🙂 Remote, Spectacular – this is the Kalahari at it sbest!
🙁 HOT!! VILE xenophobic (non binary, non denominational) individual (can’t say gender or language as 3 keyboard warriors on FB took great offence!) in Nossob shop.
We had hired our 4×4 from Bushlore and had collected upon landing in Upington.we took a sneaky trip to Augrabies Falls before meeting the rest of the gang that evening at the Meerkat Sanctuary the previous evening.
Saturday 17 December 2022 – Polentswa 36C
We had been filled with excitement for this trip – watching endless You Tube Clips in anticipation of unfenced campsites with lions roaming freely!
After leaving Kalahari Trails we headed excitedly towards Twee Rivieren Gate to check in to Kglalagadi. This is the first time we checked in at the Botswana border as all our bookings were in Polentswa Camp and Mbua…friendly and efficient.
We headed over to the shop and purchased a few more items including a nice gillet with Kgalagadi logo on it. We decided to head on the Mata Mata road as we would be spending most of our time on the Botswana side over the next week. The drive was surprisingly quiet with a few springbok, giraffe and ostriches as only sightings.
We stopped at Auchterlonie to cook a delicious brunch.
We crossed over the dune road from Kamqua to Dikbaardskolk – it was ferociously hot and no game to be spotted! We continued on to Nossob where we stopped at the shop and bought some cool drinks. Just before Polentswa we spotted 4 cheetahs on the move… ( I will upload photos from Canon as they were in the distance and could not them capture on my iPhone)…we stayed with them for a few minutes but then they disappeared into the dunes – Phew – at least a cat sighting!
Next stop was Polentswa No. 1 – our camp site for the next two nights – a nice A Frame and a spacious camp with a latrine and a shower enclosure … this location is just spectacular … the photos give you an inkling just how wonderful it is…
We took a drive to the waterhole – but all was quiet here too! Just a few doves coming and going. When we got back the sunset was incredible!
James cooked a feast! DIVINE! Steak, mash and salad washed down with Kanonkop Kadette… Caits and Miriam washed up. We found a massive scorpion!
Sunday, 18 December 2022 Polentswa 40C
We were up at 05h45. James and Sascha made coffees with a shot of Cape Velvet and were were on our way.
We were astonished to see the waterhole was again very quiet … whenever we have been at this hole we have had incredible lion sightings, male lion roaring, incredible bird sightings …. but it was still stunning. We continued down the road as the plan was to go to Union’s End…and then we spotted very fresh leopard tracks – a Mom and cub! We were so excited and tracked them for ages and could see where they disappeared into the bush …. we headed back to the waterhole where a car had been parked since sunrise – he had not has much luck either, although he had spotted a big black maned lion at the water hold in the morning …. fingers crossed! We continued onwards to Unions End where we we took some cool photos!
We made brunch at the nearby picnic site.
I had been quite sad as I had lost my phone and had not been able to find it before we set off to Union End… Fortunately when we got back Paul spotted a bit of plastic in the distance and went to retrieve it and my phone was lying right there – face up to the sun!! We put it in the fridge and it made a full recovery – phew! Caitlyn and I took a drive to the waterhole – a few zebras but not much more…
That evening we cooked another feast and sat around the camp fire and chatted until we called it a night to get to bed early – what a piece of paradise!
Monday, 19 December 2022 – 42C Polentswa to Mantoni Campsite Mbua
Up at 05h45 – cup of coffee with Cape Velvet … Bye Bye beautiful Polentswa – we will be back!! We headed to the waterhole…quiet again! BUT we spotted fresh large lion tracks Woo!Hoo! We soon tracked down the bad boy who was resting in the tall grass…we stayed with him for 20mins hoping that he would move but instead he lay flat so that we was no longer visible from the road – but we still saw him!!
We headed to Nossob as we needed to replenish our supplies before we headed to Mabua … the next thing a cheetah crossed in front of us! Unfortunately it was crossing the road to the dunes on the other side and we soon lost sight of him …not a bad morning! 🙂
A horrible incident at Nossob – I don’t wish to re-write this horrible episode so have simply copied and pasted my post from Facebook where a further 3 Keyboard Warriors attacked me for implying Afrikaans people were unpleasant … hello —- I AM Afrikaans — that was my WHOLE point —- and I was the actual victim!! AAARGH. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t…Social Media … lol. Never the less the most unpleasant non binary, non denominational individual our family have ever had the misfortune to come across! Here is a summary:
Another fantastic trip to KTP … happy, friendly staff and looks like lots of improvements being made across the park. Only unpleasant encounter was a South African woman who is a disgrace to our beautiful country and a situation which must be shared in the hope that it is not repeated (or if experienced must be reported) … we stopped at Nossob shop after our stay in Kgalagadi to stock up on water and provisions for the next leg of our trip in Mabua where you have to be self sufficient … a woman and her teenage son came into the shop as we were getting ready to pay and so we offered for her and her son to go in front of us as we had many more items but she said no, she she was still looking … the lovely shop lady then proceeded to go ahead and ring up our goods… another couple then came in and waited behind us … she aggressively told them that she was first and had been waiting a very long time for us and that we were busy emptying the shop (we did buy lots of waters but the rest was three bags of ice, 6 appletizers, some meat, some small Christmas gifts and some beer and wine – really not a big deal) … I politely said to the other couple that we had offered for her to go first and that she had declined our offer to go ahead of us. I said we were heading to Mabua and needed the water to which she responded to say that I couldn’t even pronounce the name Mabua and that we should F*Off back to our own country!!! My husband is English and two of our three children were born in the UK where we live but all have been going to the bush since they were born, and visit SA every year …. so she thought we were all British…. I then switched to Afrikaans (which she had been speaking) and told her I was actually already in my own country and that like her I had also grown up in an Afrikaans home – the only difference between us being that I was actually taught manners and respect … We were so shocked at her voicing her xenophobic and prejudiced views so openly and in front of her teenage son! I was trembling with fury… we then went outside to put in our permitted 20l of tap water into our cars and she was just sitting with her son and a man outside their tent for the whole 20mins it took us to get a hose and fill up …. so they had not even been in a rush?! – what an appalling example to set to any foreign visitors…who also pay much higher rates and whose support of our Parks makes a huge difference to their ongoing success. I know how lovely South African people are (given that my own family are Afrikaans!) but imagine what you would think of South Africans if that is the way they spoke to you and you were an International visitor! On our return from Mabua we stopped at Nossob shop again and the lovely shop lady said how shocked she was at how disrespectful and rude the woman had been. Jaco, the camp manager said I should have reported her then and there and she would have been fined and given an official warning … let’s hope there is not a next time … he did take note of the day and time and that she was in camp site 1 on Monday morning 19 Dec to see if he could track her details …. apart from that the sunrises, sunsets, wildlife and flora were spectacular – thank you Kgalagadi! We left with a bad taste in our mouths. The kids said that they had never encountered such unnecessary rudeness… however, they do walk amongst us…
Next stop was the highly anticipated Botswana side Mabua!!! SO EXCITED!
Go to: Botswana
