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”