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Hah!!!!... I thought that would get everybody's attention!

Take off time ...9 hrs from now.
This is the trailer

and the trash...oh that you are going to have to wait for
Chat to you all again in about 10 days time !!!!

Ah yes ..we are back..no longer trailer trash in KTP but trailer trash in Cape Town! Thank you all for your wonderful wishes ..we had a great trip! Game viewing was a bit on the quiet side but we did have some wonderful sightings nontheless so to quote anne-marie...you will have to

Okay okay okay...I get the message...you want a trip report
As you all know the trailer and it's trash got back to Cape Town on Monday safe and sound. Monty did a grand job of towing the trailer..much to Doug's delight of course
A bit about the trailer...no it is not new ..it has been to KTP before....twice actually.
The trailer set up in 2003 at TR
and again now in Aug 2008

As for the trash..well that consisted of Doug (SO) and myself as well as our friend Wirlwind.
We left Cape Town as planned at 6h00 on Friday morning . It was 15.1° C and raining when we left. The rain soon cleared. Some interesting sightings along the way were black shouldered kite, yellow billed kite, black harrier, black eagle as well as eland.
We arrived at our overnight destination in Keimoes at 15h30 which gave Wirlwind and I a bit of time to play with our cameras and get a bit of practice in before we hit KTP.

Springbok chewing the cud!
Some or other duck/goose ???
Pied Kingfisher

We also enjoyed watching the birds...I managed to find another lifer...Orange river white eye.
After a delicious dinner at the restaurant we hit the sack…
We were on the road again by 7h30 the next morning.. We stopped at Upington to pick up the last of the fresh produce . By the time we drove past the famous signboard just outside Upington it was 8h45am. We eventually arrived at Twee Rivieren at 11h30. That last 60km stretch leading to the park is such a pleasure to drive now…only 15km left to tar. It was extremely dusty though…but the dust was way better than the corrugations that we have endured in the past!
http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=h8j ... diiw%3D%3D

Thanks everybody for the comments..or should I say nagging
@ Nyala...oh yes that road full of puddles of water. I think what I had to drive through in 2005 will stay in my memory forever ..the new tar road is a huge improvement
@ Billyf..oh is that what that duck is called..I might add that they like to chase people as well


and now to continue !!!
By the time we had check in , put up the trailer and had lunch it was 15h00 and we were ready to go on our first drive. I must admit that Wirlwind Trash came in very handy…I managed to escape some of the hard jobs…thank you Wirlwind ! You can come along anytime !!!
We drove through the gate at 3h20 and it was 34.5° C. It was great to be back…for Doug and I it had only been 3 months since we had been in the park …for Wirlwind it had been more than 3 years. As you can imagine we were bright eyed and bushy tailed….Wirlwind had bought a new camera and lens and he was dying to put it to some good use.
The last photo that I took in the park in May was of this springbok



And the first animal spotted on this trip was also a springbok.



As a matter of fact there were hordes of springbok very close to Twee Rivieren.
We continued to Samevloeiing…where I hoped we would spot a leopard but instead these two black winged stilts entertained us. These we had not seen in the park before.
They were very busy doing what stilts do...eat eat eat
First to the left...

Wirlwind's Photo

and then to the right...





We continued on our way ..we pointed out our "Leopard Tree" to Wirlwind as well as "Cheetah Corner" but neither leopard nor cheetah were present
As a matter of fact nothing much was present at all. We managed to tick off forktailed drongo, kori bustard, wildebeest, ostrich, tawny eagle, martial eagle and bee-eater. None of these afforded us the opportunity to play with the cameras though ….one would need a 800mm lens plus half a dozen converters to be able to capture anything.
We continued past Leeudril and Rooiputs. The veld was extremely dry and the roads very dusty…but actually in quite good condition.
As we approached Melkvlei we saw three cars parked there….something had to be on the go...
Oh yes….we noticed a mating pair of lions to the left of us and only afterwards did we notice the other 7 lions sleeping on a mound to the right of us.
We arrived in just in time to witness the shenanigans of the lion and lioness…talk about trashy behaviour right out in the open in front of everybody.
WW's photo

WW's photo

Lions Mating

The other 7 lions did not budge at all…they were doing what KTP lions do best…sleeping the afternoon away. This was awesome and luckily we had arrived just in time to witness it but one by the one the cars turned around…we had to head back to camp. The drive back was very quiet. The black winged stilts were still very busy at the waterhole and a three banded plover had joined them.

We enjoyed the first of many braais that evening….well satisfied with our sightings.
I think we were very well behaved trash that night....it had been a long day....an early night was in order ! There is only thing that bothers me when I camp at TR...one tends to hear dogs barking and people snoring ( was that you WW ??? ) instead of jackals screaming and lions roaring
Day 1 had come to an end !

Great start, Michele! Thank you.
It's always VERY interesting to read the trip reports of someone who has been in the park at almost the same time. Were there cubs in the lion group you saw? - I'm asking because we also saw a lion pride on the road from Twee Rivieren to Nossob (several times) - maybe it was the same group!?
I'm looking forward to reading more exciting stories and seeing many more good pictures .

Great start Michele, with wonderful pics and video.
Duck?? methinks thats a Spur-winged Goose, a lovely male.

Sunday 24 Aug

Brrrrrrrr...I was frozen solid when I woke up in the morning!!! What had happened to our lovely warm weather. but there was no time to waste....there was a game drive to be had. We were ready to leave at 7h00 but clearly were were not early enough !



I quite enjoy standing in the queue though because one gets chatting and picks up all sorts of info. Everybody was very excited about the 3 cheetahs about 5-7km from Twee Rivieren. " You can't miss them. " I was told so it was with much anticipation that we hit the road...3 cheetahs not far from TR and a pride of lions around Kij Kij.
Well we drove all the way to Kij Kij and back without seeing one single cat... be it big or small, spotted or striped...nothing...not even a track.
We did have some interesting sightings along the way though. We saw 2 Cape Foxes just before Leeudril...this was our first Cape Fox sighting since 2005. It was lovely to see them but yes you guessed correctly....they took one look at us and ran. Another thing that we did enjoy were the birds. It was frustrating though because mostly the birds were far away and did not make for good photos.
We did manage the following photos though

Namaqua Dove

Pygmy Falcon

Namaqua Sangrouse ( Doug's photo)

There was a little surprise waiting for us at Kij Kij...but it soon disappeared into it's burrow. We sat very quietly in the car and soon two little ears popped out....



Oh how I wished this little cape fox would turn around.
Patience pays off sometimes.....

WW's photo

Foxy was most obliging...WW and I took hordes of photos !





There was just no ways that foxy was going to come right out of his hole. We eventually turned around and made our way back to TR. We saw the usual along the way but where were all the cats..especially the 3 cheetahs that apparently one couldn't miss !!!
The black winged stilts were still at Samevloeiing and so were a few gemsbok. I was surpised at how few gemsbok we had seen so I thought a photo or two was in order !

This one was having a wonderful time scratching his back with his horns as well as scratching his head on the bush.



When we got back to camp I went to hand our permit in and to check the sightings board. Needless to say the 3 cheetah had been seen and a ....LEOPARD!
Not to be outdone I wrote our sightings in the sightings book ....
2 x Cape Fox @ Leeudril
1 x Cape Fox at Kij Kij ...well at least we had seen something special and we had got some great photos of our little Cape Fox !!!!!

to be continued....

Oooh yes billyf...I see Annalie has a horn..oops I had better be careful. ..jokes aside Annalie, congrats on your horn

Thanks Lees....

It seems that both the Tinypic and the forum are behaving tonight so let me continue.

After checking the sightings board we went back to our trailer.
We soon got into our daily KTP routine of showering ( can't be too trashy you know) and then lunch. After lunch Doug would have his normal little afternoon nap while WW and I downloaded our photos.
We were on the road again at 15h00. This time we had decided to go along the Mata Mata road to Auchterlonie and back.
As we approached Houmoed we saw two cars parked just passed the waterhole.We drove up slowly and eventually spotted a lone lioness fast asleep under a tree. We watched her for a while and then decided to move on. Maybe we would catch some action on the way back. It was rather quiet. I noticed a spotted eagle owl in a tree but he was so well hidden by the branches...so no photo.
All of a sudden WW told Doug to stop and I just heard WW say, "mongoose squirrel...little creature " What WW was trying to say was "meerkat". Oh yes there was my meerkat !!!
Unfortunately this meerkat was not on my side but I was not handing over my camera...I wanted to take these photos.
Well has luck would have it this little meerkat put me on ignore ( obviously taking some lessons from Suej )



Eventually he couldn't resist looking at us.....

WW's photo

.

There were 4 in total and they were very busy foraging and digging.



meerkats digging

A fork tailed drongo was a bit jealous of the attention the meerkats were getting so he came and posed for us as well. WW got a really great shot of him.



We continued to Auchterlonie and a bit of a break. I was eager to start heading back to camp though because I was hoping that the lioness would start stirring.
Well no such luck...we were too late...the lioness had gone !
Instead we photographed springbok and wildebeest.

Ww's photo.

We also had a bit of fun photographing this korhaan along the dune road...

WW's photo.

It was then back to camp and the sightings board. Of course the cheetahs had been seen along the Nossob road.... as well as a .....honey badger :twisted:
I also learnt that the sleepy lioness that we had seen at Houmoed had 4 cubs with her...apparently she had stood up and walked up the dune. As she approached the top four cubs cubs came to join her....
I wondered if I was ever going to see lion cubs in the KTP

Hi Michele,

great sightings (even if you missed some of the big cats) and pictures - especially the ones of the meerkat on top of the stone !!!
I think we saw and photographed the same Cape Fox next to its den near Kij Kij. You'll read about it later in my trip report --- once I get on with it !!! But unfortunately I'm not as fast as you with posting -now that I've started to work again I'm always running out of time.

I'm also sorry that we didn't meet in the park - we actually had a yellow ribbon on our car and were always looking out for other yellow ribbons -but didn't see a single one .
But we had a lot of fun with the scrapbooks you designed for some of the wilderness camps (we found them in Urikaruus and Kielikrankie) - what a fantastic idea !!!

@ Pumbaa I may have something up my sleeve yet !

@ C. O'Dee... oh yes this meerkat sighting was so much better than you one you and I had in May...so close to the road...unfortunately just not on my side. Can't have it all I suppose !

@ Anne-marie...patience patience

@ Tigerlilli...thanks..I cannot wait to get back to Urikaruus/ Kij Kij to see what has been written in the sightings books

@ lp....yes it was a pity about the lion cubs but.......

@ Annalie...I agree with you ...how dare that meerkat put me on ignore. Actually it wasn't just him it was these two as well



They posed beautifully for WW...but me..they just ignored !!!!!

@ WW...Gee thanks. I see you have made 9 posts ...I will make a chatterbox out of you yet

@ icurrie...you are right there...meerkats at last !!!!

Hopefully I will get a chance to continue with the report tonight !!!

@ Nyala...thanks.... yes, pity about the cubs

@ Gavinw...patience!!! It seems you too have been taking lessons in nagging

@ Billyf..you are right ...Monty is no threat - just a tad noisy. Oops I better not let Doug hear me say that !!!!!

Ingrid...thanks I just love those meerkats too !!!


25th Aug.

Yet again I woke up frozen..what was happening to the weather. I had already upgraded from summer pj's to winter pj's...the next step would be to find those hot water bottles that had been packed somewhere in the trailer.
By now we were well into the morning routine ..of course Doug was the official waker upper.... waking up is not one of my strong points...it also seems like WW fails miserable in that department as well Once we are up we are pretty good at getting going though and this time we were first in the queue...not that it helps though because the cars behind us soon overtake us. The temperature was a chilly 4° C and Monty does have much of a heater :roll:
Our plan was to drive to the hyena den just north of Urikaruus. We had been privileged to see this happy family in May. Apparently the mother and cubs were still there and I was hoping to get a photo for Pikasso ( you owe us for the petrol Pikasso ) and update the thread on these delightful cubs.
By the time we had got to the turn off we had seen wildebeest, a female korhaan and many pale chanting goshawks.
The 10km dune road was rather quiet but we did see a huge group of ostriches. The group consisted mostly of teenagers with one or two adults with them. As we drove down into the riverbed all eyes were sharp...we were looking for the lions and cubs or a leopard. We were not that fussy as to which one we saw first.
Instead we found 2 secretary birds....



Doug's photos

Next up....a herd of springbok..all very busy eating their breakfast.





We stopped at Auchterlonie for coffee which we had sitting in Monty because the wind outside was bitterly cold. Doug noticed meerkat in the distance. We didn't waste too much time at Auchterlonie because we were eager to get to Urikaruus.
Along the way we came across a crimson breasted shrike shouting the odds on the top of a tree ( see video) and then Doug spotted a striped kingfisher flying alongside Monty. This was a lifer for me
Not much of a photo opportunity but Doug managed to get one just for ID purposes!!!



Next up...an inquisitive pygmy falcon. Incidently we saw many pygmy falcons along the Auob riverbed



We had a quick stop at Kamqua and then onto Urikaruus. Just past the turn off to Urikaruus Camp we spotted a couple of giraffe. We had never seen giraffe so far south. They were quite far away though.



We found the hyena den quite easily but unfortunately for us we saw neither hyena nor cubs. We sat waiting patiently for half an hour but no luck. So sorry Pikasso....no photos of the cubs. We turned around and made our way back to camp. A couple of hornbills played hide and go seek with me...they are such comical birds!!!





After spotting these comical birds I then spotted a very beautiful bird...a lilac breasted roller. It was on Doug's side and by the time he pulled up alongside it I could no longer see the bird so I handed the camera over to Doug. The LBR posed beautifully ....
looking the one way
WW's photo
and then the other.
Doug's photo.
WW and Doug took hordes of photos while I sulked
Birds that we did not manage to photograph were hoopoes, lanner falcon, black chested snake eagle , swallow tailed bee-eater and yellow billed kite.
Yet again we spotted meerkat. This time at Munro and a little bit closer to the road.



We eventually got back to camp and I won't even go down that road as to what I saw on the sightings board Even though we had been on a bit of a failed mission ...no cats or hyenas..we still had had an enjoyable morning. The Auob river bed was alive with birds ( big and small) as well as antelope and many smaller creatures such as meerkats, yellow mongoose and jackals.
Oops I forgot about this sighting....a whistling rat

Doug's photo

We used to see many rats in the past..now we hardly ever see them at all..so they make for an exciting sighting !!!!

morning drive

to be continued...

Thanks again everybody for all the wonderful comments and compliments....ah yes we were lucky with the meerkats. We actually saw them every time we drove that stretch of road from Houmoed to Auchterlonie but mostly they were quite far away.

Unfortunately (and please don't yell at me ) I am going to have to leave off from writing my trip report for a while as my family from England arrive tomorrow morning. We are off to Wilderness and Addo next week
I still have many lovely sightings to report back on ...so never fear I will complete this report...in the meantime I will leave you with this forthcoming attraction !!!!

Right to pick up the thread...

25th Aug 2008
To recap..we had driven from TR to Urikaruus in the hopes of seeing the hyena mom and cubs. Failed mission..hey Pikasso....you owe, you owe....it is off to work you go
On returning to Tr I was distressed to see what had been sighted on the Nossob road....oh well some you win and some you lose !!!
Back in camp I cooked up a storm for lunch and did a few housekeeping chores. I also met up with more Trailer Trash....Tony T and his SO !!! Come on Tony pls post a pic of your Trailer !!! Aha..at least this meeting called for another tick..on the yellow ribbon list !!!!! Lovely to meet you and your SO, Tony !!!!!
We decided to drive along the Nossob road in the afternoon. Here we did have some excitement although it was very sad. You can read about it herein Tony T's report...thanks Tony...you have saved me some typing!! I could not bring myself to take photos of this poor jackal..the wound around it's neck was too horrible for words.

The rest of our drive was most uneventful....Wirlwind eventually managed to get a lovely photo of a pale chanting goshawk ....

We also spent a while watching a pair of tawny eagles on a socialable weaver's nest. Incidently we also photographed tawny eagles on this nest in May 2008

Wirlwind's photo
I think the male tawny was pushing his luck a bit.....
but female tawny was just not interested and promptly put him on ignore


I did feel a bit sorry for him...after all I know exactly what it feels like to be put on ignore

The only other sighting on the way back to camp was this gabar goshawk....it was very well camouflaged in the tree but I managed to spot him...at least it was a lifer for Wirlwind

We ended the evening with a braai ( what else ????? ) and I spent the best part of the evening devising a plan on how to survive the cold . This was my plan......
I found my two hot water bottles....filled them with hot water ( obviously )...wrapped the one up with pj top and the other with pj bottom. Placed the one hot water bottle at the top of the bed and the other at the bottom. Wait for hot water to take desired effect and then within 10 secs flat one has to exchange one's clothes for pj's and jump into bed....well it worked like a dream...when SO's alarm went off the next morning( at some horrible hour ) I was still as snug as the proverbial bug in a rug !!!!!

to be continued !!!

26 August 2008

Even though I had woken up as snug as a bug it did not take long for the air to take my breathe away. It was cold..very cold..1° C as a matter of fact!!!
We left at gate opening time but we were probably about third in the queue. We continued past Samevloeiing...looking very hard for cheetah and leopard ....but nothing. We continued towards Leeudril ...all was quiet at the waterhole. After enjoying the birds for a while we moved on. Not too far down the road we saw two cars stopped....aha ...this must be something. My immediate thought was lions...but I was wrong. To the left we saw 4 spotted hyenas. Well this was so exciting. We have never seen spotted hyenas so far south.
Unfortunately the hyena's were on SO's and Wirlwind's side so I handed over my camera.
All of a sudden one of the hyenas spotted Monty and walked straight towards us. Now where I had experienced this before ... he walked right up to the window and glared at us. He was not the most handsome of fellows ...his face was full of something that looked like warts !!! Wirlwind and Doug took a couple of photos but then he got really close. The embankment was quite high so he was almost on a level with us...scary stuff. He then walked around the back of Monty and tried to take a bite but the arrival of a supply van put him off.
He then ran off to join his pals....



Wirlwind's photos

Doug's photo

I tried to get some of this excitement on video...
http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=KBn ... kTgQ%3D%3D
We thoroughly enjoyed this sighting..I could not help thinking that patience does pay off in the end. Although we have had hyena excitement on our previous trips Wirlwind had not..so another tick for him
The hyenas ran quite far away so we continued to Rooiputs. Before we got there we were treated to another sighting of a Cape Fox. Such pretty little things!





Wirlwind's photo

Eventually he had enough of posing for the camera and ran off

Wirlwind's photo

Our plan was to do the Leeudril 4 x 4 trail that morning... so we turned around at Rooiputs and headed back to the trail. There were not many sightings along the trail but the scenery is really beautiful and you really do feel like you are the only people out there. We did see a wildebeest and a steenbok though. We also came across a fairly large group of gemsbok. There were many babies in this group. I think gemsbok keep their babies in the dunes for quite some time before bringing them into the riverbeds. I have never seen tiny babies like these in the riverbeds..just my assumption !!!! Unfortunately this group was quite far away...and were not very happy with us watching them..even at that distance.





http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=Rn5 ... udoQ%3D%3D

After completing the trail we headed off to Auchterlonie for coffee. We saw the usual along the way. We headed back to camp hoping to see the Houmoed lions ...but it does not pay to be greedy !!! No lions to be seen but we were content with our hyena and fox sightings ....at least on arrival back at camp it was my turn to add some pins to the sighting board .

Sorry to keep you all waiting so...
26 Aug
Afternoon drive.

We left camp at 15h15 with the intention of driving to Kij Kij and back.
It was 28 ° C...very pleasant temperature indeed. We had soon seen springbok, ostriches and a steenbok.
Just as we drove past Samevloeiing I saw this huge shadow going over Monty. " Huge bird..stop ! " I yelled. (by the way you have to yell while travelling in Monty..otherwise you won't be heard !!! )
It was a huge bird indeed..but not of the feathered kind. ..I took a photo anyway !!


We continued to Kij Kij ...looking out for the hyena that we had seen in the morning..instead we found jackals, mice , black chested snake eagle as well as 2 giant eagle owls.

Our little fox was in his den at Kij Kij but there was just no ways he was going to show his face...so I photographed his ears instead !


We headed back to camp and added 4 more jackals to our sightings. All very far away ..so no photos. Eventually a car flagged us down and asked us if we had seen the hyenas. As yet we had not seen them in the afternoon but we did tell him about our morning excitement.
He told us that another passerby had seen them right where he was parked but he himself could see over the grass. We spent a little while scanning the area and yes we found them....but very very far away.
Eventually the chap in the other car saw them as well. We left a smiling face behind. Just before we got to Samevloeiing we saw another car stopped in the road. We slowed down and gradually moved closer. They pointed to the dune and within seconds I spotted the cheetah She was walking along the ridge and although we couldn't hear her we could see through the bins that she was calling . We presumed this was the mother cheetah with the two teenage cubs that everybody was seeing! She started running and soon disappeared over the dune. We sat for a while in the hopes that she would come back over the dune...but no such luck.


...not good pics at all because she was very far away....but still a sighting nontheless

On the way back we saw the Sanparks game vehicle stopped in the road. The vehicle moved towards us and as he passed he flagged us down and said " Wildcat"...but where this wild cat was we had no idea. Eventually SO saw it on his side of the road...but it was crouched behind a bush so we did not get any photos of it.

Gosh what excitement...hyena, cheetah and wild cat..all within half an hour of each other.

It was bitterly cold again that night but this time I was ready for it... As I lay in bed that night I went over all the sightings that we had so far. Even though we had had some wonderful sightings they were all what I call "second hand sightings" ...meaning that somebody else had found them for us. I desperately needed some first hand sightings.....sightings that I could call my very own !!!! Would our luck change ??

Well you are going to have to wait and see