Day 17
Mon 16th
Sleeping Free Bivouac to Chutes
Mileage 69925
Punctures today 2 Total 12
After eating breakfast (the bread the boys bought us) we discovered we had 2 … yes 2 punctures! While I was repairing the tubes I was assisted by 3-4 very helpful, younger boys who were extremely keen to help as much as they could and it was great to work with them, once the cars were running again we gave some gifts and set off for day 2 to reach the waterfalls at Chutes. The journey to the falls was quite a difficult one as we all found ourselves getting stuck un the sand! On arrival at customs there was some dispute negotiating the amount of money we would have to pay which resulted in a severe delay. We still had about 60km to drive (off road) to reach the waterfalls and we left Kayes at about 7pm. The track to the falls was described as technical and even more so in the dark! Unfortunately we hit a hole pretty hard and then heard a knocking sound from the rear of the car, on inspection we discovered that we had badly broken the rear arm (drivers side -we still had a bent arm on the other side also!) The break was so bad we did not think it wise to drive further on it. The 2 cars we were travelling with continued on so we called to make the organisation aware and set up camp on the side of the track We were right beside a small village who offered us to sleep there but we stayed with the car, they provided us with water to wash with and were very kind. 5 other 2cv’s passed and helped us to raise the car then continued on, then at 2am the jump team (Wouter & Gavin) arrived with a replacement arm! (what stars!) They then camped nearby also (and hit a tree on their way to us! Oops!) At 7am Dad and I began to replace the rear arm and we left for the waterfalls at about 8.10am … good going hey!? We arrived at the falls at about 10am and everyone seemed surprised to see us so soon! We set our priorities and almost immediately relaxed in the beautiful waterfalls, we washed ourselves and our clothes and some people tried to catch some fish. We had hot dogs … umm … and were nicely relaxed and ready to leave at 2pm to go to Manatali.