Well we are well into the journey now and its time I start to formalise some of my scratching and scribbled notes. It is comforting to know that during the course of the journey so many people have been watching our SPOT and send us messages at the relevant stops along the way. Jim the trusty pilot has done some incredible flying and has been really focused at times that really count. All in all at 2000 miles in here is the course of events so far....
11th July
We arrived in Cape Town having been delayed in Gatwick as usual and were somewhat shell shocked....Louis Van Wyk was at the airport to collect us and had a good laugh at the baggage we had arrived with.
By 11am we were at Fisantekraal airport ready to receive the little gem Gyro and do some test flights and get on our way but NO CHANCE. Louis was commissioned to fit the rotors, service the machine and prepare the gyro for our trip.....We found out a bunch of problems that just got worse...The day now deteriorated...
The radiator needed to be cleaned, the cooling system needed to be flushed to rectify the overheating problem...I phoned Fraser my brother in Australia got the number for a family friend that owns Silverton Radiators in Gaberone for some advice...Phoned the agent for our gyro in Johannesburg for his take on the overheating problem and just went on into the afternoon.
We were supposed to leave today.......
Second problem the radios and head set were not being read at strength 5/5 had had to fiddle with that lot to try and sort that out ....
Third problem was the two air speed indicators were reading 90mph in the front and 60mph in the back in the hanger....these were dismantled and Louis at this late hour repaired the instruments....
4pm in the Sunday worn out pissed off and not having had a nights sleep decided to spend the night in
Cape Town....As a last resort and the final days push to get things to move we went down to the local garage to buy a Wynns Radiator flush to loosen the dirt/blockages in the cooling system. After refilling the system Jim did half a dozen circuits to run the flush through and heat the system at temperature.....Put the Gyro in the hanger and went back to Louis place for the night defeated....
12th July
Started at sparrows, there was snow on the mountains a very sharp chill in the air and the day had a good feel about it.....Back to the airfield to defeat the gyro....
No chance....we opened the system that had stood overnight with Wynns Radiator treatment in it and the liquid came out like blue Jelly!!!!! Re flushed the system and made numerous calls to the Gyro agent to assess the next course of action...We were not making headway. In the next hanger there was a perfectly healthy ELA Gyro exactly the same as ours with NO problems so the logical thing to do was remove the bits we needed and fit them to our aircraft and thats us gone?????? So that is what we did......wrong...to all those Rotax users please note when you refill your Rotax engine with coolant you need to remember 2 things 1) use the correct coolant and 2) you need to get the airlock out....big one...we filled our system and the maintenance hanger that we were in did not know this so we carried an airlock to Upington, hundreds of miles north....
11am in the 12th we loaded and made for the runway with a bunch of problems that manifested....temp was 12 degrees Celsius and took off into the blue yonder.. from nearly sea level we had to climb to over 5000ft to clear the mountains behind Cape Town....the temp rose to 110 C on the cyl head and 90C oil. Bearing in mind the hills we were climbing had snow in them and the wind chill was freezing.
We were making for Middledrift Farm 123nm at 55 to 60mph we arrived just over 2 hours later....Louis and Hunnie a very willing and hospitable couple flew out to their farm behinds to be with their Dad on his 80th birthday. On arrival we were invited for a quick meal (delicious) and filled and made our way to our next landing at Brandvlei 93nm later...
The takeoff.......well lets say we tried twice and got the second one right as we had a huge loss of power on the first which caused us to abort and start again...We took off at 1700ft and were faced with a further 2000ft climb which the gyro was not going to do. We pushed and at best we could get a climb of 100ft/min and a sink at times of 200ft/min. We took the safe route and made our way round the mountain.....2 hours later we had covered our 93nm and made Brandvlei... From crossing the mountains north of Cape Town to Brandvlei, we had been crossing the Karoo...miles of nothing and very straight roads leading into infinity.
At Brandvlei we were met by Frik and a very kind man who could not have done more for us. He met us on the runway and organised a police escort into town to his local BP Garage. He got us filled up with petrol , gave us storage/hangerage at his house and got us settled into the local accommodation. It was dry and the beds were clean, lets leave it at that....sort of like cell block H....
We settled down to a meal at the Windpomp Cafe. I ordered a ladies ribs that arrived at a wopping 1kg portion......I enquired on the size of the ladies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13th July
Started at sparrows, it was dark outside and made our way to Frick’s house. Loaded the gyro and wanted to move across to the fuel station....it would not start......shoot.......tried a bunch of things to get it going but failed.... sun was coming up, we were pushing to get going in the cool of the day.....eventually after pouring boiling water over the carbs it miraculously started......off to the runway.....
Line up and down with the hammer and took off........10 miles out 120 degrees in the cylinder head, we landed in the middle of nowhere on a farm road.....(later to get a puncture as Louis had changed a tube and left the old valve in between the new tube and tyre) thank god the tyre did not give in on this landing or we were not going to get out.....
We waited for the temp to go down and flew back to Brandvlei where the temp rose the same on our leg an hour before.....(this was the airlock playing up, it had not gone this high as the previous legs were very cold outside temp....) we returned to Frick and flushed the radiator and refilled it as per the way Louis had done it before.... still not removing the airlock........... back to the airfield and took off and made our way to Thuru now at 3000ft and 115 miles...
We struggled our way there at 115 degrees and landed with A BLOODY FLAT TYRE, the old valve was left in the tyre which caused the puncture....double shit....
We fortunately landed to a full stop so the front wheel did not run on and get damaged. We then removed the wheel and made our way up the gravel runway tyre in hand to get the repair done. We were met by the Thuru Staff and were made welcome and pointed to the workshop. We opened the tyre to find the second valve that had not been taken out in Fisantekraal and was the cause of the problem.
Looking back at what had happened on the departure from Brandvlei when we had the overheating problem and landing on a farm road 25km out of town 2 landings prior. Should the flat tyre had manifested itself earlier, the consequences would have been more dire as we would have had to do a bush repair and probably lost another day....
Thuru Lodge....at the top of the Karoo 40 miles south east of Upington dry and an aggressive environment. The lodge was well laid out, and had a wide variety of animals and great staff. Is it somewhere I would go back to.. absolutely!!!!! Everything was not a problem and they have a great workshop.....
14th July
Again we started early and were in the air for just after sun rise to find out after takeoff the bloody over heating was back!!!!! We went back to Thuru to try and flush and fill the radiator AGAIN...(we don’t know but we are still carrying the air lock in the radiator from Capetown) we did the same manoeuvre as Brandvlei back and refill/flush and leave for Upington.....
On takeoff we very quickly got hot but stabilised at the top of the green so we pushed for Upington..
We arrived at Upington 1 hr later parked up and went to find someone that knew something about Rotax engines....MIRACLE.....”Eben the great” maker of RAF 2000 autogyros has a factory at Upington airport...The maker of plans and a wealth of knowledge and an absolute understanding of autogyros aerodynamics and heating problems....
He welcomed us into his factory where they dropped their tools to help us and to make sure we could keep on track and make up lost time.
Very quickly the airlock problem was discovered, he dismantled the cooling system and
1) Sent the radiator away for cleaning as the dirt in the system from Fisantekraal had now blocked this radiator.
2) The reservoir bottle had burst and need to be replaced/repaired, he took it to a friend in Upington that does plastic bodywork repairs. This had to cure so would only be ready later on the afternoon
3) Contacted Rotax and went through the specifications to confirm the procedure he was carrying out was in accordance with Rotax...These guys are the professionals..
4) Eben removed the plugs checked them to find out we also were carrying a long spark and a damaged plug cap which he changed.
5) One of the radiator mounts were split which was replaced when the radiator came back from cleaning at the radiator company....
Working into the night the machine was now ready to continue...
The RAF 2000 family have a passion to progress the gyro industry and move forward. I can only wish them well and know that when someone buys their machines they will be looked after by a team of dedicated professional.
We had to overnight and were welcomed into Eben’s house along with a Chinese pilot that made the evenings entertainment light hearted and fun. Nothing would be complete without getting “padkos“.. “food for the road” from Eben’s mom to make sure we would not starve on the way.....
A good nights sleep knowing that we now have the problems solved....
15th July
Long legs today, we have to make up 280miles fron Upington to Wolwedans. We have to clear SA and do an “undeclared” stop in S.A. then off to Keetmanshoop with a logged flight plan. We declare three and a half hours endurance to Keetmanshoop so we can get the fill in at Noeniesput.
We cleared customs and immigration and Eben wanted to know that we were “out of the woods” so he flew with us to make sure our temperature was staying down.
We did about half an hour together before he turned back and wished us a farewell...and we now made our way to a small place which was a fuel stop Noeniesput on the SA/Namibian boarder. True to Eben’s word “you will travel for about an hour pick up some hills and a gravel road, follow the gravel road and Noeniesput is on the road” there it was. We did an orbit to assess the power cables and came in on the road, taxied up the gravel road and to the petrol pumps where we met a cowboy/horseman.
We were offered a cup of tea by our new friend , missionary Barrie, served in the finest china along with biscuits. We spoke for about half an our and insisted we press on with our journey. Barrie took Jim in his 4x4 to assess which was the best road to use to do the takeoff....
Departed Noeniesput in a hurry to make Keetmanshoop in time for our flight plan....an hour and a half later we declare EC-EP6 inbound to Keetmanshoop...no answer....try again and an arbitrary voice comes back asking nothing other than “do you want customs”. We said yes and continued to an unmanned international airport....great...
After arriving and paying £3.50 landing fee, they were more interested by the novelty of this funny thing that has flown from Cape Town..We filled with fuel and made our way to Helmerinhhuisen.....
We arrived at Helmeringhuisen, a small dot on the map with people with huge hearts. After landing on the main road into town we taxied into town for a quick fuel stop. We fuelled so quickly the petrol attendant had to chase us down the road to catch us to get paid!!!!!!
We lined up on the high street and gave it full pelt as the two incoming roads were too corrugated to take off on. We got half way down the high street and had to abort takeoff as we were not going to get enough lift to make the signs and power line at the end of the street....within 5 minutes we had a grader from the ministry of roads about to cut a new runway...with kind generosity the head of the community took Jim down the road in his 4x4 to show him another section of “not so bad” corrugations. On his return 5 minutes later I had the ministry grader and was about to start earth works.......we taxied to the “not so bad” place and gave it welly and managed to get off the ground and away....The next stop was Wolwedans.. Lots of open space and the first introduction to the mountains...
Wolwedans....wow what more can i say, see the photos its the most special camp with an outstanding setting with an amazing crew....it certainly rates as one of my best...
Had a fantastic dinner and found it easy to sleep after doing 6 hours flying...
16th July
Woke up early had 6 course breakfast and went for a drive on the dunes to be back for a 12pm departure. The breakfast was out of this world, with all the extras, served on the decking watching the Oryx coming in for the early morning drink. The Oryx, a majestic beast that dominates the Namibian dunes, stands as the national emblem on their coat of arms. Seeing this at the breakfast table makes you understand why they chose this proud animal that has adapted to the harsh landscape. They are said to be determined ferocious fighters.
We finished at the table and made our way in the Land Rover over the dunes for the morning to see the dunes first hand.
We went for a walk on the dunes and were shown the fairy circles, (unexplained symmetrical divots in the sand like splash marks from a giant raindrops) .the tracks and the famous Oryx...
The staff and professional guides were amazing. At one point we had to leave the road to let another Landover pass, the guide drove back onto the road and spent the best part of 10 minutes to rake the sand so you couldn’t see that a vehicle had left the road. The attention to detail for both the camp and the ecology is beyond outstanding...their local knowledge was fantastic.
At 11am we made our way back to camp to have lunch. It was set up on the decking overlooking the waterhole and we had a fine meal before climbing into the landrover and making our way down to the runway.... Loaded ourselves up to make our way over the dunes direct on track to Solitare. We back tracked on the runway, moving the zebras off into the parched dunes, lined up and gave it the famous 110% welly to get off the ground. We did the famous fly by and set on course for Solitaire. We had a long run so did a direct track along the mountains making sure we didn’t have to do any unnecessary climbing. We flew over Sossusvlei on route and took in the magnitude of the size and vastness of the sand dunes.
Again the heat climbed up in the engine but now it was 115 degrees and was not boiling or pushing water out of the reservoir.
We landed at Solitaire a small filling station in the desert, this place consists of a filling station, a general goods store and a bakery that specialises in apple pie????? In the middle of the desert an apple pie specialist??? not only was this bizarre but you had to queue for it?? People/tour operators/locals would come for fuel and an apple pie??
Solitaire....well the sign that welcomes you into Solitaire is a crashed gyro, which filled us with confidence!. The fuel stop, because that’s all it is, is known country wide for its apple pie and in the middle of the desert .
Enough of that, we were running late the engine was hot and we still had 2 hours flying to do so we decided to stay the night
We met up with the local police crew that had been seconded to Solitaire as there is no police in the area as it was too far away from anything. They had come together from 3 different counties to do a joint operation crime blitz and were camping adjacent to the airfield. We asked if we could leave the gyro aside them for the night for safe keeping, which they approved and invited us for dinner a “very basic “ barbecue of meat and meat and chillie sauce …..
One of the policemen was tasked to do a reconnaissance of the local area and find where he could purchase some game meat and he came back with a springbok and a sheep from a local farmer for rations. They had two braais/barbecues on the go for the entire time they were there . I think they were based there for a week. The barbeque began, kilos of meat went on, we put our Kudu steaks on that I had purchased from the local general dealer. Jim had his first taste of springbok and the experience of the warmth of 3 police squads coming together for a week long operation under canvas and over a barbeque every night. We both made the comparison of getting 3 counties in the UK, to send police to camp under canvas, in the middle of nowhere and trade a farmer for a sheep and a stag to make rations for a week was rather remote. .....The evening went on with many stories and much laughter
later that night after trading stories we left the gyro with them and went to bed for an early start.....
17th July
Loaded early, slight cross wind but were away for 7:30am . We made our way on a 90nm leg, the day was cool and we stayed away from the mountains and made good time to our fuel stop Usakos. The air strip was basic but did the job. We tied the blade down and taxied onto the main road and drove 2km into town. Making town did a u turn across the main road and into a filling station.
We were met with the locals with smiles, questions and enthusiasm to have a photo taken next to this funny flying machine that landed at the airfield and drove into town. Amongst the amazed onlookers was the local police. After the fill eager to get going the police escorted us back to the runway and were soon back in the air en route to Kipwe…113nm later we arrived at Kipwe…
New horror story…we were told the previous owner 3 years prior killed himself in a microlight on the same landing strip, engine problem and crashed into a granite outcrop……with my St Christopher well embedded in my pocket we continued…
The setting at Kipwe is unique in that there is so much thought put into the lodge blending into the natural surroundings. This was so well achieved that we flew over the lodge and did not see it, thank God for our Garmin GPS….
We landed on the disused runway/beach and dragged the gyro out of the sand intro the hanger. After a quick Rosemary Conley salad we were introduced to Roelf the balloon pilot. Very willing and keen to fly that afternoon we prepared to photograph the balloon from the gyro and the gyro from the balloon. The culmination of events happened at 4:30 in the afternoon. Jim was in the gyro and I took the position in the balloon. The ensuing 2 hours were great, and a real novelty to have had the opportunity to do the sunset in a balloon. We landed with the traditional thud and very quickly the ground crew took control and the sunset champagne was opened….with a machete I must add, quite unique…
Back at the Kipwe camp, the evening dinner was made for a king, the company was outstanding. The evening went well until I found out that my mobile phone was missing. I looked high and low, retraced all my steps and there was no sign of it. It had all the numbers of all the contacts we have and began to feel desperate about it. By 11:30pm I accepted that it was gone and went to bed working out how the plan needed to move forward without it…
The rooms were thatched cottages that were circular and domed in shape and looked really difficult to build. They had a great natural effect amongst the circular granite rock outcrop that they were nestled in.
19th July 18
The day the big man was looking over us……
Early breakfast…loaded the machine said all our good byes, and taxied down the strip of bush that we decided to use as a runway. After getting the longest run between the trees possible dodging the ant bear holes, we pre rotated up to 240rpm and gave it hell through the bush…. The bumpy start complete with the galloping through the bush got us into the air……then the climb between the trees to get a bit of height…..the best shot of getting the runway to work was really dictated by the wind, we took off into the wind….which was also the same direction as the river. This meant that as we took off and fought for lift the trees got bigger, by the time we cleared the trees at the river we were removing leaves from the under carriage…… well that’s us away…..no
15 nm out, the hills started to climb and we didn’t have the power, we were full power and were getting into a situation of sink. We later found out we were getting fuel starvation with a filter blockage….landing on the road for a discussion on how to overcome this problem we decided to take off orbit until we could see over the mountains and start our track again. We took off and all went well, we got visibility over the mountain and started direct track. We cleared the mountains and as soon as we were over the main ridge began a constant sink…as we were following a road we had a runway all the way to our destination. We landed for a second time, we were hot high, 5600ft and heavy. Agreeing on the factors against us we decided to take off and make for the sea, 40nm away. We made good time and very quickly the machine responded to that decision. Temp came back power was available and a much happier machine….
The divert airfield was at the coast and as we got close to the field we were met with a blanket of mist. Coupled with the loss in comms because the head set jack had collapsed internally…..we landed with many hand signals on a moonscape. The mist was thick but was probably 16ft off the ground….
decisions…we took off and tracked the airfield by flying parallel to the mist until we were 4nm from the field and landed again….
decisions…we taxied into the mist because I was convinced that the cutting we landed on would get to a road that followed the coast. Once we were under the mist and taxied about a mile Jim applied power and hover taxied along the cutting and reached the coast road. We took a right and followed the road , 2nm down the road we passed some workers on an embankment but continued to the designated runway. On reaching the runway we only found a dirt strip, no infrastructure no people and …no fuel, we were low at this point….
Decisions….took off again back tracked under the mist to the people on the side of the road and landed….
Climbed out and explained our situation in Afrikaans and were told the nearest civilisation both north and south was 188km. Understanding I didn’t have too many options , Oom De Wit smiled from ear to ear and asked me if I wanted leaded or unleaded and how much did I want. Short of kissing him I asked for 40 litres and only having 60 litres himself agreed to my request.
The time now was 1:30, we still had 129nm to do and it gets dark at 5:30. We also has over 100nm of endless sand dunes to cross to add to the wash…. The only thing that gave me a small amount of comfort was my mom was watching spot on google earth and if we had a problem the emergency button was a possibility…
We filled quickly and were on our way, took off and back tracked and made an exit from the mist along the same path we entered. The daunting miles of sand dunes seemed to go on for ever, by the time we were close to Purros my bum was well and truly sore… the airfield at Purros was a healthy sight and were glad to be on the ground.
We waited for the transport to arrive but not much happened, we taxied back to the buildings but they were desolate and the Land Rover I saw from the sky was a shell. I could see the lodge, so we taxied to the end of the runway and I started to walk to the Purros Lodge. It was at the foot of the hills a few miles away. Removing my flight suit I started my walk, within 20 yards there was fresh elephant spoor from the desert elephant of the Kunene. There are also a bunch of lion here ,so after the pressure of the days events, so informing Jim probably was not the right time. I walked the river and made my way to the camp were I got a great welcome from Rosella and Bertie. Bertie and I drove back to the runway where Bertie explained the difficulties of elephants and aircrafts left in the bush..( previously that month a tour operator left a Cessna 210 and a bull elephant twisted the tail and removed “only” one wing).. Decisions….Jim was absolutely knackered but we had to take off again and get the machine to higher ground and tied up. We took off and landed in front of the Purros Lodge and that was the flying for the day….
Dinner was with Rosella a distinguished lady from Italy and one of the co owners of Purros Lodge. We had nothing less than a delicious pasta dish that was great but it was just good to be at Purros safe and sound. The room was great but it was even better to just have a bath and get into a warm bed and sleep..
20th July
After the previous days affairs of mist, no fuel and having the radios giving up on us and no comms, we decided to take a day out to recover and fix the myriad of faults… sorry one more, from Solitaire the ignition gave in and we have now to stop the engine running by shutting down the fuel pumps… so all in all
cant turn the engine off at the key.
Head sets/intercoms have stopped
engine running hot
we were using oil as we had pushed the machine hard over the miles of sand dunes….
a fuel starvation (we don’t know about yet..)
outside issues are - hot and high - mist - mountains - fuel shortages - no ability to land over hundreds of miles….
Today is a regroup day….We had a great breakfast with all the trimmings overlooking the Purros desert moonscape.. We then went for a game drive in the trusty Diesel Land Rover to look for the desert elephants. We followed the Kunene river and found a cow herd with a matriarch cow ready to drop her calf.. we followed the herd for most of the morning and eventually called it a day when the lead cow got frustrated and agitated…pregnant woman that are about to drop can get edgy…..
We took lots of photos and left footprints….
We went back to camp to make running repairs to the machine that were urgently needed and were helped by the ground crew. Bertie went to town to get supplies which took over 48 hours round trip to get to civilisation and back…..The new lodge they have is 1300km to Windhoek for them to get supplies. This lodge is at Marrianfos on the Kunene river far North West Namibia….
A farewell dinner with Rosella was great and all the trimmings were had, we spoke into the night in the still of the desert. The rooms were amazing with a double lounger that was fantastic to lie on to prepare for the following days flying..
21st July
Early start at the gyro…today is the day the big man was watching over us…our destination was Kavita Lion Lodge…..
Our flight plan was Purros - Sesfontein - Kavita…. we had to climb a massive 4000 ft… this is a huge ask for our little machine…. we were about to take on the biggest climb on the trip….
We departed the runway with full fuel and only 45 miles to Sesfontein with a following leg of 59 miles to Kavita Lion Lodge. We took off and fought to get altitude as the air was dry and warm along with a fuel starvation we did not know about.. We followed the Palmwag road until we had the altitude.. after doing a number of orbits into the wind with the turbo we managed to get the height to look over the mountain. we took a 90 degree turn towards the sesfontain village. At this time we had been flying for an hour and had 40 miles to run to Sesfontain. we crossed the mountains with no alternative landing opportunity to find out within one hour of flying our filter was to become totally blocked…
Landed at the village of Sesfontain with petrol pumps seen from the air from the air, a gold mine…later to find the pumps were dry… Landing between the goats and donkeys at Sesfontein was interesting and we taxied to the pumps through the village…
Arrived at the pumps to find the sticker “NO FUEL”. people were being turned away and having to travel hundreds of kilometres to get their fuel….we did not have that option, we had done 2 hours on a 3 hour endurance.. I found a local police man at the pumps and offered to buy his fuel out of the vehicle at 20% higher than pump prices……they always see a good deal and put us back in fuel…we had to do a further deal with the local shop keeper but we were full….that’s us on our way..(we think…)
Drove back through the village and lined up and made one of many attempts to take off. we lifted and had no power, made our way back to the road and landed. we thought the time of day was not good being 3pm and was too hot ( the fuel was blocked too) The decision was to overnight at the Sesfontein Fort Lodge….a little basic and delightful staff. we managed to buy a further 15 litres to top up the fuel from our aborted takeoff… The fort had “great potential” but clean…we ate and retired early to our mosquito lair..
22nd July
Early start again!!! In the machine back through the village and off to our runway…Line up and down went the hammer… no power…push.. no power, we have our biggest climb to do….We went through the engine systematically and eventually found the filter was blocked…
FUEL>>> we had been so careful with fuel, checking the gascolator and all fuel went through the advanced fuel filters we brought from the uk. we had also been siphoning fuel from the bottom of the tank to check for impurities. we have been very particular…..
we did not have a spare so the only alternative was to clean and go… We cleaned the filter and gave the flow to get us going… took off and followed the Palmwag road until we could see over the mountains, we made a direct track to Kavita lion lodge…
NEW PROBLEM>> with a new Rotax 914 turbo the gasket between the bowl of the carburettor and the carb settlement occurs which causes the carb to sweat… not in any manual… this causes a pressure imbalance between the air intake manifold and carb pressure…a special monitor gadget measures all of this and delivers fuel……this we did not know until later!!!!
All we knew is that we were manifesting another problem which was as you introduce power the engine splutters and picks up again… great over the mountains..
We were now over the north south mountain divide and came straight into the Kavita Lion Lodge… We met Tammy and Uba, the owners of Kavita and Africat…. this has been important and stayed with me all through the trip…..The entire principal of what Tammy’s team are aiming at is coaching from grass roots levels. Training the local people how to do livestock management to stop the big cats from getting to them. Building new kraals for their livestock to stop the local Etosha lions from getting to them. Whilst I was there Tammy replaced half of one of the local tribesman’s goat heard to assist with the local population. The concept of the Kavita is so well placed, they do school level education on all levels of conservation through local villages and community education. The lions that are resident have been taken in from unfortunate circumstances. The main operation is at Kamanjab and supports many cats and dogs from lions leopards cheetah and wild dog… They are doing a great job and the conservation is being done from local levels working with local Namibian communities..
We had an interesting dinner and met Tammy’s husband Uba an interesting and experienced man. he had come from a wealth of farming experience and moved into wildlife and supports the conservation projects with the heart…
23rd July
We had breakfast and made an early start to our first stop at Okaukuejo in the Etosha. we arrived at the Etosha National Park against all regulations and had to fill in an incident form but it was worth it. We declared an emergency and went in to the park to fill with fuel…well I suppose it was …..but the bonus was we flew over the Etosha Pan directly on track to the Onguma Lodge..
The Etosha pan is out of this world from the air, we traveled for 2 hours and covered the Etosha from west to east from the start of the day.
Arrived at Onguma by doing an orbit and landing at Mokuti airstrip 10km south of the field.
Onguma Fort….this is the best lodge I have ever been to with many years of safari in hand. the lodge is special, the mix of architecture professionalism attention to detail and quality of the cuisine…..it’s a 6 star… The room/lodges are well thought out and not without every detail..the sunset over the Etosha pan is something that this magtnificent establishment garnishes its self with..
We had dinner, a 6 course with all the extras and accompanied by the sunset…called it a night and got ready for the next day…
24th July
Early start to the day, up at breakfast at 6;30am, watched the sun come up with a cup of coffee and a 3 course breakfast. Peter collected us and took us down to the Mokuti airfield where we met Stretch who very kindly showed us round his snake park and the wonderful job he has made of the facility. Made our way to the hanger and gave Peter and Stretch a wiz in the gyro, smiles all round...
Loaded and made our way to Grootfontein to meet Martin for fuel, filters, a drink and some moral support. Martin and his wife were stars, met us and took me into town to get all we needed to continue our journey. Our next leg was Rundu, a straight road to follow with a veterinary check point half way along called Murirani. The outline was that this was unreliable for fuel so we were given a name “Marius Lowe” to contact for a fuel stop. As coincidence has it, he has one of Eben’s RAF 2000 autogyros from Upington and Eben also gave us his contact details....Coincidence again...
Departed Grootfontein, no landing fees flew over all the military hardware and departed to Marius Lowe’s place....The directions were “follow the road and about 45 miles on there will be a house with a runway, just keep a look out”. True to the word, the runway came up and landed with nobody around just a locked hanger with 2 drums of fuel for us to keep us going on our way...
On route we were sitting on 120 degrees and an oil temp of 115 degrees and in a constant sink. We were following the road so we had a 260km runway below us...Landing at Marius farm, we decided to wait out the temp and proceed later in the day. Marius was at his childrens school sports day and arrived about an hour after we landed.....
Marius Louw...a gentleman a pilot and a maker of plans.. the picture of positiveness.. Marius arrives tells us that we need to fix this heating problem!!!! Pulls out a radiator from a previous RAF 2000. Miracle 1, has all the where with all to make a new radiator mount..
miracle no 2, He is a refrigeration engineer who is a master craftsman with his hands and copper and brass,
miracle no 3, the radiator fits with 3mm clearance that is filled with tube rubber
miracle no 4, and fixes the heating problem totally as this radiator is more than twice the size....the Namibia Kalahari Conversion by Marius Louw. The chances of finding an aviation radiator that is the one we need that is fit for purpose in the middle of absolutely nowhere is what makes you think that the big man is following us...
Another out side situation was that Marius was to load cattle and the lorries were late to come so he came home and was there to make this radiator master piece.
Marius insisted we stay with him, Hentjie fed us and we had a warm bed to stay in....from the heart and welcomed.
25th July
Started early, pushed the gyro out after a hot cup of coffee and tested the workmanship for leaks and tight bolts. We had a long night and only finished by 10pm so a good check was nessesary, Jim fired it up and was a perfect fit. (we ran it for a while to check for the dreaded air lock) Jim did a 10 min flight to get the heat up and the engine now runs COLD....FANTASTIC.....
After relocating to the adjacent road we loaded the machine and said our good buys and off we went. The conversation on route was how amazing Marius was and Jim was absolutely taken by his keeness and his ability to help and make a plan...I say ”a boer maak n plan” ...
We landed in Rundu at 11am met by Valarie made to feel very welcome and taken in to Inkwazi Lodge. There was a great meal with tribal dances that definitely was choreographed by the local dance group, into bed under the mozzie nets and slept like logs..
26th July
Early start to the day and breakfast with the minister. Said our goodbys to Valerie and off to Rundu airport to clear customs and depart Namibia and enter Botswana.
We were met by Dirk, the local flying instructor and given a few wise words of local conditions. Dirk got us fuelled and prepared for our next leg...130 miles of trees and bush...there is no landing opportunities...
We left with Jim at the controls and a careful check on range against fuel as we were into a head wind. We had 3 hour endurance and a 2:30 flight with no alternate airfield...
Departed direct on track and went for 2 and a half hours over woodland and arrived with 10 litres of fuel in hand...
