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Freezing cold and minus temperatures
that cause
the water in the kettle to freeze
the water in the plastic bottles to freeze
the water in the waterpipes to freeze.

Dry and dusty riverbeds
that cause
parched throats ,
itchy, dry skin
and bouts of sneezing….

Badly corrugated roads
That cause
vehicles to clatter
your body to ache
your teeth to rattle

Yet we heed the call of the Kalahari
time and time again….
We cannot ignore the call
Our souls need the comfort
of this special place.

Why is this so..
Why are we slaves to the Kalahari
Why do we pack our bags time and time again
Why do we travel the long road
to be without cell phones,
hair dryers and televisions…
WHY ?????

Well pop your and I will tell you all why…

But first things first…last year we visited the park as “Trailer Trash” and “Tent Trash” but in the meantime Trailer Trash sold their trailer so we decided that this trip we would all treat ourselves to staying in chalets…lovely warm chalets (or so we thought ) !!!

Our itinerary was booked last August and consisted of

1 x Augrabies
2 x Urikaruus
2 x Nossob
2 x Grootkolk
1 x Gharagab
1 x Nossob
2 x Twee Rivieren

Eleven nights of sheer bliss.

I am not going to do a day by day report….just some reasons as to why we are ” Slaves to the Kalahari “


But now I need a little while to gather my reasons together.....

All good things come to those who wait.

Anticipation of what you may see...must be one of the most exciting reasons why we keep going back to the KTP.
Eventually a certain little creature revealed itself to us. We saw this little creature on our very first trip to the park and never again since then… that for me is 18 trips.
We finally got lucky on 13 July driving from Urikaruus to Nossob. We had a quiet drive…game viewing wise…and a rather horrible bumpy ride over the top dune road. We stopped for coffee at Dikbaardskolk ... rested our jolted bodies…and it was with a certain bit of excitement that I climbed back into Monty to continue the journey. Two of my favourite waterholes were coming up Cheleka and Kaspersdraai. Well there was nothing at Cheleka ..and just few gemsbok ( including a rather ill-looking gemsbok) at Kaspersdraai. Not fair…I grumbled.

A few km’s down the road I was catapulted almost right out of my seat when I saw two little creatures scurrying across the road. I couldn’t believe my eyes….
“Honey Badger, Honey Badger Honey Badger in the road !” I yelled. There was no reason for me to yell. Doug and Mannie had also seen it. Doug let Diana and Richard know via radio (marvellous invention) and we stopped at the point where the badgers had disappeared into the bushes. In the meantime I had grabbed my camera, beanbag and had my window open…I was ready…I was just so ready for this honey badger photo at long last.
But there was absolutely no sign of them whatsoever. We hung around for a while ..going forwards …reversing… but no honey badgers were to be seen at all. Oh well at least we had seen them …Richard and Diana did not …

We continued on our journey. I was trying my best not to feel too disappointed... when once again my eye caught two little black blobs dodging through the bushes.
Again…..I yelled "honey badgers…..stop." This time we all got to see them. I took a few photos but it was a useless exercise…those blobs were far away and could have been anything in the bushes.



We then realised that the two that had rushed across the road were young ones and these two were adults….a family maybe ?
We continued onto Nossob…very happy indeed…these honey badger sightings were just south of the 20km sign to Nossob. I made a note of that.

Around the fire that night we discussed our good fortune at seeing the badgers but some how or other I so not happy. I did not have a decent pic of badger…grumble grumble !!!
The next morning we decided to go to Marie se Gat…straight there... no stopping for little birds…I had promised…but we were no sooner out of camp when we spotted this beautiful cheetah on the side of the road. She immediately moved away… sat and looked at us for a little while and made her way over the dune.





We moved on…Marie se Gat was calling. Not sure why it was calling ..there was nothing to be seen. We had our coffee….there was still nothing to be seen. We continued to Kaspersdraai… nothing to be seen…we turned around and headed back to camp….checking all the way for Honey badgers…nothing to be seen. They have to be out there somewhere I thought. We past the 20km sign… nothing to be seen. We past the 10km sign... nothing. By now I was getting quite despondent. I felt so sure that the little honey badger family would still be in the area.
Just before the turn off to Marie se Gat I once again had the opportunity to yell.......
Stop…Honey Badger!!!! They were quite far away but this time they were running towards us…2 of them nose to tail. They were heading for the road. Richard hung back so that they could cross the road between our two cars. They were almost about to spill into the road when a car came up behind Richard and overtook us. With that the badgers turned around and ran back in the direction they had come from. Oh dear we thought…it would have been lovely to have a good clear view of them when they crossed the road. We watched them disappear in the distance and that is when Doug picked up another badger …it was digging in a very sandy patch and all we could see was dust flying.
A Pale Chanting Goshawk kept this very busy badger company...obviously hoping to catch the badgers failed attempts at finding breakfast. Our badger count had gone from 4 to 7.
In the meantime we had been firing away with the cameras …very much a hit and miss affair….but I did manage to get a few pics when they ran through a clearing.





Was I happy or what...I now had my badger photo.

From Nossob we went up to Grootkolk and Gharagab and then back to Nossob without any more badger sightings.
On our way down to Twee Rivieren we came across another 3 badgers south of Dikbaardskolk. Diana and Richard were in front and they picked up two Pale Chanting Goshawks scrounging around in the bushes. On stopping to investigate we noticed that 3 honey badgers accompanied them…2 adults and 1 young one. Imagine our delight..our count went up from 7 to 10. Although they were far away we were able to watch them for quite a while before they disappeared over the dunes……

This is why we keep going back……no badgers for 17 trips …then 10 in one trip.

It does not get much better than that…or does it ??????



Hmmmmmm…maybe it does !!!!!!

Those of you that know me know that I have sought after a decent caracal sighting for a long time. We have had caracal sightings ..but always brief ones.
The 12th of July was no exception. We were travelling north from Urikaruus and as we pulled up to 13th borehole I had glimpse of a cat through the bushes…drinking at the waterhole. I first yelled..sorry I seem to do an awful lot of yelling…"wild cat" but seconds later yelled…"no bigger than a wild cat..Caracal." Again I grabbed the camera and had the window wound down only to see the caracal cross the road in front of us. Aargh !!! I only managed a brief glimpse of the caracal and did it have it to stop just behind the grass !!! It disappeared very quickly ..so much so that Diana and Richard did not see it at all. Oh dear ..I did feel sorry for them. Not much of a photo but a photo nevertheless.

Our next bit of Caracal excitement was at Gharagab. We had just got settled in camp and Mannie and I had decided to walk up to the look out to see what we could see. Well we should have stayed put because when we got back Richard came over to tell us that we had missed a caracal at the waterhole. Apparently it was making it’s way to the waterhole but upon seeing us walking to the look out it did a disappearing act. Richard and Diana had no way of getting our attention..and neither that of Doug’s. Well my thoughts on missing that carcal are best left out of this report ….but that at least evened the score. Richard and Diana had seen their caracal as well.

The next day (18th July) found us driving back to Nossob..it was a fairly long drive and fairly quiet as well. We arrived at Nossob well after lunchtime and not many of us felt like going out again…..we hm’ed and we ha’ed. I for one felt like going out...I was Mrs Misery personified. On the way down I had noticed that I had lost a diamond earring ( somebody was going to get lucky at Gharagab) we had a very quiet drive down and I had hardly taken any photos…not a good combination. We finally decided to leave at 16h45..take a quick drive to Marie’s, have a sundowner and return back to camp..gates closed at 18h00.

We arrived at Marie’s pulled up onto the side of the road facing the waterhole. There were a few gemsbok in the background and a couple of doves flying around the waterhole. Oh well..let’s try and get some of these doves in flight I thought to myself. ( yet again ) With that Doug yelled “Caracal”…yes he can also yell !!! Richard and Diana were not answering their radio and we could see that they were busy getting their sundowners organised and not even looking at the waterhole. Richard had inadvertently switched his radio off. Eventually Doug put his head out of the window and in a loud whisper managed to get Richard’s attention. Oh my word what excitement.
In the meantime Mannie and I were firing away……the caracal was hardly noticeable at the waterhole.



She went into stalk mode


And suddenly she was flying over that cement slab…..it all happened so quickly…and I just fired away………..





..okay so I missed the focus on this one and she missed the bird……

She landed in the water …



Looked the one way



And then the other



I think she felt a bit embarrassed that she had missed the bird.

"Oh well let’s pretend that I needed a drink of water."



She then very elegantly jumped back up onto the cement slab and proceeded to clean herself….we could see she was not a happy kitty !!!!









She then jumped off the cement slab and resumed her stalking postion….





Were we going to have some more action ???
Sadly not..after another drink of water



she walked towards the tree next to the waterhole….



Time was getting short …we had to get back to camp. We decided to drive past the tree to see if we could get a better view of her. We did but within minutes she decided to go back to the waterhole.



So we turned around again…we really did have to get back to camp.
With that 2 jackals arrived….they had a drink water but with hackles raised. The one went right up to the caracal but she was not the least bit interested him…



Talk about putting somebody on ignore...only a cat can do this !!!!



The jackal got the message and left…



And the caracal did us a favour by leaving as well.



.

That made it easier for us to leave Marie’s .

As you can imagine I was "Oh my Wording” all the way back to camp. We were all so thrilled with this sighting…we had had so many fleeting glimpses of caracals in the past and this caracal was just so relaxed….the cars didn’t bother her…..it was just awesome.
And you want to know why we keep going back ?????


Well it doesn’t get much better than that…does it ?????


Or does it ??????

Oops sorry forgot to put it in..here it is !

Again thanks everybody....

And to continue.....

Those of you that know me know that it is one of two sayings that is going to come out of my mouth..it is either an “Oh my Word !” moment or it is an “Oh sh*t !!!” moment.
I seem not to be in control of these sayings !!!
I have told you a bit about our “Oh my Word !” moments but now a bit about the “other” moments.

The first “Oh Shit !!!” moment happened before we had got to our first stop, Augrabies. We were pottering along at a comfortable 105km/h, admiring the beautiful Northern Cape ……and the conversation went something like this.



Doug: Do you know what I think I have forgotten to bring along , Dear ?
Dear: No what ????
Doug : My laptop !!!
Dear: Oh sh*t !!!!!

I just gawped at him...panic stations …how were Mannie and I going to download our 1000’s of awesome photos that we were still going to take with no laptop. My mind went into overdrive. Courier services ???? Upington..we still had to drive through Upington the next day ???? We then realised that Richard may have his laptop with him…..the next 60km or so to Augrabies was very tense…. Richard and Diana had arrived before us. No pleasantries exchanged….just ..”Richard, do you have your laptop ???? “
“Yes,” said Richard. Oh my Word !!! I was smiling again. Richard had indeed saved Doug’s bacon as well as his credit card because I had had every intention of going big in Upington...really really big.

My next “Oh sh*t !!!” moment was not long after we arrived in Augrabies. As usual I was chasing the birds and just about every shot I took I was getting Error 99 on my 40D. I was missing the shots left right and centre…I almost threw my camera into the gorge…temper was not good. Eventually I decided to swap the batteries around with my 50D...problem solved and harmony was restored.

Still on the camera side of things I had another serious “ Oh sh* t !!! “ moment at a really wonderful sighting just north of Urikaruus. After taking a few shots of this sighting I decided to video it. I grabbed the video camera ( this was a really awesome sighting !!!) , switched on and saw blinking lights. My video camera was calling for the head cleaner…I had neglected to pack the head cleaner. “ Oh sh*t !!!!!”
So that was the start and end of my filming on this trip…….

Our first night in the park was spent at Urikaruus. We arrived fairly late and I was in desperate need for a shower and hair wash. Although it was only 17h00 it was chilly..really brrr chilly !!! I thought I would be sneaky and grab the shower first…ah…lovely hot water...maybe just a bit more...turn up the volume…so lovely and warm…wet the hair… pour shampoo into my hand and “Oh sh*t !!!”… that was end of the hot water…it went from hot to freezing flippen cold in a matter of one second. I yelled so loudly for Doug that if there was any creature near that waterhole I doubt very much if it will ever visit again! Yes the gas cylinder was empty…but it was not a simple matter of switching over the cylinders ..it was a matter of Doug calling Jacques who then checked the cylinders, who then had to go and fetch another cylinder …oh my word was I frozen by the time it was sorted. Eventually I warmed up….I think the Old Brown Sherry went a long way in restoring my body temperature as well as my mood. Moral of the story...don’t be so eager to grab the shower first. Let somebody else be the guinea pig !!!!!!

On the subject of frozen “Oh sh*t !!!" there were a few more at Urikaruus. The temperature dropped to - 8.4 ° C ….water in water bottles next to bed froze solid through the night. The water in the pipes froze which resulted in burst pipes and no water the next morning…..

the kitchen tap at Urikaruus

the shower at Urikaruus

Grootkolk was no better….the water I had put in the kettle ready for the next morning froze through the night. Water in the sink froze, water that I had put our for the birds ( in one of those 5l plastic water bottles) froze.

But we keep going back again…..

I had a few “ Oh sh*t !!!” moments in Nossob as well….I have this silly habit of getting locked in the bathroom ...why must locks go wonky when I am in there. Anyway after another “Oh sh*t !!!” I yelled for Doug who promptly arrived with screwdriver in hand. Anyway he fiddled the lock for a bit and then said “ try again “. Well I did try again and promptly relocked myself in the bathroom. Boy did I get yelled at….. His “try again” meant open the door…

But my bestest “Oh sh*t !!! “ moment took place in the hide at Nossob. The rest of the gang were cooking up a storm in the chalet…curry. I don’t do curry so I disappeared off to the hide. It was about 20h30. As I got to the gate the people exiting the hide told me that I had just missed a brown hyena. There were a few people still left in the hide but one by one they left. I was enjoying the silence. The waterhole was quiet. A hare had run past and a jackal or two had put in an appearance but they in turn had left as well.
The next minute I heard something scuffling in the corner …..I turned around and “ Oh sh*t !!!” I saw something moving in the shadows… something a fair size …..talk about instant heart failure. With that I heard footsteps coming along the walk way and I shone my torch on the culprit.





He went into panic mode and was trying to jump out of the hide. By then the other people had walked into the hide. We gathered our wits about us and one of the chaps headed the jackal off which made him run out of the hide….obviously he was in the walkway of the hide when the people entered and he could not get out ..so him running into the hide and giving me the fright of my life was the only thing he could do. The door to the hide does not close properly and I reported this fact to the office the next day. Anyway the staff had a good giggle but I was still miffed …imagine if that jackal just happened to have been a hyena !!!!!

Doug had his own special “Oh sh*t !!!” moment in Nossob as well. We were staying up on the hill and having the most wonderful braai. Things were almost done so I disappeared into the kitchen to do something or other when I heard this raucous laughter outside. I went running out to tell them to be quiet and “ Oh sh*t !!!” there stood Doug covered in gem squash. A gem squash that was wrapped up in tinfoil had exploded...the entire contents and I mean the entire contents of that squash was all over Doug…..I tried my best not to laugh …but his face was a picture …..he does not even like gem squash. Diana and Richard promised to prick their gem squash in future. I am not sure if we will get Doug to braai a gem squash again though !!!!!

Not to be outdone…Richard had to have a “Oh sh*t !!! “ moment as well. We were travelling to TR and making our way over the lower dune road. Things had been pretty quiet along the way…not much to be seen along the dune road accept steenbokkies, korhaans and ant-eating chats. We were keeping our distance from Richard because of the dust but when we came over a rise and saw Richard’s car pulled off to the side of the road we got excited. What had they seen…..with that Richard got out of the car...what is he doing ??? He walked in front of his car to the passenger side and I then thought he had run some or other little creature over…but no…he had a puncture.

“Oh sh*t !!!” This involved unpacking the boot, taking out the fridge alongside everything else to get to the spare. Well this was all done in record time …and I took it upon myself to keep guard.





Unfortunately the puncture was not able to be fixed at TR….sorry do not know the technicalities of that…but clever Richard did have a spare tube which enabled him to continue his journey with a spare !

So yes…even through all these “Oh sh*t “ moments we still keep visiting the KTP…..

It seems it is pay back time here...I have entertained you with our " Oh Sh*t !!! " moments and you have entertained me with your wonderful comments and compliments....many laughs... thank you !!!!

but @ billyf...

And yes how did I manage to take that photo of the BBJ in the hide. Well there was two things I could have done to that jackal ..either hit him over the head with my camera if he got too close or take his pic. With the arrival of the other people and their torches it was easy to take his pic. By the way...I had been playing around with my camera a few minutes previous. It was set on it's highest ISO and F2.8..so I guess that went a long way in me getting those pics..albeit fuzzy and noisy !!!!

@ Salva..not too sure where I took that landscape pic but judging by the time it was taken...it must have been about an hour away from Augrabies... approaching from the Pofadder side.

No matter how many times we have been to the park we still discover some new “First to Find “ things.

On this trip one of our big “First to Finds” was the camp Gharagab. It was the only camp that we had not visited before and within five minutes of being there I promptly informed Doug that it was my new favourite place.

Four cabins,





A waterhole



And a look out tower





Sums it up.

Gharagab is not without it hazards though



….unfortunately there was not enough room for him and me on the look out tower, so after I had taken his photo Doug gently told him to fly away.

There was something really special about sitting on that balcony, accompanied by Amarula



…..nevermind sitting on that balcony the next morning watching the sun rise.




We unfortunately only had one night booked at Gharagab…next time Monty shall have a two night rest before moving on !!!!



Our “First to Find “ in the mammal department was this loving couple.



I believe they are Short Snouted Elephant Shrews.
Aren’t they cute…don’t look at us with those innocent little eyes…we know what you are up to !!! So those of you that are visiting the park soon….keep your eyes open for baby “shrewlets”

Talking about babies I guess you can keep your eyes open for some baby “ vulturettes” as well.



Another first for us was watching these two. Balancing on top of that tree was a feat in itself, nevermind the grunting noises that accompanied the wing flapping and neck-biting.

I am pleased she had the last word though !!!!!



Other ”First to Finds” in the birding department were the following.

Yellow-bellied Eremomela

Chat Flycatcher

Bradfield’s Lark and

Spike-heeled Lark.

The above are all lifers for me. Two birds that were not lifers but seen in the park for first time were African Grey Hornbill and Common Scimitarbill.

So all in all we were pleased with our “First to Finds”

Ooops !!!

I forgot to tell you about our other little "First to Find" mammal.
This little mammal was sitting in the tree to the right of the Nossob Birdhide.
Certainly a cute little creature...
A Tree Rat

Don't ever ask me for directions because clearly I do not know my right from my left...that tree with the tree rat in it was to the left of the hide !!!!

@ wanderw...
Angels answering technical questions about fuel is not always a good idea but I got the following info from Doug.
Gharagab is not a difficult road to drive..one hardly requires a 4 x 4 to do it....so therefore it should not chew up your fuel. There are a few more dunes on the second half than the first half. I drove the first half and was a little peeved that I did not have even a little dune to drive over I suppose it depends on how many days you want to stay in Grootkolk and Gharagab as to how much fuel you need. We only spent two at GK and one at Gharagab. We left Nossob with a full tank as well at 3 jerry cans..but that is partly because Monty only gets 300km to a tank. Just add up the km's that you would expect to do and work it out from there. Why not take a jerry can of fuel with you....

Gharagab is awesome Wanda..you will love it. We missed the lions..they visited the night before...we did see the prints though..huge !!!! R and D saw a caracal and we had a very interesting sighting down at the waterhole(still to be mentioned in TR)...beautiful scenery....lovely cabins....just
Hope that helps ....

Another aspect that keeps drawing us back to the KTP are the little unsolved mysteries that we encounter..

Seeing that we are on the subject of Gharagab I will tell you about one of the unsolved mysteries that took place at Gharagab.The photographs are not very good at all but they do tell a story. The branches of a tree kept getting in the way and the light was failing quickly.

It was about 5h30…I walked onto our balcony to find two creatures arriving at the waterhole. Richard informed me that yet again it was 2 jackals. Nevermind a jackal is a jackal and according to me he must have his photo taken. I picked up my camera and took a photo.



I checked the photo. What was I doing.. skew..half the waterhole in..really cr*p photo. I was just about to recompose this shot when Diana yelled from the cabin next door. "Is that a …….. at the waterhole ????"
Out came the binos and then out came the camera…..
Can you see what Diana had seen….



Can you see it now…



I cannot believe we had overlooked that puff adder.
With that one jackal moved over to the puff adder to investigate…..the jackal taunted the snake but the snake did not move…



The jackal very bravely pulled it off the stone wall….the puff adder did not move…



The jackal then picked up the snake and gave it a very good shaking…..





And then dropped the snake..the snake did not move….



Then eventually ate a small bit of it.





We then realised that the puff adder must have already been dead….but where had it come from ???
We thought maybe the jackals had brought it to the waterhole but Richard and Diana had both seen the jackals approach the waterhole empty-mouthed.
The jackal eventually picked up the snake and trotted off with it….supper for the family !!!



We wondered…. we pondered… but neither of us could come up with a feasible solution as to where the dead snake had come from.

It was only when I was going through my photos the other day that I came across this photo that I had taken 1 hour prior to the jackal/snake episode.



When I zoom in on the photo I can definitely see that the puff adder is there….in the exact same position as it was when Diana had first noticed it.

What had happened to this snake..where had it come from..how long had it been there…we will never know…..another one of KTP’s unsolved mysteries !!!!