sandy road – Clancy Abroad

Kukonje Island to wild camp on unused road

I camped for two nights on Kukonje Island. Someone drove past the first morning early at around 7:30am. The sign on the side of their bakkie said something about conservation, but anyway I never saw them again. The other camper that was nearby moved out later in the morning leaving just me.

I attempted to fix the intermittent problem of the engine not starting. So I pulled the fusible links apart and filed clean connections. It got hot in the afternoon, probably got to 36C. I had a shower in the evening using my hot water supply in the roof water heater, and I had to add colder water to it , it was so warm. When the sun set, a warm wind sprung up, it was way to hot to sit inside the camper. I sat outside until about 9pm, and even then it was about 29C.

In the morning when I got up it was about 20C. I have to wait until I get enough sunlight on the solar panels before I can turn on the starlink. My two AGM batteries, now nearly 7 years old are just not much good any more. I packed up and headed out. It was back the way I came 10km across the pan until I turn south. I noticed just as I got to the pan tracks of someone who had driven maybe 10m off the main track, and had got terribly bogged. I met a car coming the other way crossing the pan.

I turned south towards Makobelo, about 50km away. At Makobelo I stopped at the small supermarket looking for something to boost my supplies, but there really wasn’t much. I then turned south again towards Mmashoro. It was about 70km, along what Tracks4Africa said was just a track, but actually was a pretty good road. I stopped for lunch part way along under a track that ran under some powerlines. I pulled out onto the bitumen A14 at Mmashoro. About 30km down the road I was going to stay in a wild camp that I had found in 2019, and stayed twice. I had added it to iOverlander, and a few people had used it since. The road going in however had got more overgrown, lots of bashing the sides of the camper.

Maybe I have fixed the intermittent starting problem, it’s worked OK all day. Maybe all the Strange things I did like rocking the car in 4th gear and banging the starter motor with a hammer were a total waste of time?

Leaving from the high point of Kukonje island

Someone who drove 10 m off the main track and got bogged

Planet Baobab to Eselbe camp to Kukonje Island

Planet Baobab was a great campsite. I managed to charge some things having 240v power. It was about 90km to Nata. Along the road, maybe 10km out of Nata I got stopped at a road block. It was Dept of Wildlife who were checking for poachers and other illegal activities. They said it was a bit common in this northern more remote part of Botswana. Then into Nata where I drove first to the Choppies supermarket. There I was approached by a guy who wanted to regas my airconditioning. He was enterprising, didn’t believe I didn’t have airconditioning, and I had to lift the bonnet to prove I didn’t. He then wanted to sell me tinting, but I told him I wasn’t interested, I could only do the side windows and they spend most of their time part way down. I got supplies at Choppies, but there was still stuff I couldn’t get. I got some apples, they were good, also bananas, but they are just so ripe,it’s such a long journey from South Africa. I looked at the chocolate donuts, but I have had bad experiences with chocolate donuts before in Botswana. I then headed to a water supply place to top up my drinking water. It was $A0.10 per litre, so I filled up my 20 litre container.

Then it was a drive up to the northern part of Nata to Eselbe camp. It is a nice campsite, Rupert who runs it is a nice guy. It’s camping and backpackers, it’s a bit hippy. I did some repair stuff. I am trying to find ways to cool the camper at night. The camper gets to 39C and it retains its heat, so I have brought more fans this time to try to blow cool air into it after the sun goes down.

Next morning I paid Rupert and he gave me some good information on how to get to Kukonje Island, and that I should not deviate from the main track. The pans are notorious for bogging people in incredibly deep mud. I had much trouble starting again, and maybe I am narrowing down the problem, maybe it’s those pesky fusible links again. South through Nata, with another quick stop at Choppies. Then south on the A3 with lots of road works. This is the difference between Botswana and South Africa. Botswana might have bad roads in places, but they seem to be doing something about it when in South Africa, almost nothing ever gets done.

I got to the vet fence and then turned right. Rupert from Eselbe had warned me there might be some difficult creek crossing, but everything was dry. One was steep, but not hard to cross. It was about 50km along the vet fence. There are lots of vet fences in Botswana stopping cattle from some areas mixing with other areas and spreading disease.

Eventually I got to the end of the vet fence headed south. About 5km along I had to turn right onto the track towards the pan and Kukonje Island. There was an abandoned vet fence control area with abandoned buildings. Onto the pan. It looked OK. However you could see where people had left the main track, they had started to sink into the pan. The vet fence continued onto the pan, but was falling down for large pieces of it. It was a 10km drive to Kukonje Island.

When I got to the island I found it had been a park with rangers and designated campsites, but it had all been abandoned. I passed a camper at one campsite (I had not seen anyone else for an hour or so). I continued past and went to campsite 4 near a large Baobab. The flies are a bit thick around here, the only animals on the island I think are cows.

Heading across Sua Pan to Kukonje Island

Nxai Pans south Campsite to Planet Boabab

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.