9 June .The last Game Drive.

We were packed up and ready to go on our last game drive by 7h30. Unfortunately so were 3 other cars. We pulled up at the gate behind them and waited for it to open. I jumped out of the car to go and see if the jackal that we had seen the previous night on our walk had left any bones behind but I got chatting to the folks in front of us instead. They asked us if we had seen lions……shame, I had to tell them that we had seen 10 lions in total. They were on their last game drive as well and had not seen one lion. I reassured them that we were bound to see a lion on this drive. The gates opened and we set off….4 cars in convoy. Once again there were no other animals around…good sign. We soon picked up tracks and before long we found two lions walking in the road.

I started taking photos but the battery died after taking the first one….at least I still had the video camera.
They were in no hurry and ambled on to Leeudril where after a few head scratching episodes and squirting and spraying they settled down to drink.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4kdp84y

We did not have a good view of these two so we decided to leave the convoy of cars and move on. We presumed the lions would go lie down on the dunes anyway. We wanted to get to Rooiputs to see if anything was happening there. Well, there were lion tracks everywhere but not a glimpse of a lion or a lioness anywhere. They had disappeared. I consoled myself by taking a few photos of the whistling rats.

We then continued to Kij Kij. We picked up more tracks in the road as we left Rooiputs, heading in the direction of Kij Kij. The tracks disappeared and then reappeared. This was both frustrating as well as exciting . We were almost at Kij Kij when we saw them…..once again 2 male lions walking in the road. We drove alongside them and then decided to drive on and wait for them at the waterhole. Unfortunately no matter which way we parked the sun was in a bad place for taking photographs. Not to worry I thought just sit back and enjoy this …the camera battery will probably die anyway. We had a good view of them walking towards us and we then noticed that the one had a nick in his ear. These were definitely the two lions that we had seen the day before. They had walked at least 20kms through the night…quite amazing. They drank water and then true to form they walked up the dune and made themselves comfortable. This sighting was all ours…awesome. And I managed to get some photos..this time the battery did not die!

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=6cr4sb9

We decided to have coffee and watch them for a while . One or two cars joined us but the lions did not move. Reluctantly we started making our way back to Twee Rivieren. Between Leeudril and Rooiputs there were 2 more lions and 1 lioness sleeping on the dune. We did not linger for long…there was a journey that had to be undertaken. When we got to Leeudril I could not believe how many sparrows had congregated there. I think every single sparrow that lived in the Kgalagadi must have assembled there.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=54koqx4

We also had a very good sighting of a martial eagle.

Once again there were not many antelope around until we got much closer to Twee Rivieren. Then it was as if they all came out to say good bye. We had a last look for the leopard and cub but to no avail. We could not complain though because we had seen 7 different lions on one game drive.
We left Twee Rivieren at 11h00……..we once again had the most amazing trip to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4ms61ck

Extra Facts

"The day befores"……don’t you just hate the day before stories!!!

The day before we got to….

Twee Rivieren - the leopard and her cub had been sighted

Nossob – Cheetah killed a springbuck at Marie se Gat

Bitterpan – Leopard had killed a wild cat at the waterhole

Kielie Krankie……4 spotted hyenas had killed a gemsbok alongside the road leading to Kielie Krankie.

The Roads

The 60 km stretch outside the park….awful

Between Melkvlei and Dikbaardskolk…… pretty awful

Between Urikaruus and Mata Mata …absolutely $%&*#@ awful

The rest of the roads inside the park were fine .

Accommodation.

We stayed at TR, Nossob, Bitterpan, Urikaruus, Kielie Krankie…all super with great friendly staff.

First time sightings

Ludwig’s Bustard

Mole snake

Bru bru

Chestnut vented tit babbler

Familiar chat

Red necked falcon

Gabar goshawk

Woodpecker

Dusky sunbird.

Porcupine

Spotted hyena

We traveled 3208km from start to finish ....and Monty did not complain at all.

8 June ( cont)

We left again at 14h40. By the way I had checked my photos of the lions from the previous day and neither of them had a nick in the ear…so that put paid to that theory of them being the same lions! We were hoping to get as far as Kij Kij and to catch the lions waking up on the way back. Not far along the road we saw a juvenile PCG walking along the road towards us. We thought he would take off but he didn’t. He strutted right up to us and boy did he have attitude. He had this mean look about him and he was definitely on a mission!

The next minute he jumped into the bushes and grabbed a rat. We really couldn’t see very well in the bushes but then he actually moved out of the bushes into an open area and we had a perfect view. SO grabbed my camera and I grabbed the video camera…..and it was rather gory I must admit. He ate that entire rat except the stomach…ugh!!!!

Yet again we had seen a kill.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4trr288

Not long after that a car flagged us down…he was so excited. He told us that he had just had the most amazing sighting ever…….lions at the waterhole fighting over a female in heat…damn we had missed it all. Oh well , never mind I thought…at least somebody got to witness it. We continued . There were many confusing tracks all over the place and incidently there was not one other animal to be seen. We then saw a car pulled over and we slowed down. The next minute we noticed a lioness walking over the dune.

She walked towards us, crossed the road and then continued until she disappeared over another dune.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=6469jwn

We waited for a while but nothing happened. We then continued to Rooiputs. We followed fresh tracks leading into the Rooiputs camping area…..eventually we found the culprit….another lioness walking towards the dune....AND on top on the dune was a male.

We had come across a mating pair. We watched these two for quite a while. Every now and then they disappeared behind the dune…there was roaring and growling and then they would appear again. They obviously did not want an audience when it got down to the nitty gritty. They kept on looking over the opposite dune and I was convinced there was something bothering them. We could no longer sit there (we had had all this excitement to ourselves ) because we had to get back to camp.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4lo0dpe

No sooner had we left when we came across a male lion running back towards the mating pair. He was in a hurry and he was roaring his head off. We did turn around to follow him but he disappeared over the dune.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=6gxjeyc
So once again we turned around and headed for camp. The next minute we came across two more lions running in the same direction. We decided that we could not turn around again…..they would probably just run over the dune as well. There was going to be one helluva showdown at Rooiputs and we had to go back to camp. We were well satisfied with our sightings that day (6 lions and 2 lionesses)……..we had a lovely braai ( yet again) and went for a walk to the gate. We then walked a little way along the fence towards Two Rivers. I was hoping to find an owl or two but instead we saw a jackal lying very close to waterhole with the remains of a carcass in his mouth. It looked like it could have been the backbone from a springbok. We had reached our last night in the park. I lay in bed wondering what those lions were up to …it kept my mind off the fact that we had to hit the long road home the next day.

8 June

This was our last full day in the park. Where had the time gone? . We had a mishap or two when we woke up. The pump that pumps all the water to the chalets had tripped but SO knew how to solve this problem because it had happened the day before. So he jumped on the roof and sorted that out. Then when I wanted to put the kettle on there was no gas….I might add that I do not have much of a sense of humour before I have had my first cup of tea. SO to the rescue..it was just a matter of changing over the gas bottles! A quick look at the waterhole revealed a wild cat . We left Kielie Krankie at 8h20 and decided there and then that Kielie Krankie would always be on our itinerary when visiting the park We were taking the dune road to Kij Kij and then on to Twee Rivieren where we would be spending our last night. First up on the list was a scrubhare..but he did a quick disappearing act. We went on to see steenbok, gemsbok, ostriches, jackals and many PCGs Then we spotted a red necked falcon. ..


Just before we arrived at Kij Kij we saw two tawny eagles in a tree. There were many animals around the t –junction. There was a group of young ostriches but they were all different sizes…we had not seen that before. We had a coffee break at Kij Kij. I was scanning the trees with my bins in the hopes of finding a leopard…but no such luck. I was rewarded however with a woodpecker and a female dusky sunbird. I did not see the woodpecker well enough to say which type it was….but it was definitely a woodpecker. We then continued in the direction of Rooiputs. It was very quiet along this stretch. We did not even see a springbok. We got to Rooiputs…quiet. We drove to the camping area and there were lion tracks everywhere…..but no lions. We had a really good look around because I needed to make a quick ladies stop. I made SO park Monty as close to the ablutions as possible......okay so I was chicken...so would you all be if you had seen the lion tracks that I had just seen. Well we left Rooiputs without seeing a lion and drove onto Leeudril. We then picked up more tracks in the road and about half way to Leeudril we found them…..2 male lions.



Yet again they were sprawled out on the dunes. Looking through the bins we were able to see that they had eaten and that the one had a few scratches on his face as well as a nick in his ear. We wondered whether they were the same two that we had seen along the Aub riverbed the previous day. What made us think that was that the GPS reading was pretty similar. I thought that when I got back to camp I would check the photos of the lions the day before and see whether either of them had a nick in the ear. We could see that the lions weren’t going anywhere so we moved on .
We stopped under the famous weaver’s bird nest that hangs over the road and saw this little fellow.



Am I correct in assuming that it is a baby rednecked falcon ?

Just before Twee Rivieren we started seeing some antelope again. We also noticed a young kudu bull hiding behind a bush. We had only ever seen Kudu near Mata Mata and Marie se Gat. He then walked over the dune…..too far away to photograph . A brief sighting of a few meerkats was next and then we arrived at Twee Rivieren......

7 June (cont)

Kielie Krankie was fantastic….the accommodation and facilities were really great and the view …well ..that was just out of this world. http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=504x3cj

Our welcoming committee.

As much as we would have loved to have spent the rest of the day sitting on that balconey and watching the waterhole….there were lions out there and we had go back and see them. We left again at 3h15……the plan being to drive to Houmoed and back We got to the spot where we had last seen the cheetah…..GONE !! We carried on to where we had last seen the lions and of course they were still there….passed out without a care in the world. We continued to Houmoed …we planned to stop off at the lions on the way back to camp..maybe they would get up and go walkabout. The next minute I saw another cobra moving through the bushes. He was not as obliging as the previous one that we had seen and soon disappeared. I don’t think it was the same one….we were quite far away from the spot where we had seen the other one in the morning. Two cobras in one day. On the way back from Houmoed we saw the giant eagle owl in the same tree. This time there was two of them !!!. Not long after that we came across some meerkats. They were very too busy looking for their supper ….. but as usual one was always on guard

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=54dmfxh

We continued and all of a sudden I saw a PCG pounce on a dove….he had caught his supper ! We had seen another kill!!!

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=62z9dog

We arrived back at the lions …..got comfortable with a beer and a sherry and waited …..and waited and yes we waited until we could wait no more …..but the lions continued sleeping blissfully unaware of the frustrations they were causing us. We headed back to camp and I pointed out a jackal to SO . It just looked so funny so see a jackal curled up in a little ball fast asleep in this wide open space. When SO looked he suddenly stopped( well as suddenly as one can in Monty ) and yelled “ Cheetah “ ! And there they were walking towards a tree. There was a lot of cavorting and squirting and spraying going on in the tree.

They then left the tree and walked back in the direction they had come from. We followed them and we tried our best to get some photos for the research team. The light was low and the time was low…we had to leave these cheetahs to their ambling and get back to camp.

What an exciting day we had had….we were down to our second last night and eventually the Kgalagadi was pulling out all the stops……….I knew in my heart that this magical place would not let us down. Yet again the fire was lit and we kept our eye on the waterhole. Soon we noticed some bat eared foxes coming for a drink, then a scrub hare ran across the dunes. The final bit of excitement was when a porcupine put in an appearance at the waterhole. This was a first for us ..we had not ever seen a porcupine in Kgalagadi. We tried to video it but the waterhole is quite far away and it was dark. My video camera was just unable to focus on the porcupine….even with the spotlight. ! What a day it had been.!!

7 June

Once again we were packed and ready to leave by 07h30. We had planned to drive to Houmoed, turn around and then backtrack to Kielie Krankie. Yet again the Kgalagadi was alive with animals. We also saw a tawny eagle and many crimson breasted shrikes. The first hour and half passed without much excitement and I was beginning to think that a coffee stop would be order. We went around a bend and we saw two cars parked in the road. I thought to myself…this is it….this is my lion sighting. Well no lions but something equally as exciting. I gave SO my camera because the sighting was on his side and I grabbed my video camera. Unfortunately we only got the tail end of this sighting and they soon disappeared over the dunes.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=6gt90fc

We thought we would continue to Munro and have coffee but not ten minutes down the road a car flagged us down and as we pulled up alongside them my eye picked up the reason for them stopping us. There on the dune in front of us lay 2 beautiful black maned lions! Eventually we had found them. I did not care that they were far away and on SO’s side of the car…it was a lion sighting. That was all that mattered.





We decided to have coffee there and keep our eye on them in case they should decide to move. Needless to say they were all partied out from the night before. The only movement from them was the laying down of their heads as they made them themselves comfortable…. After finishing our coffee we moved on to Munro……..there were hordes and hordes of sandgrouse at the waterhole. We then had a brief sighting of meerkats but they were not interested in posing for us. We sat a while at Houmoed where I photographed this heron

and then turned around and set off for Kielie Krankie .

Soon after I spotted a giant eagle owl…..

this was turning into a really exciting drive. Not long after that we had the most amazing sighting of cape cobra. It was lying in the road but then it moved off. I fully expected it to disappear down a hole which it duly did. But then we saw it come out of another hole and so it continued in and out of burrows, obviously hunting but not finding anything. We were able to watch it for a while. I think it was positively the longest cobra I had ever seen.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4tq8di9

We then came across the lions again .They were still fast asleep on the dunes and were totally unaware of all the cars parked beneath them. We found the cheetahs again( I presume it was the same 2). They were also asleep on the dunes.

They were actually quite a bit closer to the lions than previously. I thought they would have long since disappeared. We eventually arrived at Kielie Krankie at about 12h30. As you can imagine we were on a high…we had seen lions, cheetah, meerkats, cobra and an owl all in one morning. It does not get much better than that!!!!

6 June (cont)

We left again at 15h00 and we decided to go North. We saw giraffe just as we left Urikaruus. They looked like they were making their way to the waterhole. We decided to drive to Craig Lockhart and back. We saw many animals on the way there which made me think that there were no predators around. We sat a while at Craig Lockhart and then headed back to camp. Just as we got back onto the road we saw a wild cat sitting on my side of the road….the sun was not in a bad position for a photo but no doubt kitty would run before we got there. Well, this cat was in no rush …I think it was waiting for something to pop up out of a burrow.









http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=6fjxxmp
It was one of the best wild cat sightings that we had had in a long while. After that I came across this bird that was begging to have it’s photo taken…..not sure exactly what it is though…..I am still confused with all these juvenile gabars and banded goshawks.



We just made it back to camp in time and SO lit the fire. Strangely enough it did not seem to be so cold anymore. Our fire was well on the go when SO heard a noise. He shone the spot light on the waterhole and oh my goodness me ……there were 4 spotted hyenas at the waterhole. They started walking towards our unit but then moved off in the direction of the tourist assistant’s unit. We flew out to the walkway at the back and with the help of SO and the spotlight I managed to video them.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=6gx9nyu
Well I was speechless...this was awesome. It was a first for us.In the past we had seen a brown hyena on a night drive from Nossob and we had seen a dead spotted hyena at Rooiputs. After the 2 hyenas disappeared from view we went back to our unit and after a few minutes we realised that the other 2 were still quite close to our unit but I had run out of tape....and there was no ways I was going down to Monty to fetch another. We were very happy campers when we retired for the night….we may have not seen lions but we had seen another wildcat as well as the hyenas...was our luck changing….or was the Kgalagadi just being it's usual unpredictable self.

6 June

To say that it was freezing cold when we got up that morning must be the understatement of the year……it was %$#*& cold. Moaning was not going to make it any warmer so I made a beeline down to kitchen to make some tea. Disaster…some little camp critter had got into our kitchen and feasted on my packet of papayas. There were bits of papaya all over the kettle, the stove, the flask and mugs, the sink as well as the floor. I had bought these slightly unripe papaya in Upington and had nursed them all the way. I had taken them out of the fridge the night before because I like to eat them at room temperature ( although at Urikaruus room temperature takes on a different meaning!). This little camp critter had decided that he would eat half of each one therefore spoiling everybody else’s fun…. Anyway I washed the kettle and then put it on for a desperately needed cup of tea. I reached into the fridge and Disaster…the milk was frozen. Not only that the potato salad , cheese and dips were frozen. As a matter of fact just about everything that was not in the door of the fridge was frozen.. ..not a good day. I then looked at the grocery box and wondered whether it was safe to put my hand in there for some more long life milk. But all was safe and the thief obviously just fancied my papaya. Anyway SO turned the fridge down…I cleaned up the thief’s mess and we still managed to hit the road by 7h30.
We drove south and our first sighting of the day were some ground squirrels. They were just coming out of their burrows and were quite obliging when it came to posing for the camera.





We went on to see a secretary bird hunting along the top of a dune. ....we also noticed that there was a jackal watching the secretary bird. Perfect picture opportunity. I love taking photos of creatures along the top of a dune. I always feel that they look so majestic !!! Disaster…my battery was dead, finished , flat BROKEN..I could not believe this was happening. I grabbed the video instead and SO tried to pacify me by saying that he would try and fix it. Either the battery was not holding it’s charge or it was not making contact properly.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=6cxofw2

We then came across some lion tracks so we followed them to the next waterhole and scoured the area but no such luck. At least I knew that there had been a lion in the area. One step closer I suppose. We had coffee up at Auchterlonie …drove further south , turned around at Houmoed and then started making our way back to Urikaruus. We saw loads of gemsbok and a pygmy falcon. I tried the camera again and managed a few shots before it died .






When we arrived back at camp I questioned the tourist assistant about our midnight thief. He said it was most probably a spotted genet. The wind was very cold in the afternoon and I did not feel like sitting in the tent with the flaps closed so I went and sat in Monty. I had a bit of a view of the waterhole and I spent a pleasant hour or so watching and waiting http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=6czzl9d