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Caracol hope you enjoyed it

Because with all the potent lenses it is impossible to judge what you would actually have seen with your eyes.

Picnic, love the photos. We will be visiting in July and can't wait to be back.... it has been a while.

Not really Micetta....my most awesome sightings lately have all been taken with my 70-200mm and anybody with a point and shoot would have be able to photograph the sighting as well. The brown hyena brawl at Kaspersdraai was right at the side of the road as well as our cheetah v. hyena sighting in July last year. All our lion sightiongs on this trip were right next to the car as well...my photographs definitely do depict the real thing !!!!

Apologies to picnic for hijacking thread.....

Caracal, I did not mean to generalize and I was certainly not talking about you, far from. Many of your fantastic sightings have been close to waterholes and we know what the distances are there.

It really doesn't matter who were talking about Micetta but I just feel that any sighting that a potent lens can get at a distance can also be got at the side of the road...it is more about being at the right place at the right time. It seems on your trip you were not very lucky at being in the right place at the right time..it happens. We did three consecutive trips to Nossob without seeing a lion...but we do not go to KTP with the sole purpose of seeing lions/leopards or what have you...we go to KTP because we love the ambience...we love the excitement that maybe we will experience something awesome....we just love being there regardless of what we see. But we live a mere 11hrs away from the park..maybe that is the difference and that brings me back to the topic of this thread...WE CAN"T GET ENOUGH .
I have already booked our Dec/Jan trip.....I suffered badly in the 46°C ....but I will go back. I have been fortunate to visit many other parks in SA..be they SANParks or private as well as parks in other African countries such as Kenya, Namibia and Botswana...but it is the KTP that has grabbed my soul..it is the KTP that has said "You will be back"..it is the KTP that has said....you can't and never will get enough !
And none of the above has anything to do with potent lenses....potent lenses just give you a better photo of a distant sighting that you can also get right next to your car.... I will take my chances...
Now you must excuse me...I have a bag to pack...because I just cannot get enough of the KTP....

Luckily not everybody loves the same things, that would be the end of tourisme, consumism, marriage, industries, writers, music etc.

and possibly the end of the KTP.....

Well like Caracal said:

Very well said!!

It is the anticipation driving the roads and that there might be something is already so very exciting. Even if always the same roads.
And most of the times it happens when you least expect it…

On our first trip in May 2005, we did not know what to expect, back than it was a bit harder to get any information about KTP.
So we went there with the thought, well let’s see what the Park looks like, maybe it’s one time and never again.
We saw one Lion in 2 weeks, it was freezing cold, the 60km gravel road to the Park was terrible.
But we instantly fell in love.
Our first drive from Twee Rivieren to Nossob took about 6 hours, we stopped for every Springbok, every Jackal, Agama etc. We were shocked that it was already 1pm and we still had a very long distance to travel….
The landscape was mind-blowing.
Ok I have quite a good camera equipment ( I think) , but like Caracal I do not own a 500mm bazooka. I took my pics with a 80-400mm lens and some with 18-200 mm lens.
Francolin tried taking photographs, but was not happy with them. So she gave up on it and now takes wonderful videos footage instead.

It is (as well as Caracal said) about being at the right place at the right time.
Most of the time great sightings are there with a bang..

But I could sit as well at Grootkolk, watching the birds for hours that come and visit our birdbath.
Micetta I am so sorry to hear that you are disappointed about some accommodation, fortunately we never were, we do not have problems with the petrol station schedule and that the shops are pretty basic is not a secret.

We love the peace and quiet, no cell phone, no internet, no news….
Even seeing a plane in the sky after nightfall is kind of sensation.
And the deafening silence…..
It’s like playing outdoors, walking through Twee Rivieren wearing Flip Flops and feeling the sand between your toes.
Running to the hide in Nossob in the middle of the night, because the Jackals alarm calls wake you up, just to check if there is something interesting there.
We are addicted and I can truly say, not one day passes without having KTP on our mind, in our thoughts and hearts.
I think the trip reports here on the forum do not exaggerate, I for my part always pointed out, that our recent trip was exceptional and ( we already booked our next 4 weeks trip for November this year) and are not expecting the same awesome sightings this time again.

We are not living 11 hours from KTP, we travel ten thousands of kilometres to get there.
And we gladly do it, to return back to (for us ) Paradise.

Ok as we have to travel so far, we always nearly spend a whole month in the Park, so it’s not that dramatic if you have a couple of quiet days….
And we always experiences some really quiet days during our trips.
But I see it’s a difference if you have quiet days 4/10 days or 4/21 days….

We never have been there during the South African school holidays, so we nearly always have nice encounters while travelling KTP. The wave-back-rate is nearly 99% and most of the travellers know how to behave and share sightings with you. So different to Kruger ( well especially in the South).

We know several Forumites that came to KTP and did not fell in love, we know Forumites that said, that they need the bush and never even tried to travel to KTP.
And that's OK.

Micetta I am so sorry to hear that you were (obviously) a bit disappointed.
So maybe KTP is not your cup of tea, but don’t stress yourself. Only because so many people here on the forum rave about, it is not always necessarily so.

I hope seeing it from the distance now, makes you think a little bit more positive about it….
At least you had some nice sightings and we all loved to read your Trip Report.

As December will be my first visit I wont lie and say that I dont care what we see and of course I hope we have amazing sightings, not really for me but the rest of my family so it is easier to get them to go back .

Honestly for me the draw to visit KTP comes not so much from the animal sightings but the landscape, the views, the different sounds and basically the overall different experience to Kruger. The excitement of trying something new and different.

Too bad i have to wait so long still but my Kruger trips will sustain me till then

Hi there Ollie,Caracol,Katydownunder,Micetta,Oddesy and all the other guests.
All so true, and yes why is it ? Maybe it is the peace and quietness.

And maybe

Let's get something straight. Mine is not a critic of KTP, it is my experinece of KTP. In my TR I have slightly exaggerated some things to make it funny, because if not it would have been a bore. In fact I did not want to write a TR. You talk about the landscape, I find it monotonous. The first day it is quite special, but then it is all the same. Of course a reason was also the lack of animals.

Another thing to take into consideration is that I have a predilection for scenery with water and I am not talking about waterholes

Anyway this does not mean that KTP has been cancelled from my list. So many things are better the second time around and now I know what to expect and what to avoid.

Yes that is the kgalagadi for those that did not know
The best place to be with someone (or someone's) you care for?
@ Micetta your time in the park was a bit short

Or maybe