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Herewith a few photos from our night drive in Augrabies...although I have been to Augrabies a few times it has always been a quick stop over en route to KTP and doing a night drive had never occurred to us. This time we ( that being Anne-Marie , another friend of mine and myself) spent two nights in Augrabies...with plenty of time to enjoy a night drive..and enjoyable it certainly was !!!! Although we were not lucky enough to see a leopard or a caracal we were indeed thrilled to see two genets . Unfortunately I did not capture them on camera....the one was a really awesome sighting..we were able to watch it for a while but it was beyond the capabilities of my lens and the other was really close to the side of the road but it bolted very quickly. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to capturing the night life on the drive but here are my attempts....
First up...giraffe....it had not quite got dark yet...



A gemsbok...strangely they do not bolt as quickly as they do during the day !!!



And the Klipspringers....I might add that I had driven for almost 6hrs in the morning and did not find one blessed little Klipspringer. It was indeed a welcome sight on our night drive...how can one go to Augrabies and not see a Klipspringer ????



AND the scrub hares..one thing you are bound to see on a night drive is a "Bunny's Bum" Herewith is just one of the Bunny's Bums that we saw.....



But the best sighting of all must have been the Augrabies Guru.... It was great to meet you and we thoroughly enjoyed your game drive AG ..it is not all about what you see but more about the experience of being out there. You certainly helped to make it a very enjoyable experience....thank you! And thank you for sharing your game drive sightings here on the forum with us
But hey no more leopard sightings..... they tend to make me very and if and when you find a caracal again I do not want to know about it...

Thank you, Caracal and I do hope to see/meet the best sighting of all some time soon

Thx Matthys... I will get around to doing a trip report...we had some lovely sightings during our two day stay !

Looking forward to your TR, Caracal

Good morning all
@ Caracal, thanks a lot for the photo's, I'm so glad that all of you have enjoyed the drive .

Giraffes close to the restcamp and one lonely springbok at Moonrock,more springbok in the Oranjekom area with gemsbok in the area of the Black Ridges.
Scrub hare and spotted eagle owl as well.

In the area of the Black Ridges two pairs of eyes the same type of behaviour was displayed by the movement and sitting, on Saturday night with the leopards, unfortunately to far.

A genet and a large herd of eland close to the restcamp.

Pleasure Ag....so those leopards have made themselves at home at Black Ridges....that is really awesome !!!!

Caracal It is nice to see what you write about AG
You get a lot of people saying..."It is their job" but....

Thanks for sharing stunning photos, even the Bummy

Thx Philip1..oh my word...."Bummy"...that really did make me laugh !!!!

thanks Caracal to do this little report
I really enjoyed this night drive
Superb ( ) to see Klipspringers so close, all these Bunny(ies) and the two Genets

no need a Caracal I had one with me...
but a Leopard could have been fine... another time... maybe

Good afternoon all
The following is sightings from sunday night:
Start of with a gemsbok.

DSC01107 by closed4, on Flickr

Lot of scrub hare follows, african wildcat at 3 separate occasions,spotted eagle owl in the same area twice with the other sighting close to the road. Lot of nightjars in the area of Holombacht and a small herd of springbok at the Bridge and more Gemsbok at the waterhole in that area.Red rock rabbit in the area of the Black Ridges.

On my way back two separate sightings of steenbok,eland and Hartmann zebra's as well and klipspringers at the end of the drive.

Wife and I was part of this enjoyable night-drive. Didn't see the one on the wishlist (Ardwolf) but with 3 times wildcat its hard to complain

Many thanks to AG for taking us around


The one close to the road


Very best regards, Michael (and Margot)

Orange eyes & barred chest.

Spotted eagle owl?

BB, guess you are suggesting Cape Eagle Owl? Wouldn't trust the colours in the pic too much given the artificial light but eyes does indeed look very orange. Chest pattern though does look more like Spotted Eagle Owl or? Anyone?

@ Great Dane, it was only a pleasure and many thanks for the pic

@ BB,You raised the same question again with regards to the spotted eagle owl,thought that you was satisfied with the question which was given to you under this topic.