Grootkolk and Kieliekrankie waterholes delivered big time and activity on the Auob side is best between Kamqua and Craig Lockhardt at the moment. Some sightings gave great photo opportunities, others we just enjoyed silently because it was either night time or our view was slightly obstructed as in case of a full cheetah hunt and kill that started off right next to our car and ended up behind it
Our night time sightings at Grootkolk were honey badger, caracal, wild cat twice, eland twice, several lion and spotted hyena appearances (not at the same time though
), brown hyena, barn owl almost every night, but only one time the whole family of five and spotted eagle owl on a couple of occasions were absolute highlights for us.We also got awoken by the jackal's howling and even heard the leopard coughing, but it had been too late because the darn jackal had only started when the leopard was already finished drinking
The lions were also rather vocal this time. They came like every other day or so in multiple constellations that I didn't really understand because there is definitely another big male around these days in addition to the old one that has a little cut in his other lip. Out of their five appearances it was only once that they came and went in silence.
Kieliekrankie was on its best behaviour. We've seen more specials there over our two day stay than we have on all other nights there combined. Amongst others - which I have photos of, so won't tell here quite yet - was yet another caracal
and also the resident wild cat and barn owls (again - not together but after one another 
)What I did badly at this time were the owls. Apart from those at the camps, I only found myself three spotted eagle owls this time round...
Also the fact that a lot of waterholes are out of work caused/causes some concern since it's still very dry in the park. On the Nossob side Union's End had water when we arrived but not anymore two days later. Kannaguass is demolished and the promised new waterhole has not appeared yet. Lijersdraai has been moved for quite some time now but is obviously not that well liked. Safran the leopard has moved south and the former resident spotted hyena clan went up north to the vicinity of Grootkolk. I put it down to the fact that the new waterhole lies very much in the open with not much shade around to rest or bushes to hide behind/underneath.
Further south from there is Langklaas that had just been re-opened again after years of being dry. Now the mill has fallen off, therefore once again no water there... Not far way is Kousant which was also dry. Kwang's water level was so low that you couldn't see any in there. Since we didn't see even birds there, we concluded that it's probably empty as well. Then next one towards Nossob is Cubitjie Quap with a very low waterlevel too. Going on towards Twee Rivieren there is Kamelsleep with no water and also Dikbaardskolk. Way too many!
On a positive note: The springbok have started lambing in a serious way. Every day we found plenty new lambs - particularly in the northern Nossob and mid to northern Auob. So there is hope for some rain to come soon.
The day after however, after having guarded the waterhole until after leopard'o'clock we decided to go on a short drive to see how Union's End was doing. For some reason we totally adore that waterhole even though it hasn't delivered anything but a jackal buzzard for us yet. Well, there was nothing again. Actually it was eerily quiet up there anyway but that might not be a surprise seeing that Grootkolk is the only waterhole working on a 50 kilometer stretch. Got a nice sighting of a martial to soothe me though.
