Stuck in the pans

Picture this. A beautiful day. We were driving through proper bush with barely enough space on either side for Stanley's fat arse. (For those not yet informed, Stanley is the name of our '89 Hilux) We stop the car and standing on the roof to see where we were, the first roll of thunder is heard. The decision to move on and find the infamous Kubu island in the middle of the salt pans of Botswana is made.


We eventually find the pans (much thanks to the GPS unit lent to us by the Hiemstras) and are so stoked to finally be there that we forget to stick to the outer edge of the pans. We recieved this advice from an experienced traveller and ignoring it proved to be lank stupid. So driving through the pans, extremely proud of ourselves for finding them, we get stuck. And not the ordinary kind of stuck. Stanley was actually sinking into the ground. So out we jump, a little freaked out, and begin to fix the situation. While Matt & Pd find some grass and wood to prevent the car sinking (pretty difficult when the nearest bush is 1.5km away) while I began to unload the bakkie to lighten the weight and hopefully slow down the sinking nature that Stanley was quite used to by now. By the time we were done, all the luggage, the fridge, spare battery, 50 litres of fuel, the spare tyres and all spare parts and tools were lying on a plastic sheeting, itself sinking into the depths of the pan.

After much planning and a number of attempts to rescue our ride, we decided the best course of action was to find some trees, jack Stanley up and put the trees under the tyres. So off we set to the bush on the edge of the pan, not before marking the coordinates of the car should the sun set before we returned. It was 5.30 pm at this stage, three hours into the whole charade.

Hunting for trees proved quite successful until we tried to carry them back. Pd's hernia meant that he couldn't take much, although he tried his hardest. (Thanks dude) The trouble now was that the sun had indeed set and it was complete darkness on the pans. Cloud cover also made night vision not possible. So we turned on the GPS to start navigating, while pulling 5 trees through the mud in the pitch black. We felt like real animals. Grrrr.

Awesome, we're saving ourselves. Mood is good. But wait, GPS batteries die. Rats. We are now completely lost, shin deep in mud and an extremely vague idea of where the car is. But after half an hour or so we stumble across the tyre tracks we previously laid down and found the car. (Seening the path from that walk in sunlight the next made us realise we dragged wood for over 2 km's. Not cool. Although we're all lank ripped now.)

So we get to the car, jack it up, it falls, we jack again, dig, hack wood into size, place wood, find a dry place to camp and braai some wors. We were all lank despondent by this stage. We didn't have much food, about 10 litres of water and hadn't seen a soul (or sunshine) for 40kms of bush. But we slept well and awoke to what proved a beautiful day.

The plan was to let the sun dry the mud as much as possible after the previous day's rains, and then, using the trees as grip, simply drive the car out. The morning was good, we got the labour done and were planning to attempt to drive out at around 3 pm. But then the rain started falling once again and we knew it was now or never. So we dashed for the car. We decided what the best plan of attack was, I jumped in the car and all was like clockwork. With Matt and Pd guiding we managed to slowly move the car away from the wet stuff and next to our tent on a small patch of dry land some 250m away. Absolute joy.


Nothing can describe the feeling of rescuing Stanley from the pans. We were the happiest men in the world. We worked together as a team and not once did anyone lose their cool. We are a wicked team and are very proud of ourselves.

We then drove out as quickly as possible, deciding the Kubu Island is so 20th-century, and headed to Francistown. Watching the rains fall heavily over the pans as we drove away we knew we had made the right decision.