Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park – Saffies and Aussies on Safari – Day 18

2015-07-12 | puppy1952

Friday 19 June Cheetah Day

I wake at quarter to six and get up at quarter past – it is freezing! I wrap myself in a rug and go to the loo. My ablutions are quick and I get dressed under the blankets! Today I don a pair of thermal tights under my jeans. I can’t feel the ends of my fingers even though I wrap them in a warm pair of gloves. Packing up is painful and takes twice as long as with warm hands!

The temperature registers at -2 in the car and goes down to -3. Thank Goodness for an effective air-con in the car as soon we warm up.

There are a few exciting spots the first being two African Wild Cats darting across the veld. Unfortunately the light is wrong and they are too quick for a photograph. But still it is a great sighting.

At 13^th water hole we meet a couple we’d met the day before – George and Venetia. They say they’ve seen the cubs but they have now gone over the ridge – clearly following their mothers who must be ahead of them. We chat for a while then both cars move on. We find them stopped up ahead of us and as we draw nearer see what they have seen – three cheetahs moving swiftly through the bush high up on the ridge.

One of the cheetahs moving stealthily through the bush

We guess they are on their way to Urikaruus water hole so hurry along to wait for them. After 20 minutes, Earlybird says – they’re not coming let’s go but then a land rover ahead of us turns around. His mate has gone up to the viewpoint and has radioed him that the cheetahs are coming. So we turn around too and – there they are – coming right for us!

He is centimeters from my eyeballs

And touches the car as he passes by my door

He makes his way across the road passing right next to the passenger side of the car

We’ve been looking at a steenbok at the waterhole while we are waiting and the cheetahs spot her too. The one gives chase and she scoots off into the trees – we think the cheetah will return with breakfast for the others but she comes back empty handed.

She looks at the cheetahs nervously

We watch the cheetahs frolic and have fun for a while and then they move back over the road and over the ridge – but wow – what a sighting.

Next we find the three eagle owls in the tree.

one of the Verreaux’s Eagle Owls

We stop for breakfast at Kamqua before continuing our journey to Nossob

Earlybird cooks a killer brekkie

On the way we see some interesting birds and big herds of gemsbok at the waterholes.

We check into Chalet 8 just behind reception. It is quite warm now. We have a braai for supper and eat outdoors.

Sundowners at Nossob

A visitor looking for titbits

Nothing beats a good old fashioned South African Braai

After supper Earl takes the Schoffls to the waterhole and I stay behind and have a shower and catch up with my bookkeeping.

There is not much happening at the waterhole so they are soon back.

Caravanning in the Kgalagadi – Nossob Thursday 19 March 2015

2015-04-11 | puppy1952

Today is a rest day. We go out early in a southerly direction and try to find the lions but we have no luck and find out later that nobody else had a particularly successful day today either.

The highlight of the drive is at Casper se Draai. We spot the melanistic Gabar settled in a tree which does not make for good photography. But it flies off and we head in the same direction and find it perched in a tree with a juvenile and another Gabar of normal plumage. It is obviously a family – Mom, Dad and junior. They have a dove in the foliage and are feasting on it. Luckily for us they are on the correct side of the road – not into the sun – and we get some reasonable photographs.

Melanistic Gabar Goshawk

Normal plumage of Gabar Goshawk

001 Melanistic and Normal Earl 2015-03-19 07-50-45 AM 3162x2116

Parent and juvenile on right

We decide to return to camp and have a rest day as we are leaving for Polentswa tomorrow. On the way back we do some more birding.

Familar Chat

Yellow Canary

Crimson-breasted shrike

Burchell’s Sandgrouse

After lunch I go for a swim and meet some people from Somerset West. They ask where I live and I say – Fish Hoek. Oh says the lady, we are with our aunt and uncle from Fish Hoek – Eric and Margaret. I am gob-smacked. They are members of The Bird Club and I know Margaret and Eric very well. I also know their daughters! Later Earl and I pop up to their chalet to say hi. I had told Eric that we were off to KTP and he’d said – You lucky fish! At that stage he didn’t know that he would also be having a trip here – two weeks ago his daughter, Alison, suggested he and Margaret go in their place as here hubby, Alan was not well. Margaret tells me that it has been a brilliant trip with their niece and nephew treating them like royalty! Her niece also said that they’d learnt a lot about birds from Eric!

Fortune and Misfortune – A Fortuner Adventure – Day 5

2012-07-14 | puppy1952

1 July 2012

Earl was still not feeling good this morning. He did not have a temperature but he complained that his body was aching. It sounded like a dose of influenza was on the way! I left him in bed while we got up and packed and in spite of his ails he insisted on driving.

We were enjoying the early morning drive, snug and warm in our vehicle, no cars in sight and just the odd springbok and gemsbok about, when just up ahead we saw a car stopped and wondered what he had seen. We soon found out. Right in front of him, on the road was a young male lion. Eyes forward we got our cameras ready. We were thrilled to be only one of two cars and did not have to fight for position. Suddenly someone in the car ahead gesticulated to us and we looked around to see a lioness in the distance. She was slowly making her way toward us and we didn’t know where to look – at the lioness or the lion who was really close. I insisted that we wait for the lioness to get closer. “She’s going to join her husband,” I said. And he did keep looking behind him to monitor her progress. Of course, I was right and eventually we were rewarded when she came up right next to the car.

Lioness

After snapping many photographs we slowly overtook the car in front of us and past the male so we could turn around to get more than his back view.

Looking for his wife

: Happy that she’s following her lord and master

It was a great start to our journey to Nossob!

Close by a jackal expressed what he thought about his king and queen

We don’t often see kudu in Kgalagadi so it was great to find these beautiful males at the waterhole.

Kudu

A passing tourist alerted us to cheetah around the corner. We took our time as we’d seen cheetah in this spot before and knew they would be far from the road and not in a hurry to move on.

On the way we spied these two perched high up and surveying the scene.

White-backed Vultures

We could not resist snapping this kestrel either

Rock Kestrel

And then as we rounded the corner we saw a few cars looking over the wide grassland and soon caught sight of cheetahs on the move.

Cheetahs

We wondered where they were headed

Just to a shady tree where they could sleep for the rest of the day!

We continued on our way, delighted to have had 2 cat sightings in one morning. There was not much excitement for the rest of the way but we did stop for birds and enjoyed seeing all the springbok, gemsbok, kori bustards – we counted 97 in one day – there must have been a Kori Bustard convention that nobody told us about. Usually it’s very exciting spotting one but we had become quite blasé about these magnificent birds.

Our plan was to stop at a picnic site and Earl would cook breakfast but by the time we got there he was feeling dreadful so we settled for cereal and coffee.

Isn’t it amazing that you can be 1000 km from home in a reserve where you seldom see another soul on the road and then you can randomly turn up at a picnic site and you recognise the only other people there. Yes – we met Sean and Isobella, members of our bird club, who just happened to be on their way to Mata Mata where they were exiting to go to Namibia! What were the chances!

There was a lot of bird activity but this was the best photograph I managed. This little chap is a black chested prinia. He is in his non-breeding feathers hence no black chest!

Black-chested Prinia

We made Earl as comfortable as possible in the passenger seat and I drove the rest of the way to Nossob. He had the shivers and was not a happy man.

It was after 1:30 when we arrived. We needed to refuel for our trip to Gharagab the following day as there would be no place to do so between here and there. We had also been warned that Nossob was running low on diesel but there was no point on filling up at Mata Mata as we were close on full. It was a Sunday and the petrol pumps were closed till 2! Earl got into the queue while I went to check in. There was some delay at reception too as there was only one attendant who could deal with us and she was busy dealing with a gate and key crisis – not too sure of the details. I got chatting to young woman in the queue who was checking in to go to Gharagab. There were two vehicles and three people in her party and they’d driven all the way from Twee Rivieren and were heading straight for Gharagab 160km away on a 4×4 track. I wished her luck as I was sure they wouldn’t make it before dark! We would not dream of driving from Twee Rivieren to Gharagab without an overnight stop at Nossob. You never know how often you are going to stop for animals, whether you’ll get a puncture, how bad the roads might be etc. etc. But they were young, thought themselves invincible and didn’t have a care in the world. Do I miss those days? No, I don’t think so!

Luckily there was enough diesel, we stocked up on fire wood and mineral water – no drinking water at Gharagab and checked into our bungalows. Earl went straight to bed. Heather, Peter and I, after some lunch and unpacking walked to the hide which overlooks a waterhole.

Wildebeest taking a drink

There was quite a lot of bird activity and we watched a lanner trying to catch doves but he was not successful.

I managed to snap a pale chanting goshawk just as he took flight.

Earl remained in bed and Peter braaied our supper. We debated whether we should abandon the trip and try and get to Upington and a doctor. I had a well-stocked first aid kit with flu medication but no antibiotics. Earl’s fever was over 40 degrees C, which worried me. Once at Gharagab we would be settled for three nights – no driving around as the only road is the one-way, round trip on a 4X4 track between Nossob and the wilderness camp. Travelling to Twee Rivieren would take forever and then it would be another 250 km to Upington. I thought Earl would be more comfortable staying put and decided that he might as well be sick there as anywhere else. So the plan was for me to drive the 4×4 track and see how things went.