YouMe&Michael


After years of saving and planning, our dream to overland through Africa is finally becoming a reality. Along with our Land Cruiser, Michael Buble, we will be travelling through our beautiful continent for 6 months! Woohoo!

About Us

We have been married for two busy years and have lived in Johannesburg all our lives. Ang is a Speech Therapist and Grant, an Environmental Consultant. We both love the outdoors and have dreamt of travelling through Africa together before we were even together (sort of). Please keep in touch and let us know your news. Hope you enjoy the journey with us.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Kooking in the Kgalagadi

We are back from our 10 day holi in the Kgaladi with our crazy bush-loving friends Pierre and Andria. It turned out to be a fantastic taste of what we have in store for the months January to June 2011. We decided to pack Michael the night before and it turned out to be a big one! With the boot packed to the roof, Pierre and I turned to the roof rack and tied tents, chairs, crates, tables and gas bottles onto the roof. Lesson # 1 we are going to have to pack lighter for the real thing.

We left early on Saturday morning and after filling Michael with about 250 litres of petroleum we headed west on the N14. The trip was pretty relaxed and we arrived at our overnight stop, The Spitskop Monate Lodge, with enough time to have G&T's (the holidays favourite drink) on the Spitskop itself. We retired early before the 300km final leg to the park the next day.

We entered the park in the south at Twee Rivieren where we would spend one night. After unpacking we took an afternoon drive up the Nossob River (a dry river that has not seen water in many a year). It was good to be back in the bush.

After a night of mozzie spotting, which entailed randomly switching on the light, standing on the bed, pillow in hand, swatting at anything that buzzed or resembled a blood sucking insect, we packed the car again and were off. We had a long drive ahead of us in order to get to Nossob Camp, where we would be camping for two nights. On the drive we spotted a fair bit of wildlife with the highlight being a sighting (all though a bit far) of a pride of lion with 3 cubs. The dune road to Nossob started off as a fun roller coaster ride but after the 500th rise and fall of your internal organs as you crested and then decended the dune we were ready to call it a day. At Nossob we selected an awesome site and pitched the tents. You will notice, in the picture below, the technique which Andria employed in setting up the tent. Yip, that is her with G&T in hand and yes, that is Pierre and I contructing the unconstructable tent.
Nossob was great and the highlight was the early morning trips we did to the Cubijie Quap Waterhole, where we watched the Sandgrouse come to drink. Hundreds of them would desend on the waterhole only to land, drink and take off 10 seconds later. Pierre and I were in our element with the chance of catching the action on our cameras.

After two days camping at Nossob we had to pack up and prepare for the !xerry widerness trail. We had booked to do a walking trail in the park which involved taking all your own food and drinking water and camping in the middle of nowhere for two nights. Yes please! This is probably a good time to mention that this was the last walk of the season before it closed for the really hot months. So it is fair to say that it was hot. A 45 minute drive on a Landy later, we were at the wilderness camp. It consisted of a small wire fence which could, quite easily, have been hurdled by anything hungry, a bucket shower and, my personal favourite, a long drop/plop (with complementary flat backed poo lizard). the trail was awesome, although, very hot and everyday we would wake up at 6 and head out for a 4 hr walk. We learned so much from Melissa, our gun wielding guide, and even stubbled upon the odd animal which is not as often as you might think. We did however learn lesson # 2: Africa, She is going to be hot and there is not much we can do about it.

Next we were off to Bitterpan, one of the wilderness camps and it could only be accessed by a 58 km 4x4 trail. Michael, he had fun. To be honest the sand did not test Mikey at all and the spade and highlift jack that I attached frantically before our departure did not have to be used, although, I must say they look freakin hard core. Birtterpan is awesome. It only sleeps 8 and there are 4 "tents" built on stilts with a communal kitchen all overlooking a big white pan. Here we spent two days relaxing, sleeping, reading and drinking, as Pierre likes to call them, Cool Cool-Drinks. Our relaxation was only disturbed once when Pierre and I, along with another resident, had to rescue some helpless guys who had got stuck in the sand 9km from camp. Yes please, the chance to use the equipment that looked so hard core. It was great to witness two Land Cruisers rescue a Land Rover Disco 4 and a VW Toureg with minimal effort. Land Cruiser 2, other guys 0. Fine self.
   

After 7 nights in the park our trip was coming to an end with only one more night at Twee Rivieren before heading back to Jozi. The corrugated roads had taken their toll on Michael and he broke two of his three exhaust mountings, nothing that a few cable ties could not temporarily fix. Lesson # 3: the exhaust is very very hot. Do not touch it with any part of your anatomy because it will (and did) burn you properly.

It was an awesome tester for us and we learnt alot and it has left us rather excited. With only two months before we leave there are a couple of things to sort out. Pierre and Ands, thanks for a great trip!!!! we loved being in the bush with you.

... And Michael was his Name-O

Our Trusty Land Cruiser goes by the name of Michael Buble'. Unlike his human namesake, he is not from Canada, has not won any Grammy's and does not sing (he purrs). Our Michael got his name courtesy of Ang. When she first saw the Land Cruiser 80 Series she said they looked like big bubbles. Upon doing a little research we found that in Columbia and Venezuela the Land Cruiser was nicknamed Burbuja (Bubble) because of it's roundness. Bubble turned into Buble' and Michael was his name.

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