When the mice can’t play....... KTP June 2018

[GavinW]

I'm surprised the lions weren't chase out of the road by the grader Great sighting and great photos too!
It's been some time that we got to see lions so close up.

Love that pearlie from Nossob too

Oh, and what does FOMA stand for again? Something that you fear missing out something elsewhere, I seem to remember.
But not the exact letter

Fear of Missing Out

[GavinW]

Thanks everyone for all your comments





Flat and feeding lions in bad light
For the sake of completeness, I need to report that after spending a relaxing afternoon back in camp, we returned to the lions, and found them still on the kill.

The light was against us and they were not really active, but we did get a few shots of them before we returned to camp that evening on the kill










That evening back in camp it we experienced our first really cold evening of our trip

[Lisbeth]

A nice old fashioned braai

[ExFmem]

As per all your and Debbie's TTs - wonderful sightings and exquisite captures Really enjoy your enthusiasm and obvious love of "our" KTP.

[Dindingwe]

The Eland herd great sighting ! they are so graceful when they jump, despite their mass !
Brilliant Lions pictures

[GavinW]

Thanks for all the comments everyone, and sorry about the delay in posting. Work has been a bit hectic AND we are busy getting ready for a short trip to Mpumalanga tomorrow.

1 June 2018: The Kgalagadi gives us another present

With the calendar turning over into June, that meant that “gate opening” times were changed from 07h00 to 7.30am.
That meant that I could sleep in



However that is not as great as it seems, as FOMO soon took over.
We left camp at 7.30 sharp and set off to the lions down towards Kousant

We got there just in time to see them moving off into the bush, the gemsbok now just about non existent





We carried on down south, (avoiding the terrible road north) as far as Kwang

On the way down it was pretty chilled, with just the normal game about



We always tend to see Lilac breasted rollers around about Bedinkt, and today was now exception



After turning around at Kwang, be got just past Bedinkt when I saw some gemsbok looking very worried on the other side of the river bed

Then I saw the reason:

Safran

On a log, posing like the queen she is









The leopard, jumped off the log, turned around and disappeared behind our vehicle and into the bush. It was a really quick sighting, but we were over the moon at our second leopard of the trip.

Sightings for the rest of the day included

• A lark ?



• A really pretty bataleur





Some Kalahari reindeer




And some old toppie looking at a stunning Polentswa sunset







The lions roared that evening

[Lisbeth]

A beautiful leopard

I think that the bird is a Chat Flycatcher

You are right, the bateleur is very pretty

[Mel]

Safran is moving quite far south by now… From Lijers to Bedinkt is rather a long way…

[GavinW]

Thanks everyone for waiting for me to get back from our quick trip up to Kruger and Barberton over the last weekend.
Kruger was great and we saw loads, including the big 5


2 June 2018: we brave the road up north

We thought that the lions which we had heard the previous evening had been to the north, so once it was light, we set off in that direction, pausing at the waterhole before continuing.

The roads were disgusting



And as a result we focused mainly on avoiding the corrugations, and saw very little
Our first sighting of note that day was at Kannagauss, this large herd of eland on a mission, as usual



It was wonderful to see such nice large herds



We carried on up until the picnic spot just before Union’s End before turning around.

On the way up we saw a vulture tree



As well as this Rooi hartebeest



About 5km before Grootkolk, on our way back south, I spotted a cheetah in the riverbed, a bit too far away for our cameras.

We followed her as she walked parallel with the road, until eventually she came nearer and crossed the road in front of us.





She then continued on her way while we followed.





She eventually settled down under a tree and we decided to carry on after waiting for about 45 minutes for her to get up
The trip back, unlike the road, was quiet sightings wise, but we did get to see thus rooi hartebeest posing for us in golden sunlight( with a dove stuck on it' tail )



After a long day in the car, we got back to Polentswa and decided to stay in camp for the evening and eventually to admire another stunning Polentswa sunset

[Richprins]