Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

So, just a place holder for my trip report for Bots. I arrived back yesterday.

Folks wanted to see Elephant Sands (my mother is Elephant bedinges) and having recently had their 50th Anniversary, I was tasked with knocking together a trip at short notice.

The idea that emerged was Elephant Sands for two days and another hodge-podge of pans, windy roads etc....
People: My folks - Div and Hilary and myself and Liana - the LF.

Some stats:

Distance: 2430km
Driving time: ~33 Hours
Fuel: I drive a Patrol - these discussions only happen between consenting Patrol owners....

I'll write up my thunks and things when I get the time / motivation. First day behind a laptop again and I am sad about that... :)

Dont wait too long

2024/07/05 Pretoria to Potchefstroom

Distance: 179km
Driving Time: 2h16
Headed through to Potch for the folks' 50th anniversary on the Friday evening. Did some shopping for the trip con Saturday and had a few beers at the River Cafe near Potch dam. Damned nice Belgian ale they had on tap there...

2024/07/07 - Potchefstroom to Gaberone

Distance: 359km
Driving Time: 4h24
Headed out from Potch early, taking the Ventersdorp before taking the R53 out towards Swart Ruggens and then the R52 to Lichtenberg and then up North to Zeerust. Reason for this route, as although it is a slightly longer route, the road is very good (except in Lichtenberg itself) and there are very few trucks. Refuelled in Zeerust and then pushed through to Botswana, entering at Kopfontein / Tlokweng.

Before we checked in at the guest house, we took a drive around Gabs to see some of the government centres - ie: Parliament etc. We stayed at Birdville BnB which I booked via booking.com. Very basic, and not exactly like the photographs, but comfortable enough. My mother decided to take a swim...

Booked a taxi via "inDrive" - the Bots "e-hailing service" for dinner at Dros at the Molapo Crossing shopping centre. Had a great meal and then an early night.

2024/07/08 - Gaberone to Francistown

Distance: 461km
Driving Time: 5h36
Resupplied early AM in Gaberone and headed out North on the A1. Stopped for some photos at the Tropic of Capricorn sign just before Dinokwe. The monument there consists of a whole series of volcanic rock pillars which were formed around 180 million years ago near Francistown. There is one labelled for every country the Tropic masses through.

Rather an uneventful drive - the A1 was relatively quiet and in good nick. Made good time to Francis Town where we turned off on the N3. Camped at Woodlands, which I highly recommend. Supper was steak and braabroodjies.

sal ook daai trip eendag wil doen

2024/07/09 - Francistown to Nata / Elephant Sands

Distance: 239km
Driving Time: 2h54
We stopped for a few photos on the way out of Woodlands to check out the Hunters Road memorial which is just off the entrance road. After that, we hit the tar road north. Road was relatively quiet - quite a number of trucks though. Although it's tar, the road is not in fantastic shape with some nasty potholes and runouts. It's also pretty narrow, so one needs to be wakey with the trucks.

I restocked beer in Nata. The Patrol restocked petrol in Nata, and then we drove the last couple of kilos to Elephant Sands, checked in and set up camp.

There is a massive drought in Bots at the moment, and even though the water hole still has water, there is not very much. There were already elephants when we set up camp, and several came ambling by whilst we had a beer and lunch before heading down to the pub. Actually rather interesting seeing them walk past so close with no fences... :)

Hunter's road is actually a trip I have long wanted to do. Not sure why since it seems 8n the dry season it's just a bad dirt road while in the wet it's basically impassable?

Peter - Hunter's Road is definitely on my to-do list as well... One day... :)

2024/07/10 - Elephant Sands

Not sure if I have mentioned it already, but my mother has a thing for elephants. So we spent an extra day at Elephant Sands. Most of the people were just overnighting and so we had the camp-site to ourselves the next morning.

I'll be dead honest - if you'd told me at some point I'd spend a day simply watching elephants, I'd not have believed you...

I've seen a million elephants in my life time between various game reserves and similar. But I've never stopped and spent time to watch how they interact with each other. It was absolutely amazing to see.

Had a chat with the owner in the morning asking about whether there were resident elephants or all migratory. He mentioned there were one or two that were sort of regular, but most were just passing through...

Most of the elephants rocking up during the day were bulls - either on the own or in small groups of two or three. Sometimes there was a little competition for the best spot at the waterhole. Was amusing to see how the elephants broke into a little run as they approached the waterhole - I presume they were relatively thirsty. But it was rather comical to see them run down with a jaunty beat to their step.

In the afternoon, a matriarchal herd of elephant rocked up, with one or two young ones - one of which was missing a tail.

Anyways, we spent the whole day watching the elephants and had an excellent steak at the restaurant for a late lunch. Headed back to camp and made a fire to have a few drinks whilst the sun set.

It was an interesting night in the camp... The elephants decided to enter the campsite to dig up the water-pipes for the ablutions. That in itself was pretty amazing to see. Sitting at our camp fire, we noticed the one elephant at the ablutions, and it was probably not even a minute before he was drinking water from the pipes he had unearthed. Thereafter he was joined by another few.