A day stationary. I fixed some things. I fixed the float in the right hand water storage tank. I had changed the float last year, but I installed it the wrong way, so I changed how it worked, and now I can fill that tank up. I cleaned up the connections to the starter motor to see if it fixes my mysterious not starting problems when it’s hot. I fibreglassed yet another mud flap mount, probably the third time I have done the right side. As well I did lots of clothes washing. I also visited the waterhole both at dawn and in the afternoon. The dawn visit was pretty calm, not much going on, other than the 10+ hippos wandering about. The afternoon was the normal zebra madness.100+ zebras, 4 elephants,hippos and more. Crazy.
The hippos at dawnThe electric fence protecting the viewing platformYet another fix for the mud flapChanging how the float works on the water storage tankThe zebras give way to the elephants
The wild camp next to the powerlines was good. Quiet, a few cow bells, no people. I got going and drove the 10km back to Rakops. I arrived at the ATM. Joy! There was a queue. So I joined the queue (I think I was person number 6). I got out the maximum I could withdraw twice. The max withdrawal was about $A300. So equipped with all this cash I headed to another of the supermarkets. The first one has almost nothing. The second one was better stocked, and I bought some apples (I had run out a while back). I wanted some potatoes,but they only sold them in 10kg bags, so it was too much for me. I tried the hardware for some disposable gloves (greasing and oil changes) but didn’t see any. I contacted Camelthorn to see if I could get a campsite, and they got back to me to confirm. It was about 90km to Camelthorn. The last 6km was a sandy track, and I had to stop and lower the tyre pressures a bit.
So I arrived at Camelthorn, great campsite.They have a viewing deck that looks over a waterhole in the river that I went down to look at. There was close to 100 zebras, more than I had ever seen in a group.Plus there were a couple of Elephants, a couple of Hippos, some wildebeests , and a lone antelope.
I went back in the evening. There was a floodlight, and I could dimly make out an elephant and some zebra, but not much else.
I did some washing.Its been two weeks since I have had enough water to do clothes washing. The best of all was the shower. I had spent two weeks using a solar shower bag with 4 litres of water in it, it was great to have unlimited water.
A typical African queue for the ATMThe viewing platform at CamelthornThe zebra and more from the viewing platformCamped at CamelthornDusk views of Elephants
