a slow start,cats in abundance and a terrific farewell gift*

[Tina]

It seems that I am the only one who has not posted the September/October report here yet

Therefore I better get started now before something else gets in the way.

[Tina]

Our second trip to KTP turned out to be slightly different from the first one in 2012 as we did not see as many small animals

- We saw no bat-eared foxes
- Charlie Fax was the only cape fox clearly spotted
- We saw less yellow mongooses
- We did not have a good meerkat sighting
- we did not see any black-shouldered kites

but we saw more cats...

We expected it to be cold but it turned out to be very hot during the day most oft he time

[Tina]

25.09.-26.09.2013

We left home at about 11:15 am as our flight was scheduled for 3:25 pm. Close to the airport I saw a grey heron which I took as a good omen as seeing a „south african“ bird still being at home could only mean we will have great sightings.

We arrived in Jo’burg at 10:30 am. Immigration went smoothly and at 11:30 am we entered the car rental office. As the international air fares have gone up quite a bit we decided not to fly to Upington but drive there and save some money this way.

The clerk was new and had never dealt with international customers before. Thus it took her a little bit longer to do the paperwork. When it was finally done, the manager noticed that the key for the cab of our car was missing. He told us it would take about 10 minutes to get another car to the airport. As we still had to buy a new phone card this was no problem. We went back to the airport and returned about 30 minutes later. Unfortunately the clerk only then started to do the paperwork a second time. Thus it was already 2 pm when we left the airport.

Our original plan was to drive to Kuruman or at least to Vryburg and stay there over night. As the landscape was very boring we realised that we were very tired. Amazingly we saw many birds on the way, but at 120 kmh I only could id northern black korhaan, blacksmith plover, swainson’s spurfowl and hadeda ibis.

At 5:30 pm we only had arrived at Delareyville. At the end of town there was a sign pointing out a lodge. We checked it out and decided to stay.
After dinner we went to bed early

[Tina]

27.09.2013

and were ready for breakfast at 7 am. We left the guest house at 8:15 am and continued to Vryburg. I asked the SO whether we had to fill up but he said the tank is still half full. Halfway between Vryburg and Kuruman the fuel light went on. Oh, oh, we were in the middle of nowhere. We stopped a car on a side road and were told that the next petrol station is in Kuruman. Thus we continued with 90 kmh to save petrol.

Our first stop in Kuruman was at the petrol station of course. Puh,what a relief that we made it.

After seeing a lot of mines before Olifantshoek the landscape got nicer now.

In Olifantshoek we found this interesting road sign



We arrived in Upington at 2:30 pm and checked into our guest house.

At 3:30 pm we went to the car rental office at the airport and tried to exchange our car. We had a Nissan which used a lot of unleaded petrol – as we found out the hard way. Furthermore, the 4th gear only worked when it was up to it, the 4wd was not working properly and the car had no power. It was no problem at all to exchange the car and we left quite happy with a Hilux which turned out to be much better.

The next stop was the new shopping mall. We were lucky and got two cooler boxes and a flask at special opening prices. Then we did the rest of our shopping at the Super Spar. But when we went to the meat section, we realised that they do not have a good selection there. As it was already 6:45 by now, we returned to the guest house and went for dinner at a restaurant.

[Tina]

28.09.2013

We went to Pick’n Pay after breakfast where we got our meat and left for KTP at 10:30 am.

Without seeing any animals along the road we arrived in TR at 1:30 pm.





We were allocated chalet no 22 quite close to the restaurant.

As we were hungry, we decided to try the take-away and ordered the vetkoek, which is really delicious and enough to share. While we were eating, we watched a white-backed mousebird



We went to the petrol station to deflate the tyres and then on an afternoon drive to Leeuwdril.

At Samevloeiing there were still the carcasses of the dead eland but no living animals.



We had a slow start with squirrels

[Tina]

and birds.

ostrich



white-backed vulture



scaly-feathered finch



white-browed sparrow- weaver



yellow canary



We saw the Verreaux’s eagle-owl (but not the chick)just outside of TR as well but she was always hiding behind some branches. So this is the best picture I managed to take



We had dinner at the restaurant. As it was quite chilly, we only stayed outside for a nightcap and a brief chat with our neighbours and then we went to bed.

[Tina]

Tina

Late great start

At which guesthouse did you stay in Upington? (I am asking because I tried several and did not like them very much and most are expensive

Lovely birdies, the canary is indeed very yellow

We stayed at Three Gables Guesthouse, Toko. A very nice place but not cheap as well.



I received an e-mail from the manager though that it will be under new management soon.

[Tina]

29.09.2013

The morning drive took us to Leeuwdril again – time for more birds

black-chested prinia



PCG



an ostrich couple



a tawny

[Tina]

At Leeuwdril we saw two black-headed herons



another ostrich arrived who scared away the doves



and had a drink



when he left the doves returned



and the sandgrouses arrived as well



all of them were carefully watched by a well-hidden lanner falcon looking for breakfast

[Tina]

Returning to TR we saw a kori bustard



and found this bokkie inside the camp



tbc with more mammals (finally)