Friday 8 July

Freezing cold so far. Managed to see the last 45 min of practice 1. Quite slow because of the wet track. The GP2 cars where a full 5 secs quicker because the track was dry

Rained again for most of practice 2

It was raining again when we left

I would suggest hiring a fanvision console for the race weekend

Hopefully we will have better weather tomorrow

Our view

McClaren Supporters Club Seffrican Chapter

Stands emptying out because of the rain

More people leaving

Fanvision console

The last of the hardcore fans leaving (Dena, Phillip and Mandy)

Burger King to Beef Wellington

Not only in SA

Thursday 7th July

Just a few pics of Mandy’s folks place

Why

After sitting in the rain for almost 3 hours earlier this year at the Top Gear show at Kyalami, waiting for the Red Bull F1 car to go out, and then having it only do one lap, we decided that life was too short and we needed to go to a Grand Prix.

Silverstone was an obvious choice as Mandy’s folks live very close to the track.  Philip and Dena agreed to join us.

Tuesday 5th July
Flew out from O R Thambo on BA departing 7.30 pm. Arrived at Heathrow 5.30 am local time.  Spent the morning catching up on sleep and then went shopping.  Bought myself a little present to remember the Grand Prix by

It helps to say that you are aware of the Vet Restrictions when going through checkpoints . The officials seem to then lose interest in searching you

Also put your hideaways in a small suitcase, it gets overlooked everytime

When searched do as little as possible to help . Be accommodating , but let them do the work .

Gone are the days of just arriving in Hwange without a prior booking. It has become too popular again for that.

Botswana has become expensive . Prices were pushed up for the Soccer World Cup and have not been lowered again. Despite that it was still very full everywhere .

Zimbabwe is also no longer cheap , as everything is now charged in USD . But most basics are available

Garlic bread tastes better when the individual slices are done on a braai grid and not in the foil 😉

1 & 2 July Days 7 and 8

We left Kasane early and headed for Itumela Campsite in Palapye .

The next day we headed home via Parr’s Halt Border Post

Thanks to Chris and Anneli, Kiffie and Nadia, Patrick ,Conor and Kieren, Phillip and Bruce ,Nick and Hester for a short but sweet trip .

I have added more pics here : http://wp.me/P1tIUB-9G

30 June Day 6

Got up early to do a game drive in Chobe.

That evening decided to do the booze cruise from Toro Lodge instead of Safari Lodge,  as it was a lot cheaper and also a smaller boat.  There was a mix up with the bookings and the boat was overbooked.  We went back to the camp and drowned our sorrows instead

29th June Day 5

Decided to give Vic Falls a miss and to head up to Kasane instead.  We were delayed again on the Zimbabwe side by the police but the vet search wasn’t too thorough on the Botswana one.

Fuel was a problem in Kasane, but I think it was just because it was very full everywhere. We tried to get into both Chobe Safari Lodge and Kubu Lodge,  but had to eventually settle for Toro Lodge.  It has improved since December, but was also full.

28 June Day 4

Another day at Deteema.  Bruce made pancakes for breakfast which was quite posh.  Spent most of the day in camp at the hide and went to Masuma Dam in the late afternoon.  Saw quite a bit of game which made a nice change.  Everything was very skittish though which I found strange.

When we returned to camp,  another group arrived and claimed that they had booked the campsite previously and said that we must leave.  They couldn’t produce any paperwork,  and as we were there legitimately we offered to share the camp with them. But this wasn’t good enough for them,  so things got a bit heated..  Eventually we had enough and told them to p1ss off.  They then camped outside.

No sign of hyena.

27th June Day 3

After a family meeting, we decided that Hunters was a waste of time as we had seen almost no game.  We took the cutline just after Leadwood Pan (where I had managed to launch both the car and the trailer after hitting an ellie hole at pace) and headed for Pandamatenga to refuel.  The only filling station has now gone out of business, but we calculated that we should have enough fuel to do Hwange and to refuel again in Nata.

The border crossing was easy enough on the Botswana side but a new cop on the Zimbabwe side decided to search all 4 cars.  This delayed us by about an hour.

We reached Robins Camp at about 4.30 and decided to book into Deteema Dam campsite for 2 nights, and then to spend 2 nights in Vic Falls.

Deteema is currently being refurbished which is the only reason we managed to get in.

We saw quite a lot of game at the dam that evening and were visited by hyena during the night.