Social distancing in the Kgalagadi Oct/Nov 2020

[GavinW]

Our last sunset of the trip was pretty spectacular

[Mel]

Oh, yes! That was a really niccce last sunset.

Can't believe "our" trip to the KTP will end so soon already. Just like in real life

[Richprins]

Nice, Gavin!

[Lisbeth]

Lions all over the place

[GavinW]

Sunday 15 November 2020

In the past we have always gone for a morning drive before leaving the park, and then travelling all the way home to Cape Town in one go.
This year we decided to break the trip and spend a night in Keimos instead, giving us more time in the park and time to pack up before leaving and also giving us a more relaxed last full day in the park.

We wanted to head up to Melkvlei again (as one does)
We left TR at 5.30 and bumbled our way along the road. As usual all the speedster whizzed past us.
Used to that happening, it didn’t really phase me.


One sighting that over all the years of us going to the Kgalagadi that has eluded us is to see an actual cheetah kill.
Today we missed one by about 2 minutes.


As we arrived at Samevloeiing a cheetah had just taken down a springbok and was standing over her kill

She then proceeded to take it away to the furthest possible tree away from where we could watch her
(Well not really, but that’s what it seemed like at the time!!)

We were excited to see the cheetah, but felt a bit green by just missing the actual kill.
All the more reason to return I suppose.

[GavinW]

After a while, she seemed settled, and wanting to see what else the morning had to offer, we carried on.


A PCG on a weavers nest

And two PCG’s in a small bush

The Barn Owl still in its nest from yesterday

[GavinW]

And a tortoise crossing the road was all we saw from Samelvloeiing to Kij Kij

Before Melkvlei we spotted this cute couple

It’s a great pic to see the difference between the male (on the left) and female (on the other side) Bateleur eagles

The male has a waistcoat, while she is wearing a mini dress.

We returned to Kij Kij and crossed over the dune road (again!) and saw nothing until we spotted this chap next to the road recovering from an exhausting night out near Houmoed.
Probably the same lion who was with Silver Eye yesterday

We needed to get back so off we went

[GavinW]

At Samevloeiing, the springbok carcass was there, but no cheetah.
Confused, we went back to camp and dismantled our camp site.

Four hours later we were in Keimos at Ikaya enjoying our last few hours of our holiday before returning to the world of COVID, masks and social distancing

Until 24 April 2021...................................



Thanks everyone for following and commenting on our travel tale.

[Lisbeth]

A nice relaxing GREEN place for a stopover

Thank you for the lovely story and great pics and see you soon

[Richprins]

That cheetah is strange in that it has virtually no tear markings below the eyes, Gavin!

You have some hefty steaks on the braai there!

Lovely sightings on this trip, and thank you so much. Next trip around the corner!