Jeez guys a guy has to make a living to afford these trips... ok here we go
Day 3: A local told us the worst of the water and mud is over! He Lied!!!!
Within an hour we are in thick black mud, not the pretty pans of yesterday, this is ugly thick gooy glue! We press on, we have done about 40km and Kubu is 50 km’s away when we come to the GS Graveyard. Up until now the 4x4 has been our greatest worry, now the bikes sink.
I am ahead with Sue on the back and somehow even our combined weight floats over the mud. But we thrash up the mud and now, Hein, Pierre and Jake are all stuck at once. We are all fucked from pushing and pushing.
Now Pierres GSA battery is flat, “I started the fucking thing 20 times” curses Pierre as we jump start him. The 4x4 will never cross here, so we stop and turn around. We’ll go to the relatively civilised Nata bird sanctuary on the pan. We can camp there and look at the flamingos and Pelicans, and their road can’t be bad, we agree. Famous last fucking thoughts!!!!
We turn around reluctantly and fight our muddy way on an alternative and slightly better route to the tar. 50 meters from the tar I dodge a bush leaning into the sandy road, leap over the middle mannetjie and fall, Sue and I rolling to the ground a foot from Pierre who’s laughing like a drain. “YOU DOOS” he laughs, “I can see the tar and now you fall!” My wounded pride helps me leap up and pick up the bike before a camera can appear!
The Nata bird sanctuary is a community run campsite on the side of the tar road. 8 Km’s away are the pans and the Nata river mouth. Huge flocks of flamingo and pelicans gather here especially as the pans dry out. The 8 km road is generally sandy and twists and turns among shallow little pans with wildebeest and springbok grazing at their edge.
A rather muddy but relieved bunch arrive at the deserted campsite. We plan to sleep here as close to the main Sua pan as possible. We argue a little with the lady who says it’s too wet for bikes and besides bikes are not allowed. We are tired and persistent so she borrows our phone and calls the manager who tells us we can enter.
“Eish the road is not so bad” she mumbles pointing with her cell phone at a tiny puddle near us “ maybe a few spots like that one.” The last local lied to us, so we agree that I should go ahead to check if we’ll make it. Its 8 km’s to the pans, and I do about 3 before turning back to call the others. “Easy Peasy I tell them!”
Mmm the mud monster was waiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The first few puddles were fine, Sue and I are hardly watching the road, enjoying the large group of wildebeest near the bike, a flock of vultures rises from a small pan eyeing us hungrily (and maybe knowing what’s coming). The road is hard and firm, the puddles maybe a foot deep! Then we come around a corner and ahead is what looks like the sea. Sue leaps off and heads for the 4x4, this looks very, very deep!
I scout some alternatives but there’s no other way! So far yet so close to the pan there’s no turning back now.
Training wheels down (feet dragging) I slowly inch across the water deep enough for the steam to rise off my engine and up to my knees.
The others follow, Hein crashing down a few feet from my camera, luckily holding the bike out the water.
“You alright?” we giggle only to get a happy sign!
A Land Rover defender watches Hein cross and makes a U turn much to our delight and jeers!
Even darth vader was there!
Its hard work but a few long puddles later we emerge, the road hard and sandy, pelicans pink in the water in front of us and the pans like a lovely lake stretching as far as the eye can see.
We’re all exhausted and recover in the shade in various ways.
Later a huge 4x4 Mercedes Drifters Tours truck arrives for a quick look.
“Where you going from here” we ask? “Maun “the driver replies” but I am planning to turn off onto the Kubu road and camp for the night”.
“You’ll never do it” we almost shriek! He points at the huge truck, “I will in that” he says glancing at our piddly dirty bikes, “anyway its part of the adventure”.
Five hundred meters from us he buries the truck and the noise of revving and towing carries on through most of the night! We raise our tired Cappies glasses to him “part of the fucking adventure”!
We set up camp..
The sun sets over the pans, pelicans and flamingos glide past us to their night time roosts and we have the place to ourselves the lapping of the water lulling us to sleep.
Oom Jake swears he was only thinking …but maybe he was just planning his GS scuba diving experiment of the next day!!!!!
To be continued….
