Coddiwomple is to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination. Well, that’s the meaning of it anyway, and although we knew exactly where we were heading, I would never have guessed what our final destination would have brought us.
The idea of the trip was twofold. Obviously, we were on a mission to generate some good content for Suzuki South Africa, but we would also be shooting the pilot episode for No Bad Days, an overlanding and travel programme like no other, giving a bit of a new twist on how to present travel documentaries.
It was a cold, early July morning when a bunch of us met up at the Petroport just north of Pretoria. The convoy consisted of three Suzuki Jimny’s, a Vagabond Rogue teardrop caravan and a bike trailer carrying two Suzuki V-Strom adventure motorcycles on it. We were on our way to compete in the annual Bream Classic that is held outside Shakawe in Botswana, almost 1 500km away.
In any other vehicle this is a two-day drive, but a Jimny is not any other vehicle. It is probably the most compact 4×4 currently on the market and, to be honest, with its small 1.5-litre engine pushing out only 75kW and 130Nm of torque, I was not sure how this was going to go. Already the trip 60km trip from home to our rendezvous point had taken 20 minutes longer than expected… the going is going to be very slow.
Our plan for the day was to drive to the Groblersbrug border post then head north to the Makgadikgadi Pans, where we would overnight at Kubu Island. It was just after 05:00 and I was confident that we would be able to make the 700km trek easily.
As we headed north, I calculated that travelling at between 90km/h and 100km/h we should reach Kubu at around 16:00 that afternoon. Boy was I wrong!
We reached the border post at around 09:00 and everything went smoothly until we had to pay our road taxes. The speedpoint was offline, which meant we had to take a brisk walk to the nearest fuel station to draw cash and thankfully, it’s not a long walk. Anyone who has crossed the border at Groblersbrug will be familiar with the Kwanokeng Fuel Station, where a Land Rover that has been stuck in the pond for years.
It’s a well-known overnight point for overlanders but on this day, it was rather busy. There was a long queue of truck drivers also trying to draw money, and seeing that is no ATM on the premises, we had to swipe our cards at the till (at a fee, of course) to get cash. As I walked away with my P1000 in hand, I heard the cashier tell the guy behind me that she had run out of cash. Lucky break for us!
Finally, after two hours, we were able to get back on the road, but now we were running way behind schedule and Kubu Island was still a good 350km away. Again, that doesn’t sound too difficult to achieve – 350km at a speed of 100km/h gave us a driving time of around three-and-a-half hours. As it was now around 11:00, we would still reach Kubu well before 16:00.
Most of the roads in Botswana are in a very good condition, but there are potholes here and there. Some of the roads are also truly horrendous! By 12:00 we turned left at Palapaye towards Serowe and Letlhakane. Just after Serowe near Khama Rhino Sanctuary the three five-door Jimny’s pulled off to the side of the road and I popped open the rear of the Vagabond and made some coffee.
For the first time since we departed the Petroport we had a chance to get to know the group a little better. Bjorn and Meredith from ZA Bikers were in the GL manual, towing a bike trailer. Two beautiful adventure bikes from Suzuki, a V-Strom 800 DE and a V-Strom 1050 DE were on the back. The second Jimny, a GLX Manual, was being piloted by Alti (our camera person), and Riaan, who was there to assist her with shooting. I was alone in the third Jimny as my partner in crime could not make it due to work commitments.
A lone crow gawked as we finished our coffee, closed up the Vegabond and headed for Letlhakane. If you have ever driven in Botswana, you will know that for each little settlement, whether there is one house or a hundred, the speed limit drops from 120km/h to 80km/h then to 60km/h… and behind any speed sign there could be a policeman just waiting for you to exceed the speed limit and be fined. This doesn’t help if you’re towing a caravan behind a Jimny and you’re trying to reach you destination in time.
As we headed north all that time I thought we had was slowly ticking away. When we finally reached Letlhakane it was after 15:00 and we still had another 100km to go to Kubu. The chances of us reaching our destination were fading by the second. As we reached Mmatshumo on the edge of the Makgadikgadi Pans it was already 16:00 and with 70km to go it was clear we would not make it.
Now you would think 70km in an hour… surely that can be done? Well, let me paint you a picture. Once on the pans the roads become two-spoor dust tracks, some even but most of them heavily corrugated or even very rocky. Doing anything more than 30km/h could very well shake the Jimny into pieces, so I had to make the call… We decided to drive as far as we could until dusk and then camp next to the road.
As the last rays of the sun beamed through the Mopani bush, we pulled over, pitched a small camp and started foraging for firewood. Just as the stars started popping out, we had a small fire burning. I made some boere KFC (check out the recipe on our YouTube Channel, you won’t be disappointed) and as I sipped on a brandy and Coke, I was feeling pretty confident about the next day’s travel to Kubu. We only had about 30km left and if we hit the road by 07:30 we should easily make it to Kubu by the latest 10h00, have brunch, shoots some pics and by 12h00 we will be on our way to Drifters Camp just outside Maun. No problem!
I was up at 05:00 the next morning as we had unknowingly decided to camp next to a road that every person in Botswana seemed to be using to move cattle! The rattling of trucks driving past woke me up, so I got the fire started again and made some coffee. Just after 06:00 my travel companions started peeking out of their tents and just before 07:00 we were all enjoying coffee and rusks. Needless to say, we didn’t leave on time, but we almost made it. At 08:00 our convoy was on its way to Kubu.
A Jimny doesn’t have the biggest fuel tank, only 40 litres, and towing the Vagabond was not producing the best fuel consumption. In Botswana there is not a filling station around every corner and there are none on the pans, so we filled up at Letlhakane and we even had an extra jerry can on standby for my Jimny. We must have been about 5km from our camp when we went through a ditch. The securely strapped jerry can on the bike trailer somehow shifted, fell over and spilled every last drop of fuel I had.
Luckily there was an extra can, but it only had 10 litres in it, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I would need it or not. To cross the pan is about 100km or so and although it’s not far that can be up to five of travelling. You don’t need to do kilometres to consume fuel… every minute the engine is running it uses a little bit of the 40 litres in the tank. I was slightly worried!
By the time we reached Kubu Island, it was almost an hour later than expected. Riaan and I got started on brunch. Bjorn had already jumped on the V-Strom 800 DE and he and Meredith were clicking away. The pics looked amazing, but then how could they not with a stunning backdrop like Kubu Island?
Just before 12:00 we finally sat down for brunch and after taking a few photographs and shooting some videos we headed further north. We only had about 240km to go.
For more info check out our review on how the Jimny’s towed:
https://4x4afrika.com/2024/07/26/jimny-tow-test/
As always the Vagabond Rogue was amazing on the trip.
For more information hop on to – https://vagabondsa.co.za/
