Paradise under stress: KTP October 2019

[GavinW]

Strange to imagine getting giraffes there

You talk about gate closing time but there’s no gate at rooiputs

Hence the inverted commas

[Lisbeth]

Wow! Wildcat, white-faced and barn owls. Sightings to my taste

[Richprins]

I didn't know springbok ate leaves?

Good variety and great owls, Gavin!

[GavinW]

Tuesday 1 October 2019

The “gate opening” times change from 6.30am to 6.00am on the 1st of October in the Kgalagadi, and we forgot to change our alarms to half an hour earlier, so we only managed to get out on the road just after 6am.
Our now resident lion was still on his eland kill at the waterhole as we left camp.


We turned right to set off to Kij Kij for our morning drive, and got about 400m up the road when we came upon a whole pack of jackals on a springbok carcass. We wondered as to how the bokkie had met it’s fate and wondered if the jackals were able to make the kill themselves.

The carcass was still pretty much intact.

[GavinW]

We carried on up towards Kij Kij, and about 3 kilometres before the waterhole some lions were on an eland kill.
This was becoming a pattern, as due to the drought, the eland, weakened from dehydration were proving to be easy takings for the local lion population.

There were initially two males and two females around the kill. The two males were both collared.

After a while the two females moved over into Botswana and settled down where after one of the males followed suit.
The lone male was left on the kill to keep those pesky jackals at bay.

That being the stale mate, we carried on to Kij Kij

[GavinW]

There we were blessed with a wonderful sighting of three eland at the water hole.
For such large animals they are really skittish.

[GavinW]

The trip up to and back from Melkvlei was uneventful, and on our way back to Rooiputs

The lion had moved the kill under a tree


We noticed this Spotted Eagle Owl in a bush next to the road

And in order to complete our owl trifecta for the morning, we saw that the Southern White Faced Owl

and the Barn Owl

Were obviously both creatures of habit and had not moved
We went back to camp for a relax.

[Alf]

What a wonderful morning drive

[Mel]

I obviously suck at finding owls We saw only one outside of a camp.

[Lisbeth]

Great eland family

and I still love the owls