wildside
Pack Dog
BACK TO BOTS ~ KUBU ISLAND @ HIGH TIDE!
18-28 March 2016
“ No License, No ride!”.
These are the words we repeatedly drummed into our daughter, Roxy, who was well used to scooters in the Indonesian traffic and a little bush riding but had never done the adventure side of motorbike riding with its excitement and discomfort.
Roxy surprised us all by passing her test first time round…thanks to a few hours of instruction by Hein Jonker from Bike Talk. The fact that she passed it using my XR650 gave me some confidence in her riding ability. Spending the first half of the year with us was a good opportunity for Roxy to join us on her first motorbike adventure and it was a real treat for us as parents to be sharing this wonderful experience with her. It was all very exciting.
So before we knew it the Easter holidays were upon us and 4am Friday the 18 March found us leaving the Midlands in a well loaded bakkie pulling a trailer with three Honda’s, 2x 650 XR’s and a 200R which Kingsley had rebuilt for the trip. It was now looking so smart and ready for a good adventure on the Makgadikgadi Pans.
SOME PRETTINESS ALONG THE WAY.
It was a long haul to Botswana and we reached the Martins Drift Border Post at 3.30pm. We passed about 2km of stationary long haul trucks on the road leading up to the border – looked like we were in for a looong delay at the border. We were originally planning to enter Botswana further south at the Stockpoort Border post but on reaching Martins Drift we heard that it was closed due to flooding….warning bells!!!
Standing in the short queue were two other adventure riders on BMW’s also heading off on their own Easter adventure. Surprisingly it didn’t take long and by 4.30pm we stopped at the first petrol station at Kwa Nokeng to refuel and exchange some money into Pula. We were surprised at the exchange rate R1.55/1 Pula. We hadn’t budgeted for such a bad exchange rate so it just meant that Kingsley had to cut back on his beer consumption!
VULTURES TAKING CARE OF SOME ROAD KILL ALONG THE WAY.
At about 6pm we drove into Palapaye and used the GPS to find our destination for the night, Camp Ithumela. As we drove through the town we were very unsure of getting to the right place and when we crossed over the railway line, turned right and drove along the railway siding we were convinced we were in the wrong place. Passing dilapidated buildings didn’t do much to cheer us up either.
However, there were several signs reassuring us that we were on the right track and to our surprise we drove through a well marked entrance welcoming us to an amazing backpackers spot. There were plenty of tourists, some swimming, some playing pool and others sitting around a most welcoming pub. We were shown to our room, dumped all our belongings and shot off to the pub where the food was also absolutely delicious. Feeling sated we head off back to the room for a good night’s rest.
This spot comes highly recommended if anyone needs accommodation in this town.
PALAPAYE to NATA LODGE.
Saturday morning breakfast found us at the Wimpy in Francistown and after negotiating our way around all the roadworks we were once again on our way to Nata. It was on this stretch of road that we started noticing huge pools of water collecting on the side of the road.
I had been communicating with Jon from the Makgadikgadi Aventure Camp during our preparation stage and he had agreed to keep fuel for us. I gave him one last call just to confirm this and to check if his camp was still accessible. I had been following the Botswana weather for a few weeks now and after speaking to Jon again today he confirmed that his camp was inaccessible from the south with no access to Gweta and hence no fuel available for us. He suggested that coming down from the north was our best bet but warned us that there was still plenty of water around and we might not get through.
This really put a spanner in the works as we had planned to visit all the baobabs starting from Nata Lodge and heading south to Kerr’s Baobab near Kukonje Island, continuing south to Tlapana and westwards to Mmatshumo where we would head up north into the pans and onto Kubu Island. From there we planned to go to the Magkadikgadi Adventure Camp and refuel. En route to Gweta we wanted to stop over at Chapmans and Green’s Baobabs. We were also hoping to get into see Baine’s Baobab but that was also highly unlikely. It looked as if Planet Baobab and Elephant Sands were still on the cards though. We now had to do some quick rethinking and replanning as taking advice from the locals is a good idea.
OUR ORIGINAL MAP- PLAN A
18-28 March 2016
“ No License, No ride!”.
These are the words we repeatedly drummed into our daughter, Roxy, who was well used to scooters in the Indonesian traffic and a little bush riding but had never done the adventure side of motorbike riding with its excitement and discomfort.
Roxy surprised us all by passing her test first time round…thanks to a few hours of instruction by Hein Jonker from Bike Talk. The fact that she passed it using my XR650 gave me some confidence in her riding ability. Spending the first half of the year with us was a good opportunity for Roxy to join us on her first motorbike adventure and it was a real treat for us as parents to be sharing this wonderful experience with her. It was all very exciting.
So before we knew it the Easter holidays were upon us and 4am Friday the 18 March found us leaving the Midlands in a well loaded bakkie pulling a trailer with three Honda’s, 2x 650 XR’s and a 200R which Kingsley had rebuilt for the trip. It was now looking so smart and ready for a good adventure on the Makgadikgadi Pans.
SOME PRETTINESS ALONG THE WAY.
It was a long haul to Botswana and we reached the Martins Drift Border Post at 3.30pm. We passed about 2km of stationary long haul trucks on the road leading up to the border – looked like we were in for a looong delay at the border. We were originally planning to enter Botswana further south at the Stockpoort Border post but on reaching Martins Drift we heard that it was closed due to flooding….warning bells!!!
Standing in the short queue were two other adventure riders on BMW’s also heading off on their own Easter adventure. Surprisingly it didn’t take long and by 4.30pm we stopped at the first petrol station at Kwa Nokeng to refuel and exchange some money into Pula. We were surprised at the exchange rate R1.55/1 Pula. We hadn’t budgeted for such a bad exchange rate so it just meant that Kingsley had to cut back on his beer consumption!
VULTURES TAKING CARE OF SOME ROAD KILL ALONG THE WAY.
At about 6pm we drove into Palapaye and used the GPS to find our destination for the night, Camp Ithumela. As we drove through the town we were very unsure of getting to the right place and when we crossed over the railway line, turned right and drove along the railway siding we were convinced we were in the wrong place. Passing dilapidated buildings didn’t do much to cheer us up either.
However, there were several signs reassuring us that we were on the right track and to our surprise we drove through a well marked entrance welcoming us to an amazing backpackers spot. There were plenty of tourists, some swimming, some playing pool and others sitting around a most welcoming pub. We were shown to our room, dumped all our belongings and shot off to the pub where the food was also absolutely delicious. Feeling sated we head off back to the room for a good night’s rest.
This spot comes highly recommended if anyone needs accommodation in this town.
PALAPAYE to NATA LODGE.
Saturday morning breakfast found us at the Wimpy in Francistown and after negotiating our way around all the roadworks we were once again on our way to Nata. It was on this stretch of road that we started noticing huge pools of water collecting on the side of the road.
I had been communicating with Jon from the Makgadikgadi Aventure Camp during our preparation stage and he had agreed to keep fuel for us. I gave him one last call just to confirm this and to check if his camp was still accessible. I had been following the Botswana weather for a few weeks now and after speaking to Jon again today he confirmed that his camp was inaccessible from the south with no access to Gweta and hence no fuel available for us. He suggested that coming down from the north was our best bet but warned us that there was still plenty of water around and we might not get through.
This really put a spanner in the works as we had planned to visit all the baobabs starting from Nata Lodge and heading south to Kerr’s Baobab near Kukonje Island, continuing south to Tlapana and westwards to Mmatshumo where we would head up north into the pans and onto Kubu Island. From there we planned to go to the Magkadikgadi Adventure Camp and refuel. En route to Gweta we wanted to stop over at Chapmans and Green’s Baobabs. We were also hoping to get into see Baine’s Baobab but that was also highly unlikely. It looked as if Planet Baobab and Elephant Sands were still on the cards though. We now had to do some quick rethinking and replanning as taking advice from the locals is a good idea.
OUR ORIGINAL MAP- PLAN A
