Wannabe Larnies in the KTP: December/Jan 2015*

[GavinW]

Thanks everyone.

After seeing the cheetah, we carried on with our journey to Urikaruus.


Before the dune road we came across a spotted eagle owl and some fluffy chicks hiding in a tree






And once on the dune road, an ostrich roadblock





As well as a steenbok getting minerals from the sand in the road.



We were greeted by Jacques when we arrived at Urikaruus who led us to unit number 3

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the camp watching the waterhole

The view from our balcony:



And the walkway behind the units:




That evening we left at about 5pm to go out for a short evening drive up to Craig Lockhart and back. The drive was pretty quiet, but we did get to see this African Hoepoe



And back at camp next to the waterhole these black backed jackals were quenching their thirst.



Once we got back to camp we enjoyed the fact that we were in one of our most favourite places in the world and just chilled.

[GavinW]

Day 4: December 29 Birthday treats


One thing Debbie has been dying to do for a long time is to treat me to a night/day at Urikaruus for my birthday. Well today was the day, and I was so excited.


It didn’t matter what we saw, just being in one of my most favourite places ever was enough.

We woke early, and after the happy birthday kiss and the ”No, there is no present, this IS your birthday present!!" from my SO we set off at 5.30am to see what the day would bring. :)

We had decided previously that we would head down to TR for our morning drive, for two reasons

Firstly we had a birthday brunch organised at Auchterlonie with some Cape Town friends, which I was looking forward to, and secondly it also meant that I could contact my children so that they could wish me happy birthday. (And we needed petrol!)

Soon after leaving Urikaruus, and heading down towards Kamqua, we came upon these two spotted hyenas on a mission. They were headed back home to their den in a hurry.








Bonus, at least now maybe we would be able to locate the den which had eluded us since March.
We followed them down the riverbed as far as the intersection with the Upper Dune Road, which they crossed over and proceeded up and over the dunes.



Carrying on past Kamqua some giraffe were up on the dunes grazing, and looking splendid in the early morning light.








OK so who’s birthday was it? Hyeana and giraffe , Debbie’s best animals

[GavinW]

Thanks everyone for all the (belated) birthday wishes

We carried on our way down towards Auchterlonie and saw very little bar this spiders web



A drongo



And a whistling rat on the side of the road.



We then met up with Bush Baptist and his family who told us of three cheetah under a tree at Kamfersboom, so guess where we were off to...


We located the cats, passed out under a tree as promised. It appeared as if we had missed any action from them as they seemed pretty settled.



While we were at the sighting, Michele and Doug arrived, and we all decided to meet up at Auchterlonie for my birthday brunch, so we retraced our steps.

The brunch itself didn’t happen, it was too early, so we had coffee and rusks instead, and Doug had a look at the battery system for my fridge which was playing up.

[GavinW]

After Auchterlonie we carried on down south the Twee Rivieren.


Just before Monro Debs said “Stop why is that rock moving in the riverbed!!!?”


We looked and looked and eventually we made out what was going on.

A honey badger was trying to get into the shell of a tortoise for an early morning snack. The shell appeared initially to us to be a rock, being moved by the partially obscured honey badger.

(The pics are cropped and really just proof pics.)





The honey badger would roll around with the tortoise trying to gain access to the meat from the underside of the tortoise, and every now and then, would decide that things were too hot in the middle of the riverbed in the sun, and dash for the cover of a nearby bush.





A quick sand shower later, and he would be back at work with the tortoise.



After a while the honey badger succeeded in it’s quest and was rewarded with a well deserved meal.

We eventually left the badger and carried on down to Twee Rivieren. My birthday present delivered

[Mel]

We located the cats, passed out under a tree as promised. It appeared as if we had missed any action from them as they seemed pretty settled.

Stupid cats! They should know by now that it's much easier to ID them when we get legs.

Will try to see who they are, but I got a suspicion here.

[GavinW]

The rest of the trip down to Twee Rivieren was quiet, and once we had completed all the admin things we needed done in TR, we set off back home to Urikaruus.


We were told the there were some cheetah at Samevloeiing, which we located lying flat under a tree, too far off the road to get pictures, and as they were not going anywhere and we were, we left them sleeping in the shade.


On the way back up, we spotted the honey badger sleeping under a tree just near the tortoise shell, but also too far away for a decent pic, and the cheetahs at Kamfersboom had not moved.




We got to near Bataluma when we spotted this very new born springbok in the shade with its mother. We missed the actual birth by about 15 minutes.





Before we got back to camp, at Rooibrak, a secretary bird was having a drink.



Our evening drive up north was highlighted by a cape fox and her pups next to the road at 13th borehole, (which quickly disappeared before we got any pictures of them) and this gymnogene at the entrance to the loop at 14th borehole.





Our last sighting of the drive was this pygmy falcon posing nicely



We finished off my birthday with a pleasant braai, and a few glasses of wine before turning in for the night.

[GavinW]

Cute new springbok

and lovely birdies in the water and of course the pygmy Did you have rain? (you might even have told about it and I have forgotten )

We had rain on our very first night at TR but no a drop after that. there were quite big wash aways up near KTC due to the storm they had on 26.12.14

[Lisbeth]

[nan]

the Gymnogene is still here

Gavin

[GavinW]

Day 5: December 30th Another new (born) day


We woke up early as usual, but for some reason never really got going until 5.50am.

We were headed north to Mata Mata as we had some issues with our battery system which hopefully we could sort out by charging it with electricity and our bull bar on the bakkie, had come loose and needed to be fixed on again.
We decided on Mata Mata instead of going back to TR as we did that route yesterday and wanted the change, even though the infrastructure and hence assistance was that much less at MM, we decided to take the chance.


Our first sighting of the day was of this Crimson Breasted Shrike (Boubou) just out of camp.



We got to 13th borehole and straight away went to check if the Cape Foxes we saw the previous night were at their “den” again. They weren’t and even though we checked again on numerous occasions, they eluded us at that spot for the rest of our trip.
As a result of a really heavy rainstorm on the 26th December, over the area between Urikaruus and KTC, several puddles and wash aways were evident on the road. We had had a bit of rain in TR that night (Our first night in the park), but only enough to spoil my braai. Further north it had been a whole lot more severe.


So we turned around and drove down to the southern entrance of the 13th borehole loop and saw this chap drinking from one of the puddles in the road.






The jackal made a pretty picture in the morning light.


Next up we met Zazoo (which is what our grandson calls yellow billed hornbills) which are always nice to see.



On the Dalkieth loop we came across a herd of Wildebeest

Before we left for our holiday, we had been watching some live streaming safari drives on National Geographic, and they had experienced a live wildebeest birth. So we knew exactly what to look for......Feet sticking out of the back of a wildie cow.



Once again we were able to watch the birth from start to finish, which was amazing







The one thing that amazed us was besides some initial inquisitiveness by the other wildebeest in the herd, the baby is left pretty much to defend for itself right from birth, with the mother only taking minimal interest in her new born calf



Don’t you like the lilac breasted roller in this pic!