Kgalagadi Trip: Days 13-14 (the end)

Finally after reading about the first few days of our Kgalagadi trip, then days 4-6, then days 7-9, then days 10-12 YOU ARE FINALLY AT THE END OF THE TRIP REPORT. Hold your horses and sit yourself down, microwave some popcorn and get ready to find out how this amazing tale ends….

Day 13: Lions and cheetahs abound

So I really love Kalahari Tented camp… except there also seem to be a lot of creatures and possibly bats that make A LOT of noise here as well! I didn’t end up sleeping well at all, so tonight there will be nothing for it but to take a sleeping pill!

Today was the first of April so the gate times had changed. They now opened at 7am and closed at 6:30pm, which I think in some ways is a bit nicer because you get a sleep in and then you are back earlier to cook dinner. I had thought that the permit guy would remind everyone about the new gate times, but he didn’t, so I knew it was inevitable that some people wouldn’t realise (after all when you are on holidays it’s hard to keep track of what day it is, let alone what month). This turned out to be correct, when our ‘sleep in’ never eventuated due to our noisy honeymooning neighbours waking up at 5:45am and making their stereotypical 700,000 decibel noise. ANNOYING. At least it meant that we were ready to go at 7am, and we managed to be the first people to get our permits and leave (some other people had driven up at 6:30am and then driven back to their places, most likely a bit embarrassed – or possibly confused!).

Anyway it was most fun being the first people out, particularly as the other camp nearby (Mata Mata), was further away so we were going to be the first people driving the road south.

As we rolled up to the first waterhole (Sitzas), I was just remarking that there was nothing there, when Van pointed out there was a big male lion just walking up to the waterhole! Talk about timing (and poor spotting skills on my part). We pulled up alongside just as he made his way to the water’s edge to drink. Unfortunately it was not a great waterhole for drinking pics (like many of them in Kgalagadi), and as the sun wasn’t really at a great angle either we decided to move on once a few cars showed up. On we went to the next waterhole. Van was relishing the fact we were still first to drive the road, and so didn’t turn into the little road that went to the next waterhole (Craig Lockhart), which turned out to be a mistake. You could see the waterhole from the road and it didn’t appear anything was there. However for some reason, which I can only put down to a sixth/seventh or even eighth sense, I happened to look back as we drove on and yelled ‘STOP’ as I saw a cat-like shape near the waterhole, which had been obscured by bushes when driving from our direction. I told Van to back it right up as there was a cheetah going to the waterhole! I definitely redeemed myself! We quickly reversed and pulled into the waterhole with great excitement, and enjoyed an awesome sighting of this cheetah drinking water, very close to our car. The lighting wasn’t amazing, but it was good enough and we were there by ourselves for a while as all the other cars had stopped at the lions (incidentally apparently a whole pride had shown up, complete with three young cubs).

Then all of a sudden the jackal that had been sitting nearby was gone, and the cheetah was looking behind her and then drinking very fast. I looked in the direction the cheetah kept looking and what do you know – another male lion was walking up!

Two waterholes, two lions and one cheetah – not a bad start to the morning!! It didn’t take long for the cheetah to abandon ship and run away, and the lion stalked in as if he owned the waterhole and set about drinking for a LONG time. We stayed until he also left before carrying on, wondering if we would actually find our elusive leopard at the next waterhole since we were on such a roll! Alas it wasn’t to be, although Van did spot quite a few leopard tracks but sadly no leopard in sight – nor much of anything else.

We found the same female lioness at the next waterhole, lying in almost the same spot but she had obviously moved at some point because it was clear she had made a kill. She had blood all over her legs/paws and her belly was fuller. She was looking a lot better, though it was a bit of a worry she was still staying in the same place? Also there was no sign of any other lions around. On we went, still looking for the elusive leopard!

Unfortunately no leopards were to be found and not much of anything else, and we were just about to turn around and head back to camp when I looked at the map and said we should just check the next two waterholes first. Lucky that we did as not much further down the road we almost ran over two male cheetahs lying in the road! There was only one other car there so I guess they hadn’t been there too long, but our careening up to them disturbed them and they got up and started walking in the river bed. All of a sudden a jackal comes running up towards them, completely uncaring of the two cheetah ahead of it. One of the cheetahs lay down in the grass in stalk mode but the other still stood there, and still the jackal kept coming. All of a sudden the cheetahs burst into action and went for the jackal! This time I was a bit more on the ball and so caught the tail-end of the chase on camera, but it was another unsuccessful hunt – only it seems by a few centimetres!!

I am pretty sure that jackal got the shock of his life and was feeling extra lucky to be alive for the rest of that day. I get the feeling that jackals usually feel pretty safe around cheetah as the cheetah earlier had a jackal very close by that it didn’t care at all for, and there was also a jackal that came through to the waterhole after our three cheetah just left. But what do I know? Perhaps cheetah chow jackals frequently.

After all this excitement the cheetah took great interest in a herd of springbok further up the riverbed, and we stayed with them for an hour or two as they very slowly (and unsuccessfully) tried to stalk/hunt the springbok. Unfortunately it seemed that the springbok were very spooked and skittish and the cheetah never got close to them. By this stage I was getting pretty hungry so Van decided to cook toast IN OUR CAR using our little portable gas cooker (or rather Ilse and Jannie’s). I strenuously advised Van against this course of action, envisaging the cheetah springing into action in the midst of the great cook-out and the pan and food falling all over the car (not to mention gas cooker) as I commanded Van to pursue.

As usual Van opted to disregard my protestations and proceeded to cook me quite decent vegemite on toast and there was no disaster after all as the cheetah didn’t do much during that time other than stand up a few times looking forlornly at the rapidly disappearing springbok.

Still it was getting hot, and I needed to go to the toilet, and the cheetah weren’t getting much closer to the springbok so we ended up deciding to abandon. The truth is if we had have waited the whole day the likelihood is we would have seen a kill as these cheetahs were hungry, and there was no lack of game wandering around the river bed. But as I already mentioned previously – we are not the most patient of people. Also I’m still in two minds as to how much I really want to see a poor springbok (or any animal) be slaughtered by another.

On our way back to camp we bumped into a couple who had a cobra in a tree and an ostrich attacking and chasing away a scrub hare, both of which were cool to see. Then further ahead we came across a whole heap of vehicles stopped. I thought to begin with that it was some sort of unicorn sighting, until I noticed people were out of their cars. Turns out cars were stuck in the sand. I told Van to pull into the shady part of the road so we could check if they needed help (it felt rude/weird to simply drive past everyone). As Van complied he started saying something about it not being a great idea because we might get stuck – and of course, we did get stuck. I don’t know if his brain is just wired to obey any command I provide, or if he just wanted to do it so he could turn around and say ‘I told you so’. Either way, I wasn’t overly impressed that he went against his (much better) judgement and got us stuck! On the other hand it was pretty funny (well Van didn’t really think so), and at least there were plenty of people to help us… although Van was pretty sure we didn’t need any help but I managed to convince him to take it nonetheless!

Back to our little luxury tent for some down time before heading back out in the afternoon. Our first stop was Mata Mata for some petrol and we heard about more people getting stuck in the same area. Must have gotten quite bad with all the weekend traffic. We even visited our old neighbours from Twee (the ones we originally wanted to be mauled but then became quite friendly with) for a quick chat. Apparently they had just had a meerkat come and visit their campsite!

Once again not much was to be seen that afternoon, other than the lioness in the SAME spot at the waterhole, and another two lionesses now also hanging around the same waterhole. Oh and an awesome springbok with a headdress on that we had seen the day previously as well! We chose to check out the next waterhole before we had to drive back to camp, but that turned out to be a mistake because when we came back past the lionesses had all moved and most likely drunk from the waterhole as they were lying further on. Plus there were now two on the road! Oh well. At the closest waterhole to camp (Sitzas) there were about 10 cars waiting and we figured something amazing was happening but turns out they were all just waiting to see if the lions came down to drink as they were up on the ridge. Again we didn’t have the patience so we went back to camp a little early so we could watch the sunset from our deck, enjoy a drink and cook our dinner a bit earlier (so I could go to bed earlier). I think I ended up in bed before 8pm because I was so shattered! I also took a sleeping pill AGAIN because I was so sick of being woken up by bats and all manner of other creatures all night.

I slept well and didn’t even wake up when Van had a shower and came to bed, until about 4am or so when the lions started roaring all around us! By this stage we were just too lazy/tired/over lions to even try very hard to see them, but they sounded very close by. I still don’t complain about being woken by lions roaring 🙂

SUMMARY:

1. AMAZING MORNING. Lion, cheetah, lion, lion, cheetah!
2. Jackal saved by Kgalagadi gods from hungry cheetahs
3. STUCK IN THE SAND. Van mortified.
4. LEOPARD Y U NO LIKE US

DAY 14: ALMOST TRICKED INTO BEING LATE + LEAVING :'(

We woke in the morning to find it to be suspiciously light, yet no alarm had gone off. I looked at my phone and it said 5:45am, and yet it was bright outside. How could this be right?! I quickly got Van to check his phone as well, but it also said 5:45am. WHAT WAS GOING ON? My brain was searching through all possible explanations. Did the sun decide to get up early for this one morning? Did horrible noisy neighbours come into our tent during the night and change both of our phones? Did South Africa implement daylight savings all of a sudden with no prior notice? Nothing seemed to make sense, until I thought more about daylight savings and the fact that in Australia it was about the right time for it to stop. Perhaps our phones were still on some sort of Australian settings that set our clocks back during the night despite the fact we were QUITE OBVIOUSLY NOT IN AUSTRALIA.

I realised I had another clock – my camera and raced over to check the time. It was in fact 6:45am! 15 minutes until the gates opened! And we had to pack our car as we were leaving the park that day. DAMN YOU DAY LIGHT SAVINGS!! The shock of what had just happened to us acted like an amphetamine, because we got ready in record time, complete with the usual coffee and hot chocolate to go. We were out the gate at about 7:01am (due to permit collection)- not bad!

Once again we struck gold at the first waterhole (Sitzas) when I spotted a little cub’s head in the grass, about 200 m away from the road. Obviously no one else had seen it (or they didn’t care) because we were the first to stop. Admittedly the sighting was not great, although there were two sets of cubs and one of the sets were TINY. Like super tiny cubs. We could see two lionesses and one (the one with the super tiny cubs) seemed like she was about to walk to the waterhole, but then the other spied some springbok up the river bed and it seemed like the two lionesses conferred and decided perhaps they would hunt. We figured it was going to be quite a mission for them both to convince their babies to stay put and keep quiet. Anyway we don’t know the ending to the story because with a pile up of cars stopping behind us we decided perhaps we would try our luck at the next few waterholes. The luck of the morning before was fresh in our memory!

Sadly we enjoyed no such luck though and only saw bat-eared foxes playing for the rest of the drive, but couldn’t even stop for these as Van was worried that the sand was a bit too thick and if we stopped we may get stuck again. I was a bit disappointed because it was lovely to see them playing, but at least I had gotten nice photos of them a few days before.

We got to Twee Riverien just before 10am, and managed to be the first customers at the kiosk for some breakfast when it opened at 10am! With our bellies full we set off to Van Zylsrus, a couple of hours away, where we were staying for the night.

The road to Van Zylsrus was gravel and not great but we made it just after 2pm. We got checked in and shown to our room – the best room in the whole place. I had heard it was great but was still surprised by just how nice Van Zylsrus hotel was – our room was more of a suite, with a big bedroom, separate bathroom (with bath), then a kitchen and a living/second bedroom with TV! It was just so much better than we had even hoped and we were already planning our next visit en route to the Kgalagadi next time. It’s a shame about the road but if you are OK with putting up with a bit of a bumpy ride, it is well worth the stop over at Van Zylsrus – for the accommodation and also the meerkat project if you happen to be there on a Sunday (they go out in the morning and afternoon).

We had paid the R250 each for us to visit one of the meerkat colonies from the Meerkat Manor documentary. Given the meerkat adventures we had already had I did think we probably didn’t need to do it, but for R500 why not check it out? What I didn’t realise is that we had to DRIVE BACK ON THE DIRT/GRAVEL ROAD for about 30km to get there! Hopefully it would be worth it, but I wasn’t really doubting that as meerkats had proven to be just as awesome as everyone thinks they are!

After driving back on our new favourite road, we met our British volunteer who took us to the little meerkat family, who were already close to their burrows. It was a small meerkat family with only about 4 adults but they had some nice pups, which were very cute although totally annoying because they were constantly whinging for food! The highlight was probably when one of the youngsters managed to dig up a scorpion and proceeded to thoroughly enjoy devouring it without sharing any with his hungry sibling! Even when mum came over to inspect it he ran away gleefully gobbling it up without letting her get a look in. Our volunteer suggested she may have been trying to help get the pincer off, but obviously the baby didn’t need any help with that!

After weighing the meerkats and seeing them safely into their little burrows we headed back on the dirt road now in the dark, being careful not to contribute to the road kill strewn around the place. Back at the hotel we were served our hearty pub meals, which were very generous portions. Van got the steak (of course) and I decided to honour South African tradition with bobotie. I then got malva pudding for dessert. By that stage I was extremely full!

We had a lovely chat with some people who also did the meerkat adventure, and gave them some Kgalagadi tips as they were heading to the park, and then bid everyone goodnight.

Van enjoyed watching some TV while I enjoyed a nice warm bath before we got into our comfy bed with the air-conditioning on and had a nice sleep. And that was the end of our Kgalagadi trip!

Summary:

1. Kgalagadi gods spurn us for leaving, delivering no quality sightings for our last morning
2. Meerkat adventure via Van Zylsrus – one less scorpion in the world thanks to meerkat pup
3. Van Zylsrus hotel a real gem in the middle of nowhere! Making the dirt road worth driving!

AND THAT’S THE END OF OUR FIRST EVER KGALAGADI PARK TRIP! I honestly am already so excited to go back, but first we are counting down to our trip to the Central Kalahari in May (<- click through read about it… what a crazy place.)… how will the two compare? Stay tuned to find out!