Lucy gets Hot Under the Covers!
17th April 2021
Hold your horses… we’re speaking about Lucy our land cruiser but yes poor thing she had a tough week and we ended our Kgalagadi adventure with an overheated Lucy.
Last time we were in Africa I remember saying how easy travelling has become, that no matter where you are there are always other travellers and people around and our travels always went smoothly. I secretly wished for a bit more of an adventure, maybe I’ll should take it back.
On our first night in Kgalagadi park my window just wouldn’t go up and it had to happen when a storm was approaching. After sealing it up for the night, Mike took off the door panel to see what was wrong. It seemed only the window button was screwed. With some effort we managed to close the window and still managing to get it to function today, but it’s the last thing you want when game viewing and knowing there were going to be some rainy nights and days.
Well obviously there are worse things than a broken window. What would you do if you’re 40km from camp, nightfall is approaching and your caliper falls off?
We made it out of the ‘wild’ side of the park in one piece, apart from a wonky window, and felt like the worse was over… Until our caliper fell off!
After driving back and forth from different campsites we finally found a new bolt. Mike shortened it with a grinder and Lucy was good to go! Knowing we will take her to the mechanic in the next town it was a good fix and we were sure nothing else would go wrong…
Before heading to Rooiputs, our last campsite in the area, we were getting water and our spare wheel decided to fall off, just like the other one had done in Khaudum, Namibia last year. Knowing the drill we shoved it into the back and hoped we’d be able to fix it in Ghanzi or Maun.
Time to venture on and exit the park we left the south African side to drive 310km to the Kaa Gate on the Botswanian side. Long way to go, back on sandy off road tracks, packed lunch and front net on to protect Lucy from the grass, we were ready to go!
That’s when it all happened just 20km from the gate Lucy heated up. ‘****!’, Mike poetically converses as he switches off the car and we smell the burning. Now what! I reached for the fire extinguisher, who knew at this point and after we were just discussing what we’d do if she had to catch on fire, in hindsight, it was no longer a funny conversation!
The net must have not be on properly as the front was full of grass. After cleaning it and waiting for her to cool down we tried our luck. Every 4km we had to stop as she couldn’t handle it! It took us over 3hrs to get to the gate and thankfully we managed before nightfall.
We cleaned her as best as we could, arranged the netting and hoped we could drive 400km to the mechanic. How hopeful we were, just 15km out of the park she was bubbling again. We had a choice try another 70km to a town or turn back to the park and hopefully some of the guys there could held us or call a tow truck.
We turned back, doubt anyone would have passed us at anytime and we were definitely not going to be able to cover the distance. Stopping every 5km we eventually made it back to the park with some bewildering looks from the staff. First they encouraged us to go back a different route but we were certain we weren’t getting anywhere like this. Eventually they called the mechanic who was on site. How lucky we were, as 5 guys including Mike took Lucy apart, the radiator was full of grass, probably an accumulation from our previous trip. After a few hours she was back to being herself and able to breath again. We spent the night there and followed the guys into town the next day. She was back and we were on our way to Ghanzi to the mechanic before venture back into the bush, this time the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).
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