Camping with Petronella ; KTP May 2016

[GavinW]

Thanks for all the replies once again

Around midday, we went back to the campsite to check if it hadn’t been blown away.
Luckily all seemed secure, albeit layered in a thick layer of Kalahari dust

Once back at the lions, we were just in time to see the one of the brothers get up and venture down to the waterhole.





Not enjoying the wind at all



He drank, turned around and went back to his sibling





We couldn’t resist taking a photo of his paw print.

[Lisbeth]

With all that sand the strong wind must be a real nuisance

[Alf]

Loving those lion pictures

[Mel]

Lions and cheetahs Weren't you lucky!
(Minus the wind that is )

[GavinW]

Thanks once again for all your comments everyone. I am now back from my short trip to Namibia, so the bus can start rolling again


Beards in the breeze

A lone jackal came down to the waterhole whilst the second lion was drinking, which almost went unnoticed due to the presence of the king in the same vicinity, who kind of stole the show.



Having quenched his thirst, he set off back to his brother under an angry sky



Not before having a quick rest along the way, as lions do.




We watched the two brothers for quite some time, with their manes being blown to one side by the now horrendous wind.








This was the last photo we took of them before the storm set in with a vengeance and we felt the need to return to camp and batten down the hatches



Cheese and tomato on crackers in the tent replaced the braai that evening
Even Petronella was hiding from the wind

Certainly a different sunset from the previous evening, with the heavy rain clouds in the distance.



The storm broke that night with high winds and rain

[Lisbeth]

Great pics of the lions in the wind

[GavinW]

Friday 13 May: Normality returns

By the time we woke up at about 5.30, the wind had thankfully died down. We had endured a night of storms, with the wind at times forcing our little tent to be flattened right down onto us as we tried to sleep.

After checking on Petronella, we went about our morning chores and as soon as we were able we set off to the waterhole.

All was very quiet, so we decided to take a drive down to Bedinkt.

The previous nights wind had smoothed the road to such an extent, that it almost appeared as if it had been “sleeped” overnight.
However, the morning newspaper had very little news in it’s pages for us, with no tracks whatsoever. Mind you they too could well have been blown away as well.

We arrived at Kousant to find this delightful herd of Red Hartebeest at the waterhole.





It was to be a morning drive of the smaller critters of the KTP, including this striped mouse



You don’t often see a Kori bustard in flight, but we were fortunate enough to get this proof pic of one. They are so ungainly as they fly due to their weight



This PCG posed nicely in a tree for us



On the way back we encountered some gemsbok on the side of the road



We arrived back at the Polentswa waterhole to find about 6 lanner falcons having a bit of an argy bargy.
Here is a pic of two of them.

[Lisbeth]

The kori bustards must need quite a long runway to take off

[GavinW]

We find, and lose our camp side companion

Our friends Ron and Annette were due to meet us for coffee mid morning either at the Polentswa waterhole or at our camp, so after a while we went back to camp to wait for them and to get the place looking respectable


Well we waited and waited, and just as we were starting to get concerned, we spotted their brand new, demo model Isuzu bouncing along the jeep track to the camp.

We found out that the reason for their delay was

a) 4 lions on the road just north of Kwang
b) A cheetah kill, just the other side of Bedinkt. If only we had carried on for another few kilometres


That being said, and green faces all around in the Wright family, we were pleased to see Ron and Annette once again

We had a wonderful time catching up with our various sightings, the storm, and what had been going on back in “civilization” back in Nossob.

We were busy chatting away when we saw a vehicle approaching the campsite, and thought nothing of it. Until, they turned into our campsite, and stopped next to our long drop.

Nature obviously was calling..... Urgently

We sat there watching them (as one does), and then the man got out the car and went to inspect our long drop and shower.

Well Ok , but you could ask, we thought!!

Next thing he came out of the shower at top speed.

“Do you know that there is a puff adder in your shower? “, he shouted

OH SO THAT IS WHERE PETRONELLA IS!! was our response


You should have seen the look we got

Anyway, we eventually got chatting to the couple, who actually were quite pleasant, and really needed our loo, and got to take some more photos of Petronella (but not a shower that day.)





Once all the excitement was over, and due to the fact that FOMA had set in in a big way, we headed south, following the shiny Isuzu back towards Nossob.

At the sight of the cheetah kill all we could see were a few jackal munching on some left over’s under a tree, too far away for a picture

We got to the lions, we saw a few of them, but they were so obscured by the long grass and due to the lay of the land, we didn’t bother with a photo.

We bid Ron and Annette farewell and returned to Polentswa
On the way back Debbie spotted this Namaqua dove



And I took a picture of our home in Africa




We decided to chill in camp for the rest of the day





These skenks posed quite an interesting photo



And as normal, the African sunset was stunning, yet again





After the wind, I was super excited to be able to braai once again



Only problem, Petronella was no longer in the shower and wasn’t at home under the A frame

[nan]

and where was it
Under your feet.... like mine

and somebody says... nothing like sunset in Kruger