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You never realise how fortunate you are. I grew up in the Free State and driving on the farm at night
scrub hare,spring hare, steenbok were taken for granted even had the occasional aardwolf sighting.

Good chance for these in Mokala and MZP.

I'd like to add my 5 cents worth on organised game drives.
This is the crux for me. Stuff that you see but take for granted or stuff that you never see in the day.
I would be pretty peeved if I fell into the minority group. Of course if all were in in agreement thats different. It should be up to the guide; and its up to him/her to take all the guests feelings into account not just a majority.
Also guests should be told beforehand about the wheres and whats and the guide should sort out any special requests before the drive.

An amazing Sunset / Night drive combo tonight!!

Sunset:
By unanimous vote we went lion hunting tonight, going fairly far afield to try and find a couple male lions that had been spotted earlier. Unfortunately, the lions had long since moved on by the time we got there... but we did come up with a brilliant grab-bag of sightings on our way out and back!
- The usual 'boks, springhares, and scrub hares
- Steenbok
- Cape Foxes (I lost track at 8 sightings)
- Bat-eared foxes (ditto!)
- Barn owl
- Small spotted genet
- Polecat!! A first for me! A very fleeting sighting, but one I'll treasure nonetheless!
- Brown Hyena - A first for one of my guests, who was ecstatic about the sighting. I think I have better luck finding such things when people ask to see them... speaking of which, more people need to ask for pangolins! I nee to find one of those!
- Lions! Not the ones we were looking for, but why complain about that! Three females wandering down the road as we were heading back to camp. Not the best sighting ever (they were about 100m into the bush), but it was a first for my guests, and they were pleased! - what more can I ask for?

Night:
Only one family with me for this drive, but I am so glad they decided to come out!
- Bat-eared foxes
- Cape foxes
- Spotted Eagle Owls
- Brown Hyena - the same one from the sunset drive! He was still wandering about laying down scent markings along the road. I think this is the one I see every time I do the drive along the Nossob road. Seems quite possessive of his territory.
- Leopard!!!! Spotted right at Leeudril, she wandered down the road by the waterhole, up to the distance marker for all the wilderness camps, scent marked it (smells just like popcorn, for those who have never been lucky enough to witness/smell this event!), and then casually sauntered off! She walked right by our gameviewer, and seemed remarkably calm - right up till I tried the old "drive by slow and stop to let her walk past" manoeuvre, when she glared at me and trotted off into the bush. Busted!

Regardless, a fantastic sighting to top off the night!

Morning All,

Here are the sightings from Nossob activities.

Sunset Drive

8 cheetah
Black backed jackal
Black chested snake eagle
Puff adder
African wild cat
Spotted eagle owls
Usual antelope

Night Drive

Brown hyena
Bat eared foxes
Cape foxes
Black backed jackals
Spotted eagle owls
African wild cat
Usual antelope

There's not a sunset drive at Twee Rivieren tonight, but I can report on the last few nights:

Saturday Night Sunset Drive:

Quiet for animal sightings, but my guests were full of great questions and we spent a lot of time looking at things like Tsamma Melons, Mole hills, Thunderbolt Flowers, Ant tracks and an old Wildebeest carcass. It also rained A LOT!

Animals we saw:

Scrub Hare
African Wild Cat
Bat Eared Fox
Gemsbok

Sunday Night Sunset Drive:

Lots of time spent discussing the trees in this part of the park. We also saw the shed skin of a Cape Cobra! There were ants eating it and we could hear them crunching

Animals we saw (much more than the night before!):

Wildebeest
Puff Adder
Scrub Hare
Spotted Eagle Owl
Cape Fox
Bat Eared Fox
Giant Ground Gecko
African Wild Cat
Dikkop
Springhare
Ostrich
Jackal
Gemsbok
Springbok
Steenbok

Can't wait to eventually come and do a few sunset and night drives with you

Morning All,

Herewith the sightings from Nossob for last night.

Sunset Drive
Mum cheetah and four cubs
Spotted eagle owls
Verraux's eagle owl
Black backed jackals
Usual antelope

Night Drive
Lioness and a porcupine having a little altercation in front of the truck
Another lioness
Bat eared foxes
Black backed jackals
Springhare
Spotted eagle owl
Brown hyenas
African wild cat
Usual antelope

This is the scene of an "altercation" between 2 x porcupines and the Mata Mata pride in 2008. Warning - abit gory!

SueJ

Stunning pics, Fortunately or unfortunately the Porcupine got away last night and the lioness was not happy about it .

Thanks for sharing the pics

The sightings board is a little quiet today, but there's been cheetah spotted near Kij Kij, Lions near Mata Mata and Caracal on the lower dune road.

No sunset drive booked as yet for today, but I'll be taking a night drive later and will report back

Twee Rivieren Night Drive:

African Wild Cat
Bat Eared Fox
Wildebeest
Scrub Hare
Spring Hare
Jackal

We also enjoyed tracking some very fresh leopard tracks and saw the spot where a porcupine had gone under the gate

Here are the sightings from Nossob;

Sunset Drive:

2 Mannetjie leeus in die pad - (2 Male lions in the road)
Bruin Hyanea in die pad - (Brown Hyena in road)
Gevlekte ooruile - ( Spotted eagle owl)
Jakkalse - ( Jackal)
Springhase - (Springhare)
Gewone wild - (General game)

Night Drive

Jakkalse - (Jackal)
Springhase - (Springhare)
Gevlekte ooruil - ( Spotted Eagle)
Gewone wild - ( General game)

Morning Drive

Leeu - ( Lion)
Jakkals - ( Jackal)
Gewone wild - (General game)
Slangarend - ( Snake Eagle)

Morning All,

Sightings from Nossob:

Morning walk

Springbokke (Springbok)
Wildebeeste (Blue wildebeest)
Rooi hartebeest (Red hartebeest)

Sunset

Luiperd in die pad (Leopard in road)
Jakkalse (Jackal)
Gevlekte ooruile (Spotted Eagle owl)
Gewone wild (General Game)

Night Drive

Jakkalse (Jackal)
Springhase (Springhare)
Gewone wild (General game)

Twee Rivieren Morning Drive:

Cape Fox family
Gemsbok
Red Hartebeest
Steenbok - 4 of them!
Springbok
Wildebeest
Jackals
Lanner Falcon
Tiny Leopard Tortoise
Tawny Eagles

We also saw a jackal eating a largely intact Wildebeest carcass (I know where to go if we have a sunset drive tonight!).

Saw tracks of lion, brown hyena and porcupine.

And one of those giant caterpillars of death, who in thanks for me gently removing it from the road with a stick to save it from being crushed by cars, sprayed clouds of irritating white hairs at me.... But I learned something new about caterpillar defences!

Lets wait and see what the night drive will bring.