Logsplitter’s travels in his Grenadier.

Concerning jamming cables: Isn't it possible to access from below levers on transfer box to force high range on and CDL open?

The next stage of the journey involved long days of driving on mainly good tar roads to get to Malawi to meet friends as we had lost 17days in total. First day up early and drive from Gabarone to Nata. Total 624km. Good wide roads but donkeys cows and goats everywhere so max 110 kph on the long open stretches. Easy driving with the cruise control set. Plenty of water on board incase we break down. Plenty of power in the Grenadier for overtaking huge double articulated lorries that ply these long distance routes between countries.
Day two drive from Nata to Kafue in Zambia via the Kazangula bridge over the Zambezi river. Total 817km inc a two hour border crossing. As we headed north domestic animals were replaced by wildlife with lots of Kudu and Elephants. As we neared Chobe a horrific accident had happened ahead of us. Apparently 1/2hr before we got there. A lorry had slowed up to allow elephants to cross the road. They seem to just appear out of nowhere coming out of the bush silently and fast to cross the tar road. As the one lorry slowed up another decided to overtake as we later found out with tragic results. The overtaking lorry hit two elephants killing one instantly and another juvenile badly injured with broken rear legs and had to be euthanised by the wildlife authorities . The lorry turned over and cab crushed, the driver was apparently pulled out just before we got there but minus his legs. He was whisked off in a passing vehicle but at least an hours drive to the nearest small town so doubt he would survive. Sadly crashes in this part of the world are a common occurrence and burnt out vehicles and crashed lorries that have left the road are common.
By the time we got there the wildlife rangers were starting to use axes to chop the tusks out as they were only interested in getting them out so no one could sell or trade in them. There were around 10 other lorries stopped and more people stopping to get free meat as soon as the lorry driver had been dragged out. A whole group of people were sharpening knives and pangas and starting to skin the elephant and hack off lumps of meat, more arrived all the time as word got out of two dead elephants, so plenty of free meat. Needs must I suppose but quite an eye opener to see so many people interested in free meat.
After witnessing this we continued north for another hour to a small town to get fuel. Here people were loading into small battered cars and pickup trucks to head south for elephant meat !
For any of you familiar with Africa then border crossings can be lengthy and frustrating. Crossing from Botswana into Zambia was no exception even though they have a massive modern one stop border post. We met a group of South Africans there that had been there 4 hrs trying to deal with the bureaucracy of the Zambia side. We decided to pay a fixer R100 south african rand to get us through in one and half hours. £4 well spent in my books.
After this we headed east towards Malawi on pretty good toll roads ending up n Kafue for the night.
We witnessed another huge lorry crash as a lorry lost control going down hill ploughing down an embankment. Another couple of trucks stopped in front of us and along with a load of locals were trying to drag the occupants out of the cab. We think a load of pedestrians had been taken out with the crash. Upset and emotional angry people everywhere. we decided to move on swiftly as enough help around and these things can get out of control here. Sadly that day we lost count of how many crashed and burnt out lorries we saw. Many lorries from Congo and Zambia completely overloaded with copper and other resources. You have to drive carefully and be super alert for other road users especially overtaking lorries on long slow mountain roads.
Overnight in a nice lodge in Kafue to wind down after the long 817km drive.

Forgot to add now over 11000km on the clock and all going well Apart from various error messages as need the software update. Started at just below 3000km in Cape Town

Tinerfeño said:

Concerning jamming cables: Isn't it possible to access from below levers on transfer box to force high range on and CDL open?

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I really don’t know as didn’t even look myself. I figured whilst under warranty I did not want to be forcing anything. I was doing WhatsApp chat with Ineos staff in Cape Town whilst trying to solve the issue with the mechanic from the Botswana Wildlife Authority. I was trying to sort under Ineos guidance but in the end it was decided that I needed a recovery vehicle. I can’t complain. Ineos were straight on it and I was in the middle of know where. Frustrating that it happened but I thought the service and help was pretty good.

Logsplitter said:

The next stage of the journey involved long days of driving on mainly good tar roads to get to Malawi to meet friends as we had lost 17days in total. First day up early and drive from Gabarone to Nata. Total 624km. Good wide roads but donkeys cows and goats everywhere so max 110 kph on the long open stretches. Easy driving with the cruise control set. Plenty of water on board incase we break down. Plenty of power in the Grenadier for overtaking huge double articulated lorries that ply these long distance routes between countries.
Day two drive from Nata to Kafue in Zambia via the Kazangula bridge over the Zambezi river. Total 817km inc a two hour border crossing. As we headed north domestic animals were replaced by wildlife with lots of Kudu and Elephants. As we neared Chobe a horrific accident had happened ahead of us. Apparently 1/2hr before we got there. A lorry had slowed up to allow elephants to cross the road. They seem to just appear out of nowhere coming out of the bush silently and fast to cross the tar road. As the one lorry slowed up another decided to overtake as we later found out with tragic results. The overtaking lorry hit two elephants killing one instantly and another juvenile badly injured with broken rear legs and had to be euthanised by the wildlife authorities . The lorry turned over and cab crushed, the driver was apparently pulled out just before we got there but minus his legs. He was whisked off in a passing vehicle but at least an hours drive to the nearest small town so doubt he would survive. Sadly crashes in this part of the world are a common occurrence and burnt out vehicles and crashed lorries that have left the road are common.
By the time we got there the wildlife rangers were starting to use axes to chop the tusks out as they were only interested in getting them out so no one could sell or trade in them. There were around 10 other lorries stopped and more people stopping to get free meat as soon as the lorry driver had been dragged out. A whole group of people were sharpening knives and pangas and starting to skin the elephant and hack off lumps of meat, more arrived all the time as word got out of two dead elephants, so plenty of free meat. Needs must I suppose but quite an eye opener to see so many people interested in free meat.
After witnessing this we continued north for another hour to a small town to get fuel. Here people were loading into small battered cars and pickup trucks to head south for elephant meat !
For any of you familiar with Africa then border crossings can be lengthy and frustrating. Crossing from Botswana into Zambia was no exception even though they have a massive modern one stop border post. We met a group of South Africans there that had been there 4 hrs trying to deal with the bureaucracy of the Zambia side. We decided to pay a fixer R100 south african rand to get us through in one and half hours. £4 well spent in my books.
After this we headed east towards Malawi on pretty good toll roads ending up n Kafue for the night.
We witnessed another huge lorry crash as a lorry lost control going down hill ploughing down an embankment. Another couple of trucks stopped in front of us and along with a load of locals were trying to drag the occupants out of the cab. We think a load of pedestrians had been taken out with the crash. Upset and emotional angry people everywhere. we decided to move on swiftly as enough help around and these things can get out of control here. Sadly that day we lost count of how many crashed and burnt out lorries we saw. Many lorries from Congo and Zambia completely overloaded with copper and other resources. You have to drive carefully and be super alert for other road users especially overtaking lorries on long slow mountain roads.
Overnight in a nice lodge in Kafue to wind down after the long 817km drive.View attachment 7833343View attachment 7833344View attachment 7833345View attachment 7833346View attachment 7833347

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Wow, what a journey you’re having. Cramming a lot of the human condition into a short space of time.

I didn’t know elephant meat was consumed. Thank you for sharing @Logsplitter .

Logsplitter said:

Forgot to add now over 11000km on the clock and all going well Apart from various error messages as need the software update. Started at just below 3000km in Cape Town

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An incredible journey and one clearly fraught with danger. Take care and I have to say I enjoy reading your diary.

Would love to do something similar, but my boss would not feel comfortable in Africa.

globalgregors said:

Wow, what a journey you’re having. Cramming a lot of the human condition into a short space of time.

I didn’t know elephant meat was consumed. Thank you for sharing @Logsplitter .

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People are very poor in rural areas and nothing goes to waste. Life is tough out here for the vast majority that live in very remote areas. A world away from the wealth of Gabarone where people drive around in Mercedes and Range Rovers.

Trialmaster said:

An incredible journey and one clearly fraught with danger. Take care and I have to say I enjoy reading your diary.

Would love to do something similar, but my boss would not feel comfortable in Africa.

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To be fair my wife tempers my exuberance and recklessness and Southern Africa is pretty easy if you avoid anywhere near Johannesburg and dealing with officials is more of an annoyance than anything else.

A few photos of wildlife whilst in the Okovango delta waiting for Liberty to be fixed.
A distraction from the crazy world around us.

Logsplitter said:

A few photos of wildlife whilst in the Okovango delta waiting for Liberty to be fixed.
A distraction from the crazy world around us. View attachment 7833353View attachment 7833355View attachment 7833356View attachment 7833357View attachment 7833358View attachment 7833360

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Another great report and very nice animal photographs. Thank you very much.

This is my favourite photo

Logsplitter said:

This is my favourite photo View attachment 7833369

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prefer the two leopard photos, it's a cat thing

Logsplitter said:

The next stage of the journey involved long days of driving on mainly good tar roads to get to Malawi to meet friends as we had lost 17days in total. First day up early and drive from Gabarone to Nata. Total 624km. Good wide roads but donkeys cows and goats everywhere so max 110 kph on the long open stretches. Easy driving with the cruise control set. Plenty of water on board incase we break down. Plenty of power in the Grenadier for overtaking huge double articulated lorries that ply these long distance routes between countries.
Day two drive from Nata to Kafue in Zambia via the Kazangula bridge over the Zambezi river. Total 817km inc a two hour border crossing. As we headed north domestic animals were replaced by wildlife with lots of Kudu and Elephants. As we neared Chobe a horrific accident had happened ahead of us. Apparently 1/2hr before we got there. A lorry had slowed up to allow elephants to cross the road. They seem to just appear out of nowhere coming out of the bush silently and fast to cross the tar road. As the one lorry slowed up another decided to overtake as we later found out with tragic results. The overtaking lorry hit two elephants killing one instantly and another juvenile badly injured with broken rear legs and had to be euthanised by the wildlife authorities . The lorry turned over and cab crushed, the driver was apparently pulled out just before we got there but minus his legs. He was whisked off in a passing vehicle but at least an hours drive to the nearest small town so doubt he would survive. Sadly crashes in this part of the world are a common occurrence and burnt out vehicles and crashed lorries that have left the road are common.
By the time we got there the wildlife rangers were starting to use axes to chop the tusks out as they were only interested in getting them out so no one could sell or trade in them. There were around 10 other lorries stopped and more people stopping to get free meat as soon as the lorry driver had been dragged out. A whole group of people were sharpening knives and pangas and starting to skin the elephant and hack off lumps of meat, more arrived all the time as word got out of two dead elephants, so plenty of free meat. Needs must I suppose but quite an eye opener to see so many people interested in free meat.
After witnessing this we continued north for another hour to a small town to get fuel. Here people were loading into small battered cars and pickup trucks to head south for elephant meat !
For any of you familiar with Africa then border crossings can be lengthy and frustrating. Crossing from Botswana into Zambia was no exception even though they have a massive modern one stop border post. We met a group of South Africans there that had been there 4 hrs trying to deal with the bureaucracy of the Zambia side. We decided to pay a fixer R100 south african rand to get us through in one and half hours. £4 well spent in my books.
After this we headed east towards Malawi on pretty good toll roads ending up n Kafue for the night.
We witnessed another huge lorry crash as a lorry lost control going down hill ploughing down an embankment. Another couple of trucks stopped in front of us and along with a load of locals were trying to drag the occupants out of the cab. We think a load of pedestrians had been taken out with the crash. Upset and emotional angry people everywhere. we decided to move on swiftly as enough help around and these things can get out of control here. Sadly that day we lost count of how many crashed and burnt out lorries we saw. Many lorries from Congo and Zambia completely overloaded with copper and other resources. You have to drive carefully and be super alert for other road users especially overtaking lorries on long slow mountain roads.
Overnight in a nice lodge in Kafue to wind down after the long 817km drive.View attachment 7833343View attachment 7833344View attachment 7833345View attachment 7833346View attachment 7833347

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Absolutely fascinating. Very well written reportage in the truest sense. No bias, just eye witness account of a place in time.

Logsplitter said:

A few photos of wildlife whilst in the Okovango delta waiting for Liberty to be fixed.
A distraction from the crazy world around us. View attachment 7833353View attachment 7833355View attachment 7833356View attachment 7833357View attachment 7833358View attachment 7833360

Click to expand...

Photo contest winners there! How beautiful! Glad you're safe, and that the elephants didn't go to waste.

Next stage in the journey involved driving 617km from Kafue to Chipata a border town in Zambia next to Malawi. Pretty uneventful journey apart from the madness of Lusaka traffic. Zambia is progressing fast since we were last there 13 yrs ago. The main roads are generally good tar roads that are toll roads. Some bad pot holed sections but I a generally good state of repai. No hassle from police or military and definitely less roadblocks than before. Most officials from the military and police are very courteous.
overnight in Chipata and then an early start to get over the border we hoped. Exiting Zambia no problem and no fees and carnet stamped out. Malawi side took a bit longer as although we had already secured E visas it took the lack-lustre immigration staff. 1-1/2hrs to verify our visa. Good job the immigration post was empty. We paid for a temporary import permit ,insurance and carbon tax which we got no receipt for. Guess where that went we also paid a local council tax when we got to the nearest town with a hand written receipt. Between the border post and Lilongwe about 120km we had a total of 10 army and police road blocks
, checking vehicle documentation , driving licence and condition of vehicle. Nearly all asked what have you got for me. My answer of a smile and a handshake satisfied most of them. One army officer was more persistent and I told him he must be joking as a professional army officer wouldn’t be asking, your right he said you may go with a smile and a handshake
The final police check of that day was in the Capital Lilongwe where a traditionaly built police lady of the Ma Ramotswe type was checking over the vehicle and asked could I see in the rear view mirror, i answers that I didn’t need to as I had wing mirrors and a barrier between the cab and the cargo/camping kit. She answered that if I hadn’t had a cargo barrier then should would fine me for a traffic offence. You have to just ignore this nonsense as the local vehicles pass by with no mirrors at all and often no lights. They just try it on for a quick buck if they find someone naive to offer a gift/bribe. If you have done something wrong like a speeding offence never offer a bribe or they’ve got you over a barrel and will scare you saying you are trying to corrupt a police officer. Of course they are corrupt but don’t offer. Let them ask if necessary. It’s all benign and no one is threatening they are just trying to relieve you of your hard earned cash.
Through all this the Grenadier drove well and attracts a lot of attention.
fully loaded I’m at around 16L per 100km.
After all the travelling we spent a few days in Lilongwe with friends before heading south to the rural district of Neno where we lived. For 2-1/2 years leaving 13 years ago to go back to the U.K.

A potential major disaster averted for us today. No Ineos dealerships in Malawi and certainly no decent repair shops in rural Malawi.
checking around the vehicle today I noticed a difference in the look of the small radiator attachments behind the front bumper of the Grenadier. It turned out that tha small auxiliary radiator behind the left side front bumper on my right hand drive petrol Grenadier had become completely detached and just dangling by its attachment pipes behind the bumper. Lucky I noticed this would have been a major problem. It had come out of its fixings and bottom two locating rubber grommets missing. A fix was made by taking top two rubber washers / grommets off and relocating to bottom fixings then using bicycle inner tube to fashion washer/grommets at the top. All fixings were still tight so no idea how it came loose. Beware everyone on bad roads this could ruin your trip. Seems like a reasonable fix for now but not ideal and shouldn’t happen. I will contact Ineos tomorrow
the last photo is my fix and the second from last is how it should look like, picture taken from right drivers side small radiator.

On top of this when we undid the front inner wheel arch to access the small radiator we found the fender is rubbing some electrical cables wearing through the protective sleeve/conduit A fix was made by making holes in the fender pieces and cable tying together.

Logsplitter said:

On top of this when we undid the front inner wheel arch to access the small radiator we found the fender is rubbing some electrical cables wearing through the protective sleeve/conduit A fix was made by making holes in the fender pieces and cable tying together.

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a good catch… and leading to another good catch. Good as in there’s lots of places you absolutely do not want to be stranded for a long period with an attractive machine to look after.
We’ve all got to hope that these kind of things are noticed by Ineos, and addressed with service actions for all of us.
It will cost them a bit, but far better that than the car getting almost all the way to reliable in the field.

Logsplitter said:

A potential major disaster averted for us today. No Ineos dealerships in Malawi and certainly no decent repair shops in rural Malawi.
checking around the vehicle today I noticed a difference in the look of the small radiator attachments behind the front bumper of the Grenadier. It turned out that tha small auxiliary radiator behind the left side front bumper on my right hand drive petrol Grenadier had become completely detached and just dangling by its attachment pipes behind the bumper. Lucky I noticed this would have been a major problem. It had come out of its fixings and bottom two locating rubber grommets missing. A fix was made by taking top two rubber washers / grommets off and relocating to bottom fixings then using bicycle inner tube to fashion washer/grommets at the top. All fixings were still tight so no idea how it came loose. Beware everyone on bad roads this could ruin your trip. Seems like a reasonable fix for now but not ideal and shouldn’t happen. I will contact Ineos tomorrow
the last photo is my fix and the second from last is how it should look like, picture taken from right drivers side small radiator.
View attachment 7833638View attachment 7833636View attachment 7833634View attachment 7833635View attachment 7833636View attachment 7833634View attachment 7833639View attachment 7833640View attachment 7833641

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Something similar happened to an Australian owner in the desert, they crimped the line and drove back to civilisation to have it repaired. From what I've heard it's a known issue, he alerted another owner travelling in the outback at that time which was lucky as he found a similar issue as you had.