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.