea to Green Zest Farm to south of Khutse Gate

I had a quiet night camped on the cut-line. A cut-line in Botswana is a sort of fire break between two areas, not normally travelled along, and usually pretty sandy.

The next morning I was going to get going early, and then have breakfast later further down the road. However there were problems. I couldn’t get the engine started. I had some trouble starting in Kameel, but this was worse. I eventually determined the glow plugs were not working. It dawned on me after a while I could wire them directly from the battery, which I did. Engine started and I got going. I headed down the cut-line and then north along the track to Khakea. I got to Khakea, asked about a sim card, but they couldn’t sell me one. I headed up the road to Sekoma. I tried again for a sim card in Sekoma, but although the lady tried she failed. Getting a sim card in Botswana is very difficult. In Joberg airport I can have one in five minutes, but not in Botswana. After stuffing around with alternatives at Sekoma, and realising than wifi calling does not work outside Australia, I decided to head down to a campsite just past Jwaneng about 15km at Green Zest Farm.I got to Green Zest Farm, and spent some time talking to the young and articulate Harrison. The campsite was pretty basic, no power, no hot water, but it was fine for a night.

I got going back to Jwaneng and managed fairly quickly to get a Macom sim card. I went to Pick and Pay and loaded up with more groceries. I got more fuel. I then headed north along a track that showed up on Tracks 4 Africa. It skirted around the diamond mine, and then headed east along the power lines. I thought if it followed the power lines it was pretty safe, because they would need access to maintain it. However about 40km in the track stopped and became completely overgrown. A tracked headed north and south. I tried the south track, but it seemed to fade away. I had internet access I looked up google maps satelite view and found the north track eventually joined a track that headed east and rejoined the power lines. I got to the end of the track through a village and headed north towards Letlhakeng. I fueled up there and continued north until about 5:30pm where I found a gap in the scrub and got off the road and camped.

A huge solar farm being built east of Jweneng

The track disappears and becomes overgrown.

Camped in the scrub along the road south of Khutse

Kameel South Africa to south of Khakhea Botswana

I woke up to a slightly colder morning in Kameel. Not as cold as icy Joberg, but cooler than the night before. I got packed up and ready to go by 8:30am. Its 200km to Bray border crossing and its only open until 4pm in the afternoon. Its also not a very good road, so I don’t have a lot of time to play with. I have previously got to Bray at 3pm.

I drove up to the NWK co-op to get some diesel, and buy some contact adhesive so I can fix some more things. After driving back to Patrick at Kameel B&B because I had forgotten to give him the toilet key, I was on my way. I stopped at Stella briefly. Then headed out on the R377 towards Bray. The only village of any size is Piet Plessis and there is not much there.

I got to Bray about 2:30pm. It was an easy crossing, with the single Policeman writing down rego details and an engine number. Then it was over to Botswana. Botswana is such an easy country to enter and leave. I paid 390 pula road tax (about $A40) and got my passport stamped and I was on the way. I wanted to get a Mascom Sim card at the local general store, but they were closed because it was saturday afternoon.

I headed along the road to Werda, which I know from expeience is a terrible corrugated road. I turned north about 2km along to take a much smaller track that headed north to Khakhea. I saw a antelope (Kudu?) pretty early on. Then later a baboon sitting on a fence post. Donkeys, cattle and more antelopes. Then at the cut-line I was intending to camp on I found a broken down couple of utes (bakkies). They had a flat tyre and needed a tubeless tyre repair kit. Amongst the heaps of stuff I carry I had exactly the right thing. I dug out the repair kit, and they quickly fixed their tyre, and were on their way.

I turned left down the cut-line about a km and turned off into the scrub just before sunset and made camp.

the first sign mentioning Bray about 70km out

Border crossing success, stopped under a tree in Bray Botswana (its 30C)

Tablet running tracks 4 Africa, USB fan (no aircon) and garmin GPS

The locals who had a flat tyre, that I helped with a tyre repair kit.

Kameel

This is my third visit to Kameel in a bit over two years. Kameel means camel. It is a tiny town with more silos than people (49 silos with 27 residents). They grow maize locally, although this year more sunflower, because the rains came late in January. The trucks and tractors come past where I am camping throughout the day. When I visited last year, a local facility had been converted into a hatchery producing chicks. This is still going, diversifying the economy. This visit there are several workers staying who are installing solar farms locally. South Africa is so behind Australia in installing solar farms. The area is perfect with blue skies and lots of sun all winter. So that will be another good thing for the locality.

Its a nice campground. Its a B and B as well. Patrick delivers a fresh loaf of bread not long after you arrive, it is delicious. I was going to only stay two nights, but I am going to stay a third and do some more electric fixes to Clancy.

Star trails over the top of the nearby silos

Johannesburg to Kameel NW

I arrived at OR Tambo airport in Joberg on a Monday night at about 6:30pm on August 11th. It was odd arriving at night, nearly all the flights I have taken, I have arrived early in the morning. David from the camping storage place wasn’t picking people up from the airport at night anymore (which I don’t blame him). So after getting my baggage I had to get myself to the Uber pickup point in the parking garage at the airport. My Uber ride arrived, but I still wasn’t in the right spot, but after a time I figured out. I was wrangling my usual enormous case filled with spare parts, weighing in just under 30kg.

This trip was originally going to be a couple of months long with a trip into northern Zambia. Life got in the way, and it has turned into a month trip into Botswana, still it should be great.

I got out to the campsite, David had started Clancy the camper up (started first time after being stored for a year) and shifted it to camping area. I went to move it. The parking lights were on but the headlights wouldn’t work. This would prove to be a problem a few days later. I dragged stuff out (boxes, the bike, starlink dish, other stuff put inside to keep it out of the weather) to make room so I could make the bed and sleep. I had the start of a sore throat on the plane to Joberg, this also would prove to be ominous.

The next morning, stuff spread everywhere

The next morning was cold (ice on everything outside), but was soon sunny so I got to work fixing things. I was aiming to leave for Kameel on Sunday. Kameel is a good staging post for the Botswana border where I was going to cross at Bray. First job was replacing the solar panels. I had broken the solar panel two years earlier. The panel came on Clancy the camper from Australia, but replacing it because of its large size was tricky. I ordered from Takelalot (a South African online retailer) the same size solar panel twice. However each time they supplied a panel of a different size. Eventually I found a 4×4 place in Boksburg that had two smaller panels that together made up the right size, and I had picked them up on the way back from KZN last trip. So I had to install them.

The solar panels on the left lined up ready to screw in

I got my bike together and rode into Brentwood shopping centre for some supplies. When I get there I store my bike with the same car guard every time. Car guards are a mostly South African thing. They watch a group of cars in exchange for tips. Each car guard is assigned an area in the car park. This car guard I know is from Malawi. I met him just before my trip to Zanzibar via Malawi three years ago. So three years later he is still at Brentwood getting tips from shoppers parking their cars. He wanted a gardening job, but never managed to get one. He is sending money home to his family in Lilongwe Malawi, and visiting them by bus once a year. He is a cheery guy, he doesn’t come across as bitter. This is life for some in Africa.

Once the solar panels had been installed I found that the hinge of the right side flap was about fall apart. These plastic hinges promised years of trouble free use when I bought them, but they were not. They degraded in the UV, and then started to split apart. However I was stuck with them. Everything fitted with the hinges, replacing them with something different would required a huge amount of rebuilding, which I didn’t want to do. So I had spare hinge with me (I had already replaced the door hinge and the left flap hinge). However it really tricky installing the replacement hinge. Its almost impossible to line up the screw holes, and it is hard holding it all up while you attempt to screw into the top hinge into the camper. After much stuffing around however it was all done.

Old broken hinge still attached, new hinge to install

The flap problems didn’t end. One of the gas struts had failed. So I order replacement ones from Takealot. I get 100NM ones because the 200NM ones are out of stock, and hope they will work. I get them express same day from Takealot for the vast shipping price of $A8.

My sore throat from Monday night had turned into some sort of full-blown virus. It was Thursday and I was feeling terrible. I tested myself for Covid, but it was negative. I made up the bed Thursday afternoon telling myself I would rest and listen out for the Takealot delivery. I woke up just before dark, to find the Takealot delivery of new gas struts was sitting outside. The next day I was worse, and spent the whole day sleeping. Friday I felt a bit better and drove down to Oakfields shopping centre for some more supplies, but even then when I got back, it was back to bed.

Saturday I tackled the small problem of the headlights not working. I try my hardest never to drive at night in Africa, however I have done some desperate nighttime drives (Zambia border for example three years ago). Clancy the HJ75 Landcruiser has very simple electrics, but even then they can be fiendishly complicated. I found that the parkers didn’t work at all (even though they were working Monday night). I spent hours pulling stuff apart. Eventually I found one fault. A fusible link, that looked absolutely fine turned out to be broken only when you pulled it off the battery and really looked at it.

Fixing the fusible link solved the headlight problems, but did not solve the parkers and tail lights. Eventually after pulling the steering wheel off and removing the indicator stalks I found that the wire for the parkers had burned out including burning out the fuse. Very strange. I manage to jury rig a fix for the tail lights if I absolutely needed them. During that process I found one of the brake lights had another bad connection and required fixing. Some of this is just the vehicle sitting for years in the open. Things after six years have just corroded.

digging through the wiring looking for the faults

Each day I was gradually getting better. A lot of coughing, runny nose, finishing early and going to bed. I missed my Sunday departure. I got some more supplies Monday, and Tuesday aiming for a Wednesday 8am departure.

David let me out of the gate 8am Wednesday. I told him I would be back September 22nd. I headed down towards Benoni, then Boksburg until eventually I got onto the N17. Usual thick Joberg traffic with me travelling much slower and hugging the left lane, playing with the trucks. Then onto the N12 heading south east towards Kimberly. I turned off the N12 onto the R501 working my way towards the N14. I got stopped at a police stop about 150km out. They were just checking rego, and they let me go pretty quickly, I talked about Australia but their only knowledge was Sydney and the 2000 Olympics. I tried to talk about the eucalypts that we were stopped next to, and how much the terrain looked like Australia. However they don’t see eucalypts as anything from Australia, they are so common in South Africa. Its about 400km all up to Kameel. Once you get about 200km out the traffic thins, and slows and it gets much more rural. Made it to Delareyville about 3pm. Then out of town a couple of km onto a little rural potholed road for about 40km to Kameel. I arrived about 4pm, and set up camp.

Camped at Kameel, silos in the background

The route to Kameel, also showing the border with Botswana

Monks Cowl Drakensburg to Reitz to Johannesburg

We left Monks Cowl Sunday morning. After a great show at Falcon Ridge we got going late, at nearly noon, to make a campsite near Reitz, 240km away. We did most of it on the N3, but then turned off heading to Bassfeather Country Lodge near Reitz. With 3 different GPS’s giving us different routes, we settled on Google Maps, which ended up giving us a short but rough track to the campsite. Bassfeather was pretty well empty, but expensive (420 Rand). Next morning we headed off towards Joberg. We stopped at a 4wd drive place in BoksBurg to replace the solar panel that we lost a year ago with two smaller panels that will just fit to replace the larger one.

So a day of fixing and packing up in Joberg before we fly out to Singapore on Wednesday.

Injusuthi Drakensburg to Monks Cowl

Our last day in Injusuthi turned cold and rainy. The temperature peaked at 6C, and we ran the diesel heater all day in the camper. We left Friday morning.

We moved a whole 8.7km straight line from Injusuthi to Monks Cowl, however it required 50km of driving. Part way through the drive we stopped to look at some vultures, and I found oil leaking from the engine. We pulled a way off the road, and examined things, and it looked quite bad. However I re-clamped the alternator return oil hose, and it was fixed. We were on the road again, after a oil top up.

Monks Cowl is a valley over from Injusuthi. However the Monks Cowl valley is totally different from Injusuthi. The Injusuthi valley has a spread out village, that ends at the park border. Then 12km of nothing until you get to the campsite. It feels pretty remote. The Monks Cowl valley is full of tourist facilities. Bakeries, restaurants, zip-lines, hotels and more.

We got to Monks Cowl and found a good campsite. We had to be careful again, Vervet monkeys and Baboons were around. It was still pretty cold and overcast, so we didn’t do much the afternoon we got there. Next day in the afternoon we did a walk out to Sterkspruit Falls, when it was sunny.

On the way out Sunday morning we visited the Falcon Ridge Bird of Prey Centre, which puts on a display every day. It was an hour long with lots of Eagles, Falcons and more put through their paces.

The clouds came down and filled the valley

Clouds and rain, we put up the newly fixed awning

The up to 3200m Drakensberg peaks overlooking Monks Cowl

Umlalazi Wildlife Park to St Lucia

Inkwazi campsite was a good place to be based for a few days. We did a few walks, along the beach, through the forest behind the dunes, and along the river. It was warm most days around 30C (until our last morning). It was always humid walking through the forest. We had a couple of Zebras wander in and out of camp over a few days. I rode into town a couple of times to the Spar supermarket to get supplies.

On the last evening a cool change came through, and it rained overnight. The next morning we drove the 120km north to St Lucia.

Walking through the forest on the dunes at Umlalazi Wildlife Park

The beach at Umlalazi Wildlife Park, the rollers coming in from the Indian Ocean

There are many many logs washed up on the beach

Kloof to Durban to Umlalazi Wildlife Park

Six days in Kloof at an AirBnb, luxury. I got my bike off the back, cleaned it up and rode into Kloof a few times for supplies. I got floats from the fishing shop to fix one of the water tanks. I fibreglassed new supports for one of the inside seats, storage boxes. I fibreglassed more of the damage from when I hit a tree branch in Zimbabwe. I glued carpet back on, and variously other fixes. While I was doing this Karen was working, slaving away writing papers.

We left Kloof Saturday morning, and headed 25km into Durban. We stopped first at the Durban Botanic Gardens. We were aiming to find the loneliest plant in the world “Wood’s Cycad”. Woods Cycad was discovered in KZN in 1895, and there was only one male specimen. Part of the plant was removed and planted in the Durban Botanic Garden. It has been cloned about 500 times, but no female plants have ever been found, no other specimens have been found at all. There were other interesting plants. There was a Fever tree growing in an island in a lake, and it was full of weaver birds making nests in the tree.

We then went onto the Phansi Mueseum, where we were guided around a large collection of African artifacts.

Then we went off to Bluff Eco Park, and made camp. We then had a walk up to the Flakey Hake Fish and Chip shop for late lunch early dinner. After that we walked down to a busy Brighton Beach, and walked along the coast, then back to camp.

Next day we headed north along the N3 highway 150km to Mtunzini and the Umlalazi Wildlife Park to camp for a few days.

reinforcement for the seat part of the storage box

Weaver birds making nests on a fever tree in the Durban Botanic Gardens

Mokolodi Backpackers to the Tropic of Capricorn wild camp

I headed off from Mokolodi into Gaberone. It had been quite a few years, in fact 9 years, since I had last been in Gaberone. As in lots of Botswana, it has grown immensely. I stopped at the first large shopping centre and got some things, including some lighter shoes, I am sick of driving in boots. I then drove to the northern end of Gaberone to a Builders store to see if I could get some aluminum angle to replace some that I had lost in the damage to the storage box. However no luck, they didn’t have the right size. I also visited a Super Spar supermarket in an adjoining large shopping centre, for even more supplies.

Then I headed north, along the A1, about 160km, turning off at the marker for the Tropic of Capricorn. It was then 12km in to a track running along a powerline, and then a track running off that to another iOverlander suggested wild camp. There are not a lot of camping options on the A1 heading north.