I wake up from a comfortable night in my comfort van with the usual feeling of excitement and anticipation when I’m in a wildlife park. We are up at 5:15 and get ourselves ready for our first trip around Mata Mata. It is already quite warm and the air is dry, dry, dry.  We are still drinking coffee when Maureen and Jim say they’re heading for the gate and will see us on the road.  Wow – travelling companions who are ready before us – that’s a first!   We take our coffee in the car and chase after them.  In the Kgalagadi you have to check  in and out before leaving camp.   Gate opening time is 6:30 and it is quarter past six now.  Maureen is number 2 in the queue.  I am number 4. It takes a while for the guy on duty to meticulously write down time of departure and whether you’re on a game drive or leaving the camp/park and he only starts at 6:30 on the dot!  So it is a while before we actually get going.  By the time I’m through Maureen and Jim are long gone.  It is our practice to take it very slowly in the park and to stop for every bird and tiny creature. After today we learn – get to the waterholes as early as possible and don’t dawdle or you will miss the sightings as we do today!  When we finally catch up with J&M they tell us that Lions came down to drink at 13^th Water Hole and they had 9 cubs with them!  They also went as far as Achterlonie and the spot where we’d seen our leopard and there they found lions eating its kill!  When we go to the spot a little later the lions have left the scene.  They have not left much of the leopard’s kill.

Oh dear!  But we do enjoy our bird watching.  We stop to admire Pale Chanting Goshawk, Secretary Birds, Familiar Chats, Sociable Weavers with the condominium nests, ant eating chats, Namaqua Doves, Lark-like Buntings, Grey-backed sparrow-larks, Marico Fly-catcher and swallow-tailed bee-eater among many others.

We also see wildebeest, giraffe and the ever present springbok and Gemsbok.  Jackal are also commonly seen and as it is our first full day in the park we stop to photograph them of course. J&M.   While waiting for them we are told by other tourists that there are Cheetah lying under a tree a short way off so we head out to look at them. They are quite far from the road under a shady tree so photography is not great.  However, we enjoy them for a bit before returning to meet up with the Gibsons.

The picnic site is busy and all the shady spots are taken but no problem – Jim has a canopy on his bakkie and we cook in the shade of a tree and have our chairs so between us we have enough shade.  The Gibsons are surprised that we cook eggs and bacon while they settle for cereal!  They decline our offer to share brekkie.

After breakfast we follow Jim and Maureen and find lions and later a cheetah with a kill.   So all is not lost today!

We also find lions lying about in the shade of the trees – it is really hot.

Today we have a long day out and only return to camp at 4:00 pm.  Our campsite is big and shady and we enjoy watching the birds and the ground squirrels who try to beg food from us.  We are on the perimeter and a water hole is not far off. We hope to see game come down to drink before dark but only the odd springbok appears.

I cook Risotto for supper and we turn in early.