We are at the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana, we spent our first night at the CKPAS02 campsite at the Passarge Valley.

Last night, before going to sleep, we positioned the trap camera, so far we have only positioned it at the Moremi Game Reserve and at the Chobe National Park, we are curious to see if even here at the Central Kalahari we can capture something during the night.

Tonight we will download the trap camera but we quickly look at the files saved on the SD while we have breakfast, at a certain point we see a Cape fox that goes around the camp, in particular near the fire, and sniffs everywhere, maybe it feels the smell of the food we cooked last night.

The images are not very sharp but it is always nice to see an animal when it wanders undisturbed a few meters from our car.

After breakfast we get ready, today we didn't wake up very early, also because we didn't want to go out in the dark; in any case we are already on safari even just staying here on the campsite.

When we are ready we close everything, we go up on our Dr Livingstone, we start the engine and ... we cannot insert the gears ... we try and try again, we put the first, the second, the rear ... there is nothing to do no way ... And now what do we do?

If we stay here at the campsite, no one will ever see us, perhaps those who will sleep here tonight, as long as there is someone who has booked for today and this is not obvious given how little the CKGR is attended.

Perhaps the best solution is to try to push Dr Livingstone onto the main road, maybe some cars pass by in the course of the day; well it is decided we push it.

It seems easy to say, but the realization of this idea is not simple at all: first of all it is true that the road from the campsite to the main road is slightly downhill, but to get to the road we first have to push Dr. Livingstone uphill for some meter, and pushing this beast on the sand with deflated wheels is not easy at all; furthermore we have to push it backwards because its snout is facing away from the road, and we certainly can't get to maneuver it, so it won't be easy to get back down once you get on the road, but let's take care of one thing at a time.

But we have no other alternative and so we just have to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

We push with all our strength but it is more difficult than we thought, finally we manage to move it a few meters, take a momentary breath and then push again, every now and then it stops and we must use all our strength to move it again; we realize that, if we have to get to the main road, it takes half a day ...

We decide to do a test, I get on Dr Livingstone and I start the engine, squeeze the clutch pedal deeply and try to insert the rear gear, so if it should move even a few meters it will do it in the direction in which we have to push it and we do not lose what has been earned so far.

I let go of the clutch pedal slowly and it finally moves!

Luckily as we were already resigned to being stuck for days, well in case it happened to drink we have plenty of it, of food as well, we have electricity with the second battery, in the end it would not have been a great drama; however, since we have solved the problem in the best way, obviously we are happy.

Finally our today's safari in the CKGR can begin.

We did not understand what the cause of this block was, but the important thing now is that we can continue our journey, when we return to Johannesburgwe will have our Dr. Livingstone checked.

botswana central kalahari

Data di inserimento: 
Sunday, November 24, 2019