Ny side 1

1st of January - 2013 It had rained during the night, so our departure was delayed while we dryed the tent as much as we could. Saying goodbye to Desmond was hard, we don't know when we will see him again. Drove in the direction of Nelspruit where we will camp. The campsite we had chosen had closed a couple of years ago, so on the road again. We found one, but again, not really any campsite. We rented a hut for the night. Only problem is that they have two whacking great dogs that run about making a din.
	New Year's dinner
2.1.2013 Got a new camera and binnoculers today - great, took a long time. So we dont drive a long way. Are camping in Sabie with Desmond's father Raymond!!
3-13/01/13 Sabie River Camp that Raymond owns is a beautifully managed camp, with everything you need. Had a good chat with Raymond and we were nearly arranging a golf match the next day, but we had to leave. On our way to Pharabora, where I will try to arrange a service for the vehicle, and then on to Mfubu Lodge and Olga. Staying at Mfubu is always very special for us, because of its unique placement and the very special lady who runs it. We will stay in the "Stone Cottage" during the week we expect to be here. I will help with some repairs as much as I can. As there is no fencing at the nearby Kruger National Park, all the animals you could imagine wonder through. Up to now we have seen hippo, crocs, kudu, elephant, impala, waterbuck, baboon, velvet monkeys, bushbuck and heard a nearby lion making his presence felt. It's fun staying at the lodge, because I can always hear both Olga and Karen laughing none stop! One of the jobs Olga would like done is to build a frame to be fitted over the dam where her fresh drinking water is stored. The problem is that the plastic cover she uses at the moment cannot support the weight of the baboons who are constantly sitting on it and the water can easily become contaminated. The dam has diameter of over 6 meters, so it's a big construction we are going to build. Drove into Phalabora on Monday the 7th to get the vehicle serviced and it is here I am adding a few notes to my diary. Karen and Olga will pick me up at about 9.0am and we will see how much material we can get hold of while we are waiting for the vehicle to be finished.

On a game drive at Mfubu - Karen and me were on the back seat
They managed the service on the vehicle okay, but the front brake pads needed changing, plus the horn needed spares and of course they didn't have any in stock, so both jobs could be completed on Thursday when parts arrived. This now meant that we couldn't leave on Thursday as planned. We managed to get most of the materials for the jobs I had to do, so we (Enock and Michael and myself) got stuck into them with the cover for the dam the main item. Here we used a 120mm x12mm mild steel base which would support 16 - 12mm mild steel rods. The whole construction was welded on site, because it would simply have proved too heavy to lift into position.
	The frame is painted by Michael and Enock before the cover is put on.
The temperature through out our endevours was in the upper 30s, so it was unbearable at times. I had during our work begun to feel off colour, but I soldered on thinking it was because the heat. Most of the jobs were completed and we were able to leave on Friday. The dam cover had not been fitted before we left. They had to let the paint dry first. Olga promissed to send a photo to us. We are now slowly heading in the direction of a Rhino Park in Botswana and drove to Eiland Spa Resort where we stayed before. We cannot get all the way down to the border in one day and there is no reason to rush. The spar was more or less empty, so after setting up camp we went for a warm dip. The next day we were on the move again, but this time in the direction of a private clinic Karen had got the phone number of from the staff at The Spa. I was now in a great deal of pain on my right side and hadn't been able to sleep properly for the last few nights, so a visit to the doctor was called for. We found the clinic and Doctor Robinson as he was called diagnosed a heavy infection around my right lung. So we came away happier that it was currable, without being admitted to hospital, and with a bag of tablets and cough syrup. I needed to rest for a day or two, so we drove on towards another campsite we have stayed at before and in the general direction of the border.Waterburg Nature Park is the name of the site. We rented a rondavel and decided on a two day stay. I am now feeling a little better after starting the medication and it helped even more that Manchester Unitet played Liverpool on the sunday and they had a TV we could watch the match on. I am getting as much rest as I can, so hopefully we can leave for the border and the Rhino Park on the 14th. One thing you always fear on long trip like this, so far from home, is being sick and having to seek medical help. I have to say though, that the clinic we visited was very professionally run.
14-17/01/12 Botswana On our way to the border. Got through without problems at Martins Drift and now on our way to Khama Rhino Sanctuary. Here we camped at site 3, which offered good shade and was reasonably close to the ablutions. Next day we drove out onto the pans in the sanctuary. The weather was a bit wet, but we saw giraffe,zebra, impala, red harder beast, springbuck, warthog, jackal, ostrich, oryx, waterbuck, dik-dik and of course lots of white rhino. A really great day of game driving. We saw almost no other vehicles during the whole day. Lots of rain during the night.
	Gathering around the water hole
On our way to Nxai Pan, north of Makgadikgadi Pan. We found out after a lot of asking, that both parks are the same, just divided in the middle by the main road to Maun. To get to the Nxai Pan we had to drive through Makgadikgadi and to do this we had to be sailed over with a little ferry, No one around, so we had to go round all the houses up on the hill to get info. and find someone who could get us across. Eventually for a king's ransom we found the ferry keeper who would sail us over, Maybe sail over was an over statement. We had to drive down into the river, he sailed us 20 meters where it was deepest and then drive off into the river to get off. Not for the faint at heart this. And it "only" cost US$17!!! We got through the park, driving in deep sand and reached the tar road without seeing much wildlife at all. We drove now on the tar road towards the entrance to Nxai Pan, but as it had rained heavily since we started out, we didn't fancy our chances on the roads on the pan. Decided to carry on to Gweta to find a place to camp. We saw many elephants both on and at the side of the road, so caution was required to get past. Eventually found Baobab Lodge where we camped. We have decided to stay here for two nights, because the rain is unrelenting and at least here we can use the lodges facilities to keep dry.

He always has right of way	Our car at the campsite!!
The two days at the campsite at Planet Baobab were wet - wet and wet. It rained more or less none stop, changing the site into a big lake. We spent most of our time sheltering at the lodge, because it didn't just rain, it was a continous downpour. Going from the vehicle to the ablutions was 150 meters through water. We sat at our table at the camp with our feet in water most of the time.
18-26/01/13 We were glad to leave the camp after two really wet days. It even rained as we left. On our way to Kasane now. The big surprise was bumping into Ole and Anette in Spar. We shouldn't have met before the 21st, but we were all here in Kasane early because of the bad weather. Solvej og Iver would join us later Ole and Anette told us. We stayed at Safari Chobe Lodge Camp and it didn't rain. Next day we all drove into Chobe up the river and saw a lot of elephants. We had lunch at ahaha camp on the river. We met later back in Kasane down at Senyati Campsite (elephant man). We always enjoy staying here. Not too many elephants came to his water hole. We stayed here for two days and then we were off to Savuti through Chobe. We wer doing fine then all of a sudden our rear right tyre burst. A root from a tree had pierced the side wall and what made matters worse was that Ole and Anette driving behind us did the same thing. Solvej and Iver stopped before they reached the disaster area. We got the wheels changed, but our spare didn't last too long before it went flat and Ole and Anette's vehicle had damaged wheel studs. We had to turn round and head back for Kasane. After a lot of time was spent trying to find tyres and spares to get the vehicles repairs, all the vehicles were back at Senyati. Ole and Anette's vehicle with a new tyre and wheel nuts and studs and ours with two new rear tyres, but it had been hard to get the vehicles ready to start again in the morning. On the road again and this time we reached Savuti without further accidents. We had to drive through a lot of water on route and at one point we were not sure we were on the right track. The vehicles were quite dirty when camped at Savuti.Our first morning in Savuti an elephant came right into our camp to say hello. He was two meters from the vehicle. After a while he wondered off and we could breathe again. On our two game drives we saw lots of elephants, some quite close to the vehicle and others blocking the track so we had to find a detour. All in all we saw a lot in chobe and enjoyed our stay there. We now had to drive direct to Maun as going through Moremi to 3rd bridge was a none starter, because of flooding. Stayed at Audi camp in Maun and now we have to find out what we are going to do next. We will all be going in different directions from here
Driving through Chobe!!
27-31/01/13 Ole,Anette and Iver, Solvej went on a Mocuro trip into the delta. We hope to book a trip into the delta which will include a mocuro trip so we didn't go along. They returned just as we were on our way out of the camp. We all departed in different directions. We were staying a while, with Ole and Anette going south and Iver and Solvej north. We got a good bargain with Gunns camp and booked a trip to Moremi Crossing, a camp in the middle of the delta. A small plane flew us out there and we sailed the last kilometer to the lodge. During our two days we had two mocuro trips with walking safaris included. Here we saw Kudu, Giraffe, Impala, Warthog, Red Leche, Hippo, Crocodile, and a whole range of beautifully coloured birds, big and small. we even saw the worlds smallest frog again. On one of the walks we disturbed a leopard kill. Leopards are very shy, so they left as we approached. If it had been lions, they would have stayed put. Unfortunately the impala wasn't dead, but it couldn't get up because its back was broken. We had to move off and leave it. We are in a protected area, so the guides are not allowed to carry any weapons at all. We couldn't put the impala out of its agony. Yes, it's the law of the jungle!!!
	A snake joined us for coffee
We also went on two sunset cruises through the delta. It's a completely different world that is difficult to desribe. You have to experience yourself. No wonder they call the Okavango the "Jewel of the Kalahari". In the main lounge area we had a resident owl and a snake that liked to sheck out the guest from time to time. The staff were fantastic, the accomodation great, and we thoroughly enjoyed our all too short time there.

Arrived back in Maun, collected the vehicle, did some shopping and camped at Maun Rest Camp for the night. Left the next day on our way towards Namibia. Unfortunately the engine in the vehicle developed a whine as we drove from the camp, so we called in at Toyota and they said that one of the idler pulley bearings was defect. We didn't believe our luck - yet more problems with the vehicle. We got them changed under guarantee, but this of course delayed us quite a bit. Didn't leave before 1.0 pm. Karen had as usual an idea of where we could camp. The tourist office couldn't really help - seems there are no campsites on the way up!!!

The resident owl
We hit the road as soon as we could and after driving over 300 kms we found a community campsite called Sepopa No more about this site - it was bad.

February