5 June

We had more of a relaxed morning and only left for Urikaruus at 8h30. I had really enjoyed our stay at Bitterpan, but it was time to move on. The road was pretty much the same as the first half. I realised somewhere along the road that I had not even bothered about the fact that nobody was following us on this part of the trip. I just knew that Monty was not going to let us down !

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4z1h208


We soon came across 2 Namaqua sandgrouse walking in the road.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=54d8d2p


...and they walked along the road ...and they walked along the road!!! Either the animals take one look at me and run or they dawdle along the road...let's face it sandgrouse walking along a road do not make award winning videos This was definitely a morning for steenbok. Mostly they are quite timid but eventually one stood still for a moment and I managed to take a photo.

There were also many gemsbok around. We then saw a secretary bird…the first one on this trip. It was quite far away…hunting along the dune. There were also many jackals, kori bustards and LBJs. One day I will id all these LBJs. Both waterholes (Strathmore and Nu-Quap ) were dry and in disrepair. I had expected this though. As we neared the Mata Mata road I started looking really hard for lions in the dunes. I know they like to walk up the dunes and just plonk themselves on the other side where people cannot see them. Well yet again there was no sign of a lion…no tracks…not anything!! We had planned to go to Mata Mata before we went south to Urikaruus. There we filled up with petrol and had our morning coffee. Once again I was entertained by the camp critters…… we also found a white faced owl in a tree just outside the shop. I always enjoy seeing owls.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=66evbbs

We left for Urikaruus and of course first on the list was the giraffe.



We stopped at Craig Lockhart ...I love watching the birds here. All of a sudden there was a commotion right next to my side of Monty. A juvenile little banded goshawk (I think) had swooped down and caught a dove. He promptly flew into the tree next to us and devoured it. We had seen a KILL !!!!. We tried to drive around the tree to get a better view but the bird kept concealing itself!



We also saw many crimson breasted shrikes but as you all know they are quite difficult to photograph.





After watching another group of giraffes we moved onto Urikaruus...we had not stayed at Urikaruus and we were really looking forward to staying there. We arrived at 13h00

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

....Monty had yet again brought us to our destination without a hitch (also without a sighting of a lion )