Wannabe Larnies in the KTP: December/Jan 2015*

[GavinW]

The leopard, nowhere to be seen, we carried on down to Samevloeiing, and then decided to head up towards Kij Kij , as it was still early, and hopefully the cheetahs e had seen the other day would still be out and about.

By the time we got to Kij Kij it was 9.15am and the day was beginning to heat up, so not too much was moving around.

A large herd of Wildebeest were at the waterhole drinking. We stopped to watch them for a bit and then noticed that one seemed to be in a bit of distress.

She was in the process of giving birth, and the sac was just emerging.



Soon that tell tale sign of a pair of hooves sticking out the rear end of the lady.



She carried on unperturbed until, when, slowly the head of the baby also appeared, she lay down on the ground.



The herd were slowly moving southwards away from the water hole and she too followed some distance behind.
She gave birth under a tree just at the intersection where the SA road from Twee Rivieren meets up with the Lower Dune road





Hello bright world!!!

Juk It's muddy down here!!



Hello mommy!!






First Steps (or not!!)



No pomp and ceremony for the little calf
Just get on with it and keep up!!




within 20minutes of being born, the baby wildebeest was on its feet and following it's mother to join the herd and meet all it's new friends.

What an experience

[GavinW]

Day 10: 4 January continued..

We chilled in camp for a while, before setting out on our evening drive, our last one from Kieliekrankie for this holiday.

First up, on the dune road between KK and the Auob, was this steenbokkie. I always love watching them, but they are so skittish, the sightings seldom last very long.



This korhaan was on the side of the road near Aucherlonie,



And at the Auchertlonie waterhole itself, this splendid secretary bird was showing off for us.







This is a view of the museum at Achterlonie taken from the riverbed.



We wanted to head down to Kamfersboom to see if the lion was still around.

He wasn’t.

But at Houmoed, we had one of our rarest sightings ever in the Kgalagadi....

 

[GavinW]

At Monro, we were greeted by these guys.




A family of seven warthogs.




We had only ever seen about two warthogs in the KTP in the past, and those were up near Grootkolk up in the north of the park on the Nossob River. These were at Monro down in the south and on the Aoub.



The family came down to wallow and to drink, which they did in their own noisy and special way
Mock confrontations were the call of the day, and a lot of running about










They eventually left up over the dune, and we had to get back to camp.




On the way home we were greeted by a stunning full moon rising over the dunes



and ended off a perfect day in stunning Killiekrankie.

[GavinW]

Day 11: 5 January We head for Nossob


We had mixed feelings when we woke up on Monday 5 Jan. We were off to Nossob, which we were really looking forward to, (and a part of our trip which was only added on at the last minute), but sub consciously, it also meant that we were starting the last part of our holiday.

Have said it before, but for some reason, when we are moving between camps, we tend to have quiet drives. Today was no exception, well that is if you only consider the bigger animals in the park.

We decided to go to Nossob via the Auob River and then over the Upper Dune road to Dikbaardskolk and up to Nossob.

We left as usual at 5.30 and when we got to the Auob, I made a call to go south to Kamfersboom first to see if anything was about.


All was quiet except for a far off brown hyena carrying a large bone in its mouth. It was walking on the top of the far dune and was silhouetted against the morning sky. Really beautiful, but too far away for any sort of picture given the poor light and the fact that it was moving pretty quickly


We turned around and headed north. We got to Gemsbokplein and noticed lion tracks on the road, but we were too late. They disappeared to the right and we couldn’t find the lion anywhere. We were later told by a couple also staying at KK the previous night that he had been on the road for quite a while before plopping down under a tree. I turned the wrong way.

As the sun slowly rose, the birds came out to sun themselves.

First these juvenile Gabar Goshawks




And then some bee-eaters





And once on the dune road this koraan.



And a family of ostriches at one of the waterholes along the way.



We had a fleeting glimpse of an African Wild Cat which was rather special, but frustrating at the same time, as it was rather fleeting.

The most memorable part of the trip over the dune road, were the flowers which had suddenly come up after the Boxing Day rains. They were stunning..












We eventually arrived at Nossob at about 12 noon

[GavinW]

As I said, we arrived at Nossob at about 12 noon, and tried to book in. I know we were a bit early, but no-one seemed to care. :x
The usually helpful Marius was quite abrupt with us which was a bit disturbing as up until now we had a good rapport with him. (Hopefully he was just having a bad day!!)

Even after repeated requests to start moving in before the cleaning staff were finished, were were told that they were busy elsewhere and that we had to wait.

We eventually had to wait in the car in the day visitors area until well after 2pm before I threw my toys and we were allowed to go to our "prison" for the next two nights (Chalet no 2). :

It was certainly not the best, and to make matters worse, our favourite campsite was free!!
Oh for our tent.

But no the Wannabe Larnies were chaletting so we had to grin and bear it.


That’s my rant over!!

While we were waiting, we did take the opportunity of visiting the hide. One of our favourite places


There was a lion far off sleeping under a tree on the far side of the riverbed, (more on him later!), whilst secretary birds and springbok came down to drink

[GavinW]

Thanks for the comments everyone, they are really appreciated

We are off to Elandsbaai for the Easter weekend, and won't have internet access again until Tuesday, so I will wish you all a blessed Easter, be safe and enjoy

Before I leave however, here is the post for the rest of our first day at Nossob :


We all watched as the lion had his fill, and after quite a while he got up and started moving off to the right.



We think he had a thorn in one of his front paws (or some slight injury at any rate) as he was limping quite badly



He moved off to the right along the campsite, but disappeared from view.
Wow. What a sighting!!!!!!

By now my fire had gone out, so I had to start the braai over again.
We had an enjoyable meal behind chalet no 2 – It certainly does not have the same view as Kieliekrankie or Urikaruus, but we were on a high after the lion sighting




After supper we returned to the hide at about the same time as the lights were to go off

We watched the comings and goings of jackal under a full moon





And then finally two brown hyenas paid the waterhole a visit.







Our last sightings of the day were those of a genet and a barn owl when we were on our way to bed, but we didn’t get any decent pics of them

What a day it had been

[GavinW]

Toko....... Well spotted
nan ............. Yes a bit south of Lamberts Bay, Nice crayfish though
Lisbeth and Pumbaa Thanks for your comments

[GavinW]

Day 12: 6 January Nossob

With WillieW not being at Nossob at the same time as us, it was fairly easy for us to be parked first at the gate at about 5.20am the next morning

We had heard that the road up north was in bad condition, and that sightings up north had been sparse, and in contrast, a lion pride was hanging around Kaspersdraai, so our north/south decision was fairly simple.


Once all the speedsters had passed us, we trundled our way happily towards Maries and around the loop.

We were treated to a stunning Nossob sunrise along the way.



We got to Marie’s se Gat at about 6am, and all was quiet.

About 10 minutes later, the light was still pretty bad when we came upon the famous trio, which we had yet to see together in the Kgalagadi. Jackal, PCG and not one, but two honey badgers, in the riverbed.



As the light was pretty bad, the quality, the pictures we got of the sighting are really only proof pics for the trip report, but it was an exciting sighting none the less.
In hindsight, I realised that a video would have worked better in that situation.








They crossed the road and went up into the long grass to the right and out of sight,




and we carried on towards Kaspersdraai.

[GavinW]

We head to Kaspersdraai..........

We were about 500m before the Kaspersdraai waterhole when we saw a couple of cars on the side of the road.

The reason was these three tiny lion cubs huddled together on the side of the road. Mommy was nowhere to be seen.



At first we thought that they were really cute, but on closer examination, we realised that they were pretty emaciated and not happy at all.



We took loads of photos of the trio, but I don’t really want to post loads of them.

After a bit we carried on to the waterhole, where two really smelly lions were parking off.





We hoped that they, or at least one of them was the father of the cubs and that he would not kill them, even though we knew that he would not care for the cubs.



The lions moved off into the bush on the west, and we eventually moved on. We went a bit further south towards Cheleka, before turning back.

When we got back, the cubs had moved a bit, and we saw then that they were really thin.


There has been quite a bit of comment on social media about these cubs, but the truth is that they have passed on. This has resulted in people trying to blame the authorities for their deaths, but the truth is that this is the wild and that is nature.



I have been reading Dr Fritz Eloff’s book “Hunters of the Dunes” and in chapter 17: Life History, under the section on Mortality he writes:

For three years, I have followed the lives of 17 cubs in the Kalahari. Only one lived longer than 12 months. This is probably the highest mortality rate for lion cubs anywhere in Africa.
There are many reasons for this. One of the most relevant is starvation, mainly as a result of the shortage of game and the Kalahari lion’s dependence on small mammals as a source of food. Other important factors are neglect or abandonment of the cubs by the mother, disease, attacks by other predators, and the harsh desert environment.
Although parental care has reached a high level in lions, not all lionesses are good mothers. Game rangers in the Gemsbok Park told me about two cases where a female left her newborn cubs to go hunting, but when she rejoined the pride she never returned to the cubs. They died of hunger. While the reason for her neglect is not known, it is not far-fetched to imagine that a life in the pride is far more exciting, especially to young lionesses, than the hard work and routine associated with bringing up cubs.
Having said that, though, starvation of cubs is often not the mother’s fault. Sometimes she just doesn’t have enough milk, perhaps because of a shortage of food and water.
We also found that when females go out hunting, they often do not return before they have made a kill, and that can take days. In the meantime, the helpless cubs lay waiting for their mother to bring them food.

He then goes on to give specific examples.


We decided to head back to Nossob for a break.

[Flutterby]

So sad the cubs didn't make it. But lovely black-maned lions.