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The way up to Kranskoop produced some beautifully lit kudus:

A confused baboon who was already sitting in the shade although it was still bleeding cold:

On the plateau the critters – at least those visible – we in a much better mood as well. The springboks spend their time testing their strength:

And a Cape Mountain zebra decided we had had to endure enough trials over our stay and willingly looked at me and my camera:

But alas, we weren’t meant to leave the park in a sunny mood. Further down on the link towards Ubejane and out of the gate we could see that the sun wasn’t meant to last. The valley was still covered in thick mist which made taking photos a hoot.



I did make out a white-necked (tick!) raven though. There was also a jackal buzzard and a gabar goshawk trying to warm up on some tree tops. All the antelopes were out and about as well, but once again far off and this time even more camouflaged by the weather conditions… We left the park with a hartebeest being our last sighting. Off to the Karoo it was!

Karoo
01/04/2012

For some reason we didn’t click with the Karoo. Admittedly, it is a beautiful park with gorgeous scenery and vast landscapes intermitted with stunning mountains. But SO and I are game hunters and the park doesn’t fit that bill really. Plus, all the 4x4s were closed due to heavy rain during the week before and my only chance to ever get to see Nossob and Bitterbal vanished in the hay. They and the rest of the pride were firmly stationary on the Nuweveld Loop at that time…

Before checking into our bungalow we decided to take a tour of the Lammertjiesleegte which is close to the entrance gate. It was there where we got our first impression that the critters roam the vast open area very far off from the roads. Fair enough and understandably so, but disappointing when you are trying to get some pictures… A little steenbok was the closest and SO managed to get a halfway decent shot of it between all the shrubs:

Anyhoo. We unloaded the car and sat on the patio enjoy the vista:

Some birdies paid us a visit as well:


Cape Sparrow


Cape bunting (Tick!)

We didn’t rest for long though as we were curious to see the rest of the park. Well, the rest of what was available to see at that time. And apart from the Lammertjiesleegte it was only the Klipspringerpass, Dornhoek and the Potiekkertjie Loop. Like I said before, the scenery was stunning:

Especially with the moon showing above the mountain ridge. Shame it was such a harsh light still though:


And the moon:

The critters however kept running off even further into the field when we approached and there are only a very few photos to show:

However, we were able to tick of another antelope that we hadn’t seen before – grey rhebok

Not much left to show, but here it is:

I also got a new korhan species – which I think is a Karoo korhan:


Then a couple of the usual suspects:

Back in the camp we settled down to watch the light fading over the mountains that could be viewed from the verandah.





SO would lit a last braai fire on this trip.



Tomorrow we would be driving to Cape Town and leave the park time behind us .

Karoo
02/04/2012

For the next morning we had decided to have a bit of a lie-in as we wouldn’t go out on a drive anymore before leaving. But early nights make early mornings and so I awoke well ahead of the time we had wanted to get up. Which was not a bad thing as I could watch the daybreak with its beautiful rose colours:







We left the park around 9 am and were actually rather anxious about having to back to civilization after having spent 9 nights in various parks. But October isn’t that far away anymore and then we’ll return ‘home’ to the Kalahari once again. Maybe I’ll see you on that trip again, but for now I say thanks for following our two-timing tour through the Frontier parks.