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Sandy becomes rescue ranger to Silver Bird as the City Slickers hit the Kgalagadi again!

It has been 4 months since our visit to KTP and it is time to put proverbial pen to paper and relive the moments of another wonderful trip to our desert paradise.

The players are the same as 2 years ago:

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=43486 *Sandy and the Silver Bird: City Slickers in the Wild

Lion Hunter (Ray) usually the first to spot the King of the jungle and willing to spend hours in their company.


Jan Peeter-man (Martin) if it is broke or needs a plan, he is your man!


Bosvrou #1 wife of Jan Peeter-man and great at camp life while making sure we have the creature comforts of home to go along with it!


The junior members of this pride are my pride and joy Courtney (Bucking Bronco for a) her love of horses and b) her sleeping habits! ) and Emily also known as Cutie Pie - an avid collector of soft toys!


Finally there is Pink Lady or Bosvrou #2 known on the forum as Cape of Storms. My job is to organize that the pride gets together for our annual migration to either KTP or KNP!



On our last visit to KTP we had the most awesome time and decided we could never top it. True to the gem that Kgalagadi is, we were wrong!

This sounds like it was a great trip may I pleeeeeaaaassssseeee jump on board of this bus??? Ill even bite on the back tyres for half price

Looking forward to your TR so don't keep us waiting too long for the next installment.

I'm here too Cape of Storms

Cape of Storms

Cape of Storm
nice to meet all your pride

4 months ago... it seems we saw the same Cheetahs


I'm ready

Looking forward to the next adventures of the COS pride!

@ Sheenaugh-Lee Welcome aboard, would love to have you with us

@Foxy I will do my best not to take to long between instalments !

@Sharifa so glad you are with us

@Philip1 Thanks!

@anne-marie I am sure we did and I know that I briefly met you just after spotting and AWC near Mata Mata!

@Elsa this trip certainly had many adventures!!!

Once again around a winter Cape Town braai the seed is planted to take a impromptu visit to feel the hot sand between our toes.  After calling and praying for cancelations we nail down a week in KTP!

Two weeks before  we do a dry run of checking all the camping equipment and old “trusty” or should we say “rusty” the trailer.  Time for some maintenance and Jan Peeterman steps up to turn RUSTY back into Trusty! 



The decision is made to leave after work on Friday 21 September 2012 and try and make it to Calvinia before 9.  Sandy the X3 and Silver Bird VW polo ( yes a Polo to KTP - could mean some trouble but still an adventure in the sand) We hit the N7 with 6 excited pride members. Armed with our walkie talkies, laughter echoes through the two cars until we hit the first "bump" in our journey.  A traffic jam on the Piketberg  pass.  Stuck because a truck jack knifed. Two hours behind a huge truck in the rain was not the start we were hoping for and if that is not bad enough the mist moves in making it a very nerve wrecking drive to Calvinia. After arriving there at 1am we have a drink (helps calm the nerves) before crashing into bed at the b&b.

Refusing to cut into our Kgalagadi time we hit the road in the cold hours of Saturday morning and get lucky with most of the "stop/goes". When we had to wait we did our exercises.


Later afternoon we arrive at glorious Twee Rivieren.  

Home at last!

Time to light up the fire and enjoy the best part of the day. What is more our first animal of the trip comes to us!


A Yellow Mongoose hoping we would give him a snack!

Since our camping stay is at Mata Mata and this is only for one night we checked into a chalet for our first night under desert stars. Once the fire is going we all breathe in the smell of holiday and sit back to watch the fire. What could be better?

Stunning start ive got to say isn't it funny how whenever your excited to get somewhere your dying to be the main roads don't play with glad you made it safely

I'm starving for Kgalagadi tales, I think I'll hop on old Trusty and sit with the coolers.

Welcome aboard but as the trip unfolds you might rather want to sit in the car as old Trusty becomes a bit of a hazard!!!

@ Sheenaugh-Lee That road in particular has had road works for way to long!!

22 September 2012

Paul Simon’s song “Under African Skies” has a line that goes:
“This is the story of how we begin to remember , This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein”

Waking up to the quiet desert sounds, cold fresh air and all your loved ones around you makes you appreciate what this life is about. We need to remember that before the technology that rules our lives this is what has always been and hopefully will remain : AFRICAN SKIES



Having shared our quarters in very close proximity, a couple of the male pride members were chastised that they were growling/snoring during the night. We decide that when we set up camp later in the day our tents will have to be far apart!

Shortly after sunrise we depart not really expecting to see much until we near Mata Mata since on all our previous trips the first 20 km from Twee Rivieren have been pretty uneventful.....

Just after Samevloeiing we head up a hill where some movement catches our eye at the top of the dune. First sighting....
CHEETAH!!! our Cheetah luck this year has been unreal. In July in Kruger we saw a Cheetah every second day.




Now our first sighting, on our first day this beauty makes his way down the dune right past Silver Bird!!!



He was one of the finest specimens I have ever seen!

magnificent Cheetah

how did you do to see Cheetah every second day... in Kruger, I searched almost 5 years, to see the first

Your Trusty and ours look the same from that angle maybe their are twins.

I'm on the edge of the seat.