🙂 The whole family together in one of our favourite places in the world! 🙂
🙁 The whole family together 🙂 HOT!!!
Itinerary: KilieKrankie – GrootKolk – Bitterpan – Urikaruus
After an EXTREMELY early and exciting morning at Tswalu (2h30!) catching the wild dog as they started their hunt and then walking with cheetahs, we enjoyed our brunch and set off with a sad farewell to the magnificent staff there. It was a 4hour drive to Twee Rivieren Gate where we checked in with our two vehicles. Our first stop was Kiliekrankie which was about 1.5hrs drive from TR Gate. It was so great to have Trent with us and to be able to finally be able share this fantastic Park with him.
Our first sighting – the majestic symbol of this Park: Gemsbok
… and then a PCG on a kill – our first kill as we entered the Park! We watched the raptor catch and stamp on the snake before taking it into a tree.
Next up a gorgeous eagle owl.
…and then a secretary bird, also on the hunt…
Almost immediately we were rewarded by our next sighting on a kill – and our first ever cheetah sighting in KTP – although everyone had told us that they saw them around every corner! Hoorah! Mom and sub adult…we spent a good thirty minutes on our own with the two of them who were very relaxed….
Blissful…
We drove on to Kieliekrankie as we wanted to enjoy the sunset from our decks. This is a very special wilderness camp in KTP – only four units overlooking a water hole but you feel as though you are completely isolated from the world and at one with nature – so good for the soul. I will let the photo do the talking…
It was very special as the resident wildcat had little kittems who were very curious! 🙂
A brown hyene was the first to join us at the waterhole as we started to braai.
We enjoyed delicious steak on the braai while watching a lion drinking….
He roared all night and it felt like the walls around us were trembling! Then we heard Caitlyn screaming so Paul had to rush out of our fenced unit and into theirs with the lion outside! A bat had been trapped in their room as there were so many insects attracted to the light – Paul stunned it by hitting it with a frying pan and then used the oven glove to throw the furious and snarling handful of fur off the balcony! Yikes! Adventure! 🙂
Sunrise was beautiful and the wild cat family kept us entertained while we enjoyed our breakfast. We had to pack careful as the big lion was sleeping noy far from our units so we kept a careful eye on him! This camp never disappoints 🙂
We were sad to leave but excited for what the day would hold for us! We crossed the dune road and spotted gemsbok, ostriches, jackals and a steenbok.
The waterholes were a hive of activity with all the red billed kwela, namaqua doves quenching their thirst while a jackal waited patiently for an opportunity to grab one!
It was nice to see a kori busted and a red agama enjoying the sun.
Polentswa waterhole was the meeting place for the raptors!
We were delighted to see some lazy lions resting on the road! They had a zebra kill and were rather full! Trent got some nice closeup shots as the male walked past his vehicle.
Not a bad start to our day 🙂 We stopped to make a picnic lunch with lots of birds for company! 🙂
We arrived at Grookolk and checked in and were told that there were lions about 🙂
We spotted an unusual sighting … kudu coming down to the waterhole!
We put water out for the birds and they came flocking! and then we spotted the lion…
Trent had a breakdown that he was at the end unit but we reassured him that he would be fine – he just had to drive to and from us for our braai and breakfast. We sat and chilled and enjoyed watching the striped desert mice and sunset… what a piece of paradise… We enjoyed another delicious braai and had an early night falling asleep to the nearby sound of the lion roaring! The girls called us on the walkie talkies to say that the brown hyenas were passing by to have a drink – amazing!
It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed breakfast watching the lion stroll past us again.
We headed North towards Union End for the obligatory photos…
We had a good lion sighting just before Nossob….a honeymoon couple taking a break
We also enjoyed some time with this fellow devouring the remains of a mouse.
We love the way that the ground squirrrels use their tails as umbreallas! 🙂
Our destination was Bitterpan and we had to check in at Nossob for the 4×4 track which we had to traverse to get there. The gate was unlocked and we set off… BUT Paul just couldn’t manage to get over the dune…so Trent went, and did it in one go … it was at that pint that we realised that we were in a two wheel drive!!! NIGHTMARE. There was no turning back and we just had to get over these dunes … and we DID!
Caution language …
The rest of the dunes were fine but we were still concerned to get out on the other side the following day!
We arrived in one piece and were delighted to fin d that we had the camp to ourselves. It is incredible remote and absolutely stunning, The heat was intense – 43C! We put wet towels on ourselves to cool down, lit the braai and enjoyed the spectacular sunset and the sound of barking geckos – truly blissful…in heaven. The only down side was that the camp manager was extremely rude and un-engaging particularly given our 4×4 (or lack thereof situation). But we did not let that ruin a stunning evening…
We were up bright and early and decided to take the exit route rather than risk the 4×4 route – this brought us out at the dune road near Urikaruus. We decided to drive up to Mata Mata to see what we could find … rather successful!
We were able to check in at Urikaruus at 14h00 with a very friendly camp manager who told us that when we heard the jackals screaming, we knew that the leopard was at the water hole! The units are on stilts overlooking the waterhole. We sat and chilled and watched a sandstorm and then a brief downpour pass through…the colours were stunning.
Charlotte and I did a quick drive and found a lion and also some tortoises drinking fresh rain water.
It was time for another spectacular sunset and delicious braai.
As the sunset we had more visitors to the water hole.
THEN we heard the jackals and brown hyenas going crazy …was it a leopard?!!!!
OH YES! It was Hoorah! Just stunning. She drank for 10 minutes and then walked right under the stilts beneath us and disappeared into the night… Divine….
To say we were excited was an understatement! 🙂 The neighbours came out to join our enthused joy and invited us in for a whisky! We were having a great laugh (he had just retired as a pilot) thinking that we were the only 4 units but then there was a loud knock at the door – there was another unit which we had not seen- the Honeymoon Unit and we were making such a nose that we were disturbing them! Yikes – we were mortified and headed to bed! 🙂
We were up bright and early and had some lovely sightings from our deck.
We hit the road feeling very pleased with our stay at Urikaruus and were delighted to find a cheetah! We followed the cheetah for about an hour on the river bed …a wildebeest was oblivious with his head in the sand and we hoped that would be an opportunity but he was probably too big for one cheetah… the clock was ticking and we needed to get our flight from Upington to Durban for the next stage of our adventure in the Drakensberg … so we reluctantly left the cheetah to it (we did read on Facebook later that a springbok kill was made about 15mins later … ho hum…). The trip started with cheetah and ended with cheetah – Purrrfect! 🙂
THANK YOU KTP for another memorable and and amazing time in the splendid wilderness of the Kalahari.
