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Best sightings from camps stoeps or hides especially from wilderness camps...
My best sighting personally was a Brown hyena at bitterpan in the early morning (6th july 2007)
Nossob waterhole; I saw 3 beautiful lionesses and 2 males on seperate occasions in January 2004 and April 2006 respectively
Mata mata; I saw 3 spotted hyena, April 2006 (which I know are there almost all the time)
hope I get beaten(blowen over) with amazing sightings, as I have been when reading the visitor books and their sightings...
thanks Robert

This was certainly our best sighting from a camp hide ...



We left Nossob early one morning and not more than 200 metres from the gate we saw this pride of 12 lions making their way towards the water hole in front of the hide. We rushed back and walked to the hide - just in time to see the first lions arriving. The hide filled up quickly as word spread through the camp - For about half an hour lions kept coming and going, drinking and playing around the water hole.

We saw these handsome fellows at Nossob a couple of weeks ago. They were spotted at Cubitje Quap in the morning, and were seen heading off into the dunes. When we arrived at camp after our afternoon drive, guess who was waiting at the waterhole ! Who says kalahari lions spend the whole day lying in the shade.....

We had a great sighting of a ground squirrel den with two little ones at Mata Mata campsite in December 2007. (maybe not as impressive as the lions in camp, but for us it was special!)



Safarigirl

2001: 2 Male lions right next to the fence in Nossob….the Jackals told us they were there
2003: Cheetah drinking at Kalahari Tented Camp….also had an Africa Wild Cat walking right past our tent and a Cape Fox visiting us a few evenings
2005: Leopard drinking at Grootkolk…10 am in the morning while we were making breakfast…. afterwards, battled to get the bacon fat of the camera
2006: Lion lying next to Grootkolk waterhole the whole evening while we braai.
2007: Brown Hyena at Grootkolk.
Lion at Grootkolk for a whole day. Lion at Kieliekrankie (spilling the beans on my report)

For me...it has to be Urikaruus.I stayed there twice now and each time we saw spotted hyena. This last time a leopard put in an appearance as well, not to mention the cheetah and cub that were just outside the camp.

Well, I can't compete with all of Jumbo's amazing sightings, but had a few terrific sightings myself this past September

Grootkolk: brown hyena twice (once at waterhole at dusk, once early morning, probably walked right past my tent, but only seen between tent and WH), AWC (Bacon) sitting hopefully outside the tent all evening, leopard drinking at waterhole after dark, lion roaring right next to my tent before dawn (but never did see him, details upcoming in my report)

Urikaruus: two cheetah drinking at waterhole at dusk, one cheetah drinking there early next morning. These were my only cheetah sightings, neither good for pix, but beautiful nonetheless, you just can't capture every memory on CDs or video.

in April 2007 3 lioness with 1 cub at Grotkoolk waterhole, then come through the camp... very near "my" chalet No 1..
1 spotted hyena chassed by 2 oryx by night (when light is on) and hyena just beside "my" balcony... but not enough light. I can see only eyes

That's really a tough decision. I've got:

a leopard with two cubs in our campsite after supper at Mabuasehube with me being outside the car only 15 metres away from the leopards;
a brown hyena at Bitterpan drinking from the waterhole in the morning;
a cheetah coming to drink while we had breakfast at Urikaruus;
and two warthogs at Unions End.

We had a very close sighting in Urikaruus May 2006 in the evening



Sorry,I don't know the eng.name.We call it Siebenschläfer.

Grootkolk May 2006.These Weavers were so quick.We just sat down to eat.I had no chance to take the pan away.



The nearest sightings we had so far,were in Grootkolk Sept.2007.Lions everywhere!
At the waterhole


He left about 11.
Another Lion arrived at 13.30




After that "dustbath",he was resting there nearly 4 hours.
Then he moved always nearer to the Camp.



The Highlights.Early morning






Sure,it was scary,but all went well.
To be honest,we are not sure,if we want to make this experience again.We will see.We are in Grootkolk again Sept.2008.We like it very much!!

Siebenschläfer = Fat Dormouse

Wonderful lion pics In the last one, the lion really seems to look directly into the camera to tell you all: This is my area, dare to discuss with me about that?!?!?

Nossob August 2007 : Three female lions at waterhole at about 21h00 whilst the rest of the pride roared away up rive
Urikaruus August 2007 : spotted hyaena between our hut and the attendants hut.

Christelsabine,thank you for helping out with the Fat Dormouse!

You are right.The lion looked straight into the lense.
Goosebumps all over!

Nossob
In the mid 1980's The 3 famous HUGE Black Maned Lions from the Kwang Pride kept us awake for a whole week as we camped next to the fence and they roared at less than 5 metres away from our tent in the bottom corner. My youngest son was only 3 months old and eldest was 3 yrs old. They would then go up the adjacent airfield and then come back an hour later to wake us up. One evening I got up and stood outside the tent in the moonlight and watched these 3 just the otherside of the wire going off and making the ground tremble. We were the only campers that week so it was very special.
The nightly visit in camp by the resident leopard. It was great to see his spoor all around the tents. On one of our pre school holiday trips another couple came in and camped right next to us when they had the whole campsite to go to and they told me they were there for 5 days as well. The next day I showed them the leopard spoor all around their tent and we went to Kousant for a drive as we were told by the Hyena researcher that a huge herd of Eland was there. We came back and our neighbours were gone...Nossob then was too wild for them (hand pumped petrol and all!!)
Polentswa
Arriving back one late afternoon to find we were again all on our own in the wilderness (No SanParks guards like Bitterpan and Grootkolk) and you had to walk to the loo etc ..there were 3 lions siiting at our tent and afdakkie. We sat for 2-3 minutes and it was clear they were not moving like that so I briskly got out at 40 metres and they moved off and lay down again and watched us going to the shower and braaing and at about 8pm they got up and padded off in the direction of Grootbrak windmill.
3 days later we had been joined that night by Pretoria friends at Polentswa as we were going on the compulsory 2 vehicle 4x4 trail from there when early in the morning I heard this shriek calling for me that "There are B...dy lions lying between our tents and shower enclosure" I was dressed in no time and climbed out of our tents. We had a long way to go so I took the ladies to a clump of bushes so they could go to the "Bush" loo as the normal long drop was well guarded!! We then packed up and left and had our cereal along the way!! Best camp in KTP by 100 miles!!

This is a really great thread. Makes some interesting reading!

My wife and I are regulars in the park. We love it!

A few spots from the camp:

Kalahari tented camp - June 2007 -Spotted hyena looking over the wall at the braai -about half a meter from us!

Kalahari tented camp - various trips - spotted genets. One night there were two playing of the roof of the tent.

Gharagab - 2008. - Male, female and two large male cubs. They arrived ath the waterhole at about 3 in the morning and spent the whole day around the camp. Basically it was us and the lions for the full day. They left again at about 3 the next morning, after having a "chat" with eachother about 5 mters from the tent. A really great experience.

I see that there there have been quite a few cheetah sightings from Urikaruus. Hope they are still around. We will be going again in two weeks time.