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I'm back in the UK after 3 wonderful weeks around Cape Town and 2 weeks in the Kalahari - what heaven !

Please bear with my as I get around to catching up, editing images and posting my report a bit at a time....... I know you will all be patient

I have in fact started a blog already, and as the KTP has not yet begun on there I will include the URL if anyone is interested in the prelude to our trip. There were some dissappointments due to unprecedented cold and high winds in the park, but the sightings we did have were .......... INCREDIBLE!

The blog I have started can be found here: suejayjames.blogspot.com/

I apologise for not managing to get the meet in Cape Town organised and to Gavin & WBN for not making contact whil I was there, there was little spare time and much to do so I hope you can forgive me.

OK, hold onto your hats, here we goooooooooooooooo..

Travelling with my friend Penni from Elgin (near Cape Town) we arrived in the KTP on 2nd October, after an overnight stop at Keimos. As the approach road to Twee Rivieren on the South African side is now complete our drive into the park was smooth and pleasant. We saw a startled Steenbok on the way in and a Springbok before arriving at the now completed and very imposing new Reception at Twee Rivieren.



Penni and I had some "Must see" sightings for this trip, of the exception we hoped for was:

1. Honey Badger (me as I had never seen one before)
2. GOOD Cheetah sightings, and preferable on a kill! (I don't ask for much)
3. GOOD Brown Hyaena sightings
4. A Cobra eating a Puff Adder (Penni's wish)
5. Leopard with cub/s
6. Hoopoe (me as I had never seen one on any of my previous trip anywhere before!)

Expected and hoped for:

* Lions
* Plenty of Raptors & other birds
* African Scops Owl (Penni)
* Meerkat
* "Cylindar" Mongoose (private joke and is actually Slender Mongoose).
* African Wildcat
* All the usual Kalahari gifted sightings.

I have seen two extremes now in the park, the extreme dry lands with Eland dying on their feet in 2007 and the amazing green wheat fields of 2008, so this trip fell somewhere in-between. There was surprisingly quite a bit of new growth in places and we understand that there had been rain a week before our arrival.
Temperatures recorded in the vehicle during out trip ranged from 40C, down to 2c.
We saw no stupid tourist actions, nobody getting out of cars, although we did at times find some rather unsavoury rubbish which was obviously not thrown out by workers. The roads were nowhere near as bad as my previous two trips, and we were lucky to get the large mechanical grader out on the Nossob side. We were the first to drive on the road up after it had been out and the roads were like glass! There were fewer visitors than I had seen before, after the first weekend.
I will air any moans and groans at the end.

Sat 2nd October - Twee Rivieren. Our chalet was No 21 and as usual was clean and well equipped. After unpacking essentials we set out on our first drive, during the hottest part of the day registering 39C which did mean it was very quiet and even birds were wisely absent in the shade, we assumed. Our first sighting was Wildebeest under the shade of trees.
At Samevloeiing waterhole we found a small company of Gemsbok drinking. A Jackal Buzzard alighted at the waterhole but flew off before drinking (no pics) and a Secretary Bird flew inthe the riverbed on the other side of the tracks. We saw an Ostrich dust bathing and a few Crimson-breasted Shrike.







We decided to drive along the Nossob road a short way but soon returned and decided to return out when it was cooler, so tried out second drive at 5pm. There were a few more animals and birds on the move. A juvenile and adult PCG, Fork-tailed drongo, Namaqua Doves, a Korhaan and a few small batchelor herds of Springbok. There was one loan Ground Squirrel and a Grey-headed Heron, posing nicely.





We drove as far as possible along the Nossob Road which is now blocked at Kij Kij before returning back to Samevloeiing again. There was no nothing around and as the sun began to melt into the dunes behind us we returned to our chalet. As we scanned the riverbed we both saw something "different" simultaneously and were thrilled to see a large and stunning Brown Hyeana. It was sadly too dark for pics by now as he sloped off behind some tall grasses. Nevertheless a nice start to our first day.

......../to be continued

Sun 3rd October - Twee Rivieren

During the night Penni had a bat flying around her room which refused to leave!
We were out the gate at 6am, the temperature recorded 13c, rising to 36C. We drove along the Auob Road as far as Kamqua picnic stop but saw very little and caught up with forumites, Kesheshe (James) and Penny at Auchterlonie for breakfast. A homing pigeon was resting on one of the picnic tables and looking quite content to do so. I took pics of the ring on ites leg for Penni to submit to Cape Bird Net. Sightings during the day included the usual antelope; Meerkat in the distance, small birds included Scaly-feathered Finch, Swallow-tailed Bee Eaters (plenty), Fork-tailed Drongo's and Crimson-breasted Shrike.


Homing Pigeon


Meerkat (Suricate)




Steenbok




Familiar Chat


cold Swallow-tailed Bee Eater


Ostrich drinking




Verreaux's Eagle Owl being hassled by Crows


Scaly-feathered Finch


Pretty Springbok


Fork-tailed Drongo wearing cobwebs


male Ground Squirrel


Crowned Lapwing


Greater Kestrel


Sabota Lark


Martial Eagle chick


Verreaux's Eagle Owl


Martial Eagle nest


/ to be continued ........

OK, just a few more until I carry on after work today………


Spotted Thicknees


Secretary Bird


Martial Eagle flying

In fact most animals and birds were noticable by their absence. No Jackal, or big cats, although I do realise looking at this array of images from Day 2, it does not seem there was much of a shortage of sightings, and there is never NOTHING to see in the KTP, however....

We returned to our chalet around 3.30pm and took a short drive to Samevloeiing later where we sat in anticipation of something coming to drink but only a flock of Sociable Weavers and a couple of Namaqua Sandgrouse appeared. No Brown Hyena tonight.


Sociable Weavers

/to be continued……

Mon 4th October - Twee Rivieren to Mata Mata We left Twee Rivieren at 6am (we were first out the gates most mornings with no other queues!). We decided to take a quick look at Samelvoeiing before proceeding to our next camp at Mata Mata.

Just outside camp in poor dawning light we saw our magnificent Brown Hyaena, this time on the calcrete rocks on our left. He was walking along the top in good view and this time we even got pics, although not good shots, and there was a good cloud cover. Temperature as we left camp was 17c and rose to 35c during the day.


Brown Hyaena

Again the riverbed was almost empty, the trees almost devoid of large birds. We had still not seen of Kori Bustard. We did catch a nice Black Korhaan.


Black Korhaan

This void continued right up to Mata Mata with a few exceptions of small herds of Springbok and Gemsbok and an even smaller number of Wildebeest. Still no Jackal and only the odd Ground Squirrel. We saw several Secretary Birds. But WHERE were all the large herds of antelope??

Lonely and cold Springbok


Martial Eagle


Another Martial.

There were plenty of Swallow-tailed Bee Eaters and Martial Eagles, the latter also on nests with a chick each.

We drove around all the loops, checking waterholes as we went and noted that changes had been made to some of the waterholes. A pity that the wire enclosures around the pumps cannot be better disguised to make them less obvious and more photogenic.

We saw no Giraffe either on our way up and continued to puzzle at the lack of animals and bird life.

As we neared the 13th borehole loop, another driver informed us that there was a pride of lions on the top road, not on the loop. Hooray! At least there were still some in the area. We found the small traffic jam around the lions.

/ to be continued ……………..

Ok, so continuing with the Mata Mata Pride……….


The youth of the pride


Sleepy couple

As we came across the lions, I recognised the breeding male as one of the Mata Mata pride, then 13 strong, that had served so well on my 2008 "Kalahari Wheat Fields" trip, giving us such tremendously exciting sightings then, and the pride that had made the double Porcupine kill. "Drefoss" as I believe he is known, is so easily recognisable by his "droopy" mouth. Today they were two couples and 4 juveniles. No cubs. They were all sleeping but Kesheshe and Penny, who had been with them for some time said that one pair had been copulating.



It was sad to see that the old boy was looking much more scarred and worn than 2 years ago. I felt a lump in my throat, feeling that we were old friends and remembered the time he had nearly put his big proud head right through the "lion magnet's" window and how mellow and soft his brown eyes were then, and now.


Looking older and battled scarred


This girl also has very worn teeth now


the drooly mouth very apparent


He appears to be grimacing


The next king in the making perhaps?


We left the old boy to sleep

Although we sat with them for about 2 hours there was no more mating activity so we then continued to Mata Mata, seeing one single Kori Bustard (our first this trip!).

We arrived at Mata Mata at 1 pm . I asked the ranger where all the animals had gone but he was not able to answer.

Mata Mata has drastically changed since my last visit. The old entrance has been replaced by a new one and new gate, made further round. There appears tp be a large staff village now - lots of new buildings and a very smart and far better sightings board. There was plenty of staff around, border police, rangers, etc. The "owl tree" that was in front of reception seems to have gone We did not find the owls.

It seems a shame that the old chalets were not refurbished when the builders were still on site building the new guest chalets and village.

After unpacking (old chalet 5) and lunching we drove back out to see if the lions were still around, stopping briefly at Sitsas and Cubitjie Quap.

We were pleased to see out first young Giraffe at Cubitjie Quap. We also had a few more PCG sightings, along with a Pearl Spotted Owlet (no pics) and Red Hartebeest, Gemsbok and Secretary Birds.


Young Giraffe


Gemsbook profile




Sitsas waterhole above and below


We got back to where we had left the lions at around 5.15pm and they were still there. The 4 youngsters still lazing under the same tree, but the two couples had moved further back into the scrub. We left them there and drove back to prepare our braai.


Sleeping Lioness


A darker than normal PCG, taken with flash and red-eye adjusted in Photoshop.

It was mainly cloudy and overcast today and we had 11 spots of rain!

/to be continued……

Day of the Lions (part one)
Tuesday 5th October, Mata Mata:
While eating our Braai the previous night we had been invaded by caterpillars!

During the night we had a desert wind which hurled and shook our chalet, leaving us tasting dust from around 3.30 am. We awoke to a clearer but windier morning and were again first out the gates at 6am, Temperature 17c, rising later to 38c and sunny.

We told ourselves at this stage that even if we were not going to get good sightings this trip, the beauty of the Kalahari was enough to enjoy.............

Straight out of the gates and into the immediate riverbed, sitting beside the road was a Cheetah!! The light was not yet up enough to get good pics, but we managed a couple of reference shots, and I played around a bit with this one in photoshop.


Solitary Cheetah.

The Cheetah crossed in front of us and walked past over the hill. Also in the riverbed were 2 Bat-eared Foxes and a Verreaux's Eagle Owl on the ground (no pics) and 3 Jackals


Jackal searching for a tasty morsel.

Cheered by these early sightings, off we set and continued to see several more jackal, 5 PCG's on the ground together and others, Kori Bustard and all before 7am!


Kori Bustard

We decided to return to 13th Boorgat in search of the Lion pride once more. The lions were no longer on the top road so we turned back onto the loop and there they were, snoozing in the open riverbed. Drefoss with the female and 4 juveniles, 3 males and 1 female. They each gave us good viewing, the youngsters playing and one young male practising his "mating moves" on his unreceptive sister! One day, young man....









The previous day Kesheshe had told us that one of the males had a bad foot and poor Drefoss was limping badly. It was heart-tugging to see this magnificent male in pain, although the limp did slightly improve as he hobbled around. I wonder if the Kalahari guru is reading this and could comment on what happened to the old boy?


Limping badly above and below




Still enticing the old man

As the sun began to soar higher they moved towards us into the shade of trees.


A prince


and a princess






Stalking ….


.. and the object of his desires, above and below


We stayed with the pride for about an hour. I hope I am not boring everyone now with the pics of this "special" pride?



Someone told us that the other couple plus a female with cubs were further on, so we attempted to find them but failed, so we turned back again heading for Kamqua picnic spot.

/to be continued....

Thanks again everyone for the comments and interest.

John n Poppy *where* in the "Middle of England" are you, you cannot be too far from me nestled in between Leicester & Nottingham?

OK, here is the next instalment:

Cheetah at 6.30pm!

/continuation from Lion Day.

After lunch we went back out, taking a slow drive as far as Craig Lockhardt. We saw 3 Spotted Eagle Owls, one on a nest with her mate on a branch and another Owl a little further on.


Spotted Eagle Owl


Spotted Eagle Owl nest

We took various pics of trees and scenery. The exit road from Mata Mata looks like a walk in an English country park! Trees were changing from bare, to Spring red buds or Green.


Exit from Mata Mata reception


Camelthorn trees in various shades of Spring




And the usual burden of Sociable Weaver nests

I had made a prediction when we had first gone out at dawn today that we would see another Cheetah again near to camp at 6.30 pm, so undeterred from my prediction I insisted we go back in order to catch this sighting.........!











Never doubting my instincts, sure enough, just before coming into the riverbed a collared Cheetah came walking towards us! (I did not let Penni forget this prediction for quite some time)

Light was already failing at this stage as the large red orb in the sky threatened to sink rapidly behind the hills to our left, but the Cheetah obliged long enough by checking out a tree and then walking past us and on up the roadside. Her collar appeared to have 2 white or pale yellow bands on the antennae. We were the only people at both out Cheetah sightings today. I say (her) although I am uncertain if this was a male or female but it was smaller than the Cheetah we had seen at first light. I will be sending all Cheetah images, complete with collars to Gus the Cheetah project.

Thoroughly pleased with ourselves we returned to camp. The caterpillars again emerged but in fewer numbers than the previous night and the sky was clear with stars bidding us a good night.
/ to be continued......

Well done Gavin!

Caterpillar Invasion! - and birds.

Wed 5th Oct 2010 - Mata Mata



On rising today we found a second plague of caterpillars, this time FAR worse than the last. Our adjoining neighbour had left their outside light on so MILLIONS of these creatures had zoned in on the light from everywhere. Hundreds were over our window canvas, many coming through into the kitchen and some through into our bedroom. They were all over our step and on opening the outside door we were faced with a flotilla of crawlies hanging by gossamer threads from the rafters and shrouding the door like a curtain, covering anyone that decided to walk through!







Believe me, I would take one single bat any day to this disgusting invasion. We took pics of the area between our chalets and would have loved to stay around to see the faces of our neighbours when they got up as I am sure that most caterpillars must have wriggled into their chalet.

We left camp at 6am again. It was a sunny 18c, but rather dusty as there was no wind. See sunrise above.



The jackals were the first to greet us. Up to now we had not seen any pygmy falcon, but that was soon remedied when we saw an adult feeding two chicks on the ground (no pics).
Today we also saw Hoopoe again and a couple of Tawny Eagles on riverbed trees.

We drove through all the loops hoping to find the lions again but today only saw the usual antelope candidates. At the second loop we found 3 juvenile lions in the shade, 2 males and 1 female. We did not think these were the same as the previous individuals seen as they looked slightly older. We did not find the main pride again.









As we drove on, Penni suddenly spotted a pair of thrushes in the grass. Our bird book confirmed them to be Ground Scraper Thrushes, which are only shown as occurring in the North tip of the area. They were delightful birds, collecting large beak fulls of grasses.







We also saw Spotted Thick-knees and Common Scimitar bill (no pics) and finally a Yellow-billed Hornbill, which so far had been surprisingly absent on this trip.





We spent some time sitting under a sociable weaver nest, testing ourselves at snapping birds as they busied themselves on repairing their nest, and almost snapping our necks and wrists in the process!.















We then returned to see if the lions were still there, but they had gone.

We also got a Secretary Bird in flight and at 13th Boorgat we watched a stunning Black-breasted Snake Eagle drinking from the waterhole, before flying off.











Apologies for posting so many of this beautiful bird. Temperature was now 36c.

We took pics Gemsbok and saw Pygmy Falcon on the way back to camp, but light was now harsh difficult so only one image is slightly decent and sadly this is the only pics possible of Pygmy's for this trip.







We came across a single, juvenile male lion under a tree about 12km outside of camp. He looked a bit older than those seen with Drefoss, and was developing a good blackish mane. We scoured the area but could see no other lion. Apparently he had been there all day.



We returned to camp around 2.30pm for a cold shower and rest and were back out at 5.30pm. The nearby lion had gone, the sun was already going down and we took sunset pics before proceeding then to Craig Lockhardt.





We saw a PCG looking to roost for the night. In the riverbed were 7 Giraffe heading to drink at the waterhole and a few cars already there. We drove up to join the other vehicles, but light was fading fast. We shot a few pics before conceding we had to return to camp with just 30 minutes before gate closing. On turning the vehicle round, we saw another traffic jam just a little further down the road and lions were approaching the waterhole from the other direction!











Sadly we had no choice but to leave the exciting prospect to unfold and I suspect there were a few late cars getting back to camp!

During the night we had another wind storm and a shower of rain. We had difficulty sleeping as it was so hot and eventually lay on top of the beds in our birthday suits, covered by towels soaked in cold water.

The wind had managed to keep the caterpillars to a minimum!

(The next episode is from our most exciting day of the trip!!!!)

/to be continued…..

I am using a Canon 40D with a 100mm-400mm lens. On the next instalment of my TR I would have loved to have had the new Nikon and a 600mm 2.8 prime lens ! The reason should soon become apparent..........

The reason the caterpillars plagued us as MM is because the chalets do not have any sealed closures. They can get under the doors and easily get through the gaps in the canvas window flaps. It would be nice if the chalets at MM and Nossob could have the same fittings as at Grootkolk and Urikaruus wilderness camps, i.e. nett-covered windows that seal off. That would prevent nasties getting in and allow flaps to be open for better air flow at night when the generators are turned off! Camping should keep the little buggers out too! The reason for Chalets was to save moving tents and also it is better for keeping dust out of camera equipment (or should be)

A couple of corrects I need to make, apart from my many typos are:

The Familiary Chat is in fact a Marico Fly Catcher and the Black-breasted snake eagle, SHOULD read Black-chested Snake Eagle.

Dawn to Dusk Excitement

Thursday 7th October - Mata Mata

We were first out the gate again at 6am and the temperature was already 24c but the sky was very cloudy and overcast. We made a plan to look for the Lions and drive straight to Craig Lockhardt waterhole (at least).

We saw 2 Bat-eared foxes galloping alongside us and past (no pics) and a Tawny Eagle in the early dawn light.


Tawny Eagle at dawn

We arrived at Craig Lockardt with no other vehicles around yet. No sign of the lions but we sat fascinated as we watched the early morning dash of the doves that inevitably make a waterhole dash at dawn and dusk each day, getting in the way of any pics you may take of other animals. The Giraffe returned to drink again and were joined by Springbok and two Red Hartebeest.


Red Hartebeest








Craig Lockhardt Scene

We were about to leave and drive on, when…………

when Suej, don't leave us in anticipation

Gorgeous pics again I really like the Giraffe with all the doves flying in front of its legs and the Red Hartebeests are fantastic.

Sue The caterpillars are NO JOKE We are 'supposed to' stay in those chalets at the end of Nov....seriously I am now considering taking a tent for those three nights Give me spinders, bats , moths, beetles, BUT Caterpillars..... NO!!!!!!!!!
Please convince me they will be gone when we get there