KTP: From WTFlip to Awesome!!!!

[harrys]

14 November - Day 2: The Sand that broke our spirit

We went to the hide before we headed north and got these pics

Gnu playing

Playing makes you thirsty

Birdies at the hide

Then we headed north......

Just 2.5km's from Nossob heading north more thick sand ...I had all the knoppies switched of and got through, but Nico got stuck so I kept on going....luckely for them a tractor was fixing the road and he helped them get out after 20 mins, moral was low.....very low as we stopped very slow at a Goshawk and Ground squirrel altercation

I pulled away very carefully and Bookworm and I went to a little koppie and waited for the others, when they arrived later we had a meeting and decide that we will find out if there was a site available at Twee Rivieren as we where not looking forward worrying all the time while driving that we will get stuck again after all we where in KTP to enjoy the sightings and relax

Some pics we took on the koppie

View from the top

Scaly-feathered finch

These two reptiles

We headed back to camp to find out if we could move......

[PRWIN]

That first bend just past the Botswana turnoff can get quite thick , had a guy in a Ford Ranger get stuck there and a couple of other people as well, after that it gets all right, Mata Mata was even worse with a couple of area's where people where getting stuck, great shots again. It not that bad and we have never got stuck anywhere in KG and I am always in 2x4 even when towing, never in 4x4, tyre pressure is the key and time of day, when the sand gets hot it gets loose .That gage at TR is wrong and was nowhere near what mine said

[Richprins]

What sort of a place is this!

Will a golf be able to drive there?

[PRWIN]

I hope you stayed longer because after the tractor swept the road its much easier to negotiate the roads until 3 days later and its back to bad corrugation. Can add that even the tow-away trucks and tanker delivery fuels also hate that sandy spot just after Rooikop and before Nossob. My camping neighbour at Nossob (same spot where you camped) in 2015 had issues with his Toyota Troopy with the alarm going off when he stops and called out a tow-away service to take the vehicle to Upington. Just before the tow-away vehicle reached Nossob it got stuck in the same spot you struggled. At least the trip back to Upington went smooth and he returned the next day with his vehicle sorted out.

In July at a lion sighting a fuel tanker approached us and the lions had to leave the road in a haste as this guy did not want to stop. Must have had experience with getting stuck as well and now just hoot and keeps on driving.

Love all your sightings so far and hope the rest of the trip is just as interesting as during the first two days.

Regards from BJ (forgot my password again )

[Mel]

What sort of a place is this!

Will a golf be able to drive there?

There are quite a few sedans driving those roads, but I have no idea how they do it, as in how they manage to not get stuck.
Or maybe they do but I never get to see them?

Sorry to hear that you were distressed about the road conditions. Really hope that you manage to find a solution for yourselves
that you could live with and actually enjoyed. The Twee area can be quite grateful too, methinks. I just don't like that camp
(But then again... I'm not fond of Nossob either )

[Flutterby]

Oh dear harry! Hope these incidents didn't ruin your whole trip!

[harrys]

That first bend just past the Botswana turnoff can get quite thick , had a guy in a Ford Ranger get stuck there and a couple of other people as well, after that it gets all right, Mata Mata was even worse with a couple of area's where people where getting stuck, great shots again. It not that bad and we have never got stuck anywhere in KG and I am always in 2x4 even when towing, never in 4x4, tyre pressure is the key and time of day, when the sand gets hot it gets loose .That gage at TR is wrong and was nowhere near what mine said

We went to Mata Mata and had no problems, but by then I had my tyres on the correct presure of 160, as you said the TR gage was wrong and I only found that out at Nossob when I used my compressor to inflate the Tucson of Nico's tyres. I was sooo sorry I didn't buy the 4x4 Qashqia when I bought mine, it would have breezed through that sand

[harrys]

What sort of a place is this!

Will a golf be able to drive there?

A very nice place if you know what you're doing, we got a lesson in driving sommer quick quick.....self taught

It might, we saw a Tata car and a Datsun Go at Dikbaardskolk, they went to TR.....we passed them 12 km's from Dikbaards when the Tata got stuck in the sand on another uphill, I almost got stuck again but just floored it and got through, A PASSING 4X4 helped them

[harrys]

Oh dear harry! Hope these incidents didn't ruin your whole trip!

At first I got angry and despondent but got over it with all the great sightings we had....only 1 tricky(windy) bit ahead of us and then the trip got awesome

[harrys]

After we got back to Nossob we asked if we could move to TR and luckily for us there was still stand available so we changed our booking to TR

At the end it was actually a good thing we went to TR as Nico and Werner had to go back home on the 17th because Nico had the 94.7 cycle race on the Sunday, so not such a long journey for them

We stayed in camp and got some locals on camera

Kalahari scrub-robin

Ground squirrel

Fawn coloured lark.

Violet-eared waxbill & sociable weaver.

Yellow mongoose

At 18:15 we went on a sunset drive and got some lifers and good pics

Sunset

Bat eared fox(lifer)

African wildcat

We also saw lots off Owl, BBJ's, Vultures, Spring hares and some Springboks

Next our journey to TR....with some great sightings and the wind trying to blow us back home