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I have not been too well lately (as some of you may have noticed) and seeing that we have a newly graduated Doctor in the house I asked her if she could pinpoint my problems. Strangely enough my SO was complaining of similar symptoms.....
Well this is her diagnosis.....please take the time to read it. It is extrememly interesting

“Kgalagadopaenia Withdrawal Syndrome” also known colloquially as “Bush Influenzae”

A sufferer of this syndrome is one who’s repeated visits to the Kalahari, though producing no deleterious effects in itself, may result in a severe withdrawal syndrome after leaving the area.

Aetiology:
The cause is poorly understood. Latest theories suggest that some travelers to the area are predisposed to developing a “natural euphoria”, similar in many ways to that experienced with recreational drug use. This is so intense that sufferers can develop depression and severe cravings after leaving the area.

Epidemiology:
The syndrome is rare with a prevalence of 1% in South African studies and a female to male ratio of 2:1. Inherited forms of the disease are not well documented, but there is evidence that Bush Influenzae may be contagious as it commonly affects more than one family member. It remains to be proven why this syndrome is unique to the Kalahari and has never been experienced by travelers to other areas.

Associations:
Other addictions may also be involved, namely photography (especially wildlife) and excessive alcohol intake.

Diagnosis:
No reliable laboratory tests are available and the clinician needs to have a high index of suspicion. Always consider the diagnosis in any traveler who has recently returned from the area.

Presentation:
Signs and symptoms usually develop insidiously up to 6 months after leaving the Kalahari. It is a multi-system disease affecting many organ systems.

CNS: poor memory, insomnia, hallucinations, restlessness, tremor, severe cravings and depression.

CVS: tachycardia, palpitations and hypertension.

ABDO: abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.

RESP: dyspnoea and non-productive cough.

Treatment:
Sufferers of this syndrome can be difficult but rewarding to treat. As with all addictions, one needs to be tactful, especially when eliciting the number and duration of visits to the Kalahari. Be aware that the sufferer may minimize the extent of the problem and denial may be a prominent feature. When sufferers present, most are already trapped in a vicious cycle of frantically planning future trips to relieve debilitating cravings.

Conservative measures include: group therapy, self-help groups, supervised detox programs.

However, for many sufferers the illness is already very advanced and relief can only be obtained by returning to the Kalahari.

Avoid: Anything material or stimuli that could trigger cravings, e.g. viewing photographs from a Kalahari trip, wildlife videos, outdoor magazines, SANParks forum, etc.

Prevention:
Since the syndrome is associated with repeated and prolonged exposure to the Kalahari, one should aim to visit the area in moderation, e.g. advise visits of 7-10 days once or twice a year if necessary. There is no prophylactic medication available.

Relapse:
Unfortunately up to 90% of sufferers are unable to maintain abstinence from the Kalahari and their cravings are life-long.

As you may have all realised by now SO and I fall into that 90% of sufferers...

We hit the road at 5h00 tomorrow morning...
We are driving straight through to Twee Rivieren. We dare not sleep over anywhere..we may not make it otherwise.

I am so pleased that somebody has finally diagnosed my illness....
“Kgalagadopaenia Withdrawal Syndrome"

Before I get shouted at for being the Elusive Caracal again I thought I would let you all know that I will be starting my trip report soon..possibly this evening. As there are many trip reports on the go at the moment I have decided to do mine slightly different to normal...I will not be doing a day by day account as there were many days that we drove km's without seeing much at all.
Instead I will be doing my report under the following headings

Accommodation
Birds
Cats
Smaller Creatures
Antelope
Reptiles
Last Day Blues
Overall impressions.

At the same time I am hoping to draw comparisons between our trip this year and our trip at the same time last year.

So till then ...please be patient

Okay herewith some "Gibberish"

Accommodation

Once again this was another on the spur of the moment trip to KTP. As you all know Doug and I were not feeling very well and a trip to the KTP was what the doctor ordered.
So I rushed to the online booking and managed to get 2 x Twee Rivieren, 2 x Kalahari Tented Camp, 3 x Nossob and 1 x Twee Rivieren. Not bad if you ask me.

We set off early on the 28th. Our plan was to drive straight through to TR. We did not dare stop over….we might not have made it in time.
As we all know the last 60km of dirt is now tarred…..what a pleasure.
We were given chalet no 28. The number did ring a bell but it was only when I got to the chalet that I realized that we had been given the self same bat- infested no 28 from our previous trip in Dec 2007/ Jan 2008.
See bat in toilet and shower episode

At least this time I knew what to expect and would be prepared for these Cape Serotine bats. Needless to say the only bats I saw were a few flying around outside. i have since read that guests had bats joining them in their beds. I swear if that happened to me I would go sleep in the Kombi. Camp Critters over these two days were far and few between except for a spotted eagle owl that perched on a mound of sand and eyed us out. I wondered if it was the same owl that popped in and wished us a Happy New year last year ????

From there we moved onto Kalahari Tented Camp. It was a with a bit of regret that I left the air conditioned chalets behind but I had realized that it was not as hot as last year so maybe I would cope without the air con. We were given tent no 14 which is wheel chair friendly. It is a much better setup because there is a door at the entrance into the bathroom instead of at the entrance to the toilet. Which means that in case of an emergency you have a larger space to hideaway in !
It seems that the tents at KTC have been revamped a bit. The kitchen looked freshly painted. The heavy black pots have also been replaced with stainless steel ones. These are way lighter to haul out of the bottom drawer. But oh yes I missed the air con. It was hotter in KTC than TR.
We had a lovely view of the waterhole as well as a good view of the riverbed. But the most I saw at the waterhole was 1 x springbok, 1 x wildebeest and 1 x jackal.

I must admit that two nights is enough for me at KTC…after that I start getting itchy feet. I was ready to move onto Nossob.

Again at we were booked into the wheelchair friendly chalet no6. This is a great chalet. There is a lovely big tree in the front which gives ample shade and you overlook the road leading into the camp. So one is able to sit on the balcony and shine into the dark night with a spotlight….we never did see any eyes though!
No 6 has a huge shower…..almost big enough to sleep in and I should have done that because oh my goodness me it was so hot in that bedroom once the fan stopped at 23h00. We had all the windows open but there was not a breath of wind to help cool us down. It is one of the few times that I wished morning would come and I had no problem getting up whatsoever. We had a few squirrels come to visit and I noticed one or two jackals running around in the camp but they kept their distance ! There were a few more interesting happenings while we were at Nossob but I shall tell you about that at a later stage !

After the three nights in Nossob we had one more at TR before we left the park. There we were given the chalet on the other side of the restaurant, no 21. This one overlooks the campsite…not my most favourite view but it is not that serious. What was a bit more serious though was that there was a bit of a sewerage pong around. We experienced this smell when we camped in August as well. The smell also permeated the air when we stayed in no 28….I must look into that.

One thing that has changed are the shop times for Mata Mata and Nossob. The shop is now open from 7h30 – 20h00. I am not sure if these times are permanent though..it may just have been for the holiday period. I meant to ask…but the heat gets to me sometimes and I don’t always function so well.
Otherwise all staff were friendly, helpful and polite and as usual a pleasure to stay at KTP

Bird Sightings.

I think I will start with the big raptors first of all.
Martial eagles evaded us on this trip.. Not one did we see. There were many Blackchested Snake Eagles masquerading as Martial Eagles though...but by now I know the difference between these two birds so I was not fooled. Most of the Blackchested Snake Eagles that we saw were either soaring too high in the sky or perched on top of a tree too far away to enable a decent photo. I eventually saw a Martial Eagle just outside Kenhardt on the way home.

Tawny Eagles were fairly abundant but it was only on the fifth day that I managed to get a decent photo of one.



Of course it did not take him long to do what birds do best....

On your marks ...

Get set...

GO!!

GONE !!!!!

The joys of continuous shoot. It is a pity that so many branches were in the way though !

We sighted many Whitebacked Vultures and juveniles between Cheleka and Nossob , especially along Marie se Draai. And one Lappetfaced Vulture north of Nossob. Again either the birds were too far away, the light was wrong or the sighting was not on my side !


to be continued!

Thank Nyala....actually no convertor was used. The first one was taken using my new 150-500 OS Sigma attached to my old faithful 300D and the last three taken with my 70-200 IS attached to my 40D.
In all fairness this tawny was sitting in a tree at Craig Lockhart just begging to have his photo taken

Thanks Mashona and billyf

@ dreamer..only 22 weeks till my next trip Oh well that means I have 22 weeks to finish this trip report

@ K. O'Dee...will finish one topic before moving onto the next...it might take a while though

@ On no Annalie not excuses....I haven't even been back a week yet and my report is on the go. i think that is brilliant.


Right let me continue a bit more with the birds.


More large raptors that we saw were Bateleurs. There were two adults perched in a tree just north of the Nossob gate. We saw these two everytime that we came back to camp in the evening but we did not stop to photograph them. Mostly there was a line of cars behind us and dust everywhere. We saw many around Mareie se Draai but mostly soaring in the air flocking together with white backed vultures. Again as in August last year there were quite a few Bateleurs at Cubitje Quap. We found our photographic opportunities with these ones at Kij Kij.
Firstly there were these two sitting in a tree. One juvenile and one sub adult.

Doug's Photo

and a close up of the sub adult

Doug's photo

It looks like the red facial patch appears before the proper adult feathers.
A few meters past these two we came across another juvenile.

Doug's photo

One wonders who was more interested in who.

Doug's photo

We did not see many bateleurs along the Mata Mata road ...except for this one just south of Craig Lockhart. It's eye looked strange when it was closed....not sure if the yellowish colour is normal or not.



Those of you that have visited KTP recently will know that Kij Kij is full of water. A magic place to watch birds. We pulled up one afternoon and there were 6 secretary birds drinking ....all but one flew away and even though it was having a really bad hair day


It stuck around and enabled us to take a photo or two.

Doug's photo

Doug's photo

We saw many secretary birds ..either congregating at the waterholes or stomping away for their dinner in the distance...but not many were as obliging as the one above.

No visit to KTP is complete without at least 1000 sightings of a Pale Chanting Goshawk ( fondly known as a PCG). Seeing that I probably already have about 1000 photograhs of a PCG perched on top a tree I did not take anymore. But the juvenile PCG's always look like they are up to no good ...so out came the camera.



...thinks we cannot see him.
By the way I think these are juvenile PCG's.

We watched many a lanner falcon dive bombing poor unsuspecting doves at most waterholes. Mostly they were unsuccessful in their hunts except for one that we saw catching a dove at Kij Kij...unfortunately I was just as unsuccessful in my hunt for a photo...the lanner falcon was so quick . The best I could manage was a photo of these doves at 14th.

..Cape Turtle Dove and Laughing Dove

At least when the waterholes are quiet one can always rely on a dove to keep you entertained.
Red headed falcons were scarce..so scarce that I did not even see one !!!
Black shouldered kites were fairly far and few between but I did manage to have a go at this one.



Surprisingly we only had one sighting of a pygmy falcon. We normally see many of these little chaps .

Doug's photo

Of course there were many brown raptors that confused me..I find it very difficult to distinguish between the different kestrels, gabar goshawks etc.....so if anybody can help with the following please do





...the last 2 photos are of the same bird.

I have not quite finished with the raptors...I am saving my most favourite bird for last

Another bird that you will definitely be able to ID after a visit to KTP is a Kori Bustard. But don't presume that every Bustard is a Kori..sometimes if you are lucky you get to see a Ludwig's. We saw 2 Ludwig's in the distance at Bedinkt (on two occassions)and 2 at Cubitje Quap. Unfortunately all sightings were just too far away for a photo....(you will just have to take my word for it BB )

As for the pretty birds...well we noticed many many bee-eaters catching insects . We also had a wonderful sighting of a bee-eater flying into a hole right next to the side of the road. We reversed in the hopes that we would see it come out....eventually another bee-eater came and sat on a branch with an insect in it's mouth. We waited patiently and so did he. Eventually he ate the insect himself..he was obviously not going to go into the nest as long as we were sitting there. So before we were the cause of mom and babes starving to death we moved on .
We did not see one crimson breasted shrike in the park...only one in TR camp as were leaving. He popped out of the bushes and really cavorted in front of me....he obviously knew that my cameras were packed up for the long journey home !

Lilac Breasted Rollers were not that abundant but one did give Doug a good photographic opportunity.

Doug's photo

Cape Sparrow, Namaqua Doves, Fork Tailed Drongos, Starlings, Yellow Canaries,and Red Headed Finches were in abundance.

We saw many Spotted Dikkops ( Thick Knee ) ..mostly very well camouflaged in the dense undergrowth of the trees. Many had chicks but mostly the chicks would run for cover when we stopped.





And of course these characters control the dune roads.

White Quilled Korhaan ( Northern Black Korhaan)



to be continued.

Lefh hand bird, and subsequent shots is a greater kestrel, but the right hand one looks funny. It has the colour of a tawny eagle, but the head and bald legs tell us it is not.

Right ..now that I have had my temper tantrum let me try this again

A little bit more before I end with my favourite bird.

The Ostrich to some is known as quite a "stupid " bird but I actually find them quite entertaining especially when you come across an ostrich traffic jam on the dune road. Two adult ostriches and 36 babies of various ages kept us amused for quite a while.

http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=Goh ... iUqg%3D%3D

They reminded me of my teaching days when I frogmarched 35 little boys up Adderley Street on a visit to The Gardens....

Eventually they gave way and we continued with our travels.

A first for us in the park was this Hamerkop. We sighted it at Kij Kij on the 28th.
Not the best of photos....but definitely a Hamerkop.





Lifers on this trip ...
Violet Eared Waxbill sighted at Kaspersdraai
Greybacked Finchlark sighted at Bedinkt
and Abdim's Stork sighted in the vicinty of Kwangpan ( 1 Jan ) as well as roosting in the trees at the Nossob Hide on the 3 Jan.

Thanks lp, Dotty and anne-marie
No video again anne-marie ...does anybody else have this problem ?


and finally..my favourite bird....the Owl.

As you have probably all gathered by the other trip reports owl sightings were plentiful in the park (Nov-Dec-Jan) . Not only adults but many juveniles as well. I think we saw owls on every drive that we did.

Just outside TR we saw this little family of Spotted Eagle Owls...I am sure that many other forumites saw them as well.



Can you see all three owls in the above photo?

Two juveniles.....


...and one adult.

Something that confused me was the colour of the owl's eyes. These owl's have orange eyes which is indicative of a Cape Eagle Owl. Spotted Eagle Owls are supposed to have yellow eyes. Cape Eagle owls do not occur in KTP .....so confusion reigned. On reading the fine print in my bird book I discovered that there is rarer rufous form of the Spotted Eagle Owl that occurs in western arid regions..this rarer rufous form have orange and not yellow eyes. I am no longer confused

We sighted many Spotted Eagle Owls along both riverbed roads as well as along the top dune road.

Thanks billyf I see the video is working again
to continue.....


We also saw many Giant Eagle Owls...also known as the Verreaux's Eagle Owl and Milky Eagle Owl. These are the largest owls in KTP and are fairly easy to ID because of their pink eyelids. Again many juveniles were to be seen.



Doug's Photo

We sighted Giant eagle Owls along the Nossob riverbed as well along the Auob riverbed but not along the dune roads .

We enjoyed watching a family of White Faced Owls in the tree outside the Mata Mata shop. The Owls must really love this tree because they are quite often sighted in it.
There were 3 owls in the tree but I could only get to photograph one of them...the others were very well hidden in the branches. But this little one definitely enjoyed posing for the camera.





I must admit it was difficult to photograph this owl because it was blowing a gale....as the following video portrays. I thought the poor little thing was going to get blown of his branch...no wonder the others were well hidden amongst the branches.

http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=fzd ... z3BA%3D%3D

We also enjoyed watching a family of White Faced Owls housed in a tree just as you enter the Nossob hide. two adults and three juveniles..but once again there was only one that was willing to pose for the camera.

This photo was taken in the evening...it was quite dark already but I played around with my flash and upped the ISO to 1600.

The family were still in the tree the next morning and again only one was happy to have his photo taken...I wonder if it was the same show off from the night before...again I used the flash and a higher ISO. I would have liked to experiment a bit more with various settings on my camera but SO was chomping at the bit...two spotted hyenas were at the waterhole






To follow...my best ever owl sighting ...but I need the page to turn

My best ever owl sighting was of this Pearl-Spotted Owl. It was sitting in the tree behind Chalets no 5



I can just hear you all saying.."What is so fantastic about that sighting"
Well the next day when we arrived back from our drive I went in search of this little owl again and not only did I find Mommy I found two babies as well....AND mommy was giving them their lunch.
It was amazing to watch this...talk about greedy little beggars!!! Lunch consisted of a black skink. There was such a tug of war going on....I didn't know what to grab first..be it my camera or my video camera But I calmed down and managed to get some video footage as well as a few photos. I had such a pain in the back of my neck after this sighting because the owls were so high up in the tree...it was worth it though !

I have cropped and PS -ed these photos quite a bit...they were actually very high up and there were many branches in the way. Also the light was not very good .....but it was an awesome sighting !!!!







http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=fzd ... xrFw%3D%3D

I must admit I didn't feel like my lunch after watching this
It is sightings like these that went a long way in curing us of our ailment
Apparently there was a resident Barn Owl in Nossob as well but I was not lucky in my search for him .....but I really could not complain... after all I had many wonderful owl sightings

Yellow Ribbon Sightings

I thought I should mention all the yellow ribbons that we met up so that Annalie can start nagging them for their trip reports !!!!

First up were two Cape Town forum members that I have already had the pleasure of meeting..
Munchkin and Bigal.
We met Bigal a few times along the road and at a leopard sighting he was able to fill us in on the story..thanks Bigal. Now why don't you tell the rest of the forum ????
We also met Munchkin at the same leopard sighting and she very happily informed me that is was her second leopard sighting of the day
We met Munchkin again just north of Urikaruus and she once again very happily told me that they had seen a ****** and ***** and ***********. I was very very . Come on Munchkin you owe us some stories. Ooops sorry ..that sounds a bit like nagging. I must leave that to Annalie

I also managed to sight 5 new lifers along the way.
Gus, Lolly, Killabeez, lovehyena and lees....it was great meeting you guys.
lovehyena and lees are from CT.....maybe you will join us at our next meet.
I am sorry that I did not get to meet Pathfinder and Senyetse

But now I must tell about a very funny incident. Doug and I had come across a cheetah in the distance with a fresh springbok kill. There were two cars already parked in front of us...otherwise we might not have spotted the cheetah. Eventually one car pulled off and we pulled along side the other car. We were keen to find out whether they had actually witnessed the kill. Doug wound down his window and the chap in the car asked us if we had seen the Martial Eagle in the tree. I was puzzled ..not like me to miss something like that. He then went on to tell us that there was a leopard there as well. My first reaction was..." this couple do not know the difference between a leopard and cheetah" when all of a sudden the penny dropped.
We had met up with our "leopard couple"....from a trip one year previous.

Flashback.....
Jan 2008
Just then we noticed a car coming towards us. SO flashed his headlights and beckoned to them to come closer. They did not budge and we thought this was strange. We beckoned again but still nothing so we continued to watch the leopard. We just presumed that the driver was happy with his view of the leopard and that he maybe did not want to come closer in case he disturbed the leopard. A good few minutes passed and eventually the car pulled up next to us. SO wound down his window so that he could chat to the driver.
The conversation went something like this:
The man (very excitedly)"Isn't that a beautiful Martial Eagle in the tree. It is the first time we have seen one."
SO ( astounded) "Yes, but what about the leopard ?"
The man ( shocked ) " Leopard? What Leopard ????
SO ( even more astounded ) " The leopard drinking at the waterhole !!! "
The man's face was an absolute picture. In all the excitement of seeing the Martial Eagle they had not noticed the leopard.
Thanks to the stork we saw the leopard but the exact opposite happened to them...thanks to the Eagle they almost missed the leopard. The joys of Birding!!!!!

Well did we have a good laugh ....and now a message for my "leopard couple"...I know you are reading this . You promised to join the forum did you not ??????

All in all a most satisfactory Yellow Ribbon trip !!!!!

Thanks again everybody for all your comments and compliments.... the owls were indeed very special sightings !!!!!

And to continue...

ANTELOPE

Springbok, Blue Wildebeest and Gemsbok were in abundance.
I think that every single springbok that was capable of given birth this past season has done that without fail. There were hordes and hordes of babies around. Mostly they were fast asleep under the trees



But one morning we came across quite an energetic bunch…
http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=dJA ... yGZQ%3D%3D
( It seems that Tinypic is a bit of a hit and miss affair at the moment...I think I must investigate You Tube )


Doug and I were just discussing the fact that although we have often seen springbok congregated around a waterhole we have not often seen them actually drinking. With that we pulled up at Craig Lockhart and the springbok gave us a demonstration !!!



The Blue Wildebeest babies did not seem to be as many as the Springbok. Last Dec we found that it was the other way around…more Wildebeest babies than Springbok babies. Last year we watched both a wildebeest and a springbok give birth…this year we were not so lucky.
We came across these two baby Wildebeest just south of Urikaruus waterhole. There were no other Wildebeest in sight. These babies had joined up with a herd of Springbok. We were confused as to why they were abandoned ……and we did not hold out much for their survival.



Gemsbok were plentiful but the bigger herds and medium size babies were seen more along the dune road. Of course mostly the gemsbok did their usual trick when they saw the camera….disappeared.





Invariably you do get one inquisitive one though!!!



Steenbok sightings were also numerous and not just in the dunes. Mostly one gets a perfect shot of their rear ends...



But sometimes you get lucky !!!!





Red hartebees were also out and about strutting their stuff. We noticed a few babies...although they looked like they had been around for a few months. I am not quite sure what it is with a Red Hartebees but they make for very comical pictures