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Driving back to the main road we did on our own; it was easy drive and I have had fun tackling the dunes with different approaches. Most of the time I was driving in 3rd gear as opposed to the 2nd gear on our way to the lodge.

 

Arriving to the Auob riverbed we have also arrived back to the animal sightings. First was this small turtle; it was doing a "sitting duck" pose in the driveway.

 

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I feel sorry for the little fella, and as it was not a snake, I do what I shouldn't do: I step out of the car, and carried the guy to the other side of the road. For a few moments he was sitting there probably evaluating his situation.

 

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Then he decided it is OK and he hurried (at turtle speed) away.

 

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Further toward Twee rivieren which was the camp we will stay 2 nights, at Auchterlonie waterhole we found this bird which was a surprise for us.

 

Hamerkop

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We have started our afternoon game drive early as we have been informed that there are lions close to Kij Kij waterhole. But first we have seen raptors. Another first albeit in distance.

 

Lanner Falcon

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And next just by the side of the road, on top of a giant nest, there was a magnificent Tawny Eagle having a late lunch.

 

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This time we have been patient and Zvezda got him also in flight.

 

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The main road was closed where the Rooiputs waterhole is, and we have had to use the narrow side road. Luckily there was not much traffic in the opposite direction as the side road is wide enough for only one car. Once we have arrived at kin Kij the cars along the road singled to us where the links were. Again quite far from the road itself but great sighting nevertheless.

 

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Not only the human visitors, also this Black-backed Jackal was observing the lion couple, from a safe distance. And sun was sending some golden light over all of us.

 

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You may be asking why there are no sunset photos to end this day. There is a restaurant in Twee Rivieren camp, and after 3 days of rice&can, to prevent a mutiny, a dinner was booked. The food was not as good as it was at other places this year, yet far better than what I have cooked.

Edited by xelas
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Apr 29th - Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park / Twee Rivieren Camp

 

 

The cabin itself at TR camp was nice, situated above the main camp, and close tot he restaurant. It has 2 rooms; luckily as the second room was occupied by a bat. It was the room with the A/C unit. If in January or February we would surely evicted the bat out of that room; end of April the temperatures at night were moderate enough to warrant a good sleep without using an A/C. But we did close the door between the rooms!

 

Woke up again early enough to get a nice sunrise photo. Colours are almost as incredible at the sunrise as they are at the sunset.

 

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The exit out of the Twee Rivieren camp was something different! Not in a good way, though. Already at the gate there was a line of visitors waiting to have their "park card". Out on the road, it was really surreal. All the vehicles, and many did not care about speed limit, were leaving behind a dust blanket as thick as an autumn fog in Ljubljana, in good old days!! The sun was lying low and enhanced the "foggy morning" experience. At moments the visibility was almost nil. I feel sad for all the animals that are forced to "eat the dust" each morning along the main Nossob road.

 

Once the sun has lifted and the dust have settled we were able to start some wildlife sightings. Our first sighting was a goshawk. We did plenty of Pale Chanting but have taken this one also, just in case. According to Sasol this one has to be another goshawk.

 

Gabar Goshawk

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Then we meet a small caravan of cars slowly driving in the opposite direction (from north towards TR). We joined the parade, and with others we have hoped that the five cheetah are on the hunting mission. They were walking close to the ridge so far away for "normal" lenses. Luckily with binoculars we have good sighting. Not so happy with photos but here they are.

 

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We followed the hunting party for about 30 minutes, driving slowly together with 8-10 other cars.

 

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The cheetah must have found their food on the other side of the ridge/cliff so we made an U-turn and continued our game drive towards Kij Kij waterhole hoping to see lions from yesterday. The hornbills are plentiful in Kgalagadi

 

African Grey Hornbill, female

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It was getting hot so this herd of Blue Wildebeest has found a comfy spot in the shade

 

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And one more bird for all the bird lovers out there

 

Common Fiscal

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It was almost midday when we arrived at Kij Kij, and yes, we did found a lion(ess) but she was happy with doing nothing but observing the world go by below her spot on the top of a sandy dune ridge. Or maybe she was mesmerised by all the yellow flowers around her?

 

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It was our fifth day in the park, and we started to feel the loss of energy due to all day driving around. For the first time we decided to return tot he camp, and afford a couple of hours for a quick nap before the afternoon drive. The afternoon drive we started late, and we went to ward the Auob side again. Not a good decision (although according to our ebook the afternoon light is better for photography there). Not that we have not seen wildlife but just a couple of good photo opportunities.

 

 

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Back at the camp for our last rice&can dinner (yeah, we have to end in style!!). There was a great fire at the braai at the cabin to the left of ours, and I have mentioned to Zvezda we might look what they have for dinner. She flatly refused my idea. What a mistake she made!! (more about this tomorrow). So only a good-night photo and early to the bed, on our last night inside the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

 

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Edited by xelas
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I would be sooooo happy with that cheetah photos :)

I hope you are too, great trip, great sightings. Sunrise and sunset pics...wow! Beautiful.

Only 2 more months to our South Africa trip...can't wait!

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@@xyz99

 

I would be sooooo happy with that cheetah photos :) - indeed that are not bad; yet all the big cats are heavily cropped photos done with 420mm lens combo on either FX (D610) or DX (D7100) body. If I would have only, say, 70-200 mm zoom, none of those cats would be no more than a tiny speck of colour. And yet, others have had such great "close encounters of the cat kind" in Kgalagadi ... I can only hope next time we will have same luck (or patience).

 

We have 7 more months to our return trip to Kgalagadi ... can't wait :) !!

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I will only have a 300mm lens, so it will have to do. I would love a 400mm one, but these get too heavy for me to hand-hold. The 300mm might be enough for big animals, but I know, not for birds..oh, well....

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Peter Connan

So sad this trip report is coming to an end. I wish it could go on forever!

 

Love your work Alex and Zvezda!

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@@xelas

That is a beautiful Tawny Eagle, and the light on the Jackal is lovely. I agree that the cheetah pictures are pretty good!

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@@xyz99

add a teleconverter to your lens, if it is a prime (not zoom).

 

@@Peter Connan

who is talking about the end of the report?! There are still 3 days to cover, plenty of interesting photos waiting to be published. So stay tuned :) !

 

@@TonyQ

The light was excellent in Kgalagadi, even during "non photographic" times. As for cheetah, these two were the only one worth of publishing.

I have already obtained a TC-E17 II teleconverter to extend the reach of my 300mm lens.

With all the light available keeping the combo at f/8 should still allow decent photos at required fast shutter speed (1/1000 - 1/2000 on D7100).

Edited by xelas
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I don't think I've ever seen so many wildebeest actually resting.

The green plumage of the bee eaters is striking.

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Apr 30th - Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park / Kalahari Farmstall

 

 

Our last day in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. What I have forgotten to tell you that on April 29th, we have another, more important reason to do so. Namely we wanted to find the SANParks office to be still opened. Because we decided, already before leaving the park, that we are coming back. As soon as possible. And that this time we wanted to stay at as many wilderness camps as possible. And that I wanted to drive to Bitterpan.

 

So, this last day, but last day for our first visit to KTP, we have again been out of the bed earlier than the sun. Below 3 photos shows how the camera captured different light colours in quite short time intervals. And how the FoV impacts the colours captured by camera.

 

D610, VR 70-200 f/4G,70 mm, 1/2s, f/4, ISO 100 at 05:25

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D610, VR 70-200 f/4G,70 mm, 1/25s, f/6.3, ISO 100 at 05:40

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D610, VR 70-200 f/4G, 200 mm, 1/40s, f/6.3, ISO 100 at 05:42

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And this was our first and only chilly morning. It has to be around zero Celsius. While I was moving the luggage from the room, I have noticed the off-road trailer parked next to the nearby cabin (the one with the big braai firethe evening before). It looked somehow familiar. Then a man stepped outside. And I looked at his shoes. I was sure I saw that type of shoes recently. Then the women stepped outside ... and she waved at me! Yeah, they were the 2 South African couples we have met at !Xaus Lodge two days before. They told us that they will come to Twee Rivieren but the place is big. After we exchanged the usual pleasantries and I have informed them where the lions are etc., I have mentioned their big braai fire. "Oh, we have to cook and eat much of our supplies as we are leaving tomorrow! Why did you not join us, it was more than enough for everybody!"

 

Lesson learned. A man has to listen to his women ... but not when the food is the topic!

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With me grunting and my stomach rumbling we bid farewell to Twee Rivieren and head towards Mata Mata. One more Gabar Goshawk with imposing presentation.

 

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Then, around Kamfersboom waterhole we found a much livelier herd or Blue Wildebeests. Some of them were chasing each other

 

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while others were involved in something that very much resembled a rugby team training for the scrum (with judges involved)

 

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We are in South Africa so rugby should be familiar even to wildebeests. I only question why the national team has chosen springbok to be their emblem?!

 

We stopped at a small outdoor museum at Auchterlonie. Just one house, and a couple of outdoor exhibits, but they do allow for a glimpse into how harsh the life was for farmers back in the days.

 

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You convinced me...next on the list, Namibia!

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Suddenly Zvezda started to yell:"Stop, stop, stop ... go back to that tree"! OK, I reversed, there is a tree, and what now? She opened the window and start clicking her camera. Only after she finished I was privy to that important information. "There is an owl in this tree." How on earth she was able to spot the owl sitting deep in the thick shade is beyond me. But we have made our first owl sighting (of the day).

 

African White-faced Scops Owl

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Not far from there another emergency stop. Supposedly not a birding photo trip is complete without a nice shot of this bird

 

Fork-tailed Drongo

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A lonely springbok was entertaining himself and the audience exhibiting his pronking skills

 

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Since one owl per day just don't make a great day, there was a second one. This one was sleepy, and was positioned in even thicker shade, close to the trunk of the tree. Its pink eyelids gave away who it was.

 

Verreaux's Eagle-owl

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We have photographed the female yesterday, now we have also taken the photo of the male

 

African Grey Hornbill, male

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They were always floating high above the sky, or sitting on top of the trees, out of the reach for our lenses. Luckily not this one. Thank You!

 

White-backed Vulture

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And since the raptors were the highlight of this visit to Kgalagadi, one more photo of the most magnificent one.

 

Martial Eagle, juvenile

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We have arrived early at Mata Mata. But better be careful as in April the clocks between South Africa and Namibia are one hour apart. And when the border is closed none crosses it. While I was working on the tires (pressure was low at 1.5 bar during the whole driving inside Kgalagadi), Zvezda joined a group of photographers walking around a tree next to the gas station. Yeah, all good thing come in three (and in tree).

 

African White-faced Scops Owl

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Checking out from Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, crossing the border without any problems, and in only 10 km we have arrived at Kalahari Farmstall. I was positively surprised by this place. The room we had was huge, more like a studio. The ladies at the reception/shop/bar very friendly, the small yard refreshingly green. We sat down and just relaxed, having coffee and cold beer and just trying to absorb the adventures and sightings we have had in previous 6 days. The dinner was delicious, and this photo a worthy exclamation point to our 2015 Kgalagadi story.

 

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May 1st - From Kalahari Farmstall to Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch / 300 km, 6 hrs

 

 

Despite the fact that we have slept slept well, and the weather in the morning was nice, and the breakfast was delicious, and even the swallows were happy, we were kind of sad. Happily sad, I would say. Because we were heading back to Windhoek today, and that means also back home, eventually.

 

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The road was lined with farms, it seems like here the farms are or smaller, or closer to the road. One more predator was flying from pole to pole, and we added it to our now already long list.

 

Jackal Buzzard

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For ice cream, pit stop and refuelling we stopped in Gochas. Another tiny Namibian town, with friendly people. There is a new tourist centre construction almost finished. Arrived at Bagatelle around 2 pm; it was a long and not so interesting drive. Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch looked very nice, our room was spacious and well equipped, but already from the start we felt kinda "out of place" there. Luckily they have a resident family of meerkats near the pool

 

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and enough trees on the grounds one can do some birding

 

Dusky Sunbird

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There was even a platform with nice looking telescope; if not for the full moon phase, observing the night sky would be interesting here.

 

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Of the (paid) activities we have chosen the afternoon game drive with cheetah feeding. Our vehicle was full, and thus we knew in advance taking photos would not be easy. But we have not expected to have such a "non-photographer" for a driver! Damn, if that would be our only game drive we would cry loud! Wrong approach angles, too fast, abrupt breaking, almost always have the animal dead ahead (great for him but lousy for all the passengers, etc. Oh well, now I know what some members here are talking about when they emphasise getting the right guide/driver is a key to a successful game drive.

 

Nevertheless Zvezda managed to take some nice looking photos. Wildlife was sparse, and mostly alone in the green valleys flanked by bright red sound dunes.

 

Blue Wildebeest mother and calf

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That is how the Bagatelle Ranch looks

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A lonely giraffe

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Oryx under the full moon

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Large kudu

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Springbok in the sea of grass

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And finally, the shot that represents the essence of the Kalahari

 

Kudu in front of the red sand dune

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Cheetah feeding was the second part of that drive. The cheetah were transferred from CCF; unfortunately they were not suitable to be return to the wild so thus they have ended in a large enclosure at Bagatelle. They did perform a nice show for us, running down the slope to get their evening meal. What stricken me the most was the sadness in their eyes; like they knew there will be no freedom for them. But i might be also wrong. So judge for yourself.

 

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We have ended the long day with a sundowner. Bagatelle is also a horseback riding place. And I am always impressed by nice horses.

 

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Zvezda also, She is just more subtle.

 

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The kudu in post #217 is nicely photographed, with the long strip of shadow at its feet.

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Atravelynn

Rugby playing wildes!

 

The horse in the sunset--gorgeous.

 

Your blues in the Cape Glossy Starling are mesmerizing.

Glad to see the meerkats have returned to Bagatelle.

 

I don't see sadness in the cheetah eyes, but except for the pair together, I see a less watchful and alert look than in wild cheetahs. I recall the wildlife artist, Robert Bateman, stating that captive animals as subjects had a different aura and even tensed their muscles differently.

 

Your photos covered the whole spectrum brilliantly from windmills to a proncing springbok to the many excellent birds.

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The owl photo in post 215 is ridiculously great and your sunsets still amaze!

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Tom Kellie

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~ @@xelas

 

When I saw this I laughed out loud!

It's a classic — definitely one to share with students.

Such wit seen on safari is a delight.

I'm glad that you photographed it and shared it here on Safaritalk.

Thank you!

Tom K.

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@@xelas -

 

WOW WOW WOW great pix - I tend to avoid ST because I love it, but then I lose hours and get into trouble meeting deadlines. Today, I'm indulging my need to connect with Africa. I picked your TR because I was curious re Red Dune - what a great guess! I spent 5-plus days in May in the NFD (Lake Turkana bus revival) with game guide Chris Brennan who regaled us with tales of Namibia. It sounded awesome and your TR is wonderfully informative - thank you so much!

 

PS I turn green with envy when I read about OPS (other peoples' safaris) - I love love love Kenya and am looking forward to exploring more locations in Kenya as well as other nations, like Namibia.

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@@Tom Kellie

I am still in doubt about the meaning of this sign: or it is risky to step up to the stargazing platform, or is stargazing itself a risk :) .

 

@@Lala

Thanks for kind words. Yeah, I am also spending too much (paid and unpaid) time reading TRs on ST. The one that started our travels to Africa was Namibia 2012 by Jochen.

Having so many knowledgeable ST members as our "support team" is a guarantee for many great trips in the future.

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