Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
After three months of Namibian gravel roads, dust and deserts it was a change to enter South Africa via the recently opened border crossing at Mata Mata, in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP).
Our joy at being back in the Kalahari was soon dampened by the chronic state of the sand roads in the park, they were so badly corrugated that the Landrover was actually starting to bounce and slide across the ridges and the road. Talking was difficult thanks to the road noise (sadly it didn't deter Angela from trying though!) and creeping up on animals and birds to take photos was impossible.
After 4 days in the north of the park the Landrover decided it wanted a rest from the vibrations and started making horrible noises in the fan belt area. We drove out of the park to Upington, a mere 6 hours south, for what has become our regular visit to Magda and Maruis at North West Ford & Mazda. The bearings had gone in the fan belt tensioner pulley, fortunately they didn't seize, as we would probably have lost half the radiator and all the hoses!
Gluttons for punishment we returned to the park and met up with Ken & Nancy Le Roux from Cape Town, Kalahari Krusties like ourselves. The Kalahari gets most of its rain in the summer in the shape of thunderstorms and we weren't disappointed. However a full day of typically British horizontal rain soon had the Nossob River looking soaked and flowing in sections, something that happens only every 20 years or so.
The road follows the side and is often in the centre of the riverbed and we decided to drive up the Nossob before the Park rangers closed it. In convoy with Ken & Nancy, (their 110 Defender had a winch and Nancy had an endless supply of homemade rusks!) we slid, slipped and waded in and around the Nossob River for a memorable 4 hours off road driving!
Whilst staying at Nossob camp we met up again, albeit briefly, with Isaac and Liesel, for the first time since Moremi in Botswana. They were back enjoying KTP and it was nice to catch up with their news. We will see them again in February and are hoping to go with them to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana in April if things go to plan.
Good things and friends, usually come in threes, so when Marc and Paula arrived at Nossob they were the exception that proves the rule (only joking Mrs Yendle, Marc's Mum, if you are reading this). Since we last saw them at Swakopmund (their Landy featured in the flocking Terns photos) they've been to the UK twice, Malta and Dubai. They also brought with them their new high spec Desert Wolf off road trailer, shame most of it didn't work!
The animals never fail to disappoint in KTP and we were lucky to see a cheetah with a young cub chasing Springbok across the road in front of us. The cheetah had a radio collar, part of a project to determine whether the increase in the KTP lion population (we saw loads of them) is having a detrimental effect on cheetah numbers. It is a sad fact that the cheetah is declining in numbers in all Southern African national parks; the good news is that there is a healthy population on Namibian private game farms, where lions are absent!
Thanks to the rains, the springbok and wildebeest were giving birth to long legged gangly young, staggering around like drunken catwalk models. The abundance of young, lovely to see, also meant easy dinners for the predators!
A sad sight on the Auob River road was of a very young wildebeest wandering around alone near a pride of lions, calling for its mother. One look at the lions' stomachs was enough to tell us where Mum had gone, and it clearly wasn't coming back! In a moment of sheer desperation or stupidity or both, the calf ran in front of the lions, prompting the least full lioness to stagger to her feet and give chase. The calf easily outran her, and we last saw it heading northwards. Sadly it was just prolonging the inevitable, Wildebeest mothers do not suckle other calves and it was too young to eat grass.
Reptiles and insects were clearly also enjoying the wet conditions, we watched spellbound as Cape Cobras climbed around and inside sociable weaver nests to take the chicks or eggs. Nancy, brought up on a farm in Kenya, was totally unfazed by having a Cape Cobra (neurotoxic, death highly likely given the distance to a hospital) slither towards her tent, she just kicked sand in it's face until it disappeared down a ground squirrel hole.
We all had our fair share of scorpions in camp, these were the small pincer large tail variety, very nasty if they sting you, but fortunately relatively docile. Finding one on the trailer wheel as we packed up to head back to Upington was a bit of shock, and a timely reminder of why we always check our shoes in the morning!
Always sad to leave KTP, we were happy in the knowledge that we are coming back in February with UK friends Bill & Lesley, but first we were travelling down to the Cape with Marc & Paula.
- comments