South Africa

The next part of our adventure started with saying goodbye to Malcolm, Emily plus Lucy and Albert, our friends we had been staying with in Ndola since our arrival almost 6 weeks before. They are heading back north to UK this week for a holiday while we were heading south to Johannesburg. We should be back in Ndola a couple of days before them, ready and refreshed to take on new challenges.

Our trip began at Ndola international airport where we checked in, left our bags and cleared security. We then turned round and went back outside to what was supposed to be a lovely café and bar. (Try doing that at Heathrow). Sadly the highly rated café was no more and had closed while the bar/restaurant was, in typical African style, so badly run. It is not the busiest airport in the world but does handle internal flights plus international flights to Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Democratic Republic of Congo so there were quite a few people looking for a drink and food. One guy, dressed in a dinner suit and bow tie was serving at the bar……….. Cooking in the kitchen………. Waiting on tables……… plus anything else you could think so the queue wad long. Many people were asking and all you got told was all the rest of the staff were at a funeral so only one man today.

Memo to us… “Just get used to Africa”

Once at Johannesburg we were met at arrivals by “Lewis” from Bushlore who had our Safari Vehicle waiting. We discussed what to do as we needed to go to Bushlore to pay our money, sort out the paperwork and go through a checklist on all the bits and pieces but it would take at least an hour to get through the rush hour traffic and it was getting late. We decided to book into a hotel in Midrand, next to where Bushlore are sited for the night and complete all the bits next day. Now we had to follow Lewis through the city.

Jan checking out the Toyota on the first night

Sorting the Toyota the next day was easy and we went through all the bits and added other items we required such as Jerry cans for extra fuel (it already has a 170 litre tank), A braai grid that clamps over one of the spare wheels on the rear, plus various other bits and pieces. The Vehicle is a Toyota Hilux double cab with 2.4 diesel engine and comes complete with 2 roof top tents, fridge, full camping gear  including gas bottles and cookers, all packed in ammo boxes that slide in and out on runners and all the vehicle gear like compressor for inflating tyres, Hi lift jacks, Winch, cables, strops and sand ladders for getting out of deep sand and water. Add to this we also have bought a satellite phone for emergencies when out in the bush, we hope we are well covered.

View from 2000 metres up over Marakele

Next stop was the shopping Mall for a few bits we needed to buy plus important supplies such as beer, wine and gin (But stupidly forgot the tonics), oh and food then of to a campsite just north of Pretoria so we could try out and check most things plus start packing the vehicle how we want. The first night was good, cooked on an open fire but it became very chilly. Next day we moved onto a more remote area of Northern South Africa and into Limpopo Province and Marakele National Park. It is a very beautiful park set in the Waterburg Mountains. Our camp site overlooked a small plain with Giraffe, Warthogs, Antelope and many ostriches wandering about and often in the camp. Being in the mountains the days were warm but the evenings and nights very cold so for the first time here we had to put extra clothes over our day clothes to go to bed. Drives were taken high up to view points to see colonies of rare Cape Vultures and we were lucky enough to spot a fantastic female rhino with one of the largest horns I have seen along with her calf.

Rhino and Calf

Helmeted Guinea Fowl

Hornbill Portrait

2 Birds at the Braai

View from our tent

After 2 nights we have moved on and crossed into Botswana and we are now at a town called Palapye. We have come here to meet Andy Raggett of Drive Botswana. He set up our first visit to Botswana in 2013 and has booked a few camp sites for us that needed reserving in Central Kalahari in a few days time. He has also booked the trip including another vehicle for Christmas/New Year 2015/16 when Andrew, Karen and Louise are flying out to join us on a trip around some of Botswana’s Parks such as Chobe, Moremi, Okavango Deleta and Magkadgadi Pans. Much more of that later in the year.

The camp site here is at the opposite end of the spectrum to the ones we have stopped at so far as it is on the edge of a town. It is very noisy with vehicle noise plus a very noisy train at 4.00am. It also has a bar, restaurant and WiFi so that is why I can update the blog.

Next stop after calling in for full supplies to last us at least a week will be Kharma Rhino Sanctuary for 2 nights then onto Central Kalahari Game Reserve for 5 nights where it is truly wild camping and where we will be with the animals including all the predators and no fences at all. Here we have to be totally self sufficient with food, water and wood as nothing is available in the park. It will also be a drive of 600-700 Kms from when we enter in the east to when we exit in the west then we have to drive a couple of hours north on a road to the nearest fuel stop so the Jerry can may come in handy on this part.