A Leopard’s Tail: KTP April/May 2023

[GavinW]

A Leopard’s Tail: KTP April/May 2023

After Debbie’s double knee replacement in December, I decided that the only way to get her up and running again,(excuse the pun!) was to give her something to aim for.

Something like two weeks camping in the Kgalagadi
It worked!


And soon we were making plans and adjusting last minute bookings to eventually get:

A booking in one of the safari tents at Kalahari Guesthouse on the way up
One night at Kieliekrankie
One night at Kalahari Tented Camp
Two nights at Mata Mata
Four nights at Nossob
Three nights at Two Rivers (Botswana)
And, finally a night in the Gorge Cottage at Augrabies.
All set to go....




The lead up to our departure was hectic. For those of you who don’t know, I am heavily involved with route measurement of running road races, and the week before included not only the Two Oceans Ultra marathon as well as the Spar Ladies race in Cape Town, both of which I was involved in

Never mind my day job

As a result come the day before our planned departure, yours truly was man down with a stomach bug of note

Come 26 April, 2am, after a night on the toilet, I am asked “Are we still going?”
Absolutely

Needless to say, we left and my stellar better half drove 90% of the way to our guesthouse north of Upington

Once we arrived at the guest house, Debbie had time to relax, and I went to bed, right next to a loo!!
While Debbie relaxed with her first glass of wine

[Lisbeth]

Not a nice way to start a holiday, but luckily that kind of "incident" when it's finished it's over, it only leaves you a bit drowsy for a day or two

[nan]

Debbie and Gavin
what a chance... a new Kgalagadi tale

ready

[Mel]

Sorry to hear about that bug But very brave that you didn't let it deter you.

Looking forward to see some photos of the KTP. Missing that place a lot

[GavinW]

Thanks everyone for jumping on board. Hope you enjoy the trip

Thursday 27 April 2023


Thanks to the amazing Pharmacist in Keimos, who prescribed some amazing tablets for me, the next morning I was better, but still not 100%
We left the guesthouse at around 7.30am and after closing the gate I took these sunrise shots

We were on our way, completing the final 200kms to the park.

We arrived at about 9 am and after doing all the admin things set off into the park

Our first night was to be at Kieliekrankie, so we had a fair bit of time before we could book in.
A trip up the Nossob River was what the doctor ordered.

The park was VERY dry. We had not seen it this dry for ages, and we wondered as to how this would affect our sightings. Time would tell

We had a very quiet drive up north.
The first sighting we had, besides those of springboks was of this tortoise valiantly trying to cross the road

[GavinW]

And then, just after Kij Kij we spotted this girl on the left hand side of the road.+

A bit too far away for our cameras but wow, a cheetah on a kill, on our first game drive of the holiday
She eventually settled down under a tree and we carried on




This Kori Bustard was strutting it’s stuff just before we got there

Which was at about 1pm

[GavinW]

Soon after we got there, Kieliekrankie gave us a surprise welcoming gift

[Lisbeth]

Not a bad first sighting

I wonder if the PCG has learned to beg for food...I don't think that raptors do that kind of thing though

[Mel]

The cheetah girl was more like a cheetah nan It's Hanri

It's been a while since we were in the KTP, but we had two subadult PCG around at that time who would happily perch on the balcony and do their stuff from there. So, I guess this is one of them in adult version.

[nan]

wow "my" beloved Hanri
a so beautiful view of the water hole... I miss all that so immensely