This trip report is a shortened version of my original report posted on the SanParks Forum.
The original, fuller report can be found here: 
http://www.sanparks.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22745

Due to the number of images contained in this blog, for ease of viewing, I have only posted the thumbnails for most images, but larger images may be viewed of all the thumbnails in the relevant galleries, see link below:

My May 2008 trip to  the Kalahari was made with Jonathan from Johannesburg, South Africa, and with Johanis, a South African now residing in Texas, USA.

I arrived in Johannesburg on 2nd May, to a cold wet day !
I was delighted to meet Jonathan, Lynn and their 3 boys!    I stayed with the family overnight and we began our journey the following morning with the "combi" fully packed for the trip.  

We stopped overnight at a charming little private reserve at Spitskop, just about 10km North of Upington.  The landscape on the route up was not too inspiring, being mainly of maize fields. Lots of lying water around, and I was amazed to see a salt pan in the middle of farm fields, with a large flock of Flamingo's !

4th May - Sunday

 

With all the water around, we thought we would pay an unscheduled stop to Augrabies as we had plenty of time to do the last leg to the KTP, but a storm began to brew with heavy clouds over Augrabies, so we rapidly turned around and drove onto the KTP, arriving around 11 am.

We went straight out on a drive along the Nossob road, stopping at the first waterhole just outside Twee Rivieren and our first sighting was Jackal.  I love Jackals, they are so photogenic and I never tire of taking pics of them !

There was a large Eland carcase near the waterhole, maybe from the sorry state of the dying Eland from last September?

The Dunes and riverbed were lush with grasses. We saw Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, Gemsbok, 3 wildcat in quick succession, Pale Chanting Goshawk, but little else.   Everywhere seemed very quiet - no bird sounds, and seemed so different from the visit of 8 months previously.

 
We returned to our Chalet  (No 12) at Twee Rivieren, unpacking just enough for our overnight stay there and we were back out for another drive at around 3pm.  This time we took the Mata Mata road, seeing many Springbok, Meerkat (Yeah - a first for me!)  Verreaux's Eagle Owl (2), PCG, Kori Bustard, Black Korhaan, Swallow-tailed Bee Eaters, Drongo, White-browed Sparrow Weaver, Shaft-tailed Wydah, and a Cheetah high on the dunes near to Houmoed waterhole !  Not really good enough for good pics although we did manage a few, but the Cheetah was obviously wearing a collar. 

Red Hartebeest

Gemsbok (Oryx)

We also saw (we think) a Cape Fox, and a large brood of Ostrich with around 20 chicks of 2 different age groups. Obviously some had got mixed up somewhere !

We were joined in the evening by Johanis and enjoyed our first Braii  of the trip!

5^th May – Monday

 

We packed up and left Twee Rivieren around 7.15 am for our drive to Mata Mata.  I have to say that at this point I think Jonathan and I were feeling a little bit disconcerted about how quiet the riverbeds were and with the long grasses feared we may not get good sightings this trip.  Even the camps were quieter than they had been last September.

 

I will not list the usual species that we saw almost daily, unless there is something extraordinary to report.  The “usual” being Gemsbok, Springbok, Wildebeest, and this time we saw MANY Red Hartebeest, but absolutely NO Eland !

Birds in the Southern area of the park were definitely conspicuous by their absence, apart from a few PCG’s, but even they were less obvious. 

 

I have now seen the Kgalagadi in two great extremes.  Last September ultra dry and this year has been exceptionally wet, resulting in lush vegetation and grass growth.  More on that later.

On our trip, we saw nothing until Houmoud. The riverbed was empty of all animals.

We saw typical Kgalagadi, majestical Gemsbok, nicely posing for us on the dunes in beautiful early morning light, featured in my first day report. Well the park was originally the “Gemsbok Park”  . We saw a male Ostrich on the opposite side, backlit against the dunes.   Nearer to Mata Mata we encountered a large herd of Springbok in the riverbed, racing around, fighting and pronking.   In fact most of the Antelope seemed to be intent on battles !  Wildebeest were fighting in the dust, giving us a good display and we also saw Ostrich dust bathing. We met up on the road with Gavin & Debbie from Cape Town, buddies from the SanParks Forum.

Blue Wildebeest Battles

 Angry Wildebeest

 

We arrived at Mata Mata and set up camp eventually after unravelling our two tents – Johanis had a rooftop tent so his was up and ready in 5 minutes !  A flurry of light-hearted and friendly but sarcastic banter were exchanged with Jonathan over setting up camp !   After this first day set-up it became much easier and we only had two sites to set-up!

 

Black-breasted Snake Eagle in flight

Pale Chanting Goshawk in flight

 

We set out on our late afternoon drive not expecting too much, although there was considerably more game at the camp waterhole on arrival, Springbok, Wildebeest and a few birds.  We saw many Yellow Mongoose,  delightful Ground Squirrel who always greet new campers with much anticipation, and a Brants Whistling Rat. The Squirrels entertained by playing together.

young Yellow Mongoose & Ground Squirrel

On approaching Craig Lockhart waterhole, a number of vehicles were already parked and we were just in time to see young lions approaching through the long grass. Eventually a pride of 6 juveniles, 3 cubs,2 adult females and an adult male descended on the waterhole. We took lots of pics for some time and left around 5.40pm to drive back to the gate.  One cheeky youngster was fascinated by the bricks surrounding the pump and did his very best to dismantle it ! Jonathan reasoned that this pride was one that he had followed considerably last September and that an adult female and the other were missing, so we guessed they were away mating.   

 

On our way back to camp we also saw 4 Bat-eared Foxes on the ridge !

 

We were very excited on return to camp, all cards downloaded onto hard drives while the braai was burning merrily away. The air was very cold by the time we ate.  Temperature during our trip ranged from 1c at night to 35c during the day !

6^th May- Tuesday

We were up early – VERY COLD today but sunny.  We got out camp at 7.10 am. Saw nothing until we returned back at Craig Lockhart waterhole.

 

We arrived to find a few other vehicles ahead of us and the lion pride from the previous night were stalking two unfortunate porcupine, who were trying their hardest to hide under one of the vehicles. The porcupine were already injured and with so many lions around they were not going to escape.  The lions were attempting to remove the tyres of the vehicle providing cover so it was forced to move, leaving the porcupine now surrounded by lion, one porcupine quickly reversed into a young lion, leaving a good number of quill’s stuck in the lion’s face.

 

! ! !  The next episode is the most gory.

 

The porcupine then shuffled off into the low, dense thorn bushes, rapidly followed by the pride, which saved us from actually seeing the massacre, although one did try to escape out the side and walked straight into the mouth of the pride male !

We watched for around an hour as the lions ate their kill, the pride male stripping off quills as he ate and most of the youngsters came away with quills embedded in them. The male had at least 7 quills stuck in his face, neck and forelegs.

We watched as the lion pride  youngsters played and argued for a while, washing each other, before the pride eventually moved off into the dunes.

We left Craig Lockhart, driving onto 13^th  and 14^th borehole. We saw 4 Giraffe and were surprised to note that they were spending little time in the riverbed, seeming to prefer the dunes.

Giraffe

We had our first Tawny Eagle sighting of the trip and 2 white-backed vultures. 

 In deep, long grass in the distance we spotted a tan coloured wildcat, which we think was probably crossed with a domestic/feral cat.  It was really too far for good pics, even for ID. It did seem a bit too big to be just a domestic cat.

 

Back at camp we ate lunch and downloaded cards, glad to be warmed up by the mid-day sun. Again in camp we were entertained by the Mongoose, Squirrels, Shaft-tailed Wydah and Crimson-breasted Shrike.

African Ground Squirrel

Crimson-breasted Shrike

 

 On private land, to the left of camp, on the Namibian side, I saw two horse riders negotiating the dunes, something I have longed to do since my first trip to Africa is a horseback safari.

 

On our later drive we left camp at 4.20 pm, and were mesmerised by the sun falling onto the large herds of Springbok, beautifully lighting up their white flashy rears. We saw 7 vultures circling over the road.  Driving onto Craig Lockart, 3 other cars were waiting, but no sign of the lion pride. . We drove back to Craig Lockhart and parked up under the tree branches to watch the waterhole, entertained by squirrels and doves cavorting around. We then  noticed a juvenile Gabar Goshawk in the tree. He made several attempts at catching doves, always returning to the tree but not succeeding in a kill.

 juvenile Gabar Goshawk

 

We left the waterhole at 5.30 to get back to camp and again saw the 4 bat-eared foxes in the same place as the previous night.

Bat-eared Fox

 

 We stayed with them for about 10 minutes but light was fading fast and they kept just a bit too far for good pics. We had to leave them to get back to camp, arriving back slightly late at 6.05 pm.  The timing of the park gates closing did seem a bit out of wack with the sunrise/sunsets.

 

What a day this had been and it was ONLY our third day in the park – Another 11 to go !

 

7^th May – Wednesday

 

 We rose early today and were out the park as soon as gates opened at 7am. It was still cold but not as bad as Tuesday morning and it warmed up faster.

 

There was little to see, nothing at Craig Lockhart so we pushed on and saw several Giraffe in two different groups. One group consisting of a Bull, Cow apparently on heat, a juvenile and a calf, all posing nicely for us. 

 

Giraffe family

 

A beautiful mature Gabar Goshawk was chanting away in a tree.

Gabar Goshawk

 

We saw that two lion had passed by recently. We guessed these were the breeding pair that had been missing from the pride. We followed their spoor for some distance  along the road.  Just after Dalkeith we came across the breeding pair who had probably tired for the day and wandered into the shade of trees to sleep.  We left them and continued on, checking waterholes en route.

 

Breeding pair

 A large herd of wildebeest approached up the riverbed to 14^th borehole and we got nice pics of this herd with many youngsters.

 

 

 Blue Wildebeest calf

 

 Leaping Wildebeest

 

As many others have witnessed, on this trip we came across a good number of Gemsbok with deformed horns, I would love to know what causes this.

 

Gemsbok with deformed horns

 

Just after 14th borehole we saw a female Hyena suckling two tiny black cubs. The pups looked about 3-4 weeks old. Mom stood up and the cubs disappeared into a den as she wandered out of sight. The grass was far too long for us to manage pics of the babies. 

Hyena mother

 

We then turned around to head back to camp.   We watched a tawny eagle being chased and mobbed by several PCG’s.  There were a number of Secretary birds going about their business, an Ostrich drinking and we also saw a barking gecko.

 drinking male Ostrich

We arrived back at camp around 1.30 pm, It was much hotter this afternoon. Wilderbeest came to drink at the camp waterhole.

On our evening drive we set off at 4pm with hope of seeing the bat-eared foxes earlier. We took a steady drive to Craig Lockhart and met a Jackal at the waterhole who soon ran off.  This was a bird sighting time, with Secretary Birds, Kori Bustard, Vulture, Scaly-feathered Finch, Pririt Batis, Common Fiscal, Sociable Weaver, Cape Canary, Capped Wheatear. 

Capped Wheatear

Scaly-feathered Finch

 

We failed to see the bat-eared foxes this time but a few fluffy clouds had built up and we had a stunning sunset tonight. 

 Wildebeest at Sunset

Kalahari Sunset

For our evening meal we had Poitjie and Jonathan’s famous and delicious Braai Beer bread – yum !

 

 The night was cloudy and warm with occasional gust of wind and we even have a shower !

 

Tomorrow ... another Lion fest

8^th May – Thursday

 

We were out of camp at 7.10 am today.  A much warmer morning and very hot mid-day !  

 

We saw 12 Giraffe on top of the ridges by the road as we did the waterhole loops.

 

Jonathan was sure that by now the mating pair would soon be joining up with the main pride as they appeared to have finished their 3-5 days of mating ritual, which in fact we never witnessed.  Just before Dalkeith waterhole Jonathan spotted the main pride in the dunes on their way to the waterhole!  We were the only people there at this time.

What's that cloming over the dune?

The pride breached the dune tops in nice light and crossed into the road.

 The Hooligans are here

 Lioness

As we started to follow them they changed sides along towards the waterhole and just as Bucky had predicted we spotted the breeding couple coming towards us from the further end of the riverbed.  

 

Lion procession

 

 We guessed this was to be the big reunion so followed them as they played, drank and meandered up the river bed towards each other, parked at the waterhole and waited for them – what a wonderful sight !

 Sharing

 

Both I and Jonathan were pointing out different sightings to each other every other second !  Where to watch was the biggest problem – oh what a problem !

 

 Majestic Steps

 

We had about 2½ hours of incredible viewing with them. By now we were joined by other vehicles, but I swear that Jonathan’s big red VW Combi is a Lion magnet as it always managed to find us lions !  At one stage the breeding pair “tasted” our vehicle before collapsing beside it with the female lying half underneath and the male touching our front nearside window. Several times during viewing we felt it necessary to close a window PDQ  as the male glared in with his ultra piercing yellow eyes. He passed right below the wing mirror, rubbing himself on the side of the car as he strolled by.   

 Profile of a pride male

 

 Wannabe King

The breeding female was at this stage lying underneath the Combi fast asleep, just her head showing and front end.

 

Sleeping Queen

King's thirst

 Proud

 

Eventually all the pride sought shade under trees and we went along our way.

 

After our morning of lions we arrived back at camp seeing little else.

 

On our afternoon drive the Lion pair were still lying in the shade of the trees where we left them. I omitted to mention before that despite being only two days since the porcupine kill, when all of the pride were covered in quills, not one quill was seen to remain in any of them.

 

We watched a Gemsbok being violently chased up the riverbed by a rival, when he eventually stopped he was gasping for breath.

 Hot Chase

 Giraffes high up on the dunes gave us a display of sliding down and kicking the rich red sand up as they did. I have never seen a sand-surfing Giraffe before !

 Sand Surfer

The bat-eared foxes were seen again near to camp on our return.

 Bat-eared Fox

 

A curious Jackal watched us as the sun sank into the dunes, giving us an array  changing hues.

 Curious Jackal

 

The  evening clouds again made the sunset spectacular.

Mata Mata Sunset

 

That evening we had a late Braai, enjoying the company of two new friends met en route, Gavin & Debbie.

 

During our stay at Mata Mata, we also met Oom Piet (Heymans) on one of his frequent KTP visits.   Despite having written a book about the KTP Lions, in particular the life of a female named “Oumus” and having studied the lions there extensively, he did not see ONE lion during his stay at Mata Mata – bet he wished he had been travelling with us !  

I purchased his book and he very graciously signed it for me with a personal message.

ps. I believe that after our tremendous sightings the pride did go off into the dunes, so maybe we were just lucky !

 

The Eagle Owl visited our camp waterhole again tonight. We heard a Scops Owl and two Pear Spotted Owls calling to each other during the night.

9^th May – Friday

 

I awoke early at 5.30am when the camp generator and lights started up. I looked out of my tent flap to see a spotted hyena at the waterhole, walking towards the fence in front of my tent. I watched as it walked down the fence line and out of sight.  I think I then dozed off again.

 

We got up later and left camp for a drive at 7.30 am.  Today was warm, sunny and cloudy and very humid.

 

There was not so much to see this morning. The usual buck, Ostrich, Black-breasted snake Eagle, 2 x Martial Eagles, Burchells Sandgrouse, Namaqua Sandgrouse, Namaquah Dove, Shaft-Tailed Wydah, Red Headed Finch – flocks of these, Tawny Eagle, and a cute mouse in the tree above my tent !

 

Springbok in the Sky

Dove reflections

 

Gemsbok Bull

Wildebeest on the run

 

Burchells Sand Grouse

 

 

tourist view

 

Wildebeest drinking

 

Wildebeest “twins”

 

Namaqua Dove

 

cavorting Wildebeest

 

female Red-headed Finch

 

Shaft-tailed Wydah

 

Yellow Canary

 

We also saw the crazy Springbok racing around at tops speed and pronking, but I did not manage a decent pronking pic.

 

Funny Face

 

Springbok flight

 

The dash

After a lazy lunch we went out again on our afternoon drive at 3.30pm.   Again, less to see as the clouds became heavy and looked stormy, the game was not showing.

We got a few Gemsbok and and running Springbok.  Last September in the park I never saw any snakes and was beginning to think that none *really* existed in the park – I wanted to see these snakes. This afternoon I was to see my first big fat Puff Adder crossing the road !

 

Puff Adder

 

  We saw the “now famous” Gemsbok with absolutely no antlers !  He looked more like a donkey. On processing the images I notice he also appears to have lost his right eye, must have had a royal battle !  We arrived back in camp at 5.45 pm. 

 ”donkey” Gemsbok

The Hyena came back to the camp waterhole while we were cooking our evening meal. The Pearl Spotted Owlet sat in a tree in camp on a low branch giving us an excellent sighting but flew off when we went to get the cameras !  The V. Eagle Owl was again sitting in the tree next to the hide.  The Hyena returned again at 9.30 pm and Hyena and jackal could be heard calling further in the river bed during the night, as well as Lions roaring in the distance.   Guess what?  - NO LION today !

 

It rained again tonight !

 

10^th May -Saturday

 

I awoke at 4.45 am thinking it was an hour later as the camp lights were on !  I woke the others up   duh !  We packed up and broke camp by 7.30 am and I really hope we did not disturb too many other campers because of me getting the time wrong.

We were to drive back to Twee Rivieren today to spend 3 nights there before going onto Nossob, given us chance to relax for a few nights in a chalet and pick up any more extensive supplies.  I was also a chance to catch up with "those back home" as Twee Rivieren is the only camp with cell phone coverage.

 

We saw the usual buck, again Meerkat to my delight, Kori Bustard, Martial Eagle, Vulture pruning itself in a tree, Pale Chanting Goshawk. 

 

Martial Eagle - Apologies, this image is heavily cropped.

 

Grey-backed Vulture

 

Bird & Beest

 

Pale Chanting Goshawk

 

Where we had previously seen the Mother Hyena with cubs, we watched a pair of Jackals around her den, eating a carcass that she had left behind. We guessed she must have moved dens.

 

Giraffe high on the dunes once more.

 

dune Giraffe

 

Springbok

 

A family of meerkat once more, this time closer to the road, hiding under the shade of a bush, but in poor light.

 

Meerkat (Suricate) family

 

Sentry duty

 

There were rivelets of water in the riverbed near Twee Rivieren, hence more game.

 

We arrived at TR around 1.30pm and again had Chalet 12.

 

After unpacking we left for an afternoon drive at 4pm.  Drove out on Nossob Road. Close to camp on the river side, near dunes we saw a male Leopard in a clump of blue grass.  We watched for about 5 minutes as he walked over the ridge and disappeard, too far for any decent pics. We drove on for about 20 minutes and then turned back to the waterhole.  At Samevloeiing there was a Black-winged Stilt and a Three-banded Plover – don’t they know this is the desert??

 Black-winged Stilt

Three-banded Plover

Mid-day today had been hot with the day ending warm and pleasant. 

11^th May – Sunday

We were out the gate this morning smack on 7am. Our intention was to drive back along the Nossob Road to find the male Leopard from the night before, but thanks to a large double trailer fuel tanker leaving camp just after us, *racing*
past us doing about 60mph, almost forcing us off the road and leaving a HUGE, high cloud of dust for miles in front, we reasoned that everything would by now have been scared off into the dunes and we decided to abandon our plans, turn back and take the dune road.

Right, moan over, I will continue.

 

We proceeded  along the riverbed, saw a little Steenbok .

 

Steenbok

 

 Just before Munro saw a single male lion half way up the dunes, lying down washing his feet. He began roaring loudly before getting up and walking down in front of us, crossing into the riverbed, roaring again whilst urinating and kicking up dust with his rear feet/ He then continued to the waterhole to drink before continuing on up the riverbed.

 

Sleepy roar

 

The Dunemaster

 

Watching and waiting

 

I recognised the lion as the same male I had seen in almost the same place last September when travelling with my friend Penni, and he gave us almost a copycat display of that sighting.

 

Kicking up a fuss

 

While we were watching him drinking a Jackal back in the ridge beyond was standing still and giving a very vocal predator warning. It seemed strange it was creating so much about this lion at such a distance. Jonathan noticed what he assumed to be another jackal right on top of the ridge, above the noisy one. It was then that Johanis drove alongside and asked us if we had seen the Leopard !  We checked again with bino’s and sure enough the ears on the ridge was a leopard – no wonder the Jackal was making such a tremendous din !  We have since learned this to be the jackal’s “leopard warning” bark.

 

At this point we abandoned our idea of following the lion and waited patiently for the leopard to move off. After about 20 minutes she started to move along the ridge back towards Twee Rivieren, checking little caves and rocks, and marking along the way. We followed her as she walked the ridge for about 2 km.

 

Rock sniffer

 

Then, to our delight, she walked down into the riverbed, crossed the road in front of us and walked towards a camelthorn tree on the roadside to our right.

 

beautiful female Leopard

 

She swiftly leaped into the tree, scaring of a Pale Chanting Goshawk  and aimed her attention on a sleeping Verreaux's Eagle Owl. The owl flew off and just as fast as she had climbed up, she descended and walked off over the dunes .  There was no other vehicle but our two !   What a sighting !!

 

Leopard in Tree !

 

Tree raider

 

Leap

If it had not been for the dreadful petrol tanker we would have missed this !

Very few small creatures to be seen in the longer grass. We took pics of interesting vegetation, dunes, Tsamma melons and Gemsbok cucumber.

 

partially eaten Tsamma Melon

 

 

animal tracks on dunes  Notice the snake track too !

 

A few more delightful Steenboks were hiding in the long grass.

 

Steenbok in grass

 

We had lunch at a picninc stop before stating back to camp. On the way back we saw Ostrich dust-bathing, a delightful pair of Bee-eaters again,  a stunning Pride Male lion at Kij-Kij high up on the dunes. We waited as long as possible for him to come down without success before having to head back to camp.

 

Picninc stop

 

The Gemsbok in the dunes seemed a lot more skittish than those in the riverbed.

 

Dune Gemsbok

 

Dune “turkeys”

 

 

Ground Agama

 

Ostrich dust bath

Just before Twee Rivieren we saw a Spotted Eagle Owl in a tree.

 

Spotted Eagle Owl

 

Other sightings, 7 Black-headed herons, the usual other birds and buck, Pale Chanting Goshawk with a juvenile on the ground.

Forgive me if the rest of this blog is words only as time is not allowing me to complete it with images. However, all images will be available in my Kalahari 2008 Album.

12^th May – Monday

 

We were out of camp at 7 am again today.   We drove towards Mata Mata Road as there had been Cheetah with cub sightings the previous day. We did not find her, but again saw a male lion walking along the dune side. We followed him in beautiful first light as he walked towards the sun, mainly with his eyes closed !  He crossed over and up beside the riverbed .

 

By now several other vehicles had caught up with us and they started to scramble around. One man, travelling as a passenger climbed out of his window and stood on the window sill, leaning right across the roof to get photo’s ! His name was Jurgen, from Germany !!  It was suggested he got back in his vehicle, we did not see him do this again so hopefully he realised his error and for this reason I will not post this on the gallery of shame.

 

We decided to leave the lion and proceed further to try and find the cheetah without luck.  We stopped at Melk Vlei picnic spot, took a short dune ride then turned back to camp.  Just before the park gates we saw a tiny tortoise crossing the road and watched as he clambered over corregations and stones, getting cast on top of a larger stone, with his legs flailing !  Jonathan rescued him and popped him into the veldt before anyone could run over him.

 

We ventured back out at 3.30pm, this time along the Nossob road but saw nothing. We watched for a while at a waterhole and saw a lanner falcon take a pigeon in flight, no pics – but watch this space later ….!    A couple of Secretary birds entertained us for a while, we then started to drive back.   Our best sighting of the afternoon were a pair of Pygmy Falcons in a tree next to the road. The female appeared to be eating a large insect.

 

Back at camp we started to pack up for our departure to Nossob the next day.

13^th May – Tuesday

 

Packed up and left camp by 7am on the way to Nossob.  We saw a squirrel family awaking from their burrow and waiting for the sun to warm them up. Just past the squirrels, a Jackal awoke and stretched lazily.

 

We came across a Kori Bustard dust-bathing. I am not even going to mention how Jonathan tricked me into missing it flying !

 

A tawny Eagle looked down on us from it’s perch in a dead tree.

 

We then passed 4 juvenile male lions in the shade of bushes between Kij Kij and Melk Vlei, obviously recently ousted from their pride. They were not too happy to share time with us.

 

When we arrived at Melk Vlei and had a brief stop, there was new lion spore everywhere, especially around the ablutions, and the canvas screen windows in the ladies block were ripped out – with lion spore all around the window gap !  We guessed these delinquents to be the 4 juvenile males we had seen a few minutes earlier.

 

We watched a Jackal toying with some old bones at Kij Kij and Ostriches dust-bathing and chasing each other around. 

The road was now horrendous, and Jonathan was trying to teach me Afrikaans (or French?) I think.

 

We stopped at Dickbaardskolk for a break and braai where there were several disgusting Armoured Ground Crickets roaming around and eating each other – yuck !

 

The road corrugations got worse towards Nossob, far worse than last September. Because of these it made it imperative to travel toward the top of the speed limit to prevent the vehicle from shaking to bits, but we rounded a bend to see two 4x4’s speeding so fast that the lead vehicle almost lost control on the bend and came snaking towards us before regaining control  – a very hairy moment ! It was all too fast to even take reg. numbers.  Something must be done about the state of the roads and/or speeding drivers.

 

We arrived at Nossob around 3pm and set up camp quickly as we had booked a night drive which left at 5pm.   The night drive guide (Francois) spoke to the group in Afrikaans as I was the only Brit  so it was a bit strange for me to sit through an obviously interesting narrative without understanding hardly a word. Others did translate the more interesting bits for me. We did not see much on the drive. The best sighting was a tiny gecko which Francois caught, and a Cape Eagle Owl.

 

What was most interesting was to hear about the problems with the Eland last September. Apparently there are around 5-6000 Eland in the park ! They usually stay in the dunes feeding off Melons and such, but because of the lack of those last year, they came to the waterholes and drank the salty water, which itself became contaminated with Wildebeest fouling the waterholes, causing toxins to build up in the Eland and due to their low condition they then died in large numbers.

 

Last year the total rainfall in the park from January-September was only 1.5ml.  This year, just from January to May, the rainfall was already 450ml . The entire park was rich in vegetation. Nossob looked like wheat fields. Even in a vehicle high off the ground, it was hard to see over the grasses in many places. The sour grass was so tall it hid all but the tallest of animals.  Sometimes, Gemsbok by the roadside were only visible by their horns.

 

We retired to our tent tired and weary that night,  but it was not long before the African night sounds took over. As usual at Nossob the Jackals raided camp after lights out, upending the still non-animal proof rubbish bins around the camp.  I cannot help but wonder why it is so difficult for SanParks to make all the bins jackal proof.

 

After the Jackal raid, a screech owl made it’s presence known and around 2.15 am the Lions began their telegraph calling, with the most amazing vibrating roars. It sounded as though they were at the camp waterhole at one stage.  This continued on and off for about 2 hours.   At around 3.30 am I was wide awake and had to visit the ablutions, some distance away – only on the way back did I ask myself the sense in that call of nature !

 

We woke up later than usual the following morning.

 

14^th May – Wednesday

 

Late up today and out camp at 7.20am. We had heard about a Cheetah with young cubs near to Cubitjie Quap and Lions with young cubs at Marie Se Draai after catching up again with Gavin , and Derek who we met when travelling up from TR, so set off to try and find the Cheetah.   Near to Cubitjie Quap we came across a lioness limping along the road, sporting a badly injured rear leg.   She was obviously not in the mood to be followed so we left her alone to go on her way.  We were later informed she had been bitten on her hip by a puff adder several months earlier and had only managed to survive so far because the pride had young cubs so were not moving too far. Now that the cubs were more mobile she was starting to get left behind.

 

We did not see the Cheetah and decided to return to camp. 

We were back out of camp at 2.30pm and drove as far as Polentswa waterhole.

 

Another Gemsbok with a seriously deformed horn covering most of it’s face and we saw large herds of Red Hartebeest in this area.

The road north of Kwang was even worse. We did battle on but grass and broken waterholes made good sightings hopeless. At Polentswa we saw our first Bateleur of the trip so far, an adult and juvenile.  We then turned back to camp, deciding, as others in camp had done before, that this would be our only venture north of Kwang due to the very bad state of the roads. 

 

Sightings on the way back, Bateleur (3), Tawny Eagle, Martial Eagle, Black-breasted snake eagle, Black-shouldered Kite, and an orange sand lizard; Wildebeest and fighting Gemsbok, Springbok and Jackal.

 

We enjoyed warm Rossterkoek for tea with Strawberry jam – yum !

 

That night, I was awoken again at 2.30am by a Jackal standing right next to my tent, crunching chicken bones in my ear before standing and howling for several minutes !

 

15^th May – Thursday

 

This morning we set out smack on 7am and drove to Marie Se Draai. We arrived to see the very young lion cubs (about 3 months old) with their slightly older cousins in the riverbed waiting for their mother’s to return. The light was very bad for photo’s streaming straight towards us higher up than the riverbed/waterhole and the cubs soon took shade in the bushes and a fallen tree beside the road, making it even more difficult to cope with the high contrasts.  That and the car jostling amongst visitors meant we only got a few shots.

 

We stayed briefly and then drove back to camp and out on the North road to try and see the so far elusive Cheetah, but we had apparently missed them by about half an hour.

 

Again we saw many raptors and at last I saw my very first Cape Cobra as it hurriedly crossed the road and disappeared in the  long grass before we hardly had chance to stop and poke the cameras out. Just managed the tail end !  OK I now believe snakes do exist in the KTP !

 

We returned to camp for lunch and had a walk around the campsite with cameras. It was good to get pics of the smaller birds and butterflies.

 We saw a White-faced Scops Owl high in a tree, and another Cobra in the bush right behind one of the chalets that sit just behind the shop !    Can you believe that earlier we had witnessed some very young children sitting in the sand in front of their chalet alone , playing in the sand with buckets and spades !  I can only assume they were Brits ! 

 

Later on our afternoon drive we saw many small snakes on the road, or by the roadside, a scorpion, a variety of small birds at Cubitjie Quap, but not much else.

 

During the night was quieter except that I was woken by  the blood-curdling screams of something being killed. I heard no predator sounds so possibly a leopard kill.

 

16^th May – Friday    Raptor kills

 

We awoke to a beautiful sunrise this morning, and were out the gate first thing again determined to find the Cheetah and cubs. We spent 2 hours plus driving up and down between Cubitjie Quap and Kwang, which is where they were regularly seen, with no luck.

 

It did give us chance to witness many of the smaller creatures and different small birds which tend to swarm in flocks to CQ waterhole. We sat on the roadside and watched Brants Whistling Rats and Gecko’s.

 

As we were slowly driving South we met a Bateleur on the road with a fresh Gecko kill.   We stopped to take pics as it hopped around, swinging the unfortunate gecko from it’s beak. Once it had finished it’s prey it lumbered towards us and slowly took off as only this big bulk of a bird can, flying straight towards us as if it were going to actually torpedo into us !  Great photo opportunities, it was too close to fit in the lens !

 

We saw more Eagles in flight, Secretary birds dancing around at Kwang, other Bateleur, a Vulture skipping along before taking off.

 

 Whilst parked up at Kwang watching the lazy goings on  around the waterhole we watched a pair of Lanner Falcons, occasionally attempting to catch the doves that noisily flocked down every so often.

 

Jonathan was determined to capture a Lanner killing a dove in mid-flight !  right ….   

 

 I saw a Jackal approaching in the distance head-on towards the waterhole and locked onto him with my lens. I don’t think Jonathan is quite so fanatical about taking Jackal pics as me  <grin>.    As I watched the Jackal through my viewfinder, he suddenly made a speedy dash towards us, I started to release the shutter on rapid bursts.  I was now quite excited at his approach, kicking up dust and at full stretch . I yelled to Jonathan to not miss it, “Look, Look!”  Jonathan replied, “Got it, Got it”  and we were both firing away ,  hmmmm

Then the Jackal suddenly veered around in a rapid arc and shot off to the side.  I forgot to stop firing enough for my camera to realise I was locking onto a sideways moving target and not an oncoming  Grrrrrr.  

 

It all happened so fast, and then I saw the Jackal was actually chasing the Lanner , which was flying close to the ground. This was even more exciting as I got Lanner and Jackal both in the frame – I was trying to contain my excitement. Even more so when I realised the Lanner had caught a dove !  The Lanner had to release the dove or get caught by the Jackal and the Jackal managed a swipe at the birds before they both escaped. The Jackal actually had a feather in his mouth when the chase ended. This all happened in a few seconds.

 

I was still reluctant to take my focus off the Jackal as Jonathan was by now yelling at me to look at what he had taken and I said NO, wait !  His insistence eventually paid off and to my disgust (grrr) he had the Lanner in flight with the dove in it’s talons, in focus !

Neither of us realised we were both focusing on a different subject until it was all over. As for me, because of the sudden change in direction of the Jackal I did not get one in-focus shot   Grrrrrrr.  Well done though Jonathan ! 

 

We again looked for the Cheetah on our way back to camp with still no success. She was not sighted by anyone today. We saw a very large herd of Red Hartebeest.

 

Back at the camp hide we watched a couple of White-backed Vultures and an Abdim’s Stork. We got nice Abdim’s Stork in the tree near to the hide – a first sighting for us both.

 

We had a quieter evening today and enjoyed a natter and drinks over the braai with our neighbours, billyf – nice to meet you both billy!  We had an early night, was much warmer tonight.

 

17^th May – Saturday     In search of Cheetah

 

Lions roaring again in the night but not so close as before. We were up early and set at the hide again until gates opened. We drove to Marie Se Draai to try and see lions as we had been told they had killed a large Wildebeest in the riverbed the night before and were seen on the night drive.   We could not see them so drove around the loop. Saw a pair of White-backed Vultures nest building.  We came back to camp and out onto the north road by 8.15 am, continuing our quest to find the Cheetah again.

 

We found the injured female lion under a bush, lying flat out and breathing heavily. She was the lame lioness that had the puff adder bite and was now looking very sick.  We suspected her presence close to CQ was preventing the Cheetah sightings as it was near where the Cheetah usually brought her cubs down from the dunes.

 

We returned to camp and I began writing up my journal when Bucky came over to say there had been sightings of the Cheetah on the road, moving towards camp and she was there in the area, so we skipped lunch and went back out again to find her.

 

Once more we spent some time driving up and down the road near where she had been seen and then suddenly I spotted her beside the road on the riverbed side in very long grass.  We only managed a few scant pics before she moved deeper into the undergrowth and off towards the riverbed, but we did see all 4 cubs !  We then drove to the top of the lookout just south of CQ and watched her and cubs walk to the riverbed and lay down near a dead tree, the female looking back up the riverbed.

 

A sizeable Springbok herd were moving slowly her way in the distance so we watched and waited… and waited…. And waited.   As the herd got nearer they then decided to rest, lying down too far from our Cheetah mom.   We stayed on top of the lookout for 3 hours in total.  The Springbok rested for about 2 hours before moving toward the Cheetah again, and all this time we had not seen the Cheetah move or glimpsed her at all.

Suddenly as the Springbok got nearer to her, the tail enders of the herd were spooked by something and started to run forward from the back, setting the front of the herd off.  We knew then that she would have to make an early move or miss out completely and sure enough she sprang into action and made her bid to catch her prey, but the herd were still not close enough when they ran so her attempt failed. She stood panting for a couple of minutes and then walked into the shade of a tree. After a further 10 minutes she called to her cubs who obediently came out of the grass and ran over to join her. From our lookout we had been joined on and off by a few other campers, but only a nice couple from the Netherlands who had been traversing the whole of Africa for a year and “Jurgen the German” stuck it out with us until the action occurred.

 

Although they were too far off for photo’s I know Jonathan got some video footage .  He also managed some better shots of the Cheetah and cubs before she vanished in the undergrowth.

 

What a great sighting !  By now it was 4.30 pm and we had booked again on the night drive which left at 5pm so we set off back.    We only had time to quickly grab warm clothing before the night drive began. 

 

Back at camp we learned that Francois had seen the lion pride on a kill earlier that afternoon when he was grading the road (aha!) and in fact the youngsters had tried to catch the tyre as he drove along, so we headed first of all back towards Marie Se Draai, but alas the pride had dispersed and were not found, so we then drove back to camp and out on the north side to check for the Cheetah. We found the Cheetah with her cubs walking towards us on the road, only about 2km from camp. What a thrill !

We saw the family twice in one day.  On return to camp we saw a Barn Owl in the tree by reception. 

 

That night (our last at Nossob) we again heard Lion roars and just before dawn 2 Jackals voicing the leopard warning bark.

 

Sunday – 18^th May

We rose early and were out gates at 7am again, driving north to try and see the Cheetah once more but no sign of her so we returned and headed south to Marie Se Draai. Just outside the camp gates were so many fresh predator spoor it was like a puzzle to tell what was happening.  We could make out Lion, possibly Leopard, Jackal and Hyena and Cheetah !   We got a glimpse of the lions in the distance under a tree and well hidden but did not find the Cheetah.  We knew that the Lions were moving up from the South towards camp and that the Cheetah was moving towards camp from the North and were more than a little worried about the two predators meeting up, knowing it would not be good for our Cheetah and cubs if they did.

 

Little did we know then that the Cheetah was seen on the webcam on this day and that was the last reported sighting of them since.  There was subsequently a  report of a cheetah had to be shot near camp on (the 19^th?) because it had a broken back, and it was not known if it was caused by lions or speeding motorist.  For a while we feared this was our Cheetah mom and if so her cubs would not have survived either.  Thankfully, later visitors to the park were able to take pics of the two Cheetah Mom's with Cubs close to Nossob camp, so it does look as though this successful Cheetah mother and her cubs survived !

 

We returned to camp at 8.30 to pack up to be hit by a sudden mini sand storm ! We were taking pics of squirrels checking the weather from their burrow when the storm hit and my camera got sand blasted !  We also got pics of a Pale Chanting Goshawk drinking at our water tap. We broke camp at 10.30 to drive back down to Twee Rivieren.  This visit, Nossob did not really deliver as the other camps had, probably because of the abundant vegetation.

 

We saw very little on the drive back after leaving Nossob, just the odd buck, Ostrich, a few PCG and other raptors. The park suddenly seemed devoid of life. 

 

On return to Twee Rivieren, in the tree just before the gates we came across a small traffic jam. Once we managed to manoeuvre forward a little closer the fuss was about a Cape Cobra raiding the large Sociable Weaver’s nest in a tree.  I know again that Jonathan got far better pics of this, the parked vehicles were preventing me getting much more.   We watched over the roof’s of the amassed vehicles as the Cobra fell from the nest and slithered off into the undergrowth. I know it looks as thought I got out the vehicle and laid on my stomach to get a shot, but I can honestly say I did not !

 

We left Twee Rivieren at 5.30pm and were pleased to find the road in good order, now right from the camp entrance, much progress had been made since our arrival 2 weeks previously, enabling us to have a speedier return to our overnight stop at Spitskop, arriving at 7.30pm.

 

That night it was strange trying to sleep when I was awoken by an alien noise outside, and as I regained consciousness I realised it was an aircraft overhead – civilisation had returned……

 

This concludes the end of my report, I hope you have got some sinsight to how magical this wonderful place is and why I cannot wait to return again.