Not long after that we saw a group of gemsbok with 2 tiny young ones. Of course..they did the usual.. look and run. The young one's horns were just little bumps and they were very light in colour. Their coat seemed to be quite fluffy. After we had gone over a few dunes I realized that this was not nerve wracking stuff. Monty did a fair amount of rocking from side to side going over some of the dunes..otherwise it wasn’t a bad drive at all. I also knew that there were guests coming up behind us so if anything should go wrong we would soon have company…comforting thought. We went on to see jackals, ostriches, kori bustards, northern black korhaans, ant eating chats and hordes of LBJs
We also came across some eland and we saw 3 steenbokke along the way.
A first for me was this Gabar goshawk. I hope I have identified it correctly.
A first for me was this Gabar goshawk. I hope I have identified it correctly.
I noticed quite a few bateleurs soaring in the sky as well.
We reached the 28km mark where the road makes a 90° turn. It then seems like that the road runs along the top of a dune so there are not so many bumpy bits. We then continued along the 8 km to Klein Stofpan. I rather enjoy the anticipation of approaching the waterholes….maybe this is where the lions are hanging out. Well, talk about a huge let down…..there were no lions and the pump was in a state of disrepair. One has to do a little detour to get to the waterhole and I thought it would have been better if there was a sign up warning you that the waterhole is no longer a waterhole. Oh well, we continued to the next waterhole….Namabies…the same story. Although we had not had any major sightings I had thoroughly enjoyed the drive through the dunes. The scenery was breathtaking and Monty had performed really well.... http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=61t5xfb We arrived at 13h00...
Bitterpan is great….the view of the pan is awesome. I quickly took a few photos from our balconey. The clouds looked quite ominous at one stage and I thought …here comes another thunderstorm ….but it brightened up a bit later
Bitterpan is great….the view of the pan is awesome. I quickly took a few photos from our balconey. The clouds looked quite ominous at one stage and I thought …here comes another thunderstorm ….but it brightened up a bit later
After a quick unpack and shower…I tried out the hairdryer. It worked perfectly. It was quite magical sitting in Monty and gazing out over the dunes while drying my hair. After a bite to eat I settled myself around the braai area and tried to catch up on my bird list. I noticed a different bird flitting around….chestnut- vented tit babbler. Another new one for me. I may not have seen any lions yet but I was certainly adding some new birds to my list. We decided not to go out for a drive in the afternoon….we relaxed and enjoyed the company of the other guests. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of a leopard ( Willem told us that a leopard had killed a wild cat at the waterhole the previous evening). But no such luck. I downloaded photos and then got ready to photograph the sunset
. 
Our neighbours decided to go up into the tower to scout out the terrain for us...they had a brief sighting of a hyena on the other side of the pan. By the time we had gathered our wits about us and grabbed our bins the hyena was gone.
We all gathered around the braai area and watched the sun set.
It was magnificent .
We spent a pleasant evening chatting to everybody and listening to each other's experiences and views of the Kgalagadi.
The following video clip was actually 2min 12 secs long but I have speeded it up so that you are able to see the sun set.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=6b8rus4
Lying in bed that night I realised that we were half way through our stay in KTP and we had not seen any lions/cheetahs or leopards. I had heard of some people that had spent 10 days in the park and not seen one lion. Was this going to happen to us ?? After watching that sun set and spending the evening around the fire I decided that it really did not matter......the KTP is spectacular no matter what you see or don't see. After all I had seen many predators in the past....
Lying in bed that night I realised that we were half way through our stay in KTP and we had not seen any lions/cheetahs or leopards. I had heard of some people that had spent 10 days in the park and not seen one lion. Was this going to happen to us ?? After watching that sun set and spending the evening around the fire I decided that it really did not matter......the KTP is spectacular no matter what you see or don't see. After all I had seen many predators in the past....
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