Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park General Information

[Mel]

Union's End still has that windmill and it doesn't help the waterhole either

Oh, and the riverfront units at Nossob are actually NOT finished... We were told that there was a mistake and the units had gone to availabilities prematurely.
On the other hand it was also said that they used one or two of those new units to accommodate people who had booked into the chalets because those were
renovated. Similar to the system they wanted to do in Kieliekrankie... which is still on only four units with Willem / Jacques already moved to the newly built
assistant's home. But the old one is still empty

[nan]

now the roads

I know the roads... not in school holidays, so often they were good for me, and we will not in a hurry, so will be not a problem... I hope
the road dune were very bad during the big rains I had, so no change since January... maybe no chance to drive on a Cobra
like usual nobody to grade the northern road
here we will a little bit in a hurry, coming from KTC to.... Grootkolk... but is doable, only one stop for the petrol (and shoping at Mata Mata the day before)

[nan]

and general informations

I will print it

will try to find the Owls at Rooikop
and banded Mongouse of course... a first in the park
so Corinne and Hanri has returned home

will try to find "my" huntress, Caster at Geinab or around she is far north
Lions at Grootkolk, hope we will have some

and lot of Bef
is there still holes of Squirrels at Union End... with Squirrels and maybe Suricates (it seems one of our members saw some there)

a big tank you Mel

[nan]

Union's End still has that windmill and it doesn't help the waterhole either

Oh, and the riverfront units at Nossob are actually NOT finished... We were told that there was a mistake and the units had gone to availabilities prematurely.
On the other hand it was also said that they used one or two of those new units to accommodate people who had booked into the chalets because those were
renovated. Similar to the system they wanted to do in Kieliekrankie... which is still on only four units with Willem / Jacques already moved to the newly built
assistant's home. But the old one is still empty

[Mel]

Yep, still squirrels at Union's End. But they were far off at all those times we were up there.

As for Caster... might be tricky. By the time you get there it is possible for the youngsters to have moved out from mum. So Caster might return to the Polentswa area.
And the youngster might stay up there, but they also might move south.

[nan]

will search

the first time I saw Caster, was also my first chase/kill, few years ago, she was in the Auob River, around Gemsbokplein/KK

[Mel]

That was when she was still young and had just split from her brothers (or maybe was still with them?).
Ever since she's become a mother she's stuck to the Nossob

[Lisbeth]

Wow! What a script Maybe it would have been better not to read it

I am not sure that It is a good idea to go to KTP You know how I hate things that do not work and the total lack of control of the various works

We must try to get the best out of it though

[Mel]

Info for the period between the 17th and 31st March 2018:

Houmoed waterhole officially closed for the time being. I don’t know for which reason.
Montrose waterhole - suspect is was dry on some days as I couldn’t observe any (bird) activity there.
Kamqua waterhole - suspect is was dry at least for the week we stayed on the Auob side.
Kannaguass waterhole is under construction. Apparently, they’ll move the waterhole a bit further to back and will allow visitors to drive around the big tree. Please, don’t ask why they would do such a thing as surely the proximity of the borehole can’t be the reason when the waterhole is moved only 20 or 30 metres.
Langklaas waterhole was once again dry because the rod of the pump at the windmill became unhooked. Although we reported it on day one of our stay on the Nossob side, nothing had happened by the time we switch over to the Auob after almost a week.

Geinab waterhole, however, seems to be fully operational again.
Lijersdraai waterhole is also completed, now situated 300 metres south of the picnic spot (excellent idea, considering that the area is home to a female leopard who reproduces frequently…)
Urikaruus waterhole, that is the old one at the Auob road, had water like a small lake. But that is probably mainly due to the rain the park has received.

We had a day of light rain on the 21st in the northern Nossob area that became very productive in the evening and throughout the night. At the same time it must have rained cats and dogs in the northern Auob area as people reported when they arrived in Grootkolk the next day.

Exactly a week later we experienced some medium rain while driving from Urikaruus via the southern dune road towards Twee Rivieren. The next day however, when we did the same tour again, the confluence of both rivers at Samevloeiing was under water. So they must have had some good rains after we had passed through. Same goes for the northern Auob as the loops of the 14th and Dalkeith as well as the according dune roads held huge water puddles. In the middle, like in Urikaruus and Kieliekrankie there was still some rain but by far not as productive as in the aforementioned areas.

Generally, the park was greenish and looked healthy, but not as lush and green as in March 2013 for example.

Animal wise it was a bit of a hit and miss for us. The critters were there but for some reason didn’t really hang out. Even sleeping lions would move off their snoozing spot in the heat of the day. Right time, right place it was once again.

We still had some really good sightings though, but when you look at it from a period of two weeks it was a rather quiet trip. Yet, it produced one of my bucket list sightings: a close up honey badger, and even a mum with a youngster. Definitely made our trip, especially since we saw her two days in a row - once with her kid and the next carrying a half eaten puffadder to her den.

The worst thing is that we missed Miera and her two cubs by minutes despite the fact that we travelled the area she is in at least twice a day for seven days in a row. I’m a little peeved about that.

Lots of pale chanting goshawks around, a reasonable number of tawnies, more than usual numbers of martials, rock kestrels and basically sightings of all the other raptors that you can expect at this time of the year. No heron chasing birds at any waterhole though and the numbers of bateleurs and vultures was also less than I’m used to.

The antelopes usually congregated in larger herds making the riverbeds otherwise looking rather empty over those long stretches that they didn't happen to feed.

Catwise there were lions between Dalkeith and Craig Lockhardt, on the 14th loop, at Urikaruus and north and south of it and around Montrose. Haven’t heard about any sighting of the Kij Kij bunch and even the Nossob pride seems to lay low at the moment. Kalahari Tented Camp has a pride of 11 though at the moment whereas the Grootkolk pride moved out of the camp a few weeks ago. We saw them at Geinab (minus the two big males though). At the end of the day that’s not a bad thing because leopard sightings have pick up again which is definitely something positive. We also saw one coming to drink at 7.30 am one morning of our stay. I think it was one of Rosa’s cubs.

As for the leopards we didn’t hear much other than Miera three times - always somewhere between Montrose and Gemsbokplein, a small leopard on the slip road of Urikaruus (again, not us but guests who checked in late for their stay at the camp - lucky cheaters!) and the leopard we saw ourselves at Grootkolk.

That’s all I can think of right now.

[Mel]

Construction wise:

The petrol pumps are working for the time being. Apparently the secret is to keep the tank level above a certain amount of litres to have the pumps working at all temperatures.

There is still work being done at old chalets in Nossob. The block 10 for example, was closed.

Urikaruus received new paint and at number one the managed to kill the squeak of the stairs. The rest is still there, albeit not as loud (yet),
The sliding door got some oil. Works magic for now.

At Grootkolk all units are finally equipped with electric fridges. In contrast to Uri, GK hasn't been closed yet for further work. I think that's due from mid/end April.