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.
Nxai Pan in the morningNew service station outside GwetaNighttime at Planet Baobab
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 fruitCamped in the dry riverbed of the BotetiSunset on the Boteti River Ostriches along the A3BBaines BaoBabsCamped with my own BaobabThe track down to the panSunset Sunset on the panBaobab fruitA cracked open fruitAfter sunset
In the morning I got out of the camper tentatively. Got hold of my Bunnings long handled shovel and looked around carefully in case there was a lion anywhere around, the lion from the night before. No lion – all safe. It was very cold this morning 10C, the coldest morning I had since South Africa.
I packed up to go, it was only 10km to the Xade gate, and I wanted to explore options.
I got to the gate, and after discussions with the helpful guy manning the gate, he found out I could get two bigfoot campsites in northern CKGR, and exit out at Rakops. This is sort of what I wanted to do all along, but got scared off with alternator troubles. However I thought I had enough diesel to do it. Its 266km. I had to pay at the Rakops exit.
I loaded up with more water, and headed of towards Piper Pan 02. It was a late start, so it was going to be a hot drive. I crossed more pans than I was used to, with several bits of eroded road on pans that had got wet last rains. I arrived at Piper Pan 02 just after 3pm. This is my 12th day in the Kalahari.
UPDATE: Another Lion visit around midnight. He pushes a storage box over, and drags the mat in front of the camper about a metre. I just see him in the moonlight. Other than that he doesn’t make any noise.
Staying in the warm during the cold dawndawnOne of the many pan crossings on the way to Piper PanCut up roads crossing some of the pansTermite mounds on the pansMore termite mounds across the panCamped at Piper Pan 02
Well I am deep in the Kalahari now. It is 72km from Khankhwe to Bape. I have not seen another vehicle now for two days, however I have gone through two villages much to my surprise.
I left Khankhwe about 9:30am. I am going to have to leave much earlier tomorrow morning. I have 123km to drive tomorrow, and the sand is much easier to drive on in the cool of the morning. The whole route is fairly sandy. I stopped part way and lowered my front tyre pressure even lower.
The first thing I encountered was a burnt out and rusting 4WD. I wonder what happened there.
17km out of Khankhwe suddenly there was a young girl running to me from the scrub. I stopped to talk to her, and within a couple of minutes her Mum and several siblings had turned up. There was a village about 1km away, and they were just out looking for animals. The girl really wanted my Bluetooth speaker that was sitting on the dash. She knew the brand name as well. I did point out she needed a phone to provide the music for the speaker, let alone a solar panel to charge it, none of which she had. She just wanted to dance to music, teenagers the same everywhere, even in the middle of nowhere. This village Kukumane had 50 people in it. No cell phones, internet or anything like that. No vehicles, they got their supplies by donkey cart that I guess would have been a two day drive away. They were a friendly lot, I took their picture and continued up to the village. I talked to a guy in the village. I didn’t totally understand but I think these were San people who didn’t want to relocate. They were living the nomadic herder lifestyle of their ancestors.
It was hot and slow driving in the sand. A lot of the time I was only doing 15kmh, if I was lucky in a stretch I got up to 25kmh.
The road started to deviate from the track4Africa map, and I found myself in another village. Within a minute or so I had a dozen people outside my window. They were friendly, told me how to rejoin the road, and I was on my way.
Another 20km or so and I arrived and Bape campsite. This campsite is just a clearing, no drop toilet or anything. It is wilderness.
Burnt out 4WDThe friendly locals of KukumaneDriving into KukumaneA burnt out area of the CKGR that the rangers at Khutse warned me about.Another surprise village, name unknownCamped at BapeThe trip so far through the Kalahari in red
Another cool morning, about 12C, but by the middle of the day it’s 32C. Real Desert weather. I saw some ostriches on the pan but not much else. I wonder if the diesel powered pump for the waterhole is too erratic for the animals to trust it.
I packed up and got going by 9:30am. It was a 60km drive to Khankhwe, at about 25kmh. I stopped at the Moreswe waterhole, but there was nothing there, not even birds. I headed north passing Elephant droppings on the track quite often, but didn’t see any elephants. I saw a few antelopes along the way, and stopped in a Molose waterhole to see a group of antelope and a sole Cape Buffalo. I saw some other campers at Molose, and stopped to talk to a ranger who was headed south. About 1pm I arrived at Khankhwe Pan. This is the last stop before crossing the CKGR. It is 72km to Bape campsite. Later in the afternoon I jacked up the rear wheel so I could rotate the tailshaft, and I greased the tailshaft.
Moreswe waterholeNear Molose waterholeAnother Hornbill Camped at Khankhwe
This is going to be another blog post of boring electrical problems. I set off from my campsite south of Khutse gate and immediately noticed the alternator light on. I pulled over and cleaned the connections, but I had no luck, it seemed the alternator had burned out. I decided to head south about 10km to the next town to get phone service where I rang an alternator supplier in Gaborone to see if they had my alternator. They promised to ring back, so I started to head south thinking I would have to go to Gaborone the capital of Botswana, about 180km away.
The Gaborone alternator supplier rang me back a couple of hours later, no good they didn’t have it. I got to Lethakeng about 80km south of where I had camped, and tried an auto parts supplier there. Still no-one had it. Then I decided I would try the biggest Landcruiser parts supplier in South Africa N1 4×4 to see if they had it. They didn’t but they probably could get it in, but they wouldn’t ship it out of South Africa. So I had to decide whether to give up and head back to South Africa, or try something else.
I decided I might be able to connect the cranking battery to the solar panels on the roof to charge it. I had a spare solar charge controller, so I set it all up temporarily and it worked. I was getting about 7amps charge into the cranking battery as well as running my fridge and other gear. I decided it would do. So I made it a bit more permanent and headed back north to my original campsite. I will try a couple more other things tomorrow morning, but if I get started OK I will continue north to Khutse Game Reserve.
Roadside alternator repairs
Temp cable running up the back
Temp cable down the window
Temp charge controller connected to the cranking battery
Sunset back at the same campsite by the side of the road south of Khutse gate
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.
The broken fusible link
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
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.
Zebras making themselves home
Dodging the Zebras
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
We didn’t get any power overnight, so by the morning our batteries were getting low. Karen had mostly recovered from her cold, and I was getting better. We both thought we had just had a bad cold that neither of us had experienced for years. We had some Covid test kits in the first aid kit, so I decided maybe I should test myself, otherwise we would always wonder. It was a surprise, or maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but I was positive for Covid. It explained a lot.
We headed down to the Zonkizizwe shopping centre to get a few last minute things, and see if we could buy fuel on a credit card. We were successful in both and headed out of Bulawayo for Great Zimbabwe 280km away.
Pretty uneventful drive. We went through about 3 police road blocks, one of which we were stopped at, but we were soon on our way. We got to the Great Zimbabwe hotel about 4pm, hooked up the power and thought everything was going great. Until about 10 minutes later the power cut out. However an hour or so later we got it back.
Cold morning, it got down to 4C. I used the diesel heater again. This morning it was time for some maintenance. I spent a couple of hours doing a long delayed oil change. About 9am a man rode past bareback on a donkey. Once I had done the oil change and filter replacement, I headed the 12km back to the A1 highway. A quick photo of the Tropic of Capricorn sign, and it was heading north to Francistown. I stopped at the Foodlovers supermarket at Palapye to see if they had any better apples, but decided they didn’t. Palapye is another Botswana town that has undergone huge growth, and looks nothing like it did when I first visited it 9 years ago.
The day was getting on. My late start because of the oil change in the morning meant I was running out of time to get to Woodlands north of Francistown before dark. I hit afternoon peak hour going through Francistown. A quick Police stop just north of Francistown, and I was at the turnoff to Woodlands. I got into Woodlands about 5 minutes before sunset. Woodlands was packed out with South Africans with lots of kids, which got me to find out that it was the start of the South African school holidays. Woodlands is a pretty nice campsite, lots of grass, and its probably my third stay there.
