Trip Report - Kubu & Bots Northern Parks 2012

[Peter Connan]

Tinus, ons het nie een 'n foto van daai 60 cruiser geneem nie, so ons kan hulle nie wys nie!

Thanks Grant

[Peter Connan]

Next day:

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This happened right in our campsite, and the same tree also had a resident Eastern Tiger snake:

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[Jules]

Great voel pics Peter

shalom

[Jules]

Aggenee al die pics maak nie oop nie, lyk of jul lekka water crossings gehad het

shalom

[Peter Connan]

The following day we tackled the trip to Savuti. When we booked in at South gate, we had been told that the Khwai was too deep to cross, but since some of the guys had been getting attrocious fuel consumption and guys were stressing about the distance we still had to go before the next filling station, we decided to take the chance (the difference is 65km).

At North gate we were told that the crossing would not be a problem, and we carried on through. The crossing was just about at the limit of what we felt comfortable with, but we all made it without incident. We thought.

A little while later, we stopped for lunch, and realized that Gerrit's 4.5 was suddenly overheating. We opened the bonnet and discovered that the fan had lost all it's blades, presumably they are lying in the Khwai somewhere. We sent the rest of the party on while Gerrit limped on with me in concert, stopping frequantly to cool down. At Mababe gate we scrounged a 20l paint drum in anticipation of using it to affect repairs.

The road from Mababe to Savuti is pretty heavy going in soft sand for most of the way, so it went slowly and we arrived just before sunset.

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[Peter Connan]

Aggenee al die pics maak nie oop nie, lyk of jul lekka water crossings gehad het

shalom

Jules, I have developed a bad habit. I have been thrown out of forums so often by bad connections that I now type the story, post it, and then edit it to add the pics. Maybe I was busy with this while you where trying to look? All the photos are in the same format and loaded in the same way?

[Peter Connan]

Arriving at Savuti, the concession holder's representative said that he thought the mechanic at one of the nearby lodges would be able to assist with repairs on Gerrit's fan, and promised to bring him around. We set up camp and shortly the maccy arrived. He thought he had a fan from an old cruiser that might be made to fit. In the morning Gerrit went off to his workshop to see what could be done. Unfortunately the cruiser fan was missing, so they tried to make a plan with a fan from a disused home aircon. Johan also used the facility to straighten his towbar which had bent.

In the afternoon, we went for a drive to test it out:

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Unfortunately, the aircon fan did not really help, so that night around the fire we decided to see if we could stay on an extra day rather than moving on to Linyanti, to see if we could sort out Gerrit's problem.

[Peter Connan]

During the night we were visited by an ellie, who walked right through camp.

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In the morning we managed to arrange to stay on at savuti, our neighbors kindly donated the use of their satphone and using this Gerrit managed to source a new fan in Maun and a lift for it to Savuti. The fan arrived in the late afternoon and was installed within 15 minutes.

In the evening, some wild dogs passed through camp but unfortunately we couldn't get any pictures.

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[Peter Connan]

The next day we moved to Senyati Safari Lodge near Kasane. Again we started reasonably early, the intention being that we would drive along the Chobe river from Ngoma to Serondela. Shortly after leaving Savuti, we struck it lucky:

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The sand is deep in places:

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The decision to drive along the riverfront was a good one. Despite arriving after midday, the game viewing was exceptional.

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This is what the vultures came for:

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[Peter Connan]

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