SANParks.org Forums

Hi all,

This is a thread where I’ll be posting short trip reports and sightings from the Nossob 4x4 Eco Trail, a KTP activity which I’ll be leading over the next few months.

About the Activity:
The Nossob 4x4 Eco trail is a 4 day, 3 night self-catering activity that runs every Monday to Thursday. Participants drive their own vehicles, and are led by a guide in their own vehicle through the dunes. The trail departs from Twee Rivieren (on even months) or Nossob (on odd months).

The overnight camps have basic amenities, with toilets, shower (BYO water), and communal braii pit.

Each day’s trail averages 50km, with frequent stops for sightings and interpretation of the natural environment, as well as a break for tea or brunch.

For additional information on the 4x4 Eco Trail, including details on costs, see here:
http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kgalagadi/tourism/nossob4x4.php

Please note: All bookings and related inquiries should go through Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park:
Tel: +27 (0)54 561 2000
Fax: +27 (0)54 561 2005
E-mail: jan.kriel@sanparks.org


For more about me and my adventures, check out my (ongoing!) trip report here:
http://www.sanparks.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=59857


I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have in this thread, and will update this post with a FAQ if needed.

Feb 13 – 16

My first 4x4 trail started off amazingly! We set out in the cool morning and spent most of the day marvelling at just how green the Kalahari was. Absolutely everything is bright shades of green – and what isn’t is blooming in vibrant shades of yellow, red and purple. There are many points where the trail looks more like it’s a country road through New Zealand or Europe in the heights of summer, then it is through one of the sandiest and most arid places on earth!

At our rest stop for brunch, we surprised an African Wild Cat out from the shade of our Sheppard’s tree – a rare sighing for the height of day! We got out of our cars to peer at it, while it sat under some brush peering at us, before it scurried off over the dunes. It was a wonderful sighting – and I was so surprised by it that I didn’t even grab my camera! It now sits in my lap the entire drive!

After the wild cat surprise, things calmed down and we saw plenty of your more “standard” game: herds of gemsbok and heartebeest, secretary birds, a particularly calm Black Snake Eagle, and several baby gemsbok (the youngest was likely no more then a week or two old!). We also found some lion tracks heading along the trail, but it looked like they had been made a day or two earlyier, and we were unable to find the big boy who made them.

We arrived at Witgat to find the entire valley in bloom, with the 5-petaled doublejke flowers blanketing the landscape before us. It made for a truly stunning backdrop for our dinner and first night under the star-strewn Kalahari sky.

Our second day dawned cold – surprisingly so for mid-summer – but clear. A quick investigation of our camp ffound the tracks of a Brown Hyena that had wandered through in the night after stopping at the waterhole – quite the exciting find!

We continued along the trail towards the second camp and continued our luck from the first day, seeing two small herds of Eland – an exceedingly rare sight on the main roads, as they greatly prefer hiding among the dunes – several Southern Masked Weavers building their nests out of the greenery, tracks of a small group of Spotted Hyena making their way through the dunes, and plenty of Kori Bustards, Steenbok, Gemsbok, and Heartebeest.

At one point, we came over the rise of a dune to find a massive party of animals in a flower-strewn field, consisting of at least 150 gemsbok, 10 Eland, 3 ostrich, and 7 Heartebeest. It was amazing to watch this huge number of animals move through the field as we slowly drove past.

Once at Camp 2, I walked a quick patrol around the camp to make sure that the area was safe and the washrooms and shower block was in good order, when I came across exceedingly fresh tracks of a very large male lion. Retreating to my car and fetching the rifle – just in case! – I investigated to find that the lion had wandered through the camp earlier that day, and had taken issue with our middle toilet stall, walking all around it before attacking and killing the toilet seat cover! After vanquishing this foe, the lion had scent-marked the chewed remains, and (to my relief!) wandered off.

The excitement didn’t end there! After we’d set up our tents, we heard the snorts and alarm calls of a pair of gemsbok. I initially thought that the lion had returned, but it turns out that these two big males were only having a disagreement, and they spent the next 10 minutes chasing each other in circles around our camp site, trashing bushes with their horns, clashing against one another, and generally causing quite the ruckus for our amusement.

We had an extra big fire this evening, just in case the lion decided to return and start in on our shower station, but the night was uneventful, and we rose refreshed and set off on our third day of adventure.

Our third day was wonderful, starting off early catching a Red Crested Korhaan displaying right beside my vehicle! This species’ plummeting display always looks remarkably dangerous to me, but I guess the female korhaans like daredevils. We also found some fresh looking Spotted Hyena tracks walking along our 4x4 track, but unfortunately were unable to find whoever made them.

We spent a couple hours relaxing while overlooking Eileen’s pan, sitting in the shade while watching a herd of 12 Heartebeest wander through the foliage below, a secretary bird hunting, a steenbok warily eying us, and a male ostrich on the far side of the pan calling – a rare sound to be sure! The clouds slowly rolled in – but stayed dry, thankfully, only serving to give us some very welcome shade, and make our scenery photos all the more dramatic!

We arrived at camp to watch an amazing sunset, with the sun illuminating the gently puffy clouds, relax, and have a light dinner before turning in to a well deserved rest under another beautiful starry sky.

Our fourth day, sadly, was quite abbreviated. My guests were looking at a 500km drive into Namibia, and elected to take the “emergency” route out of the 4x4 trail, through the dunes and down the bitterpan road into Nossob. While short (only around 12 km), the drive wasn’t uneventful! We managed to find a large herd of Heartebeest with babies, 5 steenbok, and the fresh tracks of a male leopard walking down the bitterpan road away from Nossob.

It looked like the leopard had been scouting out Nossob in the night, and had walked off into the dunes very early in the morning, as we could see a light spatter of rain on the prints, and knew that the rain had come and gone in the short hours before dawn.

And so we entered Nossob, and I bid my guests a fond farewell!

A wonderfully eventful trail, with amazing views and excellent sightings!

Feb 20 – 24

We started off splashing through the remnants of last night’s rain, which took the humidity for our first day of travel through the roof, unfortunately. We all got to camp rather hot and sweaty, but thankfully we’re currently doing the South to North run of the trail, which means our first camp is Witgat, which has a very nice swimming pool!

Ok, actually, it’s the cistern for the waterhole at the camp… but it’s wet, it’s clean, and - as long as you can clamber up the 10 foots sides – it makes for a wonderful swimming pool!

Despite the heat, we had some excellent views this first day, enjoying our tea under a large Sheppard’s tree while a small herd of gemsbok and a handful of red hartebeest wandered through the pasture-like dunes. Eland, Springbok, and – as per usual – many Steenbok were also in evidence.

The birds have also been agreeable to us this first day, spotting many flocks of namaqua doves, Pale Chanting Goshawks (including several juveniles), Tawny Eagles, Kori Bustards, and Swallow-tailed Bee-eaters.

The Kalahari remains unbelievably green, but is now also turning into beautiful fields of red, purple and yellow as various flowers begin to bloom. The Mouse Whiskers have just started blooming this week, and there were several valleys between dunes which were absolutely covered in their delicate yellow flowers. It reminded me of fields of canola like I’d see back home in the prairies of Alberta in summer – not desert like at all!

After arriving at camp we had only a few short hours to set up and relax before one of the rather imposing looking clouds that had hovered on the horizon all day finally rolled overhead and dumped down upon us, sending us all running to batten down the covers of our tents and seek refuge in our vehicles. Thankfully, this rain let up after about half an hour, and was just enough of a soaking to bring the barking geckos out early, serenading us over dinner.

The rain came back well after midnight, and we slept cozy in our rooftop tents listening to rain on the canopy, thunder to the south, and lions roaring to the north.

The second day dawned wonderfully cool – and, thankfully – dry! We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast while watching the sun rise and slowly burn away the clouds before setting off back into the dunes.

Our second day was wonderfully relaxed as we took in the sights, enjoying several sightings of hartebeest and gemsbok – each with young only a few scant weeks old – secretary birds, many (many) Pale Chanting Goshawks, and the usual bevy of steenbok. We were also treated to a sighting of an African Hoopoe out in the dunes, as well as a Black-chested Snake Eagle and small group of Red-necked Falcons soaring overhead.

We stopped for tea in the shade of a nice big Buffalo thorn, and I set out to check and ensure the latrine was safe. Not 5 metres away from the long-drop, I came across fresh – very fresh – lion prints. I retreated warily to the truck to retrieve the rifle (no, I’ve not learned from last week!), and I set back out to have a look and ensure that the lion was no longer around. Thankfully, it looked like he had departed earlier that day, as his prints were on top of the rain of last night, but had been walked on by a brave steenbok at some point since.

As we made our way back to the vehicles, we came across a Black Backed Jackal den! As we talked about how the dens are created and used, we were all surprised when a Jackal emerged from the den and took off at full tilt away from us! It was an excellent sighting, and hopefully the Jackal will remain in the area.

As we arrived at our second camp, we set up with a wary eye to the sky, as the grey storm clouds of the previous evening were slowly gathering again. We were less critical of the wonderfully cooling breeze that the evening brought with it – sorely needed after a very humid day!

I scouted the camp (rifle in hand, this time!), and searched for signs of recent activity, but found only the prints of a couple of gemsbok.

Our second night, thankfully, was a dry one, and our third day dawned warm and very humid with a clear sky above us, and beautiful puffy clouds along the horizon in every direction. We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise while listening to an ostrich calling in the distance, before setting off on our day’s journey.

Our third day was eventful if only for the 3 different Red Crested Korhaan that displayed quite close to our group – though I swear the latter two were displaying just to spite me after I gushed about how rare seeing the display! We also saw several groups of Gemsbok – including one demonstrating the Fhlemen grimace – each with small youngsters, porcupine quills, many korhaan, bustards, and steenbok, as well as a very agreeable herd of hartebeest of 7 adults and 4 babies which were very relaxed as they stood in the shade just beside our cars.

We spent tea at Elieen’s pan again, and enjoyed a leisurely lunch while watching hartebeest graze, gemsbok run for the hills, and a bustard wandering about the pan, all while big, puffy clouds drifted across the sky above us.

Once we arrived at camp, a wind came up and finally blew away the humidity… but also blew in imposing looking clouds, and the sound of thunder heading our way. We set up and prepped dinner as quickly as we could, but our haste turned out to be unnecessary, as while we were surrounded by lightning on all sides, we somehow managed to miss all the rain.

Our fourth day dawned clear and –thankfully – dry! We headed back towards the main road through fields of grass and three-thorn scrub, seeing black-shouldered kites, tawny eagles, pale chanting goshawks, and yet another mid-display red-crested korhaan (grrrrr. Silly birds!). But by far, the best sighting of the day was a black-backed jackal that decided to go for a morning jog beside our vehicles, keeping pace for a good half kilometre.

We stopped for tea just off the main road where we found a female leopard track, but sadly no leopard. And then, sadly, I bid my guests adieu and ended yet another wonderful trail!

Hello Miros
Lovely to have a new face here and especially one from Twee Rivieren!!
Hope you have as much enjoyment here as we do and by the sounds of the above two trails we are going to thoroughly enjoy you here too! All the best for a great stay in KTP

Welcome Miros

Really enjoyed your trails stories

Hope to see a lot more of you on the forum

I hope to read more reports !

Welcome to the forum Miros!! it's great to hear how your trails are going so please keep the news coming

Thanks all for the welcome!

I'm leaving tomorrow on another trail! To tide you over until the next trip report, here's some pictures I've taken while on the trail:

My camping setup and the Witgat campsite:

TIMG_5737 - My New Job by Miros Photography, on Flickr

Hartebeest among the flowers!

TIMG_5833 - Hartebeest in the Dunes by Miros Photography, on Flickr

The tea stop on the third day of the trail at Eileen's Pan:

TIMG_6145_PAN - Eileen's Pan by Miros Photography, on Flickr

The view from Witgat, the first night's campsite (including the pool/cistern!):

TIMG_6060_PAN - The view from Witgat by Miros Photography, on Flickr

A slightly more artistic view of the rain in the distance over Witgat:

TIMG_6054_HDR-PNTRLY - Desert Rains by Miros Photography, on Flickr

More to come!

Well written Miros...so marvellous to read of your adventures....sigh...nope not jealous at all.....you missed a great snowstorm in TO a couple of days ago...I am now north playing nurse for my MIL after an operation....I gather winter has now hit the prairies...I go home in a few days...hopefully all that nonsense will be cleaned up and warmed up by then.
Thanks so much for getting your MOM to pass on the links to me...I will be eagerly reading .....
Hugs...

Hi Miros and a very warm welcome to the Forum Just wanted to say a huge thank you for this thread and for posting your 4x4 trail experiences - each one is so different and unique ..... Your photos are stunning too, thank you. It's wonderful to see the trail all cloaked in beautiful bright green and flowers !!

This is what Eileen's Pan looked like at the end of November last year





And our view of Witgat waterhole/swimming spot with a massive thunderstorm brewing ....



Hope you are having another amazing trip - cant wait to hear about it when you get back. Thanks again !!

Hi Miros,

Welcome to the Kgalagadi and I hope you enjoy your time there and even stay on for longer.
Stunning pics of the trail and great reporting back on the trips. Wish I could have done the trip a bit later in March/April when its much greener.

When we did the trip we were ground dwellers and luckily did not meet any lions. I've just added a few pics to show the contrast between now and November. All the pics were taken at Witgat. Just love that swimmimg pool at Witgat.

Feb 27 – Mar 1

Our first day started out cool and cloudy in TW, but that changed as the sun rose higher in the sky and burnt off the clouds to give us another beautiful Kalahari day. We made our way out to the trail passing herd after herd of antelope – gemsbok, hartebeest, springbok, and wildebeest were all there to bid us well on our journey. Once at the trail, this day was dominated by a few excellent bird sightings, catching wonderful views of a juvenile bateleur sending a sociable weaver’s colony into a tizzy while a pale chanting goshawk watched from the sidelines, several Kori Bustards the flew up at our passing, and a male Pin-tailed Whydah which posed beautifully in the top of a tree….. right up until I got my camera ready (figures!).

Beyond the birds, we also saw plenty of gemsbok on our way to Witgat camp, including one herd which were being escorted through the dunes by a pair of eland. The one thing we didn’t see a lot of were steenbok – I only saw one the whole day! I’m not sure where they were all hiding, but it’s most likely that they were hidden by all the grass, which is up to my mirrors throughout most of the trail! I ended the day covered in grass seed and pollen, and looking forward to winter when all the blasted vegetation stops playing havoc with my allergies!

We relaxed in camp, again making use of the “swimming pool”, enjoying a leisurely dinner while watching the stars above us and the lightning on the horizon. We were awoken late this first night by an amazing thunderstorm all around us, but aside from the lightest sprinkle of rain and some gale-force winds, we were left untouched.

The next day dawned beautifully clear, with the night’s storm having blown itself out, leaving us with wonderful blue skies entering our second day. This day, unfortunately was fairly quiet, but what we did see were excellent sightings. The steenbok came out of hiding and were nicely relaxed, affording us some wonderful views of them grazing from quite close. The gemsbok were also in abundance, and we saw two cases of quite extreme horn deformities, with their usual stately long horns instead curving forward into something looking much like a spear. Also along the trail, we came across a fresh set of brown hyena tracks, which followed our road for several kilometres before disappearing into the dunes.

The birds were also cooperative, with some hornbills flying around us, the koorhaan as loud as ever, and some scaly feathered finches tending to their nest while we stood by at watched from scant metres away.

We were chased by rain clouds the last 10 kilometres of the trail on this day, and we made it to the second camp, Rosyntjiebos, with just enough time to throw up our tents before we started getting wet. Thankfully, the rains only lasted for a few minutes – just long enough to send the humidity soaring – before clearing into another beautiful evening, with large thunderclouds in the distance entertaining us with a spectacular light show.


TIMG_6341 - Sunset at Rosyntjiebos by Miros Photography, on Flickr

That night, we were awoken by a black-backed jackal, who started yeowling and yelping very loudly just around our camp for a good 5 minutes. The next morning we set out to look for its tracks, but instead came across the tracks of a hyena, which walked around our camp! I believe the jackal had been surprised by the hyena and had been voicing its displeasure at coming across the greater scavenger.

We continued to have good luck with prints on this third day, coming across another set of hyena tracks along the trail just before lunch, as well as a fresh set of cheetah tracks – the first I’ve come across!

We took our usual lunch stop at Eileen’s pan, again accompanied by the herd of gemsbok and hartebeest who seem to have made it their permanent residence. It was another beautiful stop, with big puffy cluds rolling across the sky and giving us some welcome relief from the heat.

The birds were also very cooperative today, with 3 large male ostrichs near our trucks, a swallow-tailed bee-eater flying nearby, and an African hoopoe sitting out in the open and calling his little heart out.

We arrived at Swartbas, our final camp of the trail, just in time for another small cloudburst – a light rain that lasted for all of 5 minutes. We set up camp, again with the sound of thunder in the distance, which is now becoming a staple sound of the trail.


TIMG_6384_HDR-PNTRLY_Sunset over Swartbas by Miros Photography, on Flickr

Our fourth day was sadly abbreviated, as my guests needed to head well into Botswana this morning, but we drove the last portion of the trail quickly enough to get them to the end before 9am, and did so while getting an excellent view of a juvenile martial eagle right near to the trail!

Another excellent trail completed!

There is no trail scheduled for this week, but next week I've got several cars booked already, and we're swapping our start point to begin in Nossob and head south. Until then!

Mar 12-15

Our first day started beautifully cool, and we set out from Nossob en route to the trail enjoying the cool breeze. On our way to the trail, we were surprised to see a small group of white storks at one of the waterholes. It had been a while since our last rains in the area, and they seemed to be enjoying splashing around while a few gemsbok watched looking perplexed.

Our first day on the trail was a little slow in terms of wildlife. This northern section of the trail has absolutely beautiful scenery, but the wildlife tends to be fairly well spread out and well hidden in the chest-high grass. Nonetheless, we managed to get some excellent sightings of gemsbok, and spotted a few steenbok that darted off into the grass.

I again continued the tradition of arriving at camp just in time for it to start raining, but thankfully the rain didn’t last long, and the clouds went a long way towards significantly dropping the temperature. We enjoyed a leisurely supper while watching the lightning, before heading to bed for the evening. Overnight, we were treated with the sound of hyena calling relatively nearby, and we found jackal prints crisscrossing our camp the next morning.


TIMG_6734 - Swartbas at Sunset by Miros Photography, on Flickr

Our second day was wonderfully relaxed, as we drove the short distance to Eileen’s pan for tea and enjoyed watching the gemsbok and red hartebeest wandering around in the sunlight. The pan is slowly turning brown, now that the Kalahari sour grass has finished growing and is drying in the sun from its vibrant green from a few weeks ago, but despite the colour it is still unfailingly beautiful.

This day, we saw many more gemsbok and hartebeest, as well as finding a buck spoor spider, several korhaan displaying for us, steenbok playing hide and seek in the grass, as well as some ostrich which were very cooperative and stuck around near our vehicles.

We arrived at camp and enjoyed a leisurely afternoon under the gathering clouds, laying bets on whether we would get wet or not. Thankfully, our optimists proved correct, and we enjoyed a dry evening in camp – if a bit blustery, as the winds came up and blew the heat of the day away.


TIMG_6744_HDR-PNTRLY - Camelthorn by Miros Photography, on Flickr

Our third day dawned overcast and wet, as the rains that held off the night before finally arrived. Thankfully, the rain wasn’t hard enough to significantly dampen our spirits… or our gear, as we packed everything away for the journey down to Witgat.

On this third day, we finally managed to find the animals, as we passed several small herds of gemsbok and hartebeest, groups of ostrich, and steenbok and kori bustards in large numbers. The clouds from the morning stuck around well into midday, and we all enjoyed the cooler weather.

It was on this day where I really noticed what a difference a couple of weeks had on the vegetation. We have not had much in the way of rain since the last trail, and in the interim all of the sour grass has changed from its original vibrant green to an almost straw-yellow, covering our radiators with massive quantities of grass seed. The flowers, as well, have started to disappear, with only sparse bunches of cat’s tail, devil’s claw, thunderbolt flowers, and springbokopslag remaining. Witgat’s waterhole looks drastically different. Still beautiful… just very different.


TIMG_6750 - Why You Want a Grass Guard by Miros Photography, on Flickr


TIMG_6759_PAN - Witgat Campsite by Miros Photography, on Flickr


TIMG_6763 - Witgat Camp by Miros Photography, on Flickr

On our last day, we decided to leave early to see if we could find any of the parks predators before they retreated to the dunes and the shade, and our gambit paid off: not far out of camp, we spotted a couple of lions sitting up on the crest of a dune! The female and sub-adult male were very cooperative, sitting in full view while we watched for a good hour, the sub-adult being very clearly curious in our vehicles, peering at us from his perch.


TIMG_6806_HDR-PNTRLY - Lions on the Dunes by Miros Photography, on Flickr

Another successful trail completed!

Thanks for the feedback Miros

Great pics

Welcome to the forum Miros
and thank you for your report