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Friday morning 6 May
Wished Renay a happy birthday -No not what you thinking but with a lekker fat kiss
Got up 05:40am and had our normal coffee and rusks
And packed up rest of our camp and was ready to leave Kubu Island at 06:30am
Guess what everyone was on time.
Wessel
Hom se hehehehehehe
Our trip out to the Gain o trust offices took just over 3 hours, what a nice drive it was the sun just poked its head out over the horizon as we got on to the pan what a beautiful sight. At the offices we inflated tyres for tarr section to Lethlakane then traveling to Khama Rhino sanctuary our last night in Botswana.
A small misunderstanding when we Stopped in Lethlakane to draw poela get fuel and the rest of the group stopped at Nandos for toilet facilities as Renay was very excited to get to Khama to see Rhinos in the flesh .
Arrived at Khama and upgraded camping to chalets as Andreas called ahead and booked 2 chalets for our group.
Drove to check out the Chalet and a quick drive to the watering hole and we found
Rhinos
Large eland
Impala
Springbok
Giraffe
There are not many areas where you find Impala and Springbok together.
Called the group directing them to the watering hole to see the Rhino.
Back to the gate and sort payment.
Renay and I bungalow G 4 bed right next to the Restaurant.
And Manny and Andreas A Frame 6 sleeper. On our way back we found 2 Huge Rhino right next to the trail
Snapped some pics and made sure we could drive past in a slow but hurry up way in the back of your mind.
Back at the gate the staff was very helpful assisting us and getting a booking in Serowe to go and get out PCR tests done.
On the way to Serowe we drove past a small but latt koppie and I noticed some guys running right on the very top of the koppie.
As we approach the small town we saw Millitary guys running across the road and that explained what I saw on the koppie.
The millitary guys busy with physical training.
Amazing if SA did that still.
At Serowe Mia at DIAGNOFIRM was also super helpful
And 5 minutes all done. Gave us the address and contact details to get our results at Palapye on our way out the next day (not knowing what awaits us - read on)
Off we go to our Chalet and park the Syncro close to the water tap and use my hosepipe and started to spray lots and lots of Kubu Island mud off
Now remember this mud is quite salty not good for vehicles especially the wiring.
2hrs later Renay already had a nice shower and refreshed she was excited to go game driving again and see some more Rhino
Still kilograms of Mud everywhere on the bottom of the bus I stopped to have a shower and get ready to go game driving.
Thought I'll just start the bus and move it off the concrete block I parked rear right back wheel on for elevation. But the bus would not start up
I started (no punn intended) investigating and found the coil not sparking at all.
Replaced with spare coil pack and distributor but still no spark. I did not spray water top side of the engine so all should be still good but water got in somewhere.
And the Salt in the mud mix from the pans can cause alot of havoc .
I tried spare ecu still no spark,till eventually I checked main power to the Ecu and ignition power all good
Manually Spun spare distributor I plugged in still no spark from coil.
I check power on distributor and all power was where they were supposed to be and on injectors and throttle body had power when ignition is switched on.
I checked the earth wire connections as I had similar problem in Richtersveld but I was not so lucky this time.
I Unplugged all plugs one by one and re plug them and sprayed them with water disapating spray.
Just before I had to go get ready for Supper at restaurant I tried cranking again and the coil pack gave out spark but still the engine would not start up. Seem that the water repellent spray started to dissipate the very conductive salty water mixture from the pans.
Went for supper hopefully when we return the wires are dry and engine will start up.
Great group at restaurant Andreas,Ally,Manny,Tanya for Renay's birthday and I had a good few cold ones.
Then a group of 10 punters sat down at a corner table right adjacent to us.
The group had the loudest speaking (change speaking to Shouting in a squeeky high pitch irritating voice ) female in theire group.
We could not even hear Manny Speaking and let me tell you Manny is normally the loudest mouth around and he was trying to hide under the table
Andreas I could see the RPM of his Moer meter was close to boiling point and he tried to stay calm and not saying something
We really rushed our meals down and decided to go sit at the Bar Area a distance away from them to avoid any confrontation or words as this group had absolutely no respect for anyone else in the Restaurant.
The wish was for Renay to have a better end to her birthday.
We all had a few shooters and a few cold ones and birthday Desert.
Eventually Andreas had enough and at one stage just said QUITE and the all of a suden was no more load but I thi k thete mouths was full of food
After supper off to our chalets.
I thought let me just try fire up the bus and the engine fired up not to happy but I immediately reversed it out if the bush side to the front side of Chalet and the engine died again. I tried to start it up again but would not.
Now off to bed and I knew I was not going to fall asleep easily. The brain was repairing that starting problem and running through all the cenarios and tests and checks I did before supper.
You can imagine all the thoughts going through your mind what could play off the next day.
Not getting the engine to fire up
Towing the bus to the border
Sending some of the other guys to get our pcr tests and get to border before the PCR results expire
Getting trough border in time
Getting bus home
But you stay in a positive mind set knowing you will find the problem and drive home
But did not sleep much through the night.
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