On October 11th, 2024 the wake-up time was again at 5.15 am. The first thing I noticed was that the rear left tire was nearly flat. We had breakfast and then pumped it with our ARB compressor. We didn’t feel like changing a wheel and had an employee do it at the gas station. With our tires fully pumped, we drove to Punda Maria, the last camp before we left the park. (Even though we were driving on an asphalt road, we saw elephants, giraffes, kudu and other antelopes. That’s Kruger!)

In Punda Maria we had a good breakfast under a huge baobab, under which we sat almost thirty (!) years ago. (It hasn’t gotten much bigger in the meantime, but we’ve gotten much older!) Then we drove to the park exit. I noticed that the coolant temperature was much higher than usual. What could that be, I asked myself, keeping an eye on the gauge.

Sixty kilometers later we reached Thohoyandou, a bustling town. There we had the tire patched and a glazier repaired the lifter of the passenger window, which we haven’t been able to close completely for a few days. (Badly corrugated and gravel roads take their toll on Mahangu!) When we returned to the parking lot after shopping at Spar, we saw a puddle of water under the radiator! Now it was indispensable to visit the Toyota garage, which was fortunately very close by.

There we met Caiphos, a motivated chief mechanic, who took on the problem. An inspection showed that the radiator was damaged by a stone chip and was therefore leaking. Welding was not possible; so, a new cooler had to be ordered. However, it will not arrive in Thohoyandou until Monday. And so, we make a stopover in this city, where we found a little guesthouse with a swimming pool…

PS: If you want to know more about Thohoyandou, read here.