January 2015 South Africa

13-15

Well we are off again towards our second home, Afrika. The flight down was good and our luggage found us at Joburg without problems, and Guy from Zebra, where we had rented our 4X4 was on hand to collect us - good start. It didn't last!

We had been informed that the vehicle was no more than three years old - it was six years old. Things started to go steadily downhill at this point. Guy the manager was friendly, but had no control over what was going on at the depot. We spent hours getting the vehicle ready for the road. So many things were missing that should have been in the vehicle, but no one had checked it. Karen went methodically through the list with them and they were running back and forwards replacing the missing items. The gas hotplate in the vehicle didn't work, so they had to replace it. They had no single duvettes, so would have to buy a couple on our way out.

I checked all the items such as the lifting roof, the side panel that dropped down to form  a double bed inside. Lots of things missing, but got them replaced. It took the best part of five hours before we were ready to leave.

Yes that's the vehicle.

On our way now to Pilansburg game park where we could camp. Shopped in Rustenburg and then the during the final part of the journey we got caught in an awfull traffic jam and didn't get there until 18.30. A wienersnitzel on the way down helped matters a bit though. We stayed at the Mayane camp just outside the gate. The place has gone down the hill since we were last here. Again the ability to maintain is a missing factor. 

Drove around the park and saw lots of animals, especially giraffe and zebra. We also saw rhino and elephants. A nice picturesque park to drive round in. Whilst driving we noticed that the engine sounded a bit odd. It was making an unusual tapping noise. Contacted Zebra, and eventually a mechanic arrived from Joburg in a large motorhome. Only problem is that he arrived late (22.00) and couldn't start working on the engine so late in the evening. Everyone else on the campsite had more or less gone to bed. Next day he got started at 06.30 only to say he didn't have any spares with him. He left again and we would continue our journey and call in at Toyota in Gabarone in Botswana.

Drove down to Mafeking, not far from the border and found a campsite after help from the owner of petrol station. The site was situated in the middle of a game reserve, so it couldn't be better. Next day into Toyota where it was confirmed that the injectors needed replacing. None in stock, so we would have to come again tomorrow, Back to the game reserve where we could drive around and see the many animals the reserve could boast. I don't think I have ever seen so many White Rhino in one reserve before. There was also lots of Blaesbuck, Giraffe, Zebra, Harderbeast, Impala, Springbuck and Ostrich.

We met three guys at the camp. They were working locally installing solar energy systems. One was celebrating his birthday, so Karen took cakes, a Danish flag down to their camp and we had a good chat and a laugh. A picture of the cakes is already circulating on Facebook.

Now its Tuesday and we are waiting while Toyota repair the vehicle. The parts did arrive. If all goes well we will cross the border to Botswana later today. By the time they were finished with the vehicle though it was too late to cross the border. We stayed an extra night at Mafeking. Another problem with the vehicle had also reared its ugly head. The roof leaked. I had bought some silicone to repair it and one of the guys we had met at the camp helped me with it.

On the road to Botswana. We reached Gaberone at 12.30 and proceeded to find the Wildlife office so we could get a permit to enter the Kalahari game reserve and camp. We reserved five nights altogether, one just inside the reserve and the other four well inside. Here we are going to be driving in deep sand for a lot of the way. We went into the nearest Mall and had a light lunch and bought some things we needed. We had to be sure we had enough water for the trip through the desert.

The road towards the Kalahari is only tarmac the first 60 kms and the rest is off road. They told us it would take five hours to travel to the gate. We decided to find a camp near Gaberone and stay the night. We can leave early in the morning and get to the gate before the temperature reaches 30+. We found the Lion Park Resort which had a nice campsite. The resort had a big swimming pool and a large fairground. We were the only people there. It was strange walking around on our own. The pool was a good swim.

Somebody is watching us!

On the road towards the entry gate at Khutsi. It was quite a long drive with most of it on tarmac. We stayed at the camp just inside the gate. Did a short game drive. The first day we had to drive 231 kms, which was no joke. The track we drove on was deep sand and all along the way the elephants had dug the track up in search of water. They had also dessimated trees and bushes along the track, which made driving through difficult. We had to stop a lot to move broken branches and tree trunks from the track and we were doing all this in 35 degrees C.

The bushes on either side were overgrown and it was difficult to press the vehicle through. Deep scratch marks on either side of the vehicle were unavoidable. We have drivedn a lot of 4x4 tracks and this ranks as one of the worst. Eleven and a half hours later we arrived at the next camp - Xaka. We hadn't seen a single animal all day. We were a bit tired. A cold beer was the order of the day. We just had to get the roof up in the vehicle to cool it down, but there was a problem, I couldn't find the big suaare ended key to open the bed section and the back door. - SHIT!!!!

we could hear the lions roaring nearby at the waterhole and we couldn't get in the back of the camper.I started paniking a bit, but luckily Karen didn't, and pointed out that we could lift the roof from the outside and maybe cclimb in. We could and we got the door open. I had calmed down a bit by now, and I was able to find a way to open the bedroom section - so we were lucky. Don't know how I lost the key, but we will have to replace it when we get to Maun in four days time.

Not much room

A short drive the next day, but the tracks are bad and the going is slow - still no animals to be seen. The next camp after 63 kms was Xade under a great big tree, where we had a great veiw out over the savanna.A good afternoon with no driving, just lazing around. Fantastic sunset.

The next day and we are off to Deception Pan, which is 175 kms. The track is still making things hard going and it's looking to be a long hot day with the temperature up to 37 degreesC. Half way we called into Pipers Pan for lunch and we met a South African pair Hester and Kobus. We had met them earlier at the bushmans camp. We chatted about what we had seen and they said we could stay at their camp instead of continuing to Deception. We said yes thanks.

We had a great time together and they showed us their fantastic off road trailer camper. It had everything. They offered us drinks and soon we felt at home in each others company.

Karen and Hester with their rig in the background

Driving through the whole length of Kalahari is no mean feat, so any chance to relax, you take. The evening with Hester and Kobus (sorry if the names aren't spelt right) went too quickly, but a lot of good storys changed hands.Off on the road again after helping Khen to get his vehicle started. He is having a bit of battery trouble and this isn't the place to have that.

This 95 km stretch was probably the easiest to get through since we started. We began to see game again. Two jackals, two lions at a waterhole and two cheetah who crossed the track in front of us. Lots of springbuck, wildebeast, orix, ostrich and kudu. Hester and Kobus had arrived at the pan on another site aand we drove over to them after our game drive to see if they were okay - they were. I borrowed the "magic key" which we called it, because it could be used instead of the one I lost. They had at to open some of the cupboards on their trailer. I will return it tomorrow when we go to check if they can start.

So we managed to drive through the whole of the Kalahari. Mountain climbers do it because the mountain is there, we replaced it with a desert. We don't regret we did it, but we wouldn't do it again!

Hunters on the prowl -

An old friend from Kalahari

Up early and over to see if they needed a jump start- they did. It took us 5 hours to get to Maun. Here we had to hunt down a new magic key to replace the one that I had lost in the Kalahari. It didn't prove to be the easiest thing to do. Lots of people wanted to help and gave us directions on where we could get hold of one- nobody could come up with a new magic key, so we settled for a new magic door handle, which did the job fine. Had lunch at restaurant over looking the airport. We got an sms from our friends Ole and Anette who are also down here, that they wouldn't be meeting us in Maun. Shame because we had looked forward to seeing them.We camped at Audi campsite for the night.

Next day we drove into town to do some shopping ready for our next trip into the bush and at the same time got the vehicle filled up and a little money from the bank will come in useful to keep us going. We also checked out another campsite Island Safari Lodge, which was much better than Audi camp which have a lot of troubles with theft, so we moved there. We decided to spend two nights here to relax without driving. Temperature today was a cool 37 degrees C. Met a couple from Switzeland who had done what we were going to do and believe it or not they were going down through the Kalahari. We exchanged lot of information. And they had been with "familie på farten - some danes, we then chased to find, but no.Karen got a bit more washing done Tomorrow we ar driving to 3rd Bridge in Moremi Game Reserve and will spend 5 days driving through Moremi and Chobe through to Kasane.

On our way early towards Moremi Reserve and our camp at Third Bridge. Got to Third Bridge without problems. We saw lots of animals on the way elephant, kudu, springbuck, giraffe etc. Had our lunch, then decided to push on to Xakanaka which was only one hour away. The track soon changed to something much smaller and it got gradually smaller. We weren' too worried because our GPS was guiding us direct to the camp - or so we thought!!

We ended up getting totally lost and it was getting dark, so we decided that we had to bushcamp and then try to find a way out tomorrow. We had to get a fire lit at once because we were out in the bush now and not a campingsite. It started to rain with thunder and lightning thrown in - and our spirits dropped - could we get out if the whole place became flooded. We didn't sleep too well.

Up at 5.45 am to a fantastic sunrise. Okay lets see if we can get to the camp. We tried to use co-ordinates to pinpoint our way out, but a deep river crossing stopped us dead. We decided to backtrack using the GPS memory. It wasn't easy, but we managed it, but only after having to cross a river. We waded out into the water to assess our chances of getting across. We would give it a go,because we couldn't get out if we didn't. We got across, but lost our front number plate in the process. We noticed this much later - too late to drive back to retrieve it. Got to the camp and found Hester and Kobus's trailer, so we decided to stay the night instead of driving on to Savuti. Relaxed as real campers do during he day. Kobus and Hester and their youngest daughter "Christa". They had driven all the way back to Maun to visit their eldest daughter who had been involved in a car accident, luckily she was unhurt. Thunder storms hit again and we went over to their rig where they had a large covered area where we could all shelter and catch up on each others news.  ¨                   

This was deep in the middle