Winter is settling into Cape Town, but we had some stolen summer days by heading North to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park for a holiday.
We drove up to Augrabies the first night and enjoyed the sunset over the falls with friendly colourful lizards before being descended upon by mosquitos.
From there we drove to the park, entering at Twee Rivieren and driving across to Mata Mata after lunch and ice cream. Along the way we saw kori bustards, a secretary bird, springbok, gnus and hartebeest. We rounded a corner and saw a cheetah lying in a stalking pose on the road. A BMW sped from the other direction and braked just in front of her, ceasing the hunt. She lay back in the shade and shortly afterwards two cubs came out of the scrub to sit with her. The gemsbok herd took offence once they could see her and stormed forwards in a menacing way. The three cheetahs kept their ground, unfazed.
At Mata Mata we went on a sunset drive. The guide showed us southern white faced owls and pygmy falcons which are apparently tenants in a sociable weaver’s nest. We saw lions mating in torchlight (they do this approximately every 15 minutes for two or three days when mating). They looked exhausted! On the way back from the drive we saw them at it again. We also saw a cape fox, bat eared foxes and spring hares. In the dark we saw a puff adder heading down the sandy road, very active at night much to my horror.
On one of our drives Dan and I even spotted a Verreaux eagle owl in a tree, like an old lady with pink eyeshadow.
Dan managed to go running four times, once with company, mostly in the midday sun after a morning game drive and on fence patrol. I heard one lady exclaim “Daardie ou is mal!”
In Nossob camp the first night we were rudely woken from slumber by a lion’s roar, which I was convinced was directly outside our tent. Dan assured me that he was still outside the fence. He and another male lion stalked the fence roaring as they walked around. The following night he was back just after dinner and we stood 10 meters away from him on the other side of a pretty low fence. He ignored us, looking for prey, stood up took one look at us (we backed away quickly and determinedly unlike some other slow campers) and then paced the fence line roaring as he re-entered the bush.
The next morning we were second out the gate and found the two lions eating an adult gemsbok they had killed in the early hours. Their stomachs hung low and full and they struggled to get over the fallen tree they were eating under. Once they had eaten everything but the horns and ribs they headed into the shade and 20 or more jackals descended. The brown hyena that had been doing big circles ran off with the gemsbok’s tail.
The unfenced Wilderness camp we stayed at called Grootkolk was magic. We arrived there after driving to Union’s end the meeting point of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia (Dan is pictured below in each of the countries). Our cabin (one of four) faced out on a watering hole with a lioness sleeping under a tree. We spent the afternoon and evening on the porch while Dan cooked in the outdoor kitchen and all sorts of birds visited us, as well as a little Namaqua rock mouse and a couple of tree mice in the acacia. During a red sunset the clearly injured lioness limped over to the water hole, followed shortly afterwards by a huge male lion that we somehow hadn’t seen. They had a bit of a scuffle, which was quite impressive to see.
We booked by phoning 11 months before our trip. Autumn was definitely a fantastic time to go with green ‘lush’ Kgalagadi scenes and happy animals. The days were mild and warm and the nights not too cold. Grootkolk was definitely a great find and there are two other similar camps Kieliekrankie and Urikaruus. Getting a wild card also makes sense for the conservation fees (it’s much cheaper). We did over 3000 km of driving.
lucypoppins 