easter trip 2009-braving the Kgalagadi
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 12 April 2009 at 4/12/2009 07:40:00 am.
(this was written several days before hitting "publish"... For obvious reasons. Part II still to come!)
I'm sitting here waiting for the boys to grt back from the dude with the welder, it's 8am on Easter sunday, and Im all alone for miles and miles... So I thought I might as well give the mighty iPhone its firdt workout in half a week by starting a blog post- even tho there aint no reception for daaaays.
Right so it's been full of surprises so far, here at halfway. This always happens in the bush on long trips... I dont know why we always act so surprised. Murphy's Law indeed.
Day 1 we made it to Jill's farm in Tsa-town, by way ofa yummy fried chicken stop at "the lick". We pitched our tents in one of her old goat kraals and used town as our last stocking point- clean water, cookies for smores, diesel, beers, etc. And played non-stop with her new puppy. Toooo cute. Next morning we loaded up a buttload of firewood (not allowed to collect it in the park) to the point our roof rack bowed big time under the weight of it. Not a brilliant move, boys.
About 30 minutes down the sand track to Mabua, the thing started shifting, and for the next 4 hrs it was a cat and mouse game of stop, pick upthe pieces that had come flying off, and shove another "Getaway" magazine in the ever-growing space between the fast-bending brackets and the rim around the roof that it was SUPPOSED to be buckled to.
We limped to the park gate like this and figured it'd be fine if we could just make it to our first campsite-100km away...in deep sand...with severe corrugation... At about 10km per hour at this rate... But hey we had all day and dammit we needed that wood!! So we made lunch by a salt pan 10km in, and pushed on. Long story short, about 50km away from our intended campsite, the bad track takes its toll on the laege plate supporting the rear axle. Snapped right in 2 with a huge BANG. A thousand miles from nowhere in the middle of the desert. Plus when we get out to check... There's a spare tire missing from the back door where The Mr. had rigged it up- you always need 2 spares in the bush. Yeah this is not good- not only is that tire over 1500 bucks, if the drive shaft goes now, in this state of affairs as the truck is in, we could rip a wheel right off the bottom of the vehicle. Now that would be sime pickle. And the sun is going down. And the campsite is still 50km away at 10km per hour, and even that campsite is only a tree with a sign... No people, no help... and still a further 95km away from the next park gate with a POSSIBLE satellite phone or people in general- like other campers who just might moonlight as bush mechanics(?!?!) And even that gate is STILL oh a good 80 km from a small South African town where there MIGHT be a real mechanic.
Anyway. Our heroes, The Mr. and Alan, get under the truck and diagnose the problem and tru their best to jerry-rig up a temporary solution, but after a lonnnnng delib-session, we decide rhe safest thing to do is limp it back to the nearest campsite we can make it to (about 20km behind us), pray no one is there already (a big ask considering this park is BOOKED OUT solid,for easter, half a year in advance - but its only thurs, so there may be hope), spend the night, maybe the boys can rig up something better in the daylight, MacGuyver-style, with a toothpick and a piece of bacon, and then limp it back to the main gate we just came in today, and pray one of the rangers has a welding kit. If not, itll just have to be a 10kmph drive, the whole way back to Tsa-town... All 110km of trecherous sand track.
So, 20km and nearly 2hrs later, we've commandeered someone's campsite at B-pan, luckily it was empty... There's only 2 sites at that pan- if it had been occupied it wouldve been rough-camping under a tree or something for us. Actually it was a beautiful site, overlooking the pan. Irony is, THIS is the exact site we're booked in for, for the last 2 nights of our trip! A nica preview anyway. I made a positively delicious rich lamb neck stew with red wine and garlic rolls while the boys stared into the fire and stressed out. Coming to termswith the fact it was highly likely our itenerary was changing and there was no way we were getting all the way to where we were supposed to be for the majority of tha trip (>200km to the west) and with all the other sites in the park all booked out for easter... Well, WTF are we gonna do??
Day 3 saw these guys up at the crack of a sparrow's fart and under the rig. I kept sleeping, even with them banging and thumping my digs around. Later i gave up the idea of vacation sleep and instead made an amazing pot of percolated Jamaican blend coffee and aniseed biscuit with museli and fresh fruit. I watched some great birds and practiced my spoor-identification in the sand around our camp. There was lion, hyena, jackal (not sure what kind), hare, millipede, and a dozen different kinds of antelope.
Around 11 they said they had something feasible organized for The Great Limp 2009 trek to begin. It involved a yellow luggage strap and I think either a piece of rubber or part of the cover to my roof tent. I dunno. Not asking. I notice that &$@! piece of crap roof rack has been smashed to pieces and is now in a heap by the trash bin. So is the firewood. Now with no rack on top, but with projected speeds of nothing over 10kmph, they say we'll just throw 2 days worth of wood up on top of the tent and itll be fine and wont fall off.
We drive allllllll the way back to the gate, and HOURS later we're there. I must say at that speed its much easier tolook thru binoculars. Anyway.
So, ranger at the gate says yeah theres a welder un the park, but at the northern gate, about oh, half a days drive away, but his maintenance man is there now and coming back tonight, so he'll just radio him to bring it with. In the meantime, try campsite No. 2 or 3, right by the gate, maybe no one will be there tonight b/c nobody likes that one. (Well, it is RIGHT next to the gate) So halleluja and jubilation, we might get welded tomorrow!!! To celebrate we unpack at No. 3, break out the sundowners and I'm just organizing the hors d'ouvres of cheeses and Kalamata Mission olives and a smoked tapenade and chutney... when the rightful owners of No. 3 drive in. Naturally. Luckily they're nice people and feel bad for us so they offer to go share No. 2 with the people who're already there- its a much bigger site.. This is funny b/c this had already happened to us at No. 2.... An hour earlier they had driven in as we were setting up on their turf and we had sheepishly excused ourselves to No. 3. Oops. Again. I feel bad... I normally hate campsite hijackers. Bitch, book your site and stay there!!! This aint a first-come-first-choice system, yo!
So after a phenomenal lamb chop and boerwors braai and a gastronomic experiment that resulted in probably the best dessert ever (which we christened the "Podgey Pie", after our bff in Ireland) we sat and enjoyed a brandy under the full moon at our hijacked campsite and hoped that the weldind machine was safe in a park vehicle somewhere on its way between here and Hukuntsi.
Day 4-
It wasnt.
Fast forward thru this day bc it was basically just a bunch of sitting around in the shade, reading.... DAMN we all got some reading done... watcing birds, eating, drinking, washing up (luckily there was water at the gate, so we didnt have to dip into our rations), and I taught Alan how to bake a bread in a pot in a hole in the ground. Ironic cinsidering I dont even bake bread in the kitchen. So at least we had a nice slice of fresh raisin bread with butter for our afternoon coffee.
As far as dude at the gate knew, mechanic dude HAD left Hukuntsi with the welder the night before. Maybe he just stopped off to see some family or check in on his cattle post on the way back?
Just stay at No. 2 tonight, bc SURELY no one will be there (and no, the gate rangers have NO idea which sites in the park are booked. Naturally)
Well we werent going to sit around and waste the sunset again and the beautiful park. So we CRAWLED at 5kmph to the nearest water hole for sundowners and sat and looked over M-pan and watched some Kori Bustards and springbok and oryx out on the pan, took some photos, saw a full puff adder, drank some lovely icy cider, and did a (slow) night drive back to No. 2. Saw lots of nightjars and coursers and no one was there waiting to give us an angry beat down! Yea! In fact not only was there no one at 2, no one was at 3 either...so we COULD'VE just stayed put from the night before!! But no bother... the welder cimes tomorrow... surely he comes tomorrow.
So I whip up a quick and easy pasta with a red wine chili and garlic sauce, we crack open a good bottle of Shiraz, enjoy the giant moon, tha owls, and Alan makes more Podgey Pies. This time we wxperimented with a variation entitled: "Podgey Pie Goes to Wimbledon". Divine. There is a new addiction in town and it aint pretty. There will be kilos gained. Lots of them.
Which brings me to today- Day 5. Maitenance dude shook us out of our tents bright and early this morning, and the boys went up to the gate to see if something could be fixed.
If so, itll be one more night of campsite hijacking (hopefully somewhere else actually NICE in the park, we'll see) til our booked nights at B-pan kick in tomorrow, and we can finish this trip on schedule. Really then the only negative thing to come out of all this is that we missed our 4 nights in the west, but really is that such a big deal? 2 nights of that wouldve been at a site with just a tree- no pit latrine, in other words...DIY, i.e. "Dig It Yourself". In the meantime we had water nearby, here, instead. Bonus!! And anyway we're still camping in the bush, chilling out, reading, seeing stuff, and most importantly, eating like badasses!
-----------
Recipe for podgey pie:
Peanut butter, chocolate, marshmallow, melted between bread in a campfire pie iron. For Wimbledon vers., use Tennis biscuts instead of bread... They're coconut wafers, basically.
I'm sitting here waiting for the boys to grt back from the dude with the welder, it's 8am on Easter sunday, and Im all alone for miles and miles... So I thought I might as well give the mighty iPhone its firdt workout in half a week by starting a blog post- even tho there aint no reception for daaaays.
Right so it's been full of surprises so far, here at halfway. This always happens in the bush on long trips... I dont know why we always act so surprised. Murphy's Law indeed.
Day 1 we made it to Jill's farm in Tsa-town, by way ofa yummy fried chicken stop at "the lick". We pitched our tents in one of her old goat kraals and used town as our last stocking point- clean water, cookies for smores, diesel, beers, etc. And played non-stop with her new puppy. Toooo cute. Next morning we loaded up a buttload of firewood (not allowed to collect it in the park) to the point our roof rack bowed big time under the weight of it. Not a brilliant move, boys.
About 30 minutes down the sand track to Mabua, the thing started shifting, and for the next 4 hrs it was a cat and mouse game of stop, pick upthe pieces that had come flying off, and shove another "Getaway" magazine in the ever-growing space between the fast-bending brackets and the rim around the roof that it was SUPPOSED to be buckled to.
We limped to the park gate like this and figured it'd be fine if we could just make it to our first campsite-100km away...in deep sand...with severe corrugation... At about 10km per hour at this rate... But hey we had all day and dammit we needed that wood!! So we made lunch by a salt pan 10km in, and pushed on. Long story short, about 50km away from our intended campsite, the bad track takes its toll on the laege plate supporting the rear axle. Snapped right in 2 with a huge BANG. A thousand miles from nowhere in the middle of the desert. Plus when we get out to check... There's a spare tire missing from the back door where The Mr. had rigged it up- you always need 2 spares in the bush. Yeah this is not good- not only is that tire over 1500 bucks, if the drive shaft goes now, in this state of affairs as the truck is in, we could rip a wheel right off the bottom of the vehicle. Now that would be sime pickle. And the sun is going down. And the campsite is still 50km away at 10km per hour, and even that campsite is only a tree with a sign... No people, no help... and still a further 95km away from the next park gate with a POSSIBLE satellite phone or people in general- like other campers who just might moonlight as bush mechanics(?!?!) And even that gate is STILL oh a good 80 km from a small South African town where there MIGHT be a real mechanic.
Anyway. Our heroes, The Mr. and Alan, get under the truck and diagnose the problem and tru their best to jerry-rig up a temporary solution, but after a lonnnnng delib-session, we decide rhe safest thing to do is limp it back to the nearest campsite we can make it to (about 20km behind us), pray no one is there already (a big ask considering this park is BOOKED OUT solid,for easter, half a year in advance - but its only thurs, so there may be hope), spend the night, maybe the boys can rig up something better in the daylight, MacGuyver-style, with a toothpick and a piece of bacon, and then limp it back to the main gate we just came in today, and pray one of the rangers has a welding kit. If not, itll just have to be a 10kmph drive, the whole way back to Tsa-town... All 110km of trecherous sand track.
So, 20km and nearly 2hrs later, we've commandeered someone's campsite at B-pan, luckily it was empty... There's only 2 sites at that pan- if it had been occupied it wouldve been rough-camping under a tree or something for us. Actually it was a beautiful site, overlooking the pan. Irony is, THIS is the exact site we're booked in for, for the last 2 nights of our trip! A nica preview anyway. I made a positively delicious rich lamb neck stew with red wine and garlic rolls while the boys stared into the fire and stressed out. Coming to termswith the fact it was highly likely our itenerary was changing and there was no way we were getting all the way to where we were supposed to be for the majority of tha trip (>200km to the west) and with all the other sites in the park all booked out for easter... Well, WTF are we gonna do??
Day 3 saw these guys up at the crack of a sparrow's fart and under the rig. I kept sleeping, even with them banging and thumping my digs around. Later i gave up the idea of vacation sleep and instead made an amazing pot of percolated Jamaican blend coffee and aniseed biscuit with museli and fresh fruit. I watched some great birds and practiced my spoor-identification in the sand around our camp. There was lion, hyena, jackal (not sure what kind), hare, millipede, and a dozen different kinds of antelope.
Around 11 they said they had something feasible organized for The Great Limp 2009 trek to begin. It involved a yellow luggage strap and I think either a piece of rubber or part of the cover to my roof tent. I dunno. Not asking. I notice that &$@! piece of crap roof rack has been smashed to pieces and is now in a heap by the trash bin. So is the firewood. Now with no rack on top, but with projected speeds of nothing over 10kmph, they say we'll just throw 2 days worth of wood up on top of the tent and itll be fine and wont fall off.
We drive allllllll the way back to the gate, and HOURS later we're there. I must say at that speed its much easier tolook thru binoculars. Anyway.
So, ranger at the gate says yeah theres a welder un the park, but at the northern gate, about oh, half a days drive away, but his maintenance man is there now and coming back tonight, so he'll just radio him to bring it with. In the meantime, try campsite No. 2 or 3, right by the gate, maybe no one will be there tonight b/c nobody likes that one. (Well, it is RIGHT next to the gate) So halleluja and jubilation, we might get welded tomorrow!!! To celebrate we unpack at No. 3, break out the sundowners and I'm just organizing the hors d'ouvres of cheeses and Kalamata Mission olives and a smoked tapenade and chutney... when the rightful owners of No. 3 drive in. Naturally. Luckily they're nice people and feel bad for us so they offer to go share No. 2 with the people who're already there- its a much bigger site.. This is funny b/c this had already happened to us at No. 2.... An hour earlier they had driven in as we were setting up on their turf and we had sheepishly excused ourselves to No. 3. Oops. Again. I feel bad... I normally hate campsite hijackers. Bitch, book your site and stay there!!! This aint a first-come-first-choice system, yo!
So after a phenomenal lamb chop and boerwors braai and a gastronomic experiment that resulted in probably the best dessert ever (which we christened the "Podgey Pie", after our bff in Ireland) we sat and enjoyed a brandy under the full moon at our hijacked campsite and hoped that the weldind machine was safe in a park vehicle somewhere on its way between here and Hukuntsi.
Day 4-
It wasnt.
Fast forward thru this day bc it was basically just a bunch of sitting around in the shade, reading.... DAMN we all got some reading done... watcing birds, eating, drinking, washing up (luckily there was water at the gate, so we didnt have to dip into our rations), and I taught Alan how to bake a bread in a pot in a hole in the ground. Ironic cinsidering I dont even bake bread in the kitchen. So at least we had a nice slice of fresh raisin bread with butter for our afternoon coffee.
As far as dude at the gate knew, mechanic dude HAD left Hukuntsi with the welder the night before. Maybe he just stopped off to see some family or check in on his cattle post on the way back?
Just stay at No. 2 tonight, bc SURELY no one will be there (and no, the gate rangers have NO idea which sites in the park are booked. Naturally)
Well we werent going to sit around and waste the sunset again and the beautiful park. So we CRAWLED at 5kmph to the nearest water hole for sundowners and sat and looked over M-pan and watched some Kori Bustards and springbok and oryx out on the pan, took some photos, saw a full puff adder, drank some lovely icy cider, and did a (slow) night drive back to No. 2. Saw lots of nightjars and coursers and no one was there waiting to give us an angry beat down! Yea! In fact not only was there no one at 2, no one was at 3 either...so we COULD'VE just stayed put from the night before!! But no bother... the welder cimes tomorrow... surely he comes tomorrow.
So I whip up a quick and easy pasta with a red wine chili and garlic sauce, we crack open a good bottle of Shiraz, enjoy the giant moon, tha owls, and Alan makes more Podgey Pies. This time we wxperimented with a variation entitled: "Podgey Pie Goes to Wimbledon". Divine. There is a new addiction in town and it aint pretty. There will be kilos gained. Lots of them.
Which brings me to today- Day 5. Maitenance dude shook us out of our tents bright and early this morning, and the boys went up to the gate to see if something could be fixed.
If so, itll be one more night of campsite hijacking (hopefully somewhere else actually NICE in the park, we'll see) til our booked nights at B-pan kick in tomorrow, and we can finish this trip on schedule. Really then the only negative thing to come out of all this is that we missed our 4 nights in the west, but really is that such a big deal? 2 nights of that wouldve been at a site with just a tree- no pit latrine, in other words...DIY, i.e. "Dig It Yourself". In the meantime we had water nearby, here, instead. Bonus!! And anyway we're still camping in the bush, chilling out, reading, seeing stuff, and most importantly, eating like badasses!
-----------
Recipe for podgey pie:
Peanut butter, chocolate, marshmallow, melted between bread in a campfire pie iron. For Wimbledon vers., use Tennis biscuts instead of bread... They're coconut wafers, basically.
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