Caravan Capers

We're back from Botswana via the Kgalagadi Trans Frontier Park, and what an adventure we had! Not a day past without a mishap or surprise!Thank goodness we were able to keep our fine sense of humour!   AND the world hasn’t ended, winter has come and gone and South Africa still rocks!

The Kgalagadi was just a road leading to Botswana, we hardly stopped to look at any of the animals, our mission was Kaa gate, on the North Eastern boundary, the roads were bad, dreadful corrugations, we just put our heads down and ground our way north, with the intention of spending our second night at Nossop. We made it, and then the “fun” started.... Precious got off to a very bad start with the clerk of works at reception, and then had an awful experience with the camp manager who was at Tweerivieren for the weekend. He was rude, unfriendly, unhelpful, obnoxious, and even threatened to have us drive back to Tweerivieren in the night to report to him personally. I must confess my Precious did try the sympathy card (he lied) about our circumstances, too long a story, anyway he did ‘fess up, which didn’t sweeten the managers attitude at all. Good Samaritans (a couple from Johannesburg) then offered to share their site with us for the night.The Camp Manager’s reasoning was that the camp was chock ‘A block full and he felt that we were pressurising him into giving us a site which he didn’t have. I couldn’t wait to take photographs of the campsite at first light, before anyone had left. It was ¾ empty! Poor Precious hardly slept, he tossed and turned all night, regurgitating the very unpleasant experience. Update on , caravan by then we'd lost one door (the wardrobe) and the hand basin too.Next day we travelled to Karr and then up to Ukhuntsi- what an experience, hundreds of kilometres on a two track road without ever seeing another vehicle (the last vehicle through the gate had been 5 days earlier), but through the most beautiful landscape, large pans with many species of animals in large herds. I’d have loved to have stayed there for a day or two, but we weren’t sure about distances etc., so pushed on. Queenie you’d have loved the trees, vast forests. We were very lucky to see our first leopard, a cackle of hyenas, many antelope and giraffe. This was one of the few days without a hitch!

Maun, our first stop was a 4X4 workshop, to have the air conditioner (which drives the car fridge) repaired, to be informed that the compressor had cracked and we’d only have cool air for 2 days and would have to fill up in Kasane again. Low and behold the cool air lasted for exactly two days and then it was open windows all the way back to Onrus, bearing in mind that the day time temperatures there were constantly in the high 30’s! Fortunately we stopped there because we became their best customer!George was determined to see and experience the flowing of the Savuti channel. So after breakfast we set off for Savuti, and what a lovely drive it was until..... pooof there goes the Cruiser, it just died on us, not even a splutter or choke or rattle. The engine just packed up and ground to a halt! Approx. 2 hours drive from Maun. George immediately opened the bonnet and knocked about a little but knew there was really nothing he could do... so we wait.. for help... and not too long thereafter a very kindly man stops in his Land Rover... he was one of many, very friendly Land Rover owners who stopped to help.. After lots of tapping, trying, fiddling, a guy with a Satellite phone stops to help and then phones his friend Mac to come and give us a hand, but by then a message had already gone on ahead to let the 4x4 guy in Maun know of our troubles. Eventually everyone leaves, Precious and I open up the caravan, make tea, have snacks and wait, 4 hours later Mac arrives and hot on his heals is the other guy, Mac loses it and gets really quite angry about the competition and buggers off leaving us with the 4x4 guy.

I had my doubts because when Precious had mentioned that he’d been notified there’d been lots of shoulder lifting, sidelong glances etc., which did not look promising. He’d even brought his wife and two children along for the ride! Anyway not long afterwards he got the Cruiser going again and off we went. We were heading straight through to Kasane via Savuti (we only stopped for a quick bite to eat there), but weren’t able to make it in one day, so spent the night at the Mababe gate. A delightful gentleman welcomed us and gave us the perfect spot right next to the only working loo. He informed us that there should be lions visiting us during the night, but we only heard two roaring during the night and a hyena scavenging during the night but no other sights. Taking serious note of all the advice given by everyone coming through the park we set off using the low road which was supposedly better than the “main” road to Kasane. Off we went bumping and rolling up to Kasane, the roads were dreadful, quite a bit of water, but the general condition of the roads was just shocking, with many large potholes and corrugations, detours and “new” diversions.Mud spattered, hot and tired but still excited we arrived in Kasane; our spirits high looking forward to three nights there. We found a lovely camping site at the Chobe Safari Lodge (remember we had drinks there Missy) after setting up our campsite my Precious noticed something dripping from the back of Carrie, I was merrily unpacking when I discovered that 6 of 10 “papsakke” the wine bags we use, had punctured, with all the shaking about the tinned cool drinks (Coke, Tab, Ginger Ale) and the mineral water bottles had been jumping up and down on top of our wine bags. Our precious wine had been dripping and pouring out of Carrie all the way from goodness knows where, probably Maun. There I stood with 6 empty bags and a caravan reeking of old wine. As you can imagine I could’ve wept.

On our first day we went out on a chartered boat to do some photography along the river. A great experience but quite challenging, the guide wasn’t at all knowledgeable about our needs, which was: no movement, getting really up close to the animals especially the birds, so many of our photo’s are blurred, the slightest movement, water, wakes, engine, bumping into things caused blurring. At one point a very snazzy boat came whizzing past, the “Nikon” boat, geared for photographers, with equipment to die for, and there we were with bean bags and “tripods”, lying and crouching in the most awkward, un-lady-like positions trying to snap a few photo’s! But the views and sights were amazing; there are huge swathes of water lilies as far as the eye can see with the most amazing water birds nesting or with their chicks everywhere. We were able to see some crocodiles, hippos, Ellies and buffalo.During the night we noticed that our -40 (freezer) was particularly quiet, and when things are very quiet there’s trouble, and sure enough there was no power, George checked the fuse, bumped and patted it to no avail, luckily he had a contact who he summoned, a Rasta named Joy, with dreadlocks to die for, the local electrician, he managed to sort things out, it was a fuse! We now have enough fuses to last a life time in every size and shape.

We had been invited to spend the night at Ichingo Lodge by the Oxenham’s, the owners of a small exclusive lodge and two house boats on the Chobe River. (Google it!) We left by boat as soon as we could manage, what an experience, we were able to do some sightseeing around the island with our guide by boat, once again we attempted some photography especially fish eagles and marabou stalks, bee eaters, kingfishes etc., but, again I was disappointed with my results, but not put off by a long shot! At the lodge we were so spoilt, our accommodation was 5star, a beautiful well appointed tent with a view of the river. We enjoyed a super light lunch and in the evening joined the other guests for supper, and not surprising one of the guests was a ‘travel agent’ from Worcester. His core business is selling the African experience to travel agencies abroad.Whilst in Kasane we were able to stock up on a few essentials, mainly ice and fresh produce and we were able to make use of the Lodges’ one day laundry service which was bliss. We were so excited about our stay in Kasane that the odd weird odour wafting up from the nether regions of Fanny the caravan was ignored!

Kasane is still a lively, bustling colonial village , the gateway to all the Parks, nothing much has changed since we were last there except for the commercial developments mushrooming all along the riverbank, architecture and town planning not being a strong point or priority at all! Many tourists were about and many foreign languages spoken. Tourism is certainly thriving in Botswana and the 4x4 rental business from Namibia is too and must be driving that economy, every second off- road vehicle was registered in NamibiaAt last to the bush we go. Savuti being our first booking for 9 nights.  Unfortunately we were not able to book a campsite on the river, and had to suffice with no 9 a little way from the river but not too far from the ablutions, we set up camp as quickly as possible and then disaster struck, I was merrily unpacking when I discovered that the boxes in which I’d packed our tinned goods had broken and many of the tins had been damaged and punctured or just simply opened up, e.g. there was a open tin of sardines, nicely squashed and spread all over the box. 2 tins of condensed milk had opened and poured and mixed with the sardines, a tin had condensed the gherkins in another tin and all those juices were nicely mixing with all the other delights in there. The boxes and crates foul smelt, many of the tins had started rusting, from either the fish or preservatives in the condensed milk, so it was clean up time; I trashed almost half our stocks. But the worst was getting the caravan clean again, which took ages to do and I was really losing my good sense of humour! Eventually I had everything unpacked, our clothes were all nicely sorted and in place, our bed was made, we were rearing to go..... Smokey Robinson was gathering wood for our braai, so life was good again. And then I was rewarded with an amazing sight, a huge bull elephant came visiting, he spent at least 30 minutes in our camp, eating from the camel thorn trees, scratching his back, and generally just enjoying himself there. He became a regular visitor and we were all captivated by him and had many opportunities to photograph him during the course of our stay.
Hank and Barbie (George’s nephew and his wife) joined us for 8 nights which was really very nice; we had lots of fun, laughs, excellent meals made mostly by Barbie. The boys spent some time doing maintenance work, as our fridge had packed up (the Engel in the cruiser), luckily it only needed a good clean and dusting and it’s worked perfectly ever since. Hank fiddled with his solar panel until he was happy with its performance.

 As you all know George has camped in Botswana for many years and knows all the tricks, he’s very conscientious about packing everything away at night, making sure the hyenas can’t get to anything etc., etc., so does what’s necessary and off to bed we go, and we love our bed, we sleep like babies, only waking when the animal sounds get too loud!! Not long after we’d dozed off he wakes up to a scuffle outside, honey badgers have come to scavenge, nothing is safe, they climb onto, into, over, on top of everything and anything you can imagine, nothing is safe from them except if it’s locked inside the caravan or Cruiser. They managed to get into one of my ammo boxes with long life milk; he opened and poured out 3 litres of milk. (I had 6 litres in there), the milk flowed everywhere, leaving us with a sour smelling tent for the duration! Nothing I did could get rid of the awful smell. We were visited by the critters on 3 consecutive evenings until we had him covered and he realised there were no easy pickings, and never to be seen again. They are very agile, strong, tenacious, and aggressive and as Precious so succinctly puts it “they go for one’s testicles”!We were rewarded with many lovely sightings, the grass is green everywhere, the trees are flourishing, the animals are fat and well healthy, the river is amazing and the marshes huge. Unfortunately the animals have dispersed and are widely scattered as there’s so much grazing about, the roads have changed, and so old familiar routes are no longer passable. It’s amazing to hear fish eagles, see kingfishers and many water birds, to hear and see hippos and see fish jump in the waters is amazing and spectacular. We didn’t see or hear one cat though which was disappointing.
Whilst Barbie and I were on a walk one day we met the camp manageress (the camp has been privatised, it’s owned by a company called SMK lodges (the owners are Botswanas and German) they’re currently putting up a few tented chalets with a dining area along the riverfront. Guests will be flown in and given the treatment and game drives etc), who was really very friendly and helpful. They’ve renovated the ablutions, so showering is a pleasure now, hot and cold water, clean, revamped and daily servicing.

Although we didn’t get up at the crack of dawn on any day in Savuti we did do our two daily drives, and on Mother’s day we went to Linyanti. Absolutely lovely right on the Kwando River, with Namibia on the opposite side.After 6 nights my Precious decided he’d had enough of Savuti’s lack of lion and we all packed up and left for the Moremi, Hank and Barbie haven’t been there so this was an opportunity for them to go there too. And just as well that they were with us. A slow an laborious journey to Moremi we had, at one stage we caught up with Brett and Debbie who’d got stuck in really heavy sand, it took them a good hour and lots of sweat to dig themselves out of there, eventually someone stopped and gave them a tug.

 It was during this trek that our caravan hit a huge pothole and broke its draught-pole/chassis in two places. Once again we were able to phone 4x4 guy in Maun, using Hank’s sat phone, we then left Carrie at the scene of the accident and returned to Maun. The 4x4 guy hotfooted it to the scene of the accident, welded the caravan, hitched it (all singlehandedly) returned it to Maun at one hell of a lick (so that everything that could break would break etc.,) and 24 hours later we were able to collect our now battered and bashed caravan, it is completely out of whack, the doors hardly close, my heart broke. I was convinced we were going to return with two tyres our bed and nothing else.Not to be put off we then proceeded to the Moremi. The very first cupboard I open contained the tomato sauce bottle which had now opened and mixed with the rest of the ingredients in the cupboard, we also remembered Sparky’s friends, the monkeys, and how he shooed them away all day, so we parked and camped under clear skies away from any trees. This of course was no deterrent as we were badgered by them all day; once again everything had to be stowed well away from their little fingers. Fortunately we could “hire” the camp cleaner, a lovely man, to babysit whilst we went game driving. The Moremi has changed a good deal too, lots of water around, the once dry flood plains are marshes now, and once again new roads had to be followed etc., the game is also widely dispersed so the large herds George is used to seeing weren’t there. We did have wonderful animal noises at night though, hippo’s, lions, and again a blood curdling screech one night, all I could see was a huge hyena, but the next morning Barbie told us she’d seen a fight right in front of their vehicle. The camp attendant said he thought it might’ve been two hyenas fighting, I thought it was a leopard... and I’ll stick to my story.

We were fortunate enough to have two very large male lions right in our midst and were able to photograph them early one morning. George and Hank, whilst standing gazing at the plain in front of our campsite saw them charge across right in front of them chasing another male away.Whilst we were unpacking on our first afternoon we heard a loud gunshot go off, later it was estimated that 11 loud gunshots had been fired, we then heard that a lone bull elephant had been shot, the villagers had reported him as being a nuisance, hence he was killed. I wish you could have heard the celebrations, from then on until all the meat had been distributed amongst the villagers there was chanting and singing, and kilos and kilo’s of meat was hacked and shared. We drove into the village later the next day to see meat hanging in strips from every tree, plant or shrub. One guy proudly posed for a photograph with a wheel barrow piled up with meat. This was a sight not for the faint hearted. I’ll not tell you the gory details. Of course in due course all the scavengers were attracted and tree tops were filled with vultures and the sky was black with kettles of vultures. Lions jealously guarded the carcass soon after.

Barbie and Hank stayed for two nights before heading back to Johannesburg, we were sad to see them go as we’d really enjoyed their company. We’d done a couple of game drives, done the memory lane thing, had wonderful sightings along the river, hippo’s, elephant, once again many fish eagles etc., the herds of antelope were very shy and mostly in the forests but we did have lovely sightings of Lechwe in the ponds and marshes. We heard about a large male leopard but try as we might we never caught sight of him!

The evening after the Hoblyn’s left was a quiet one for us, we were quite forlorn! And not long after we’d sat down to supper we heard the rumble of a petrol generator. At one stage butch did ask whether I thought it might belong to South Africans I said of course there’s no doubt about that. By 9o’clock I was nicely fed up and starting to wind myself up.... I spoke up and at once Precious put his knife and fork down and started looking for the culprit, half an hour later he returns, I’ve done the dishes, brushed my teeth, and am reclining in my bed with book when he gets back. The culprit is none other than the local wildlife scout who had shot the elephant. He had obviously got himself a share of the elephant spoils which he’s keeping cold in his fridge. As can be expected Precious very diplomatically told him that we are on holiday, love the peaceful night sounds of the bush etc., and would he please put it off. He assured Butch he would. Well at 4o’clock the next morning he did so. That was the last straw, the next morning Butch decided that’s it we’re going home. So instead of spending another 2 days in the park we packed up and headed home. We spent two nights on the road and decided to return via Namibia as the roads are so much better and well maintained.Our caravan took its final knock on the good Namibian road, a wind of hurricane proportions started blowing and shook it every which way, eventually the roof shot open, twice, had to be battened down, and on the first opening the roof handle was torn from the roof. Poor Darling never said a word he just grabbed the cable ties and got on with it. By then I was hysterical! I didn’t know whether I was laughing or crying. Thank goodness we made it back to Clifton in one piece on Tuesday night in time to vote on Wednesday! Thursday and Friday George was back at work and I started sorting out the washing, which I smartly delivered to the Laundromat. We‘ve been exhausted ever since and retire to bed at 9 o’clock at night, I must confess we did attend a birthday party on Saturday night though and could make it to about 11 o’clock.

The caravan is currently at the caravan hospital in Cape Town, an assessor has been to see her, but it seems we have a write off on our hands. Let’s wait and see.
In conclusion I must say the following: we loved the caravan, it’s comfortable bed and the convenience of having one’s things organised, but it was very stressful dragging it around with us, especially as the roads are really shocking and I doubt whether they’ll improve in the near future, although we’ve been told that the roads in the Kgalagadi have been graded since our visit.
The booking system used in the Kgalagadi and Botswana is shocking I don’t think the right hand has a clue there’s a left hand. For weeks George scoured their websites looking for cancellations and after a reassuring telephone call with to a colleague in Upington who spoke to the Park manager of the Kgalagadi and assured Sweets that the online booking system was faultless. I can without doubt tell you the campsites we visited were at least 50% occupied. So that was disappointing and frustratingHat’s off to everyone who helped us: the two girls Marie and Helene, who put up with us at Nossop for the night, they were truly amazing and then a huge hug to Cassie from Delta 4X4, who was a star, and Dawn and Ralph who were gracious hosts at Ichingo lodge.

We spent many evenings musing about you, all our friends and family, children and grandchildren and wished you could’ve been there, we missed you all but especially the Queen of Tarts and her Prince, Caron and her latest hunk who might’ve joined us, but, we agreed that this trip was not meant for you, it was gruelling, difficult and stressful although it was wonderful in many, many ways and I really enjoyed the experience, I personally coped better than last time.
Next time we go this will be included: Satellite phone, electrical current reader and fuses and YOU!
We learnt a lot and I really really really won’t be going back to a two man tent again! But we’ll only decide on a mode of camping when/if we do it again. We’ve hundreds of photographs to go through it’s a daunting task; hopefully there’ll be a few to show you!

Lastly I would like to thank the Hunk and his Barbie for joining us, I loved every minute you were there, it was wonderful to get to know you both better, you’re such relaxed, laid back travellers, exactly as it should be. I hope we can do it again some time. We miss you both.