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Ready and waiting for another wonderful TR from you LS

Hope you get to see all on your wishlist. That will break some banks but help the webcam project

Looking forward to this TR! I am definitely on board.

You two just can't keep away!

Have another stunning trip.

Lionspoon and Spots wish you luck with all the sightings you would like to see.

Hope you will be lucky with the bird challenge as well. First time Ive spotted a Ludwigs bustard was last year Dec. So I hope you will also be as lucky as us.

Sneaked in

Crested Val, Sharifa, Janeli, Bush Baptist, Son godin, Philip1 - thanks for joining my TR!

BB, should I tell you we already got another booking for March (and October) next year?
And the good thing about it is, that we might be able to meet up at least for a chat as you're in the park as well as far as I gathered?!

SG, no luck on the Ludwig's... But I'm not surprise - haven't seen a single one yet.

Sharifa, off to KTP yourself soon, hey? Need to get to that Woody Challenge asap, methinks.

So we are back from our KTP trip... It was kinda weird… So different to everything we had seen and experienced before but still absolutely enjoyable. Funnily enough, the depression to having to leave the park never hit us this time, but that might be due to the fact that it’s only another 4.5 months until we are back once again.

I just had to change the title of my TR as the amount of lions we saw seriously let us into saying “Oh no, not another lion again.” at some point throughout our trip. And that coming from somebody who loves her lions dearly…

Obviously the fact that the elands – a first of many for us – were still around on the SA side made the lions have field day with them. We counted as much as 10 carcasses visibly lying in the Aoub riverbed just between Auchterlonie and Houmoed – a stretch of about 30 k’s. The hyenas, jackals and vultures were obviously so spoilt for choices that they didn’t bother cleaning up after the lions.

The next thing that was strange (in a positive sense!) was the amount of martial eagles we saw. Usually, I’d be lucky to see about one or two throughout our entire trip. This time it was in the region of 15 sightings. Then the amount of brown hyenas we saw: While staying at Grootkolk we had regular sightings each morning and each night. There were at least 2 different ones around as one was very skittish and would run off if there was too much movement or too much noise coming from the camp and the other couldn’t be bothered with that at all. We also saw one on the southern dune road legging it into the dunes. One at Nossob hide and one at Urikaruus at 4.15 am in the morning which we thought was special as I hadn’t read much about brownies in the sighting books there.

Talking about dune roads: The view onto the vast burned area there was also very strange. It almost looked like a red moon landscape with all those burned stumps sticking out of the red sand and no other vegetation being left after the fire.



The roads throughout the park were much better than we had experienced on our last trip. Still badly corrugated in stretches but overall much more comfortable to drive than before.

Next thing are the waterholes that were reported to be empty. By the time we got into the park there were still quite a few left, but quite a few had been repaired as well. When we arrived on the Nossob side Jan se draai, Kwang, Langklaas, Kannaguass and Geinab didn’t have water. Kwang was fixed and with Geinab I suspect that it is purposely kept empty as didn’t carry water for quite some time now.

On the Aoub side it was Rooibrak that even had a sign (as did Langklaas and I think Geinab) telling visitors that the waterhole was empty and at some stage Craig Lockhardt, Houmoed and Gemsbokplein seemed to be void of water. But it could be just the eland having emptied them throughout the night and the water not filling back up quickly again as we had seen animals drinking there at other occasions.

Another weird thing was that you wouldn’t see anything (and I mean anything, not even springbok) for a long period of time and all of a sudden there was something special coming up for us.

That's all of the weird stuff I can think of right now...

On a not so weird not - just the opposite: We met a lot of sociable people as well. Some of them forumites, some not. In chronological order:

Willem, the camp assistant at Kielliekrankie. We’ve met him every time we stayed there and by now it feels like meeting an old friend. Always great for a chat, always helpful, knowledgeable and excellent at maintaining the camp.

Our neighbour at Kieliekrankie – a story to be told separately.

bosticbudgie and her SO – fab people who donate a considerable amount of their free time to assist with the Kids in the Park activity. I pull my hat for that! Also great to chat to and it felt immediately as if we had know for much longer than we actually did.

Kalagadi Guru – not much I can say that anyone who knows Jannie wouldn’t know.

Franco, the camp assistant at Grootkolk. He was on his week off when we were there for the first time last year. But his reputation precedes him and rightly so! What a pleasant, helpful and knowledgeable person he is and just like Willem he takes brilliant care of his camp.

enrico and his mate Larry – I’m almost embarrassed to admit that it took us two nights that we the both of them and Spots and I spent a GK before I found out that enrico is a fellow forumite. Had some entertaining chats and good laughs ever after though.

No. 1 – a guy we also met at GK and who travelled on his own and meant to stay in KTP for two months (Can you see my face having turned all green?) to chase after some special photographs. We met up again at Nossob for more friendly chats which we enjoyed a lot.

Our neighbours at Nossob – a mix of two couples of which I first got to know one of the ladies at Nossob hide. Very friendly people who gave us a cooking lesson with the potjie and even let us have some to try. Yum! Also shared with them some lion sightings.

Jacques who fills in as a camp assistant at Urikaruus and Kieliekrankie. Like with Franco his reputation precedes him as well and rightly so just as well. Jacques is a brilliant guy with lots of passion for his job and lots of knowledge to be shared. I could say much more about him, but let’s just keep it to a minimum: I was deeply impressed by his excellent attitude towards his job and his guests!

Erik the camp assistant at Uri who has helped us out big time when it came to our bookings for next year. Great guy playing in the same league as Willem and Jacques.

wanderw and MarkW – definitely a great honour to finally meet two more of the KTP nutters! Thanks for the nice chat and the hint regarding the wild cat. Although we never found it. Not sure if it was our inability or the fact the cat had move on against all odds.

Steve from Oz – what a nutcase! But in an adorable manner. He was such a good laugh and had hilarious stories to tell. But that is kinda easy when you stay in SA for three months…

jacliz and her SO who we had got to know the year before and were happy to meet again this time around! Strangely enough, we did more talking when we bumped into each other on the roads than we did in the camp this time around. Another thing which was a bit odd. But it was just down to the dynamics, I guess.

The Warrington couple who enjoy the KTP as much as we do and who made for a great chat as well!

Loretta at the reception from Mata-Mata who went out of her way to accommodate us with our bookings for next October as we were still in the park when the bookings for next year opened.

Last but certainly not least rjm with whom we spend a memorable last night on our balcony in Urikaruus. There is not much more I want to add here, but you know that we enjoyed the evening in every way, R. Thanks again for your company and of course the delicious treat of a kingclip dinner with fresh salad.

And a lastlast positive note: People generally were chattier than we had experience before. Behaviour at sightings was mostly good with people sharing and trying not to block off or spoil it by just driving by. A lot of people shared the little they had to share and it seems that only a few got very lucky to see more than the ever-present lions…

Also, it was interesting to learn that each and every person we spoke to about the cycle challenge and / or the planned accommodation in KTP – either on Bots or on SA side – had very strong opinions about either. Don’t think I’ll have to mention which that would be.

Now let the weird fun start…

As I’m for a bit of change when writing TRs I decided to relate stories which touched me, excited me, amazed me, entertained me or in short: which I found interesting in some kind of way or another.

Day 1
21/10/2013 – Twee Rivieren to Kieliekrankie

The weird stuff started on the very first day when we entered KTP around 3.30 pm. Having dealt with the check-in process and the renewal of our Wild Card (which went very smoothly thanks to a very efficient and friendly reception desk at Twee), Spots and I proceeded to the gas station to deflate the tyres and to fill up on diesel. While Spots was taking care of the technical stuff I was headed to the shop to put together the supply of Charles Glass for the first few days. As we had arrived in Upington on a Sunday the liquor stores obviously had been closed, hence we need to stock up in the park as usual. As I was standing in front of the glass door fridges and trying to make up my mind whether to also get some Savanna or not I all of a sudden noticed that laminated white sign on the fridge door. It told me that I was not able to purchase any alcohol on Sundays anymore due to the new Northern Cape blabla regulation. Say what??? Our first day in the park and we wouldn’t be able to enjoy a decent sundowner??? Can you imagine me standing there in front of that fridge door, my dried out tongue sticking to the glass in desperation of being so close to the cold stuff but unable to devour the golden liquid? I decided to return to the gas station to relate the bad news to Spots. He almost dropped the air thingy... On our way up Spots rhetorically asked every car that approached us: “Any cold beer that we could buy off you?” Rhetorically because he didn’t really stop anyone to ask but just said it out loud in our car.

To cut a long story short: We had an understanding neighbor at Kieliekrankie who would provide us with a few cans of Guinness (for Spots) and a few cans of Windhoek light (for me). Not sure, if you are a forumite, but if you read here, let me tell you that we will be grateful forever for your tremendous humanity and your eagerness to save our lives!

But I’m sure you guys and gals are actually more interested in the sightings we got on our way from TR to KK. Spots and I had laid out guesses of what would be the first critter we would see. Well, Spots won with his springbok.



On the dune road we got our first first: eland!!! I was one happy gal as I knew they did occur but had never laid my eyes on any during the last visits.



Shortly after Houmoed we saw our first meerkats. WOW, that was quick! Usually we have to look and look and look before we would find at least some. Alas, a bit far off:



Then there was nothing. Nothing at all… Then a car stopped us to tell us that there were 4 lions on a kill at Auchterlonie. And sure they were: two females in the riverbed, with the older, very sturdy one being flat out underneath a tree right next to the road and a younger one snacking on an eland. Two younger males with big tummies were playing lions at their best in the shade of a bush just below the dune ridge. One eventually got up to feed some more.











So we had an amazing start into the sightings for our trip and hoped that this would be a good omen for the time to come. Little did we know back than that it indeed had been an omen…

Wonderful start of your trip

Amazing Lion pictures so close .....just one word to be said Superb

Hope the eland are still around when we get there. Would love to see them

Excellent start

Pleased to hear you arrived home safely......and had some golden stuff

Lionspoon, Have not booked place, but would love to join your TR.

Enjoyed reading your intro around all the people you had met.......All sound so amazing and down to earth.

What a wonderful start to your TR with awesome pics.

Thanks for sharing

What a start!

I'm definitely here for the rest of this lion-overloaded trip! Seeing the Eland on those dunes is almost strange... Never seen them in KTP before, and only once in KNP.

Looking forward to the rest!