Kgalagadi Travel Tales

Two members of the SANParks Forum just came back from Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park. The first thing Charlie (C. O'Dee) did, was send a series of photographs of two Pale Chanting Goshawks in mortal combat. A macaber, but very unusual sighting.

Charlie & Michele just started their trip report: Die Ietermagogs gaan Kgalagadi toe.

We were up bright and sparky the next morning and ready to tackle the last 200kms to KTP. This time the Doffmagogs travelled behind Monty. I think the Nels were worried that they may loose us on this very straight road to KTP!! Very soon we hit the last 60km stretch of road, that in the past had given us some nightmares. This time not though, the first 30km was brilliant, travelling on the newly tarred road!! Both Monty & the Desert Rose stopped briefly to allow their drivers to let down their tackies after the 30kms of new road.

Mind you, it has been quite busy in KTP these past two months. These are the most recent Travel Tales.

Dreamer & SO's, The Kgalagadi has called.. again

We heard from the couple in the car in front us that they had been on the top road for a while watching the lioness stalk a Red Hartebeest. Just before they saw the Hartebeest, they watched her tuck 2 cubs safely away in the bushes. The dust we saw was the scuffle that took place when the lioness caught the Hartebeest by its tail but the Hartebeest managed to get away. It was then that we saw her right next to us. She was out of breath and I was hyperventilating. That was the closest we have ever been to witness an attempted kill. We felt relief for the Hartbeest but really sorry for her when we discovered she had cubs also needing nourishment.

African Dream's, Returning to KTP

Today was the day for us to do some exercise in geocaching. We were very excited to find out what was there. Carefully we left the car, looking in all directions to make sure there are no wild animals nearby. As we did not see any, we walked to the location our GPS was directing us to. After a little bit of searching around, we did find what we have been looking for. And for those who read the story about Nadine – yes, she was still there!

Wanderw's, Shaken .. and Stirred!

Just returned from an interesting trip to KTP - very different from our last September trip when there was a drought. This time the grass was long, the dunes were green, the animals were enjoying the time of plenty, and the roads......... wet and wild!

Lirritma's, Father and son trip to "Green" Kalahari

After about a kilometre, we get the lion tracks again. Everyone is back on their posts to follow it slowly as it moves from side to side of the road. At stages it becomes very faint as it moves over harder parts of the road and the, after we have followed it for about ten kilometres from when we picked it up the first time, we get the king on top of a dune not to far away from the road just short of Sitszas. We stop and look at it for a while. It gets up and walks towards a bush on top of the dune and lie down behind it. He is a bit thin around the middle and must be hunting.

Nats's, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Words cannot accurately describe the striking beauty of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park….
It was not really what I expected, in fact, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I suppose it was huge rolling red dunes of sand, vast emptiness & incredible heat. What we got was just so much more.. Harsh, yes. Heat, yes. Sand, you bet. But emptiness… absolutely not.

Salva's, Salva in KTP

The dune road was beautiful as always and gave us korhaan, jackal and steenbok. And than we saw the Auob valley again. We hurried a bit to Urikaruus in order to unpack as soon as possible and to have a relaxed evening drive. We were of course also simply anxious to see this much praised camp. Well, we were impressed.

Suej's, KTP Wheat Fields

This time we took the Mata Mata road, seeing many Springbok, Meerkat (Yeah - a first for me!) Vereaux Eagle Owl (2), PCG, Kori Bustard, Black Korhaan, Swallow-tailed Bee Eaters, Drongo, White-browed Sparrow Weaver, Shaft-tailed Wydah, and a Cheetah high on the dunes near to Houmoed waterhole ! Not really good enough for good pics although we did manage a few, but the Cheetah was obviously wearing a collar.

Icurrie's, Kalahari Dreamin'

We walked back, using our UV torch in the hope of finding a scorpion or two …. no luck but the hunting was fun!!! The sky and moon was very interesting with the moon creating a large halo in the surrounding sky – unfortunately it was too dark to take a picture of this interesting phenomenon. The skies in the Kgalagadi really are amazing.

As you can see by some of the titles, the Kgalagadi is not red, but green at the moment.