wild camp – Clancy Abroad

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.

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.

Negotiating the traffic through Gaberone

A roadside stop for lunch next to the A1 highway

Camped in my wild camp 12km in from the A1 highway

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

Kameel South Africa to wild camp North of Kokotsha, Botswana

Two nights stay in Kameel. I walked up to the NW co-op store to get some more bits and pieces. I added outside lights and checked a few more things. Patrick provided his customary loaf of freshly baked bread.

I left Tuesday morning for the 205km drive to Bray the border crossing to Botswana. Bray is out of the way, but its small size and remoteness mean I have less hassles crossing the border. I drove first to Stella, then headed north-west. The road was pretty good at the start. About 100km in, it deteriorated down to a single sandy track, but still was not too difficult. I passed two trucks and six cars, so it wasn’t exactly busy.

I got to the border, to be slightly surprised there were two police there. Last crossing there was no-one but the immigration person. The police looked at the vehicle, but were mostly interested in whether I had any “drinks”. I didn’t have any drinks, but I have had on previous border crossings, so I must remember to be more organised next time. I eventually felt sorry for them and gave them 100Rand to buy “drinks”.

I met a woman at the border who worked at the medical centre and was just crossing the border into Botswana to get fuel. She did it sometimes as often as once a week.

I got to the Botswana side and got my road tax and passport stamped. I applied what I had learnt from a guide at a previous Botswana border crossing. When they ask how long you are going to be in Botswana tell them much longer than you intend to be. if something goes wrong and you need to stay in Botswana longer, it is very difficult and time consuming to get an extension.

I got a Mascom sim at the general store on the Botswana side. They used a special scanner to scan my passport to register my sim, but it failed after three attempts. So I headed off with no internet towards Werda. The road from the border to Werda is fairly corrugated. I stopped once, but when I got to Werda I kept going hoping to make a wild camp on a cutline about 50km north. I turned off at the cutline, which is a sort of boundary firebreak between districts. I drove about a kilometre along the cutline until I met another cutline heading north, and I went up that. I stopped to have a look at the surrounding scrub when I suddenly found that part of the camper had broken. The rear box had separated from the camper and was hanging on by only one side. I knew I would have to be doing some fibreglass repairs that night. I pulled of the cutline into the scrub and made camp.

I emptied the box, and it seemed like I had not lost any equipment. I suspect I had driven at least 50km with this break. I used two jacks to jack the box back in line, then proceeded to fibreglass it back together. It took me a couple of hours sanding and applying glass tape and epoxy in the dark. I hoped it would be enough to hold the box in place, so that I could fibreglass it more next day. I knew it wouldn’t hold any weight initially.

It was a quiet night after that. Just the sound of cattle wandering past, and occasional cars on the highway a km away.

The road from Stella to Bray in South Africa

I never noticed it in my side mirror it was too low

Camped at sunset getting to work on fixing things

Jacking up the box ready to fibreglass it back in place

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

Nunda River Lodge to Muduma National Park

It took us a while to pack up at Nunda, we had been there for four days, and we had spread ourselves out. It was 9:30am before we left. We went first to the Hardware store in Divundu and after consulting with the security guard bought a Potjie, a South African cast iron pot with legs that you place on a campfire. We had not been able to get any more gas canisters, so it was wood fires from now on. We got more supplies and drinking water from the Metro supermarket in Divundu, one of the largest supermarkets we had been to in recent weeks. Then it was off west along the strip towards Kongola. We stopped to look at an elephant wandering near the road, part way to Kongola. We got more fuel at Kongola, then headed south. We stopped at a village and bought their entire stock of firewood (about $9 worth), all the kids coming out to help with the sale.

We arrived at the entrance to Muduma Park. We had heard you couldn’t book ahead, and that camp 3 and 4 were the best. However Camp 3 and 4 were booked, so we paid for Camp 2 for one night, then would shift to Camp 4 for 3 more nights. The camps in Muduma are wild, no facilities at all, not even a pit toilet.

Camp 2 was good, if not somewhat scary. There were Hippos in the Lagoon in front of the camp, Elephant dung everywhere. We saw Zebras, warthogs ,Baboons and antelope driving in. We also knew that there might be lions around as well. There are no fences anywhere.

We lit a fire and used our Potjie for the first night, and it went well.

Next morning after a night of Hippo calling we shifted to camp 4. During the drive to camp 4 we got held up by a herd of 40+ elephants blocking the track, which we waited 30 minutes to pass. At camp 4 we jammed ourselves in a spot overlooking the lagoon, which was great for viewing the Hippos, and Elephants in the distance. We stayed four days, five nights in camp 4. We extended our stay part way though, driving back to the entrance office.

The Hippos entertained us every night. The Baboons woke us up some mornings. We had Elephants walk past on afternoon. We had Warthogs having mud baths near us, and Antelopes. Bats at night catching the bugs. It was hot weather, 39C most days, cooling to 22C overnight.

Elephant traffic jam that stopped us for 30 minutes along the track from Camp2 to Camp 4

There were lots of baby Elephants in this group.

Fixing the solar input cable. The cable was damaged last year when I hit a pothole in Zambia, the fix failed, and I had to fix it again.

We drove back to the gate office to extend our stay. On the way back we stopped at the hide to watch a herd of elephants come and drink and cool off in the lagoon.

Some other elephants we passed on the way back from the gate

We had lots of great African sunsets from camp 4

the view over the lagoon and the island, a panorama

We stopped for breakfast when leaving Muduma, next to a hundreds of years old Baobab, that the bottom of the tree bark had been rubbed away by Elephants scratching themselves.

Thakadu Bush Camp to Guma Lagoon

The never ending dust at Thakudu was getting to us after 4 days, so it was time to move north. A suggestion by Bart, and an email inquiry and we were heading north from Ghanzi to Guma Lagoon. We drove into Ghanzi, first for supplies, and for Greg to get a severe haircut at a roadside stall for $A6. We then headed north, stopping part way to offer a touring bicycle rider some water, and hear his stories of bicycle touring Africa. We wild camped about 340km north about a kilometre off the road, never seeing anyone. The next day we drove about 70km to Etsha 13, towns that were previously refugee camps for Angolians from the Angolian civil war. Then it was a sandy 10km drive to Guma Lagoon. We deflated the tyres and wandered amongst the many tracks, passing some elephants in the distance until we got to Guma Lagoon. We planned to stay four days at Guma Lagoon. Unfortunately there was no mains power, and we were camped under trees. So we struggled for power, and the starlink dish struggled for internet through the trees. However we went on a “night drive” in a boat out on the lagoon, seeing birds and crocodiles. Then another day we took a two hour birdwatching boat trip out on the lagoon.

Winding our way through the tracks at Etsha 13

First campsite at Guma Lagoon. Starlink dish on the ground that sort of worked, before we had to shift campsites.

Karen with the crocodile caught by our night drive boat driver

Karen working being a digital nomad again

First successful attempt at Roosterkeok bread

Our boat driver on our two hour day drive

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

Cornwall Safari Lodge to 50km west of Makopong

We left late from Cornwall Safari Lodge, we thought we had plenty of time. We headed to Werda, and got some meat at the local store. Then it was down the road to Phepeng for extra fuel. Then back 22km up the road to Makopong and the turnoff for a sandy track that headed for 120km to Mabuasehube park. It was a very sandy track, and almost immediately we had to lower our tyre pressures. We got about 50km along the sandy track when we came across a gate. The gate was unlocked so we continued on finding more and more gates. Then the track was blocked by fences, and we would have to detour along the fence, find a gate, and then rejoin the track. The track was more and more overgrown. We eventually reached a fence and a locked gate, with another fence beyond it with another locked gate. We decided that the track just wasn’t in use anymore, and we would have to turn back. We camped along side the track, with cattle sitting nearby.

north of Nata to Palapye

I covered 450km today, which was the most I have ever done. That is mostly thanks to decent Botswana roads. I had a good night at the wild camp, but no wild animals appeared. It was really cold in the morning less than 12C, so I fired up the diesel heater, and after a while it actually worked.

I got going and just tried to cover the kilometers. Went through a vet fence were they checked my fridge, but I had not had meat for ages. South of the vet fence was a lone Elephant by the side of the road.

I got to Francistown, where maybe the last time I was there was maybe 7 years ago? Francistown had grown. It had a shopping mall, a freeway. A Builders where I got some replacement hose connections that I broke. I headed out of Francistown for a least 20km on a dual lane Freeway. The road became narrower after that but was still good, so I covered the kms. I got to Palapye close to dark, and was even more amazed by its transformation. Palapye used to be a collection of a few tiny shops. Now it has huge new subdivision north of town, many supermarkets, fast food joints, service stations. There are traffic jams, and so many people. This is what African development should be like. I go to Mozambique and nothing changes in 3 years, I go to Botswana and everything is improving. Thats what a decent government gets you.

I am camped at Camp Itumela in Palapye. Tomorrow Martins drift and the RSA border.