Ok we continue – for those who somehow stumbled upon this post before reading the first introduction (and days 1-3) of our Kgalagadi trip, please first read it because for some reason it just matters to me that you read it IN ORDER. Thank you.
Day four: Cheetahs’r’us
We were already winning before the day begun because WE HAD A FULL TANK OF FUEL so had already conquered the evil Kgalagadi gods. AINT NOTHING GONNA STOP US NOW. I know what you are thinking. Something stopped us. But you’re wrong! Nothing stopped us, because we didn’t see any animals that we were all that excited about stopping for. Well, not for the first while anyway. But we did get a spectacular sunrise, followed by a very cool and cloudy morning. Funny how much you want cool, cloudy days after you bake and burn in consecutive scorchers… but then when you get them there’s at least a (stupid) part of you that misses the sunshine. Anyway, our first exciting sighting was three cheetahs, on THREE kills. Talk about expert hunting right there. The brothers were having a jolly time and we watched them for a while before heading on to cook some brekkie up the road. While at the (unfenced) picnic site, we are just in the middle of cooking some good ole Aussie vegemite on toast when a lion decides to start roaring nearby – probably 100-200 metres away! We couldn’t see him, but he was there somewhere in the grass or trees. I desperately wanted him to come and visit us, and hopefully find our neighbours somehow, but he remained elusive and we set out in search of the next sighting.
Not too far away at Urikaruus, we stumbled upon FIVE MORE CHEETAH, but these guys only had one kill. Pretty poor effort since the last lot had three kills for three cheetahs. I suppose gender inequality exists everywhere, because clearly this was a struggling single mother trying to raise four young and she was not getting the welfare support she needed. We hung out for a while before setting off once again. This time we came across a lovely male lion snoozing in the rain, with a huge herd of springbok hanging out obliviously behind him. It seemed odd that he didn’t mind the rain, but I suppose it was only very light drops and it’s not as if he has a lovely house to hide away in. Poor Mr lion.
After visiting Mata Mata and filling up on fuel again (DOUBLE WINNING), we headed back towards our camp, which was about a 3.5hr drive… on the same road. Because as I said, there’s only two main roads to drive :/ The good thing is we got to see all of our lovely sightings again! Mr male lion, who had moved a bit to the left but continued to snooze away, the single mother with four cheetah children, who were now lounging in the shade and the three cheetah brothers also lounging next to the demolished three springbok carcasses. We even added a couple of new sightings to our list – a little african wild cat that was randomly running around in the middle of the day, and TWO MORE CHEETAHS lying in the shade, which made our total cheetah count for
the day TEN. TEN CHEETAHS. It’s clear that Kgalagadi is the place to visit if you want to see cheetahs – and a good chance of a cheetah kill. We actually were hoping to witness just that as we ended up seeing a herd of springbok heading towards the single mother / 4 children cheetah family so we backtracked for a stakeout to see what happened. Despite our amazing patience, after an hour or so the springbok passed the cheetah family (who at this point were staying STATUE STILL pretending they did not exist), stood around looking at them for ages (clearly unsure if what they were seeing was real) before finally confirming there were in fact killing machines lying some few metres away. They let loose a cacophony of weird, somewhat embarrassing alarm calls and walked towards the cheetah family. It’s funny how prey seems to do this, flaunting that the predators have no chance once they have been spotted. ALL THAT TIME SPENT STAKING OUT THE SCENE FOR NOTHING. Thanks a lot single mother cheetah and stupid alert springboks. Well at least we know what the alarm call of a springbok sounds like now. Embarrassingly for them.
We got back to camp and made ourselves a very early dinner of CHICKEN BURGERS since we hadn’t had lunch and then prepared our little tent for the incoming storm. The storm hung around for an hour or so, a mixture of dust, rain and wind, but other than one lonely drip and a thin coat of dust, our tent held up well (thanks also to Van’s hard work securing everything).
Summary:
- Cheetahs
- Cheetahs
- FUEL = WINNING = IN YOUR FACE KGALAGADI GODS
- LIONS EVERY DAY SO FAR.
- Tent withstands dust/rain storm. DOUBLE WINNING.
What on earth will happen tomorrow?! STAY TUNED.
Day five: All the action in the first 10 kms.
We got up early and set off in search of more wonderful wildlife. Turns out it only took a few minutes as at the first waterhole (Samevloeiing) there was a lovely cheetah sitting in the grass right in front of the sunrise. It was basically a wildlife photographer’s wet dream right there, let me tell you. Naturally I totally panicked and didn’t do it justice, but thankfully a few of my shots worked out OK. Thinking about what really talented and experienced photographers could have done with that scene makes me feel guilty for getting to live it myself! It didn’t help that we spent a bit of time trying to find the right position, and someone came and parked right up our bum (of course) making it difficult to get to the spot I wanted. Everyone else was parked looking back to the cheetah, which admittedly would have made for amazing pictures of the cheetah itself, but I was happy with my shots getting the sunrise in the background!!
So far so good and we watched the cheetah for a little while wondering why she kept crying – I hope she didn’t lose her cubs! We then set off and made it only a couple of KMs before this time being stopped by a classic Kalahari male lion patrolling and marking his territory. We followed him for quite some time and he did come very close to the road for a while which was awesome. A cheetah and a lion within the first 5-10km of our camp – not a bad way to start the day. Kgalagadi was definitely living up to its reputation as predator heaven.
On we went and our next exciting sighting was two pale chanting goshawk’s fighting over a kill. What was interesting was that one was a juvenile and it was hammering the adult! I don’t know if it was the adult’s baby or someone else’s, but it was being pretty greedy about the kill and managed to fight the older one off. Very weird! A little further on we thought we were about to witness another
bird battle with a tawny eagle and another two PCGs who were not happy with Mr eagle’s presence – but no such battle happened while we were there. We did get to see some Oryx play fighting a little further on… maybe something was put in the water that day that made everything ultra-aggressive!
We cooked our breakfast (eggs and toast) at a picnic site before turning around and heading home. Given it was now pretty hot we didn’t see any predators on our way back to camp. Lots of chores, washing and home-cooked chicken burgers ensued before we headed back out on our afternoon drive. It was a little more quiet but the highlight was an amazing barn owl family in a nest next to the road! We had obviously driven past it a few times before and never noticed, but I really loved that little family. It was a slower drive but the owl family and the sunset made it worthwhile!
Back at camp and this time it was some young German teenagers making all the noise. After half an hour Van went and told them very politely to shut up and thankfully they obeyed with typical German efficiency. Our last night camping in Twee Riverien!
Summary:
- CHEETAH AT SUNRISE: PHOTOGRAPHER’S WET DREAM
- LION walking into sunrise. Lion and cheetah within a few kms of camp. Kgalagadi = predators’r’us
- AMAZING OWL FAMILY SO CUTE OH MY GOD.
- Ze Germans partying it up make Van angry.
Day six: Nossob’s lions come from below
I set off on a short sunrise drive this morning while Van stayed at the camp packing it up. I know what you are thinking – that I am selfish… and yes it’s probably true but after the amazing sunrise cheetah scenario of the previous morning I couldn’t stand the thought of missing out on another photographer’s wet dream. As fate (and karma) would have it, there was no wet dreams to be had on the drive and I arrived back at camp excited to see our tent packed down and Van sitting waiting to load everything up. WRONG. The tent was still completely erected and there was thus nothing for it but for me to actually pitch in and help. Needless to say I was less than enthused but two sets of hands made shorter work (slightly as with me it probably was more like one and a half) and we had the car packed and ready to go in no time. It was time to blow this joint. What was possibly the biggest miracle of the entire trip (so far) was that the petrol was actually WORKING and for the first time in our five days we managed to get petrol from the petrol station at Twee Riverien. We were off to a good start!
It was a long, quiet, hot drive up to Nossob (roughly 4.5 hours away). Given it was already hot we basically just powered up there, barrelling past waterholes and god knows how many animals. We probably passed a cheetah mating with a leopard on top of a caracal, but who knows at the speed of light that we were travelling. As it was, the only reason we saw a lone male lion at a waterhole en route was because Van stopped and reversed to show me that it was a nice waterhole! He then spotted the lion, who was sleeping right at the edge of the water, with people obliviously cooking breakfast 100m away at the Dikbaardskolk picnic site! (what a name).
We finally arrived at Nossob, which appeared to be a lovely camp and picked an awesome campsite under a beautiful tree. It was much nicer and had more of a bush feel compared to Twee Riverien. We did experience massive camp envy over our neighbours, who appeared to be the Kardashians of the Kgalagadi. They had a full lodge on wheels complete with satellite TV – and were presently watching the rugby! Suddenly our campsite was even more appealing to Van. After we put up the tent, he promptly sat down and started watching from our vantage point. At one point he even had his binoculars out to check the score when his beloved sharks were playing, and was spotted by the Kardashian wife. Soon afterwards they disappeared inside… let’s just assume it was the bugs and not the peeping tom Van trying to spy on his rugby team! The good news is we became good friends with them over the next couple of days, so hopefully the spying episode was all forgiven. They even gave us a book and some magazines – probably feeling sorry for us without any satellite tv or ability to watch the rugby.
We then went on an afternoon drive up north – but as we had been warned, there was so much long grass. Also a ridiculous amount of lion tracks, but no sign of any lion lifeforms. Probably lying a few metres from road so we can’t see!
We were a little defeated by the time we drove back into camp, but a quick chat with the petrol station attendant (now Van’s best friend) was encouraging. Apparently there were lions within 150m of the camp, and the guy was confident they would be at the waterhole that evening. No further encouragement needed for me – I set off to find a spot in the hide. Lots of people had the same idea! After about 15 minutes I was getting chewed by mosquitoes and decided to go and have a shower and get some warmer clothes (and insect repellent) and then return to the hide. Van was busy cooking our dinner – vors, chicken sticks, butter beans and our new camp veggie casserole (potatoes, onions, carrots and more beans). After my shower and deployment of anti-mosquito defence system I left Van to keep doing all the work and went back to the hide. I was soon to find out that the waterhole light was not working AND I didn’t have a spotlight so it would have all been fruitless except as I arrived, a gentleman with a 5000,0000,000 watt spotlight also showed up. Convenient! What was more convenient was that we had sat down for no more than 5-10 minutes before a lioness was suddenly in front of the hide, stalking springbok who were tempted to have a drink on the other side. I could not believe what was happening before my VERY EYES. Unfortunately for the lioness (and perhaps us), but fortunately for the springbok, the spotlight gave the lion away and the springbok headed quickly away. At this point another lioness materialised from the right hand side.
What happened next was surreal! A procession of lions appeared from beneath me! They just kept walking out from what seemed to be under the hide directly beneath where I was sitting. I realised the following day they couldn’t get underneath the hide, so they must have just been coming from the very side of the hide and because I was sitting right up against it, it seemed as if they were below me… well, they just about were. Out they came, lioness after lioness before a very scraggy looking male lion came out last. He looked so bad it almost put me off taking his photo… but if we are realistic something would pretty much have to be dead to stop me taking its photo (and even then I might take one just to go with the story)!
The lions obligingly went and drank at the waterhole. It’s a shame the light wasn’t working as the photos I could have gotten would have surely made the next National Geographic edition. At this stage it was still just myself and this one bloke with his megatron spotlight (thankfully). Everyone else was obliviously cooking their braais and taking a shower in camp some few hundred metres away! I wished there was a button to press or loudspeaker system so I could tell them all. ALERT ALERT LIONS AT THE WATERHOLE. But alas, I had to enjoy it on my own (well, on my own with Mr Spotty McSpotlights) . Once some of the lionesses started walking away I decided I had to do the right thing and alert Van to the sighting. SO I RAN, OH LORDY DID I RUN. I told Van to forget the braai and get his arse to the hide to see the LIONS! Then we ran all the way back but sadly most of the lions had walked off, but at least the male remained so Van didn’t totally miss out. We watched them all disappear into the distance and only a few minutes later a couple of people arrived at the hide. I didn’t have the heart to tell them what they had JUST missed. That’s the thing about the bush – you can be lucky like I was and happen to show up at exactly the right moment, or you can be unlucky like the poor schmucks that came a minute late and miss something amazing by a few moments. It definitely makes you appreciate the sightings you get!
We left to have our dinner where we were watched by some rather envious black-backed jackals who had snuck into camp. I went to bed still on a total high about the amazing lion sighting! The day had been saved, and we were still sitting on lions every day so far in the Kgalagadi.
Little did we know the lion shenanigans were not over for the night. We were woken up at about 4:30am to the sound of lions fighting and then roaring near the hide. Van made the executive decision that we should get up and investigate, so we trudged out into the FREEZING night (it was about 5 degrees), layered on some clothing and made our way to the hide. Using our less than ideal torches we saw the lions were pretty far so after a few minutes we decided to go back to bed. Back in bed and not ten minutes later we were treated to another cacophony of roaring, this time very close to the camp. Off we went, back out of bed, layers back on and off to the hide! There were a couple of other people also joining but nobody with decent torches. We could still make out the lions but we were all mourning the absence of Mr Spotlights’r’us with his megatron spotlight, when all of a sudden he showed up with his lovely wife! The day (or rather night) was saved again! So much lion activity was happening that it was hard to keep up. At one point one of the people at the hide asked “how many lions are there?” to which his wife whispered in awe, “thousands.”. This was all in Afrikaans so I didn’t get to chuckle about it until Van told me later on. It’s great to have an interpreter as EVERYONE in the park speaks Afrikaans – even the staff. You miss out on a lot of insider info if you don’t praat Afrikaans!
Eventually two male lions made their way to the waterhole to drink. Unfortunately they both chose to drink behind the little concrete part of the waterhole, thus screwing us out of good photos/videos – but I guess you aren’t going to get award-winning pictures in the night by spotlight in any case? At least I won’t. There were at least two other males in the distance and one female. Some lions walked right and some lions walked left, and these two males looked like they weren’t all that keen on the other lions. What we found out later was that there were two young intruder males and it seems that they had a bit of a fight with the males who were already there, and maybe they were leading their females away to prevent any sort of younger male lion takeover? Who knows with lions – there is always something interesting happening with their pride dynamics.
At that point there was no point in heading back to bed so we had our morning coffee and got ready to head out in search of more amazing things.
SUMMARY:
- Van was too slow in packing down our tent.
- PETROL! PETROL! PETROL! Once again we conquer the evil Kgalagadi gods!
- Lions at the hide in camp save the day! SO MANY LIONS, SO MUCH ACTIVITY.
- Learn Afrikaans for next Kgalagadi trip.
- FREEZING COLD AT NIGHT!
- Love Nossob.
PROCEED TO DAYS 7-9>>>>>>>
