road trip – Clancy Abroad

Hillside Dams Bulawayo to Great Zimbabwe Hotel

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.

Tropic of Capricorn wild camp to Woodlands camp Francistown

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.

Back on the highway at the Tropic of Capricorn

Heading north amongst the trucks on the A1

Wild camp east of Ralekgetho to Mokolodi Backpackers

My fibreglass repairs again were not completely dry because of the cold overnight temperatures. However I was making progress.

I got going once it had warmed up and headed the 120km to near Gaberone at Mokolodi Backpackers. I wanted to finish early so I could do more fibreglassing while it was warm in the middle of the day.

Along the way I stopped at an Engen service station. I walked past a man who was fixing something, and he said, “can I just tell you something?” . I was expecting a scam of some sort but he said “I have a friend who can get Ivory”. I told him I wasn’t interested. Is there an underground market for Ivory in Botswana?

I arrived around lunch time at Mokolodi Backpackers. A very nice place to stay at, and it seemed there was only one other guest other than me. More fibreglassing ensured.

Wild camp North of Kokotsha to wild camp east of Ralekgetho

The night was cool. The fibreglass from my repairs had mostly dried, but the temperature was not ideal. However it was strong enough to hold up without anything in it. I got going and stopped a few kms down the road for breakfast. Then it was about 50km up the highway until Sekoma. Thats where I met up with the main highway the A2. I decided to stop near a fuel stop to ring up Mascom to get my sim card registered. However they told me to go to a post office. The nearest one was Jwaneng about 80km away.

I got to Jwaneng, found the Post Office, but there was a big queue. I asked the security guard if there was a Mascom shop, and there was. Asking someone else I eventually found it. So I sat in the queue and got someone to help me register my sim. However she couldn’t do it either. She said the IT support people were out for lunch. So I went to pick n pay, got some bananas and went back to Mascom at 2pm. She tried again, and again couldn’t get me registered. After more than an hour including multiple phone calls, she eventually got my sim registered and I was back on the internet.

I continued heading east and stopped at a wild camp suggested on iOverlander near an old quarry. Old quarries make good wild camps. I set up camp and proceeded to apply more fibreglass to repair the box.

It was quiet peaceful night, albeit cold.

Camped at the wild camp in an old quarry

Thorn Tree Safaris Zambia to Johannesburg South Africa

I left Karen at Livingstone airport, and drove back into Livingstone, and then headed south. I got to the Zambian border, with the fixers trying to stop me at the beginning of the bridge at Kazungula. Over the bridge, into the combined border crossing on the Botswana side. It was about 15 minutes, paid my bridge toll to the Botswana customs, and had my vehicle checked, then I was out to Kazungula. I went to the supermarket, then headed south towards Nata.

I saw an elephant and baby not far south, and a few giraffes. However it was all pretty dry compared to when I had travelled south a bit more than a year ago. At the wild camp, which I had camped at a year ago, 200km down the road, I stopped about 30 minutes before sunset.

I had a quiet night, but even though I was 500m from the Nata road, I could still hear the traffic.

Next morning I got going about 7:30am. I stopped at Nata for more fuel. Then continued south. The road south of Nata is a bit narrow with broken edges, so I wasn’t going fast, maybe 65kph. Eventually I got to Francistown, which was busy. I thought about headed to the shopping mall on the main street, but it was way too busy, and jammed with cars, so I continued on south. I was going to stay at a campsite at Palapye, but the latest iOverlander review said someone had got robbed their. So I decided to turn off earlier and head to an iOverlander wild camp, east of Palapye, that had got good reviews. I got to the quarry just before dusk, and it was a great quiet place to camp.

Up and going at 6:30am I headed for the border at Martins Drift. I tried to get fuel at the servo near the border, but their network was down, and they couldn’t take a credit card. I cleared the Botswana border, and then managed to weave through the trucks on the South African side. I managed this time to get a TIP (temporary import permit), after about 30 minutes of waiting. Then old though the Police check at the exit to the border crossing. I stopped amongst the dozens of trucks on the South African side and put up the starlink dish, and added data to my Vodacom sim, and then heade south-east. I got more fuel, and kept driving until I got to the Weesgerus campsite near Modimolle. I was jammed in with lots of other caravans, because it was school holidays.

Its an OK campground, and the next morning I got going around 7:30am. It was 10km to the N1, where I hit a police checkpoint. I managed to get though that and worked my way down the N1 for 180km to Johannesburg. I arrived at Airport en Route around 1pm in the afternoon. Total trip around 5,000km.

First wild camp, around 200km south of Kazungula

Tsodilo Hills Botswana to Nunda River Lodge Namibia

The temporary waterhole caused by the overflowing water tank had almost disappeared by the morning. We packed up and headed along the dusty road, with a fair bit of traffic on it to the A35 bitumen. Then heading north to Shakawe, where we went to the Choppies supermarket for more supplies. We then drove to three hardware stores looking for gas canisters, because we were getting low, however no luck. Then 7km south of Shakawe to Drotskys cabins. We were unenthused by Drotskys campsite, and we decided to make a run for the Namibian border and aim for Nunda River Lodge in Namibia on the Caprivi strip. So about 15km up the road we hit the border. Botswana is easy to leave, fill in a form and 30 seconds and your done. Took a bit longer on the Namibian side, but not too hard. Paid the Cross border charge for the vehicle, about $30, and we were on our way north. We arrived at Nunda and got to choose our campsite, so we choose one right next to the river, and the hippos.

The four days we spent at Nunda were hot, around 39C. We used the swimming pool a few times. I rode my bicycle into Divundu a couple of times, 16km return. I installed an external 240v power point so we can get power outside the camper when we are camped with 240v power. The hippos visited almost every night. We often had a Hippo only 3m away from our tent.

Sitting at the bar watching the Okavango River

Guma Lagoon to Tsodilo Hills

We left Guma Lagoon early, partly so we would traverse the 10km sandy track to Etsha 13 when it was cool, making the sandy track easier to drive on. We re-inflated our tyres at Etsha 13, only to find our compressor air line had a leak, but not bad enough to stop us inflating them. We headed up the crumbling bitumen of the A35 towards the turn-off to Tsodilo Hills. The road to Tsodilo hills is a dusty track, and at its end we reached the Tsodilo Hills community campsite. We paid out dues and checked out the campsite. Then we headed up to the Museum and the guides that could take us around the rock paintings. We arrived and found several other people at the museum, including a couple of Australians who were a bit surprised to find a South Australian registered car driving around Botswana. A guide came up and introduced himself, and persuaded us not to do the whole Rhino walk, but just to the do the first half and turn around. It was a hot afternoon, and not the ideal time to be hiking around the Tsolido Hills. The paintings were interesting. Some of the descriptions of the paintings seemed a little dubious, and the age of the paintings must vary a lot because the styles are so different.

After a hot walk of a couple of hours, we finished at 3pm, and retired to our campsite, where there was an overflowing tank bringing all sorts of animals from around.

Approaching the Tsolido Hills. They dominate the landscape of flat Botswana.

the coloured Sandstone of the Tsolido Hills

Camped at the Tsolido Hills community campsite

the donkeys came from all around to drink at the waterhole created by an overflowing water tank.

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.