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Kgalagadi and Mabuasehube selfdrive - The adventure of a lifetime


JayRon

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1.1 2019 Morning Gamedrive
First day of the year, you always wonder what it might bring. 


We sleept a longer than usual , just woke up at 7.00 and took our time. That proved to be a very good idea. Only went on a gamedrive around 8.00. That would normally be too late, because most of the predators drink early morning.  Especially when it is so hot. At 8.00 the sun is already baking with tempeatures in the late twenties. And from around noon the temperature would hit 40 degrees. And it would stay above 40 degrees until it got dark. It was hot!! 
Most of the other days we were up at around 5.00 and started our gamedrives at 5.30. (when we were allowed).


Anyway, we only drove down to the riverbed(which is around 500 m from camp), when we noticed one car parked. They infomed us, that there was a cheetah with a kill behind some bushes far away. We could see 2 jackals moving around, but could only glimpse the cheetah through the binoculars. But again we decided to stay put and see what would happen. A lot of cars came and went, but we stayed. After 20 minutes they appeared, not one, but 3 cheetahs. First it looked like they were heading for the dunes, but they changed direction, and began moving towards us! At this time we were completely alone. It was amazing !! It looked like a female with 2 old cubs. 

 

Starting with seeing the jackals and then the cheetah appeared.  

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Moving towards the dunes.

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But luckily then changed direction

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A very good start for the new year!

 

Later we saw two giraffes fighting near the 14th Borehole. It seems to me that the population of giraffes are slightly increasing, I am no expert, but I think we saw a lot more this time, than when we were i Kgalagadi in 2014.DSCN2361.JPG.df63dc3c8de0ca7c2b15c29c922f8da5.JPGDSCN2360.JPG.9211e23e1a33d283a92310422dcecda7.JPGDSCN2366.JPG.dd2bca8ba2bfd4165323bf01daef0bf9.JPG

 

No trip report is complete without a picture of the lilac-breasted roller :)  As I wrote earlier I am not a birder, but when bird is unusual or have beautiful colours I still get impressed.

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Edited by JayRon
wrong pictures
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11 hours ago, JayRon said:

 

No 3 months summer holiday, unfortunately, it would be cool to have it every year ;) We just asked our boys schools permission to take them out for 3 months and they were supportive. They might fall a little behind on some classes, but they just learn so much about the world, which I think is good. In Denmark we (in my opinion) have one of the best welfare societies in the world, but I think it is good to see, that it is not like that in the whole world. And on trips like this we learn a lot from the different places and cultures we visit. 

 

I fully agree with that reasoning, but several of the countries I've lived in a very rigid these days with allowing children not to go to school for holiday purposes. Friends of mine just pay a fine each year for taking their kids with them to their home country for Christmas, and leaving a little early.

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What a fabulous Cheetah sighting 😊

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1 hour ago, ForWildlife said:

 

I fully agree with that reasoning, but several of the countries I've lived in a very rigid these days with allowing children not to go to school for holiday purposes. Friends of mine just pay a fine each year for taking their kids with them to their home country for Christmas, and leaving a little early.

I have heard  before that I lot of countries have very rigid rules. In Denmark you don´t have to put your kids to school (but I guess 99,9 percent does), you just have to make sure that they receive education, either by yourself or someone else. I think that makes it easier to take them out for a period. 

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1.1 2019 Afternoon gamedrive

 

It was a rather quiet afternoon gamedrive. We did see 2 more cheetahs near 14th Borehole, but they were lying in the shade and even after we tested our patience they didn´t move. We were pretty sure that these were males. We also managed to see 2 secretary birds. But still a very good day. It is not every day that you have 2 sightings of cheetahs.

 

 

Only took this pictures as proof.DSCN2429.JPG.aea3b87c728b0747dbfcfebc16b0aacc.JPGDSCN2400.JPG.535346382b7039e7d34cb0a895eb15c0.JPGDSCN2423.JPG.9ddcb37c5cf510239c4afd8603ad86ef.JPG

Springbok roadblock.DSCN2375.JPG.202afc075b82820057d31c0354358c4d.JPGDSCN2378.JPG.1095478814461f466d232dca49a00379.JPG

 

We were extremely satisfied with this day, little did we know that next day would be absolutely magic :) 

Edited by JayRon
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Great Cheetah sightings @JayRon - Bring on the next day :D

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Towlersonsafari

those cheetahs look like the ones we saw in the same area in November 2018    @JayRon. the Kalahari tented camp is a liovely place to say-and we agree-sitting out on the porch in the dark when a jackale wanders by does get you wondering about lions having a look!

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2.1 2019 The Day of Lions

 

Just a little spoiler alert, if you don´t care about lions no need to read further. Also you will be spammed with lion pictures :) 


So this day we up early as usual. Woke up at 5.00 and where ready to leave at 5.30, when the gates open (no gates at KTP, but there is still 2-3 rangers around, who make sure you follow the rules).  Have to remember to give them a thumb up. They were really friendly and helpful. Very serviceminded.


Just a little notice. We seen a lot of lions over the years, but it was usually in small group or singles. We never seen a big pride together ( you might have an idea, why I write this now :)


We drove south to Sitsas, were we came just in time to see a lioness with 2 small cubs. My son managed to snap a couple of pictures before they went into the dunes.It was very around 5.45, so the sun wasn´t up yet.

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We then drove further south and saw a big male lion at 14th Borehole. Wasn´t doing anything, but 2 kudus walked straight towards it.  We hoped something would happen, but they saw him just in time. Anyway he wasn´t interested. 

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Kudu checking the male lion out. For a while it look like it was gonna walk right into the lion.IMG_1931.JPG.6f91c54e71505a5982722ccb81156469.JPG
We then met a  couple, who told us, that 9 lions walked just walked through Kalahari Tented Camp. What are we doing here ?? Only one thing to do.
So we raced back (keeping to the speed limits of course 😉😉), just in time to see a huge male lion drinking at the waterhole.

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 2 lioness then came and drank at the waterhole. When they finished drinking, they began walking straight towards us. They eventually settled down under a tree 40-50 m away from our cabin. We had a little panic at one point, because they somehow disappeared for our eyesight.

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The time was now around 9.00, but instead of going on a gamedrive, we simply just watched them for the next 8 hours. No reason driving around looking for lions, when we could sit in at the porch and just enjoy the view. We had  lunch and just kept watching them. That was marvelous.  And exciting. When there are 2 lions so close, you are alert all of the time.:rolleyes: 
For a long time we didn´t dared to go to the pool, in case we missed something. But since it was above 40 degrees once again, we made a plan. We drove up to the pool (less than 100 m away). My wife dropped me and the boys and we managed a quick swim. The time was then around 17.00. We talked to some guest. who told us that the rest of the pride was resting on the other side of the riverbed. We could just see them with our binoculars. Then my wife came back and said the the lions were starting to move a little bit. We hurried back to our cabin.


We already thought it was amazing, but now we realized that the rest of the of the pride was coming to waterhole too.

The rest of the pride. And then they joined up with the 2 lioness under the tree. Now we had 11 lions around just 40-50 m away. Here they spent the next 20 minutes moving back and forth from the waterhole. 

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Just when we (again) thought it couldn´t get any better, something spooked some of the lions and they went up the dunes towards us. Here they stayed there for 10 minutes. We didn´t see the huge male, but heard him and it seems that the young males in the pride was very afraid of him. We thought, that he was about to kick the young males out of the pride. They certainly looked around that age.

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My family looking at the lions.. So exciting :DDSCN2767.JPG.5733ad2e5a528452bc976ac484993d48.JPG
A little later they all went down again under the tree, but after 15-20 minutes one of the older lioness just stood up and began walking towards our cabin. We hurried inside and just enjoyed the magic.😎😎 It was just awesome!!DSCN2782.JPG.c81d9fcb584df2b9a59ee606d96dde11.JPGDSCN2785.JPG.0ede5639af92e3fd932b9b2c4ec39610.JPGDSCN2786.JPG.e0ffc65592e651471965025135d64582.JPGDSCN2789_Moment_Moment.jpg.c9e4a25f095db027af23e71a369f1e76.jpg

We decided that will would jump into the car and follow them, when they had passed us. Luckily I counting the lions, because there was a straggler. Would have hated bump into that one ;) 

The Straggler

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Toilet with a view ;) 

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I hoped to see some of the famous Kalahari lions, but I never thought, that the biggest pride I ever seen, would be in Kgalagadi. How Kgalagadi can sustain such a big pride is a mystery to me.  And on top of that, they all looked in good condition. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by JayRon
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That is what makes Kgalagadi such a magical place! I still remember the excitement when two males walked into KTC! BTW I think we have stayed at same chalet ... at least the views are very similar. 

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Towlersonsafari

Splendid @JayRon  you now know what happens wen lions wander by-the KTP is such a wonderful place

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you are right, not only is the giraffe population increasing but in these days you will find them much further south than say, ten years ago - a successful relocation story

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3.1 The Day of the Cheetahs

Morning Gamedrive


We were still high after the excitement of the previous day and I think we were all kind of thinking, "Wonder what Kgalagadi have in store for us now?". 


We only drive a few km down south of the Auob Riverbed/Road, before my oldest son yelled "cheetah".

It was on the other side of the riverbed, just relaxing and not moving. so it was good spotted. It soon started moving.

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The cheetah was calling all time and walked towards the waterhole(which was Sitsas). Suddenly another cheetah appeared from the other side and joined up with, what we presume, was his brother. Together they dranked for 5-6 minutes before they departed. We talked to another tourist who told us, that there was a coalition of 4 male cheetahs roaming in the area. 

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A very good sighting. 
After that we drove the way down to the 14th Borehole. Here we saw 2 more cheetahs. They didn´t do much, so after looking at them for 10 minutes, we decided to head back to camp.

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By now it was scorching hot and we were getting hungry, so we went back to camp. On the way back we drove past a tree just next to the road and out of the corner of my eye I somehow spotted a silhouette of an owl. I am pretty proud of this sighting :) , it is not easy spotting an owl in a tree when driving 30 km/h. ;) 

 

It was huge, but as I wrote earlier, I am not a birder, so I not sure what kind of owl it was. I checked my Kgalagadi book, and I think that it might be a Verreaux`s Eagle Owl. but please correct me if am wrong?DSCN2880.JPG.a30fa6e1df7fdc3cbcf9ce0038827382.JPG

 

 

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What great sightings you have had so far @JayRon

 

To sit at home base for an entire day just watching Lions is a day I'm sure your entire family will never forget.

 

Looking forward to following along with the rest of your trip

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i've yet to see a bad photo @JayRon so kudos to you and your sons for the images! that martial looking straight into the camera - wow. 

 

cheetahs and lions galore - amazing that an arid area can be so productive! I've not been to KTP yet. 

and how rare is a jackal hunt since jackals are typically regarded as scavengers. 

 

Looking forward to more!

 

 

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12 hours ago, JayRon said:

I think that it might be a Verreaux`s Eagle Owl. but please correct me if am

 

@JayRon, the first lesson my birding mentor told me was: "Eyes never lies!" . Your bird is a Spotted Eagle Owl, with bright yellow eyes. 

Verreaux`s Eagle Owl has much darker, almost black eyes. If you have done more photos of this particular bird, the Verreaux`s Eagle Owl prominent feature is the pinkish eyelids.

Edited by xelas
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@JayRon Your photos are making me even more excited about my upcoming safari next year  when I'll be going to KTP from the 1st to the 14th of May, and then on to Mokala and Marrick for 8 days with @Sangeeta. 

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12 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

i've yet to see a bad photo @JayRon so kudos to you and your sons for the images! that martial looking straight into the camera - wow. 

 

cheetahs and lions galore - amazing that an arid area can be so productive! I've not been to KTP yet. 

and how rare is a jackal hunt since jackals are typically regarded as scavengers. 

 

Looking forward to more!

 

 

Thank you for your kind words, I passed them on to my sons :) And we did see a lot of cats(and more to come)

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12 hours ago, xelas said:

 

@JayRon, the first lesson my birding mentor told me was: "Eyes never lies!" . Your bird is a Spotted Eagle Owl, with bright yellow eyes. 

Verreaux`s Eagle Owl has much darker, almost black eyes. If you have done more photos of this particular bird, the Verreaux`s Eagle Owl prominent feature is the pinkish eyelids.

Thank you for the info, I will try to look at the eyes next time. And maybe you can help me later, I have one more owl picture ;) 

 

11 hours ago, optig said:

@JayRon Your photos are making me even more excited about my upcoming safari next year  when I'll be going to KTP from the 1st to the 14th of May, and then on to Mokala and Marrick for 8 days with @Sangeeta. 

I know you travel a lot, but KTP is so special compared to pretty much any other place.... Maybe you will write a trip report too :) 

 

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22 hours ago, mopsy said:

What great sightings you have had so far @JayRon

 

To sit at home base for an entire day just watching Lions is a day I'm sure your entire family will never forget.

 

Looking forward to following along with the rest of your trip

It was definitely one of my best experience of my (safari) life.. :) 

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3.1 2019 Afternoon gamedrive

 

We used the siesta in the middle of the day to visit Namibia.  Turn out to be a hot and rather fruitless idea. It was in the middle of the day and again the temperature was above 40 degrees. You are allowed to walk across the border to the shop. But they moved the shop to the lodge, so I guess we probably walked around 1,5 km to the "new" shop. When we finally arrived at the shop it was empty. It took a while before the shopkeeper arrived, but they had no meat and little else. The boys did get to pet a puppet, so they were happy. And we bought some cold soft drinks. But we found the shop at Mata Mata better stocked. But they did say, that the would have meat in a couple of days, so I guess we were just unlucky.

 

 

Down the dusty road

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After relaxing a little at the pool we went on a afternoon gamedrive. Normally we would start around 15.00. And it was actually nice to get in the car and feel some wind in the hair. We did use the aircon a few times, but I don´t react very good to it. I often get a cold and sometimes even get sick with sore throat, so I am not a big fan of aircon.


From KTP we again went down south. Saw the usually suspects like oryx, springboks and wilderbeest along the way. At the 14th Borehole we saw 4 lions resting in the shade. Three of them were in the distance, but the last one, whre just next to the road. We of course did take a lot of photos. 


 

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On the way back we spotted (yeah you guessed right) one more cheetah. Which actually turned out to be two. It was near Craig Lockhart, so we suspected these two would be the other part of the coalition of 4 males. 

 

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A footnote: On this trip we already did see cheetahs 2 times. And with this day, we had 3 more sightings, which would total 5 in Kgalagadi (6 in total on this trip, since we also had 1 sighting in Kruger) . 
This day with 3 sightings of cheetahs would actually top all of my other safaris.
In comparison :
My/our count for the previous safaris was Botswana (4 week, Moremi,:CKGR, Khwai, Chobe 2016) 0 sightings
 South Africa (4 weeks Kgalagadi+Kruger 2014) 3 sightings
Namibia+Botswana ( 5 weeks,Etsoha, Chobe, Moremi 2011) 1 sighting.
Zimbabwe+Southa Africa ( 3 weeks,Kruger+Hwange 2007) 1 sighting
Tanzania+ Kenya ( 3 weeks Serengeti- Ngorongoro-Tsavo) 2 sightings.

 

And then you can just enjoy the sunset after 2 great days...DSCN3042.JPG.cb1aa61e86c3384e229b0a8da70de6d4.JPG

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More of beautiful cat sightings! Kgalagadi is the place to go for cats.

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4.1 2019 Morning Gamedrive

After having such 2 great days we kind of relaxed, we seen so much more than we expected. It was the last day at KTC, so we slept a little longer than usual. We were ready to check out at around 8.00. When we were about to leave, we meet the local ranger, had a nice conversation with him about the park  and suddenly he said" oh, there is leopard at the waterhole". It would be the first leopard in Kgalagadi !! The excitement fell a little bit, when we, with use of binocular, discovered it was a cheetah.  It must be the first time in my life, that I felt slightly disappointed over a cheetah sighting.
 The disappointment only lasted for a few seconds, so we headed back to our cabin and watched the cheetah for 10-15 minutes. The cheetah started walking closer to our cabin, before it disappeared in the distance. In the process it spooked 2 wildebeest. 

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The wildebeest didn´t take any chancesDSCN3056.JPG.5e8a98a94ce4cfa56684998476d523e9.JPG

We would stay in the area, with only one night a Mata Mata Restcamp. We never camped in this restcamp, so I thought, we might as well check it out. So again we would do a gamedrive down south of the Aoub, where we would check the "usually" waterholes. We didn`t have to drive long, only to Dalkeith ,before we again saw.... Yep, you guessed it right... 2 cheetahs...They didn´t do much, but this was our 5th cheetah sighting in less than 2 days. Felt pretty good ..

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At this time my youngest son, noticed in his notes (he counted all the predators and sightings of them, I will give all the statistic in the end :)  ), that we started with 0 sightings the first day, but after that the sightings had just gone up each day. So it was like 0,1,2,3,4 each day.(we like numbers in my family). We joked that to follow this  pattern we needed 5 sightings this day. And we had already bagged two, so why not??B)

The rest a of the drive was quiet, so we decided driving to Mata Mata and find a good place to camp.
 

Anyone how camped in a South African National Park, know that the best and most popular place in along the fence. All spots were already taken, so we just found a good spot with some shade and pretty close to the hide. We also checked out the pool, which was okay, but nothing special. To save water and keep it clean I think that they use a lot of chlorine. It is not like the water in any of the pools are clear, it is actually almost white. On the positive note, we didn´t get sick and it was still very nice to have a dip in the middle of the day.

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You can just see the hide in the background.IMG_2219.JPG.31063609ef2ac77b1294ed79d9b15d6d.JPG 

 

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"How Kgalagadi can sustain such a big pride is a mystery to me."     Good question, though those herds of Springbok could fill many Simba stomachs.  Great luck with so many cheetah!  The sunset shot of you and your son in the "cabin" is very lovely.  It looked like you were on the ground with the big male lion!

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On 11/18/2019 at 4:33 AM, Atravelynn said:

"How Kgalagadi can sustain such a big pride is a mystery to me."     Good question, though those herds of Springbok could fill many Simba stomachs.  Great luck with so many cheetah!  The sunset shot of you and your son in the "cabin" is very lovely.  It looked like you were on the ground with the big male lion!

@Atravelynn Thank you for your feedback. And thank for your comment about the sunset shot;). I might look young, but the people on the photo is my sons. But in for defense, my oldest is taller than me (but a lot more skinny<_<)

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