Tswalu Kalahari and Phinda: August/September 2015

[Marks]

Great job with the birds!

 

I asked if they thought the fences would ever come down, and was told, no, not likely, as the sale of sables is actually a more lucrative enterprise to support the Reserve's conservation efforts than tourism is.

 

This is also pretty interesting. I always appreciate learning these kinds of strategies to fund conservation, as so many different areas have so many different tactics.

[Peter Connan]

I just often wander how long it will be before the market for sable collapses.

 

Similarly the market for many genetical oddities.

[Alexander33]

@@SafariChick

@@Peter Connan

@@Marks

 

Thank you for your kind comments.

 

You know, until our visit to Tswalu, I confess I had not really thought about conservation as a business, but that's exactly what it is, and a complex one at that.

[Alexander33]

As we have wide interests that extend beyond just wildlife, we could not miss seeing the ancient rock carvings made by San bushmen who regularly traversed a site on the Reserve that is believed to have had spiritual value to them. We spent a late morning one day walking amongst the carvings that appeared in the scattered rocks separating two different levels of land. Kalie told us that the carvings were approximately 2,000 years old. A publication I consulted says 30,000 years old. And Tswalu’s own website says that recent archaeological research suggests that some may be as much as 380,000 years old (!), making them some of the oldest artworks on earth. Who knows for sure?

 

What I do know is that, with lots of hints from Kalie, we enjoyed trying to discern the animals that were largely realistically depicted in the carvings as well as the meanings behind those carvings that incorporated abstract designs. If you have a large enough monitor, and if you really squint your eyes, maybe you can see them in these images. (If not, just use your imagination!)

 

 

 

 

Eland?

 

 

 

 

Zebra?

 

 

 

 

Ostrich?

 

 

 

 

Not sure what this one might be.....

 

 

 

The more abstract designs bear spiritual and celestial representations that I will not hazard to try to interpret here.

 

 

 

 

 

To Kalie, this site was sacred, and we felt privileged to learn more about the culture and history of the people who had once lived here.

 

[Alexander33]

So back to the evening after we failed to find the wild dogs......

 

Despite my assurances to Kalie and James that we were perfectly content even if we had not been able to locate the dogs, they were nevertheless subdued during our stop for sundowners and the drive back to the lodge on that last evening. Therefore, we were surprised (and gratified) when Kalie told us that they’d like to go ahead and join us for dinner.

 

We had enjoyed our previous dinners with them. We talked about them, their families, their struggles, their hopes and their dreams. We talked about the current South Africa and its prospects for the future. And, in turn, they asked about life in America. How we had managed to elect a black president – twice – and yet still had problems with race relations.

 

Perhaps most memorably, one evening Kalie took advantage of a pause in the discourse to lean in and ask me, “What is it, this holiday you have in America called ‘Halloween’?” There then ensued 20 minutes of enlightened hilarity, as we tried to explain the meaning behind our dressing up in costumes, the symbolism of witches, skeletons, devils and black cats, and why children wander neighborhoods, knocking on doors and asking for candy. “What does it mean, ‘trick or treat?” From the looks on his face, I’m not sure I was entirely successful in conveying the underlying basics of the whole enterprise.

 

Although this was only our second safari, we have traveled all over the world, and I can tell within minutes, if not less, when a guide is genuinely interested in social conversation and when he or she is there only out of a sense of obligation or duty. Strained conversation and fake laughter are always dead giveaways. While we always enjoy getting to know our guides better and on a more personal level, we never put any pressure on them to socialize and are always perfectly content, and understanding, if they wish to retire early. We experienced nothing of the sort with either Kalie or James – either that or they need to abandon their guiding careers and move to Hollywood immediately.

[Alexander33]

Our last morning at Tswalu was overcast and windy, and the atmosphere was made a bit more somber by news we had received of a tragic death (no one close and certainly not calling for consolations here). I mention this only because our mood that morning was quiet and contemplative, with our thoughts centered on both the miracle of life and, at the same time, its extreme fragility.

 

Kalie and James kindly offered to help us try to find the wild dogs again that morning, but with our time limited and the weather still windy, I felt that would be a foolhardy enterprise. Instead, I asked if we could simply walk for a few hours with Kalie to obtain a more intimate connection with the land. We really didnt see much of note, but things like seeing gnu (wildebeest) on foot, sounding their alarm calls, and learning to distinguish between aardvark burrows and porcupine burrows were exactly what we were seeking.

 

Kalie leads the way. I was carrying the backpack with all my camera equipment because, while we were out, the rest of all our luggage was being transported by the staff from the lodge to the airstrip. It made for good exercise!

 

 

 

Don't know if this panorama taken with J.'s i-Phone will translate here.....

 

 

 

At one point, we were startled by a warthog, which came tearing out of its adopted burrow with a loud squeal and a surprisingly high speed. Thats why you should always inspect a burrow from its backside, observed Kalie. We were halfway through our walk at this point. Oh, now you tell us! I said, reflecting back on all the burrows I had leaned toward from their entrances before that. I dont even want to imagine the damage that a warthogs tusks could do to my pasty white legs, but I know it wouldnt be pretty.

 

As we made our way to the landing strip, a giraffe momentarily blocked the road.

 

 

Id like to believe that it was a message: Dont go.

 

(Or, on second thought, maybe it was, Hey, wait! Not so fast. I saw a pangolin here just last night!).

 

But, the pangolin would have to wait (or, perhaps stated more accurately, we would have to wait for the pangolin). We had come because we wanted to see desert species and some of the smaller creatures for which Tswalu has become known, and even though we didnt see our pangolin, or an aardwolf, or an aardvark in the broad daylight, we were happy with what we did see: our first desert black rhino, our first African wild cat, our first meerkat, our first springhare, and, of course, our first aardvark in its more typical nocturnal setting (not to mention everything else that Ive touched on).

 

However, the sweeping landscape and the red sand dunes, the endless skies during the day and the dome of countless brilliant stars at night, the winds and the silence, those were always there.

 

 

 

 

I hope that someday we will have the good fortune to visit Tswalu again. In the meantime, I will always have a little memento of the sweeping Kalahari to remind me of the magnificent time that we had experienced.

 

 

 

 

Within a few hours, we were at the airport in Johannesburg waiting on our connecting flight to Durban. From there, we would proceed to our next destination: Phinda, in the eastern part of South Africas KwaZulu-Natal, where we were booked for 5 nights. If we had departed Tswalu on a quiet, contemplative and somewhat slow note, Phinda would welcome us in a much more extroverted manner.

Edited November 21, 2015 by Alexander33

[Marks]

That Halloween conversation is one to remember!

[TonyQ]

@@Alexander33

I have really enjoyed this sectionof your report - you give an excelent flavour of Tswalu, and how it has an impact on your outlook.

I look forward to the next section

[michael-ibk]

Thank you, Peter, I really enjoyed your take on Tswalu. You had great sightings, the great diversity of animals especially appeals to me. I like your very personal style and can relate to many feelings you described.

 

Really looking forward to Phinda. Extroverted? You´ve certainly piqued my curiousity!

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@Alexander33

 

While I seldom read through recent trip reports, your description of Tswalu was sufficiently captivating that it was read through in a single sitting, comments and all.

Your approach worked well — overall impressions rather than a strictly step=by-step narrative.

Great photos throughout, including species unfamiliar to me.

Your candor enhanced the commentary. It had the feeling of a tale frankly told between good friends.

I admire this excellent trip report, which increases one's interest in the Kalahari ecosystem.

As an example of how little I know, I'd have supposed that small reptiles might be visible here and there. Apparently that's not actually the case.

Thank you for the time and care underlying such a readable trip report.

Tom K.

[Alexander33]

@@Marks

@@TonyQ

@@michael-ibk

and to everyone else who has taken time to comment thus far, thank you. These reports are harder than they look! Your comments and support have been like a little cheering squad off to the side, urging me to go on when it would be so much easier to just sit back and read everyone else's adventures.

 

@@Tom Kellie

 

Thank you for your kind remarks.

 

I admire this excellent trip report, which increases one's interest in the Kalahari ecosystem.

As an example of how little I know, I'd have supposed that small reptiles might be visible here and there. Apparently that's not actually the case.

 

Actually, I suspect that there are plenty of small reptiles (and probably larger ones, too, as I recall that @@PCNW encountered a puff adder on her visit in, I believe, May 2014). I think the reason we didn't see any is simply due to the time of year we were there. It was still winter. I suspect that as the weather warms up, the reptiles will as well.

[Alexander33]

Overall Impressions of Tswalu

 

I'm moving on to Phinda, I promise, but before I do, I'd like to impart some technical information about Tswalu as well to convey some final, overall impressions of our time at the Reserve.

 

Tswalu has two lodges. The first is Tarkuni, the personal residence of the Oppenheimer family (which owns the Reserve), which can accommodate up to 10 people in its five bedroom suites. For the rest of us mere mortals, there is The Motse, consisting of a central lodge and 9 legae (Tswana for “little house”). Ours was #1, which was situated farthest from the entrance.

 

 

 

I liked the relative isolation, and the accommodation itself was lovely -- extremely spacious and meeting more than all of our needs. We never could get the hot water running in the outdoor shower, but fortunately, there was also an indoor shower.

 

Sorry for the tilt-a-whirl effect here. I used my wide-angle lens to try to depict the height of the ceiling.

 

 

 

 

A covered porch at the back overlooked the desert landscape, and in the afternoons, sables and roan would nap just outside our door. After dinner, we would sit on the porch and gaze out into the pitch black night and the mesmerizing network of bright stars overhead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A number of reports that I read before going stated that the food at Tswalu was a weak point: that it wasn’t bad, but wasn’t that great either. That was not our experience. I found the food to be very good. They did try to fancy things up from time to time. For example, one night we had a five-course dinner with wine pairings. I should disclose that I’m not a food or wine connoisseur (although I do like my food and drink), so while I found something like this to be fun in a novel way, it also wasn’t very important to me. (It was nice, though, that they served two of my all-time favorite wines – red and white J). The staff at Tswalu was uniformly gracious, pleasant and friendly.

 

There was one particular aspect of our time at Tswalu that was a bit odd: interaction between guests was virtually non-existent. We’ve met some fascinating people in the course of our travels, and some of my fondest memories are the short-term friendships we’ve struck up along the way. It happens on every trip we take. On our last safari, we bonded with several other guests at both the lodges we visited, spending time over cocktails and dinners and lunches, talking not only about the creatures we had seen and what we hoped to find, but a myriad of other life topics as well. (And that’s exactly what would happen on this trip at our next lodge, Phinda Vlei.) Not so at Tswalu.

 

My usual attempts at striking up conversation went nowhere. Inquiries about what was seen on a morning or evening drive were met with short, succinct replies (“It was nice. We saw rhinos.”), followed by a retreat or the taking up of a new task that clearly indicated the discourse was over. No one was abrupt or brusque. Instead, it was more like there was just this impenetrable façade: polite, but not friendly; distant, but not rude. Whatever the case, the guests generally tended to keep very much to themselves (although I did have the chance to meet @@Tdgraves while there and to share a brief, but pleasant chat with her on the plane back to Johannesburg).

 

In any event, perhaps the trade-off for the exclusivity of private vehicles and largely unscheduled meals is an environment that lacks inducements for more social connectivity. (Or maybe it was just a more reticent or introverted crowd than usual.) In any event, I don’t mean to give this issue more attention than it deserves, as it certainly didn’t tarnish our experience at Tswalu in any way. I think it would be more accurate to say, rather, that we simply felt a sense of lost opportunity in the face of it. (And, no, given the choice, I would not have preferred shared vehicles!)

Edited November 26, 2015 by Alexander33

[Alexander33]

There has been some discussion on how long one should stay at Tswalu. In my opinion, the four nights we spent there was not long enough, for the simple reason that Tswalu is so immense and the wildlife is so spread out.

 

As I’ve mentioned previously, depending on what our target was, it often took an hour or more just to get to the appropriate area. And that was before doing any tracking. Due to the distances involved, very often you have to set your target and commit to it for, perhaps, half the day. You have to be prepared for the possibility that you may not find what you are looking for every time you set out, or that, if you do, it may have taken so much time that the animals have already settled down in preparation for the heat of the day or the cold of the night.

 

For me, an additional two nights would have been welcomed, although that wouldn’t have fit in with either of the specials that Tswalu offered for 2015: (i) Stay 4 Nights, Fly for Free; or (ii) Stay 5 Nights, Pay for 4. (According to the website, Tswalu will continue these promotions for 2016). In her report earlier this year, @@bushmaniac reported opting for the latter promotion and stayed for 10 nights. Quite frankly, I think that 10 nights might prove a bit too long for me, but maybe I’m just antsy or have too short an attention span. In any event, with our four-night stay already straining our budget and the airfare costing an additional ZAR 9400 per person, we felt that the Stay 4 Nights, Fly for Free promotion was the best choice for us.

 

In reading online reviews of Tswalu, commenters often say that it is not a first-timers’ safari destination. From the perspective of most novices’ desire to see the Big Five (a club that included us on our first safari), I agree. But for those who have been bitten by the safari bug and want to delve further into the natural wonders of Africa, Tswalu is a very special place. However, it is not cheap, so if four (or fewer) nights is the most you can afford, then go anyway. I get that sense that once Tswalu tugs at your heart, it’s an affair that’s likely to last a long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So with that, farewell Tswalu. On to Phinda (really).

[madaboutcheetah]

@@Alexander33 - Thanks for an awesome report!

 

Couple of questions - did you see the fences around the reserve? If so, how often? I do realize it is a huge reserve though and can easily be avoided.

 

Did you dine with your guide? So you think there was less interaction with other guests because everyone was eating in their rooms? or eat at different times due to the flexibility offered by Tswalu with the PV?

Did you find Aardvark difficult to find in the summer time?

 

I am just fascinated at the sight of roan/sable just laying around ...... The ones I've seen run a mile a minute when approached

Edited November 26, 2015 by madaboutcheetah

[Kitsafari]

well i'm so late to this report and reading it all in one go now means I missed out on all the on-going chatters...i'm only at page 4, so a more ways to go....but

 

the meerkats always look adorable. it's fascinating to see how their static hair just glows so golden against the red soil of Kalahari, how their large dark eyes just melt your heart immediately (it's a cold cold hearted human not to be moved by those eyes)

 

how relaxed the black rhinos are so close to you. in timbavati, black rhinos are rarely seen because they are very nervous of everything, so you celebrate with champagne if you do get to see one relaxed and close by. beautiful photos of them, particularly of how perfectly looking those horns are, sitting where they should be.

 

how lovely that family posture of the cheetahs. i don't care if the collar is there - the mum still looks perfect.

 

spring hares! i've never seen one but they sure look like mini kangaroos with bushy tails.

 

and an aardvark! and on your second safari? stop sulking now.

Edited November 26, 2015 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

That was just beautifully narrated, Peter.

 

x2

 

and a great shot of a beautiful bird. those eyes.....

Edited November 26, 2015 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

 

wild imagination here - but looks like the head of an elephant with its trunk curled?

[TonyQ]

That is a really helpful summary of your feeling about Tswalu - you give a balanced view and make it seem very attractive.

[Kitsafari]

Overall Impressions of Tswalu

 

 

 

There was one particular aspect of our time at Tswalu that was a bit odd: interaction between guests was virtually non-existent. We’ve met some fascinating people in the course of our travels, and some of my fondest memories are the short-term friendships we’ve struck up along the way. It happens on every trip we take. On our last safari, we bonded with several other guests at both the lodges we visited, spending time over cocktails and dinners and lunches, talking not only about the creatures we had seen and what we hoped to find, but a myriad of other life topics as well. (And that’s exactly what would happen on this trip at our next lodge, Phinda Vlei.) Not so at Tswalu.

 

My usual attempts at striking up conversation went nowhere. Inquiries about what was seen on a morning or evening drive were met with short, succinct replies (“It was nice. We saw rhinos.”), followed by a retreat or the taking up of a new task that clearly indicated the discourse was over. No one was abrupt or brusque. Instead, it was more like there was just this impenetrable façade: polite, but not friendly; distant, but not rude. Whatever the case, the guests generally tended to keep very much to themselves (although I did have the chance to meet @@Tdgraves while there and to share a brief, but pleasant chat with her on the plane back to Johannesburg).

 

In any event, perhaps the trade-off for the exclusivity of private vehicles and largely unscheduled meals is an environment that lacks inducements for more social connectivity. (Or maybe it was just a more reticent or introverted crowd than usual.) In any event, I don’t mean to give this issue more attention than it deserves, as it certainly didn’t tarnish our experience at Tswalu in any way. I think it would be more accurate to say, rather, that we simply felt a sense of lost opportunity in the face of it. (And, no, given the choice, I would not have preferred shared vehicles!)

 

 

now that you have mentioned it, i felt the same way in Timbavati and Londolozi. i think it was because it was not communal dining, and because vehicles are not shared, you don't really interact with other guests. I recall smiling at a guest during tea, and saying hello. he responded with a rather weak hello, and then continued with his tea selection. not a rather encouraging way to continue conversation. on the other hand, we met a family who chatted with us quite a bit across tables during lunch, and we shared our sightings. but I understand your sentiments,and I also wondered if guests at certain lodges prefer their time spent by themselves than having to hold small talk with tedious guests like me.

Edited November 26, 2015 by Kitsafari

[Tdgraves]

I agree @@Alexander33 4 days is not enough. We wanted to do the 5 for 4 offer, but there was no availability

In fact, the only reason we got in at all was because we were given a family suite (at the prices a normal room).

 

Can you imagine only staying 2 nights? According to our guide, a lot of guests do this. He was really pleased that we were there for 4 so that he didn't have to rush around so much.....

[Peter Connan]

@@Alexander33, the Kalahari is a really special place and most everyone who goes there becomes an addict, but I do agree that one needs to spend more time there (and I am not talking specifically about Tswalu, but the whole region). It shares it's secrets perhaps more slowly than some other places?

Edited November 26, 2015 by Peter Connan

[xelas]

Indeed, multiple visits are recommended (and to me, prescribed by my doctor )!

[Alexander33]

@@Alexander33 - Thanks for an awesome report!

 

Couple of questions - did you see the fences around the reserve? If so, how often? I do realize it is a huge reserve though and can easily be avoided.

 

Did you dine with your guide? So you think there was less interaction with other guests because everyone was eating in their rooms? or eat at different times due to the flexibility offered by Tswalu with the PV?

 

Did you find Aardvark difficult to find in the summer time?

 

I am just fascinated at the sight of roan/sable just laying around ...... The ones I've seen run a mile a minute when approached

 

Ohhhh, @@madaboutcheetah, as we say in Texas, you are so dang busted!

 

Now, I warned everybody at the very outset that I'm chatty and wordy, because I just knew I'd lose some of you!

 

Not to worry! Just giving you a bit of a hard time. These are good questions, and for the most part, the answers are somewhat buried in the report rather than summarized there at the end where you might expect them to be.

 

As to the fences, other than upon initial arrival and final departure, I suppose you could avoid them altogether if you requested your guide to do that, but it would mean you wouldn't be able to see the lions or about the eastern 1/3 of the Reserve. The Reserve is divided by fencing, and the lodge is located in the western sector. The lions, located in the eastern sector, are kept apart from the sables. Check out posts #64 and ##98-99 where I go into that in a bit more detail.

 

As to dining arrangements, from what I could tell, most, if not all, guests dined on the deck for lunches and in the dining room, or the boma one night, for dinner, and not in their rooms. And yes, we did dine with our guide -- and tracker, as well. We issued both of them an open invitation to join us for dinner whenever they wished, and they took us up on the standing offer on 3 of the 4 nights we were there. This subject came up a bit early in the report, as reportedly it is not commonly done at Tswalu (although we did see another guide dining with his guests on at least one occasion). I'm not sure why that is, but, again, the other guests there were generally a pretty stiff lot, so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

In any event, both our guide, Kalie, and our tracker, James, were employed directly by Tswalu, as opposed to working there as short-term freelance contractors, and it was very apparent that they both were quite at ease with the whole thing. At the end of our afternoon/evening drive, they would just tell us whether they were joining us or not, and if they were, we'd all walk into the dining room together and grab a table. As I point out in post #105, they both proved to be great company, and if anyone had a problem with this arrangement, it certainly wasn't anyone on the management team, all of whom were, without exception, uniformly gracious and comfortable around us throughout our stay.

 

Finally, as to aardvark "tracking," we were there August 31-September 4, late winter, so I don't know what the success rate for finding aardvark in the summer is. I had thought that would be the prime time to catch aardvark out during the daylight hours, but that wasn't the case. I get into that in more detail in post #59.

 

I'm more than happy to answer any other questions you might have.

 

And I hope you'll stay on for our journey to Phinda. Hint: There are cheetahs involved!

Edited November 27, 2015 by Alexander33

[Alexander33]

@@Kitsafari

 

Welcome to the party! I was wondering where you were.

 

 

wild imagination here - but looks like the head of an elephant with its trunk curled?

 

Elephants in the Kalahari. Yes, I'd call that a pretty wild imagination. Although with some of the estimates on the age of those carvings, maybe it's a Mastadon? Could be the first trace evidence of their having lived in Africa, speaking of wild imaginations..... In any event, it's a better guess than anything I could come up with. Thanks for your kind comments.

[Alexander33]

@@Tdgraves

 

I agree that two nights only would be tough.

 

 

the Kalahari is a really special place and most everyone who goes there becomes an addict, but I do agree that one needs to spend more time there (and I am not talking specifically about Tswalu, but the whole region). It shares it's secrets perhaps more slowly than some other places?

 

@@Peter Connan

 

Perfectly stated, and I concur entirely.

 

 

Indeed, multiple visits are recommended (and to me, prescribed by my doctor )!

 

@@xelas

 

I need to switch to your doctor!