Hopefully by now you have read my Kgalagadi recaps for Days 1-3 and Days 4-6. If so, you are allowed to continue on. If not, I will be upset if you don’t first read them. I might even cry.
Day seven: And ne’er again shall Cara make decisions
Where were we? We had just left the lion activity at the hide and were debating which way to go, as lions had ventured both south and north! Van was recommending we head north but I voted south, and we all know happy wife happy life, so south we went. BIG MISTAKE!! We headed all the way back down to dikbaardskolk for breakfast at the picnic site, but aside from a TONNE of lion tracks and evidence of them lying down just a few metres from the (unfenced) picnic site, there were no exciting animals to be seen. Slightly defeated, we headed back to Nossob – dreading what we would see on the sightings board from the north when we got there.
As we neared the gate, what should we see lying just a few metres away but the scraggly male lion, still looking very worse for wear. He was lying on the road, and it honestly looked as though he had collapsed there! I was seriously worried he was dead, but he wasn’tβ¦ at least not yet. He did have evidence of blood over him and still looked like he was approaching the pearly gates. The best part was watching some foreigners drive up, and put their windows up as they drove past him. Better still, you actually have to get out of your car to open the gate at Nossob (they keep the gate closed at all times because there are basically always lions around!). So these guys who had been scared to drive past the lion in their 4×4 vehicle now had to get out of the car some metres away from the lion to open the gate. Their hesitation was clear and I’m quite sure there was a heated debate ensuing within the car about who should have the privilege of gate duty, but eventually someone won and a guy tentatively hopped out. Oh Africa! Shortly afterwards it was my turn, but as we all know I have less than zero fear of African wildlife and so quite happily jumped out to perform my gate duty!
Back at camp we saw that people had seen cheetah in the north, and my poor decision making was brought to the fore once again. From now on Van should make the decisions! I have said that before though, but I must try and keep to it from now on.
Another searing hot day that even our shady tree could not protect us from, so after attempting to have a nap in our tent with only very slight success we headed to the pool for a dip. Another awesome cold pool (I actually love cold pools) and we got to catch up with some of our fellow camping friends we had made the night previously. This turned out to be a bad idea as they regaled us with the tales of the four cheetah (in the road) from that morning in the north.
After the tedious, hot and unsuccessful drive of the previous afternoon we decided to stay at the hide in camp for the afternoon. Another poor decision as nothing but two pale chanting goshawks visited and once again people saw the cheetah in the north! I stayed at the hide until Mr male lion came down to drink at about 7:10pm before heading back to our tent to find out what was for dinner.
We had an early night after the morning’s very early start, and slept well until we were woken once again by lions roaring near the camp. Van was not interested in investigating but I got up and made my way to the hide, thankfully meeting Mr Spotty McSpotlights on the way and we headed over to see what was going on. There were a few lions in the distance and after some time a lioness came to drink at the waterhole and walked off to meet them. Once she was gone I decided I was too tired and cold to hang around so back to the tent I went. About 15 minutes later there was more ridiculously loud roaring but my sleeping bag was way too warm, so I didn’t venture out again.
Nossob is definitely the place to be for those who like lions!
SUMMARY:
- Cara makes bad decisions. Van should make all decisions henceforth (regarding directions in which to drive in search of wildlife)
- LIONS>LIONS>LIONS>LIONS. Nossob = Land of the lions.
- Camping in Africa = not good for daytime napping.
Day eight: BUSTED BY THE PO-PO! (plus porcupines and other assorted treats)
Up once again early and ready to head out to see what the day would bring. We got some insider info from some regular Kgalagadians that north was the place to go in the morning. Apparently the first waterhole, Cubitje Quap (it’s actually quite fun to say), was the third most photographed waterhole in the world. We were sceptical, because to be honest it’s not a really nice waterhole since it’s very obviously man-made (all the waterholes are here) and surrounded by rocks. So even if something drinks, the rocks may obscure the face of the animal anyway! But who are we to argue with these seasoned park-goers? We were basically guaranteed sightings of brown hyena, jackals killing doves and all manner of amazing sightings if we simply went and staked out the waterhole first thing in the morning. Unfortunately none of these things happened and instead we sat at the waterhole for about 20 minutes or so with a bunch of people (who had way bigger cameras than mine) feeling a bit stupid.
Van and I have never been great at waiting around for wildlife to find us. Even in Etosha, where virtually everything happens at a waterhole, we couldn’t wait for more than about half an hour at any given waterhole! We have way too much FOMO about what could be happening just up the road to sit and wait in case something happens here. Luckily we are both this way, so the decision to get out of photographers’ paradise was unanimous. On we drove.
I was hoping to find the four cheetahs that kept being spotted on that road every single time we WEREN’T there, but sadly we only found a lioness, who popped out onto the road just in front of our car – very conveniently (but not convenient enough to be four cheetahs). In your faces, keen photographers sitting at the third most photographed waterhole in the world! As she started walking the way we had come, we decided it was too difficult to follow her (and I’m not that into photos from behind anyway), so we carried on. Good thing that we did, because we then realised the whole pride of females were coming from the dunes towards the road. Out they popped and played around a bit before walking the opposite way to the other lioness. I’m not sure why they split up, but nothing really surprises me with lions anymore!
There were only two other cars, and Van employed his usual tactics of driving ahead and turning side on to get pictures of the lions walking towards us. The other two cars were clearly jealous of this tactic, and one of them imitated it, and we left him room to take his own photos. He went on to the next waterhole to get a vantage point for when the lions showed up there.
At one point when they were walking right beside our car, one of them turned towards me in the backseat and I swear it was thinking of leaping in and getting me. I’m pretty nonchalant about African animals for the most part, but even my heart skipped a beat when this huge lioness looked right into my eyes mentally conveying the fact she was going to KILL ME.
Then a car pulled up to us and this lady basically had a meltdown that I had been hanging out of the car, which was utter nonsense. At some points it may be possible part of my arm was outside the window as I was taking photos of these lions while they were walking towards me (like 20-50m away), but at no point was I hanging out of the car. Van and I were honestly a bit dumbfounded to even argue so we just stayed quiet and waited for her and her boyfriend/husband to leave (who incidentally had been smoking at the sighting with his arm out the window, so HYPOCRITE MUCH?).
After I took about a thousand photos, we decided to let some other people who had showed up get photos and proceeded to the waterhole, where waited quite a while until the lions showed up but honestly it was just another ugly, man-made, tiny little waterhole and the lions pretty much all had their backs to us so it wasn’t much of a “lions drinking” photo opportunity. Angry Kgalagadi nazi woman was literally taking photos with a very decent camera THROUGH HER WINDSCREEN, which was just beyond crazy to me and the last nail in the coffin of her sanity/respect in my eyes. The girl was a total loon. Although my photos didn’t turn out to be national geographic standards, I can at least sleep well knowing they were a darn sight better than hers. And that makes me feel a lot better.
We didn’t last long before heading back towards camp for brunch, wondering what amazing sightings and photos all the keen/professional photographers staking out Cubitje Quap had had. We met our new buddy Jaap on the way and he thankfully told us NOTHING had happened at the waterhole, not even the ‘guaranteed’ jackals.
Back at camp we had our brunch and started packing down our campsite, as we were switching to a chalet for the next two nights at Nossob. It felt bittersweet because we really loved our shady campsite and our lovely Kgalagadi Kardashian neighbours, but on the other handβ¦ AIR CONDITIONING. It’s also nice to have your own bathroom, and to be able to stand up straight all the time, and to be able to cook easily and have a freezerβ¦ well I could go on. But there was definitely some pronounced sadness as well.
As we were packing down the ranger paid us a visit as it turns out that the crazy photograph-through-windscreen woman had actually gone to dob us in and show photos of our alleged crimes. The good news is the ranger clearly also thought that she was an over-zealous park nazi and basically told us he didn’t have a problem with the way I was ‘hanging out’ the window (allegedly), but just to be careful (around potential park nazis) in future.
We checked in and I wrote some blogs, Van watched some Simpsons, we hung out a bit at the hide, used the wifi, cooked some spaghetti (delicious) and then we went on a sunset drive! I was really quite disappointed that we had yet to see any brown hyenas or bat-eared foxes, which I had been under the impression would be a guaranteed sighting in the Kgalagadi judging by what others had said / photos. NO. The sunset drive or a night drive appeared to be my best hope. Excitingly, we were the only two people on the drive! Hurrah! It made me glad we had been unable to book one when camping at Twee Riverien as all the rangers had apparently been on a rifle handling course. Typical.
We set off on our sunset drive and ended up going down a secret no-access road – fresh territory! We stopped to admire a whistling rat and ate some tsamma melon before heading on. Just before dusk I spotted a cat-like shape a few hundred metres away ON VAN’S SIDE. It was a cheetah! The cheetah was clearly on a mission, most likely hunting. This suspicion was confirmed when he/she (not sure) got very excited when he/she spotted some unsuspecting hartebeest strolling towards him/her, with some young ones. The cheetah disappeared behind some trees, and given the distance and the fact the light was fast fading, we didn’t see him/her come back out. We were also somewhat distracted by our first (but definitely not last) african wild cat for the drive, which was also striding through the grass a bit closer to us. Funnily enough it too seemed to disappear with no trace!
As the last of the light left, we decided to move on. Our guide got out of his car to prepare the spotlights, which adequately distracted the hartebeest, evidently giving the cheetah the opportunity he/she needed! All of a sudden all hell broke loose, with the hartebeest scattering in all directions, making alarm calls and dust flying everywhere. Clearly the cheetah had been much closer to the hartebeest than we realised! Van was pretty sure the cheetah had caught a hartebeest, so we drove up closer and shined the light briefly – long enough to see that poor cheetah was empty-handed. The hartebeest family lived to see another day (presumably). This is not the last tale of attempted hartebeest murder, but you will have to wait for that in an upcoming blog!
The rest of the drive proved just as eventful as the start – springhares, probably about 8-10 African wild cats (the most notable sightings being one which was up a tree, another two on a fallen tree right by the road, posing nicely and another jumping erratically through the grass pouncing on prey). We saw my bat-eared fox – just one – and it was on the road! Unfortunately my camera chose that moment to totally malfunction and it refused to work until I took out the battery and reinserted it. By this stage bat-eared fox was far from the road, so all photos are pretty crap. The good news is we saw TWO brown hyenas, and I managed to get a semi-decent picture of one of them! We also saw a silver fox. Then the piece de resistance – A PORCUPINE running with its spines up ON THE ROAD!! As we head back to camp. OH MY GOD, I was so excited. The only thing is our guide drove right up to it and chased it off the road, so I didn’t manage to get any nice pictures. But it was hard to complain because the drive had been ridiculously eventful and exciting! It was even more special as I had specifically asked the guide if he saw porcupine much and he said he had never seen any (granted he had only been working there for three weeks), so I assumed there wasn’t really a chance. WRONG!
I struggled to sleep because it was hot and since the power is off at Nossob between 10pm and 5am we couldn’t utilise our new luxurious air con or fan PLUS Van was snoring like a freight train AND I had been literally chewed alive by mosquitos at Nossob and my feet/ankles were itching LIKE CRAZY. Thank goodness malaria is not a thing or I’m quite sure I would have contracted it for sure. Who knew camping would offer a better night’s sleep?
Wow, that was a long recap – at least it’s over now.
SUMMARY:
- F*$#NG MOSQUITOS RUINING MY LIFE.
- Sunset drive = total domination of all sunset drives ever. PORCUPINE.
- Farewell, favourite campsite!!! Hello, annoyingly hot chalet!
Day nine: finally a shorter blog because not much happened.
Our last day at Nossob! After being told by insiders that north was the only way to go, we had also received the advice by someone else that south was good in the morning to see brown hyena. Although I had seen two brown hyenas the previous night, I wanted to see one in the day so Van was keen to test out going south. We did a quick loop past another popular waterhole on the lookout for the hyena, but didn’t find anything of interest. Back north we headed.
We only drove a couple of KMs from camp before we simultaneously spotted a lioness lying in the sunshine, eyeing some wildebeest nearby. Not long afterwards my now expertly trained eyes picked up another lioness. Both looked interested in the wildebeest, springbok and oryx wandering obliviously around the place – but they were both relatively in the open. Not long after we pulled up, the second lioness got up and walked over to a very well hidden place behind a tree (well behind the tree relative to all the delicious-looking game wandering around). The other, however stayed put. Various meals walked past, and it looked as though the second lioness was vaguely interested in hunting, but the first lioness stayed put, right in the open. So even when some of the meals came close, they eventually spotted the first lioness and made a hasty retreat. We speculated perhaps the two were fighting and the first lioness was deliberately ruining the chances of second lioness to get breakfast! Either way they wasted our time as we sat there for quite a while willing them to hunt, but to no avail. Finally we decided to move along.
The usual suspects were hanging out at Cubitje Quap but I was secretly glad to hear that once again their vigil had proven fruitless. Still no cats, nor jackals or hyenas to be seen for their patience. Other people did mention they had seen four other lions right at the gate (including three males), so I was a little jealous we had missed that in favour of trying our luck in the south first, but at this point lions seemed a dime a dozen, so I wasn’t losing sleep over it! We head on for a while but the heat and hunger got to us and after not too long we head back to camp for toasted ham and cheese sandwiches, which Van cooked on the braai outside.
I finally managed a nap in our lovely air conditioning that afternoon before heading out on a short afternoon drive – north once again. The lionesses were still there being lazy (lucky we hadn’t waited any longer in the morning) and we were tipped off to a cheetah with a kill, but it was wayyy in the distance. We hung around for quite a while in the hope it would decide to come over to Cubitje Quap for an afternoon drink, but it didn’t seem keen so we eventually gave up and head back to camp. We had booked into the night drive mostly I think because Van was still holding out hope of seeing a leopard (very elusive in the Kgalagadi) but also because everyone seemed to suggest night drives were better than sunset drives. I was sceptical that the drive could beat our sunset drive, but I was happy enough to give it a go.
After finishing our spaghetti leftovers we went to the hide and were kept entertained by some pesky kids who would have been annoying if they weren’t relatively funny. There are really very few kids in the Kgalagadi, which is definitely one of its advantages! It was then time to meet our guide for the night drive.
Unfortunately it proved to be pretty uneventful, though we did briefly see two bat-eared foxes and also a cape fox, but sadly not much else. It was a stark contrast to our sunset drive the day previously, particularly considering we drove the exact same route. We really should have driven north, because that was where the lions were and the tracks the following day would prove that they were certainly very active on the roads that night!
We arrived back from night drive at 11pm, so it was a shower and bed straight away by torchlight, as the damned electricity had already been turned off! No airconditioning once again for poor Van, although because it had been on when we left earlier, it was destined to wake me up at 5am when it switched back on with the power.
SUMMARY:
- NEVER GO SOUTH FROM NOSSOB. ALWAYS NORTH.
- Night drive is not always better than sunset drive.
- Lazy lionesses wasting our time.
- Still keeping up our record of LIONS ERRDAY.
PROCEED TO DAYS 10-12 of our KGALAGADI TRIP!!>>>
