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Prides of grass, hyenas, (and other animals) KTP May 2011

(Most of the pictures belong to Wannabe nerd, with a few of mine thrown in)

Our itinery:
1 night Twee Rivieren
3 nights Mata Mata
6 nights Nossob
2 nights Grootkolk
3 nights Kielie Krankie
3 nights Twee Rivieren




Day 1: 30 April 2011

The only thought that enabled Wannabe Nerd and I to leave the Kgalagadi without too many regrets in November last year was the knowledge that we would be returning at the beginning of May for 18 nights.

Soon it was the annual forum meet, Christmas, New Year, the auditors at work had come and gone and our long awaited day was almost upon us.

Our plan was to leave in the early hours of Saturday morning and to drive straight through to Twee Rivieren to arrive mid afternoon in time for a quick snooze and an afternoon drive.

Wednesday the 27th was a holiday so we used the available time to get our gear all sorted. As a result the house looked a bit like a camping/ bottle store






All these plans soon changed on the Thursday evening with the sudden and unexpected arrival of a relative who needed a place to stay and quickly volunteered to house sit our house.

Given the circumstances, we decided that we weren’t going to get any sleep on Friday evening so we packed everything into the bakkie and were on the road by 6pm.

All we can say about travelling through the night for 13 hours is NEVER again. By the time we got to Upington we were exhausted and stressed. The road to Askam, usually a joy to drive was never ending, and we had to dodge bat eared foxes on a few occasions.


Askam, sunrise and sociable weavers nests soon lifted our spirits, as did this Giant Eagle Owl on a pole just other side of Askam.






We arrived at the gates at just after 7am, tired yet delighted at finally being “home”.
Way too early to book in to the chalet (at 1pm) so after booking in and doing all the necessary adjustments to tyre pressure etc we were soon off for our first morning drive of our holiday....
We decided to try the road out to Leeudril first, and either we were too fast asleep to see anything or it was very quiet, so we turned at the turnpoint and headed off over the dune road to Auchterlonie and back.
Along the way we did see our first gemsbok and blou wildebeest of the trip






As well as the first of many pygmy falcons:



The view of the Auob from Auchterlonie:




We then returned to camp, booked into chalet number 2 and got some well needed sleep.

That evening we went out as far as Samevloeeing, where we had a sundowner before returning home.





Back at Twee Rivieren we had a quick visit from Jannie ,Vanessa and Stefan, who popped in to say hi. Sorry we didn’t see more of you that evening but we were shattered. I lit a fire, we had a quick braai and were in bed again by 8.30

Day 2: 1 May : Twee Rivieren to Mata Mata

We woke early the next morning, refreshed and on a mission. Well actually two:

Firstly to repack the bakkie and to be at the gate at 7am, and secondly to go and find the elusive Samevloeiing leopard.

Part one was accomplished with ease and by 7.05 we were on our way, all packed and off via Samevloeiing to Mata Mata where we would be camping for the next 3 nights.


I don’t know how many of you have ever seen anything on that first stretch from the camp gates to the Dune road turnoff. We certainly haven’t , and didn’t see anything then.


As for the leopard. Ya well, I am sure it is a figment of a whole lot of people’s imaginations.
I really don’t understand why people fabricate things like leopards close to camp just to get others all worked up.
I mean really.

Anyway Samevloeiing was pretty, Leeudril was quiet and then we had to retrace our steps backs to the Dune Road.
Once we got over the Dune road and into the Auob our expectations started to rise.
Lions at Houmoed .........nope
at Munroe...... no as well.

Well we did see these bokke in the morning sun.




We started to look for the smaller things and soon saw this Marico Flycatcher and
Crimson Breasted Shrike






as well as these two Pygmy Falcons along the way, (the one was trying to hide away!! )



At Kamfersboom our luck changed!!

Two spotted hyena walking along the road.







They walked along the riverbed, had a sip to drink at Kamfersboom and then went up onto the ridge of the far dune to their den. (We were to see them there again later on in the trip)



Wannabe Nerd was happy as she had seen some of her favourite animals as we carried on.


A bit further down the road it was my turn to be blessed with these 4 sleepy guys at Gemsbokplein.



We watched them for a while but they were busy settling in for the day.



After a break at Kamqua we carried on to the famous hyena den just past Urikaruus, hoping that the clan would be at home. Our luck was in and Debs was like a child at Christmas!!




Isn’t the baby just the best!!!

Further north we were greeted by soggy roads after a heavy storm two days previously. The roads made for some interesting navigation, and an endless supply of designer mud.



Fourteenth borehole delivered this stunning Martial Eagle,




Some thirsty bokke



And a puff adder



We got to Mata Mata in the mid afternoon, set up camp and chilled for the rest of the day.



Our first proper day in the park did not deliver a leopard, but the Kgalagadi showed off her colours in a whole lot of ways, for which we were really grateful that evening as we reminisced about the day’s sightings

Thanks for the correction with regards the Martial Eagle ( I have made the correction!)

Here are a few more pics of him



He put us on ignore before flying off:

Sorry for the delay in continuing with this report, but besides our internet being down for the last 4 days (Don't laugh Caracal), life in our household has been pretty hectic. We are just back from holiday and within a few days we find ourselves back on the same treadmill as when we left

Debbie recons I am a serial poster, as I cannot leave a TR dormant for long. Well she is probably right and so whilst I wait for her to sort pics etc and I continue writing , I couldn't resist in posting a few more photos of our second day:




The lions near Gemsbokplein

Some more springbok pics!





And finally Wannabe Nerd getting up close and personal with a crimson breasted shrike at Mata Mata



Day 3 will follow over the weekend!!

Day 3; 2 May : Fun and games at Mata Mata (Part 1)

We slept like babies that night until we were woken at about 5am to one of our favourite sounds, the sound of lions roaring in the distance. As the alarms were almost about to go off we got up and got ready to go out. Needless to say we were the first up at the gate waiting to go out.

Our anticipation at seeing the vocal lions of a bit earlier was increased when we saw paw prints in the road as we travelled out towards Kalahari Tented Camp, but they soon disappeared as had the lions. I thought that they could well be at the KTP waterhole but we weren’t in a position to find that out. All was quiet as we travelled down past Dalkieth and into the borehole loops, the only real excitement was driving through all the puddles in the road.

I was busy navigating my way through a medium sized puddle between the 13th and 14th borehole when Debs shouted ‘Stop!!’. You know the tone when you know you have seen something as opposed to “well that clump of grass did look a bit like a lion” type of sound.


I stopped.


Well right next to the road, in perfect sunlight, on my side of the car was this:



(My only redeeming grace was that the car ahead of us had not seen them at all!)





We sat and watched the 4 of them as they lay in the morning sunlight. The one male had a porcupine quill stuck in his chest and looked a bit uncomfortable as a result. At one stage he got up and tried to rub it off against a tree.








Once other cars started arriving at the sighting we decided to move off and carry on down to Kamqua.
At the start of the 13th borehole loop we saw this chap in an old dead tree.



A bit far off, so we were not sure if it was a juvenile PCG or a Gymnogene.(We sort of hoped for the latter but still require an id)
Some swallow tailed bee eaters were also strutting their stuff this morning.




The hyenas at the Urikaruus den were out and about, and they entertained us for a while until we carried on to the picnic spot for a break.






Driving back to Mata Mata, we noticed the horizon getting darker and darker and wondered if we were in for some rain.

Day 3 Continued


At the southern entrance to 13th Borehole Debs spotted these barn owls in a nest in the base of a large sociable weaver’s nest.

How she spotted them I still don’t know.





As I brought the car to a halt we noticed a Cape Cobra climbing up the tree towards the nest.



You can see the snake in the top right hand corner of this pic, getting closer to the nest.




We now had two very agitated owls in a tree with two very interested onlookers hiding behind cameras in the road.


As the cobra approached the nest the adult owl flew out the nest to a branch adjacent to the nest and then attacked the snake which reared up and we think fell to the ground.




We watched the owls for a while, waiting to see if the cobra was going to try again, but nothing happened, and the mother owl returned to the nest.

The weather started to deteriorate rapidly and it started to rain so we decided to head back to Mata Mata to see what condition our campsite was in.

When we approached the spot where we had seen the lions earlier we saw there were still quite a few vehicles blocking the road. Luckily they let us through without any fuss, and whilst we snuck past the lions (who had not really moved except to get further under the trees looking for shelter) we managed to get a few pics of some miserable looking wet lions!!





We got back to a surprisingly dry Mata Mata which was great as we could prepare for the storm we knew was on the way.
That evening we cooked pasta and pesto in the tent and sat underneath the bird hide keeping dry as the heavens opened.



(Me relaxing in our tent!)

Whilst this went on outside!!



We went to bed that evening very content with the days sightings.

Thanks everyone yet again for your comments

Day 4 : 3 May 2011 : A Special day at Mata Mata

It rained consistently through the night, but we were snug and warm in our beds, and awoke once again to the sounds of lions roaring in the distance.

Once again we were up and about at sparrows getting ready to go out, and were (as always) the first vehicle to leave the gates, but were soon overtaken by others not prepared to travel at 30km/hour. I really don’t see the point of getting up early and then rushing out looking for game as the only game you will see are those right on the road (or under your car’s fender)



Just after KTP we came across this old lion walking alongside the road. We had seen him on previous trips in much better condition and because of his broken jaw had nicknamed him “slackjaw”.




Well as you can see the old chap is certainly looking a bit worse for wear and unfortunately we feel his days are numbered. We were really saddened at the sighting and carried on as he veered off to the right towards the dunes. We wondered if it was he, who we had heard roaring in the early hours of the morning.


We carried on southwards admiring all the usual animals until just after Craig Lockhart we came upon three juvenile male lions being watched by about 4 cars. Two of the lions were up on the rise to the right pretty well hidden in long grass, whilst the third was on the left still making his way towards the others.





It was a bit of a bunfight with some of the other cars jostling for position to take photos. Massive lenses and open sunroofs being the order of the day. Anyway after a while the trio disappeared into the grass leaving us left behind waiting for the other vehicles to speed off.


A bit further on we came upon this hornbill having breakfast. I must admit I am really glad I am not a hornbill, because it’s breakfast does not really appeal to me!








Just as we entered the 14th Borehole loop we spotted these two cheetah in the road.



We couldn’t believe our luck. Last November we had seen cheetah only once, and far away.
Well we were given a show of note. We had the cats to ourselves for a full 20 minutes as they posed beautifully amongst the trees and on the road.
















Eventually they moved off to the top of the dunes on the left hand side. A herd of springbok were at the waterhole so we decided to sit and wait.


We were eventually joined by another Cape Town couple who we were to get to know quite well on the trip who waited with us, once we had told them what we had seen.


After a while we saw the couple up on the dunes just behind the waterhole and once they again disappeared from sight, we decided to carry on.
We were ecstatic with the sighting and were still on a high when we came upon three cars watching this.






The two cheetah’s buddy a bit further down the road had already organised his meal for the day.
He was about one metre from the road and in long grass. The grass was so long you couldn’t even see the kill. We watched as he lay next to the kill being harassed by a jackal, who had to move out of the way pretty smartly as the cheetah, which had obviously had had enough charged at the jackal.



He then lay down next to the kill and disappeared from sight

I have worked out how to download some of the videos we took, so here goes:


Here is a video of the owls

Some wet lions!!

More to follow!

Day 4 continued


First up a quick video of the two cheetahs earlier in the day finally moving off into the dunes;
( Sorry it's not the best quality)

Cheetah video

We decided to carry on down towards Kamqua as the traffic jam was getting worse and the cheetah was not doing too much.

On the way down we stopped firstly at the barn owl nest, both mommy and chick were at home and secondly at the hyena den, where one lazy chap was sunning himself at the entrance to the den. No cubs and very little on the go, so we carried on the Kamqua.


The trip back provided much of the same, with the cheetah now well and truly passed out under the tree next to its meal. There was a fairly large collection of onlookers so we decided to go and find our own sightings for the afternoon.


First up was this delightful Pygmy Falcon




This was followed fairly shortly afterwards, by this wonderful sighting of Bat Eared foxes drinking water out of puddles in the road at Craig Lockhart.







We had the sighting to ourselves as well and felt really privileged to be able to see these cute creatures so close up. They usually are in the river beds and moving away from us.





We then went back to Mata Mata for a break, pottered around camp for a few hours preparing supper ( a potjie) before heading out for an evening drive to Craig Lockhart and back.



Although the evening drive was quiet, we did manage to get a few quite nice shots of general game.



Some reflections in the puddles







A double headed hartebeest




Don't you just love the headgear





That evening we enjoyed our potjie (no rain tonight!!), and were in bed and asleep by 8.30!!!


Tommorow .... Off to Nossob

Thanks everyone for all your comments and for taking the time to read our trip report. They really are appreciated.
And thnks for turning the page Caracal


Day 5 : 4 May 2011 : Mata Mata to Nossob


True to form we were again awoken by roaring lions. This holiday is the first time we have ever heard lions at Mata Mata but failed to see any really close to the camp. (A few days after we had left we heard about a lion kill at the waterhole right next to the fence!!) But then I always believe that you will see only what you are meant to see and it is worthless rushing around chasing other peoples’ sightings....


As we were leaving Mata Mata for Nossob this morning we were up and about pretty early. (I am sure much to the distaste of our sleeping neighbours), and were packed and ready to roll by 7.15. Not bad, 15minutes after gate opening time.


Traditionally we have always found that the days on which we travel between camps to be quiet days. We wondered if today would be one of those days as we felt we were “due” a quiet day after all we had seen. Well our question was quickly answered as just after Sitsas where we spotted a car watching a lion walk along the riverbed. It was old slack jaw and as he was fairly far away so we decided rather to carry on as he was a pretty poorly sight!

Good Move!!!!


Just after Craig Lockhart we met this chap just off the side of the road.... he was a real beauty and was really interested in some springbok not too far away.



(My pic)





We admired him for some time before he sauntered off into the distance allowing us to carry on with our trip.
A bit further on we came across this Tawny Eagle enjoying the early morning sunshine.




Up until now we had been driving on roads that were mildly corrugated but very slushy in places, and we wondered what to expect on the other side. The start of the Upper Dune road from the Kamqua side is notoriously badly corrugated, and this year was no exception, until after about 5kms we came across............... The Graders...............


What would a trip report on the KTP be without at least one pic of the graders?


They had made their way down from Nossob so we were guaranteed a smooth ride for the next few days!!!
We were amazed at the amount of water still on the roads even after the grades had passed and had to make our way slowly along the dune road as we encountered many a “detour” along the way. This is a picture of the pan at Vaalpan (I think) which was full of water. Not something we are used to seeing in the Kgalagadi.




The rest of the trip up to Nossob was quiet which enabled me to photograph some Tsama melons as well as a Koring Kriek (Especially for Caracal!!)




We arrive to a VERY empty Nossob just after lunchtime and proceeded to set up camp in our favourite campsite (Old campsite no 5..... the one in the south east corner of the camp)

That evening saw us take a drive along Marie’s se Loop, which proved to be also very quiet that evening. Nevertheless we were really excited at being back in our most favourite part of the park and enjoyed an evening sundowner whilst watching the Gemsbok also quench their thirst.






(Nossob sunset)

We headed back to camp for an early supper and were greeted by an unwanted tenant in our tent which Wannabe Nerd made me quickly evict.


We think it is a Red Roman?
We went to bed that evening wondering what Nossob would reveal to us over the next week.

The old Lion will have to go one day, but he and his brother have left a wonderful legacy of youngsters around Mata Mata. I wonder if your young man is the one I labelled "A King in the making" last October. He was part of the MM pride, but he looked to be developing into the next leader.



The sequence of him and "slack jaw" with a limp on this page: http://suejayjames.blogspot.com/2010/10/4-day-of-lions-part-one.html

Glad I did not witness the nasty creepy crawly - the caterpillars were bad enough!

Day 6 : 5 May 2011: The day we tried to go to Polentswa


We woke up really early in our excitement to go out, and found ourselves ready to roll at 6am, a whole hour before the gate opening time, so we drove up to the gate so that we could be first out the gate and took our coffee and all the other paraphernalia down into the hide to watch the sunrise.

Debs took this video of the early morning sounds at the hide which even today we love listening to over and over!

Nossob hide early morning sounds


Our intention was to head north up to Polentswa and back as we had not yet been north yet this trip. The gates opened at 7 am, and we set off.
We had not gone much further than 2km out of the camp when we came across these four delightful cubs playing in the road.
(They proved to be the 4 cubs we had seen in November at Marie’s)

(The light wasn't the greatest as it was pretty early in the morning)







Keeping an eye on our tyres!!


(my pic)
Am I cute or what!!!





Here is a video I took of them just before they disappeared into the grass, not to be seen again that morning.


Nossob cubs


After scanning the area and driving up and down in search of them (or their parents, we decided to carry on on our way north.
(To be continued later… we are off to rugby now)

Day 6 continued


What an amazing start to our day!

We carried on in high spirits very pleased with ourselves having seen “our” cubs from November.
As we travelled further northwards, all was pretty quiet until after Cubitje Quap when Debs spotted paw prints in the road.
I’m not great on getting TOO excited about paw prints on the road as I am never certain as to how old they are, but Debbie does. This time she had reason to get excited, because just ahead we met up with these two brothers.....






We followed them as they walked along the road and posed for us at times on the verge.



They had obviously had had a pretty hectic night if going by the size of this chap’s yawn is anything to go by, and true to form the two soon plonked down under a tree next to the road for the day.





A sure indication of an imminent Kgalagadi roadblock!

Talking of roadblocks, we came upon another type a little bit further on along the way. These wildebeest were having a ball in the puddles in the road.








This guy was just too cute



And here is a video of them:

Wildie Roadblock!

Needless to say, with Wildebeest being one of my favourite animals we were only too pleased to be delayed at the stop/go!!

All this and we still had not even got to Kwang!!


Once past the roadblock, we came upon these sandgrouses on the side of the road:....





A PCG shouting its head off in a tree






More to follow later

OK Caracal here you are

Day 6 Continued (again)


Upon our arrival at Bedinkt, we noticed three lions on the far side of the pan on a wildebeest kill. Way too far away for a picture so whist we kept an eye on them we waited to see what would arrive at the waterhole we had coffee and rusks.

We were rewarded with this sighting of a Red Necked Falcon and ground squirrel!!




And these red headed finches.



The lions eventually got up and left the kill and disappeared over the far dunes.


By now it was 12.30 and as it had taken us 3 hours to get to Bedinkt, we decided to head back towards Nossob.

First up on the way back was this Greater Kestrel



And then all of a sudden I noticed this snake on the right of our vehicle. We have no idea as to what it was but it was on a mission.






Eventually after a few minutes it disappeared down a hole in the side of the road, and almost simultaneously, a few metres further on this baby mouse shot out onto the road.




A bit dazed by the bright light, it eventually gathered its senses and scuttled off to the opposite side of the road, where I am sure it soon became some birdie num num.

The trip back to camp after that was pretty uneventful except for the predicted lion road block just south of Kwang where the two brothers had passed out next to the road.



We got back to camp at about one and chilled in camp for a few hours before heading south to Marie’s for evening sundowners.


Marie’s proved to be predictably quiet, and we eventually got back to camp about 15 minutes before gate closing time.

There we got the news that two lionesses had just walked past the waterhole heading north.


With a few minutes in hand we soon caught up with them.
They were also on a mission, and their mission was to get to their 4 cubs about 400m further on.
The limited time and fast fading light resulted in only a few proof photos:







By the time we got to the cubs it was almost time to head back, so we didn't hang around for long, just enjoying seeing them again. Our day started and ended on a wonderfully high note


We returned elated to camp just as the gates were about to officially close!!

I was thinking that too - could it possible be a Kangaroo Mouse? Jerboa?

This is a link to a baby Kangaroo Mouse http://firefly-stare.tumblr.com/photo/1280/4444210875/1/tumblr_ljch27iFn71qg5h4f

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-bBR-dvA5SsM/TXfUPCmQDcI/AAAAAAAAK_Q/alMqSVeaMCE/s1600/IMG_7505.jpg

This one seen in Senegal

If so - what a find !