Extended KTP Trip oct 2013

[Toko]

Love him, too

He has a big fat spot half way up the leg, that should tell you something, Mel

[Mel]

He has the shortest tail I have ever seen in a cheetah. That should tell me something too.
If I had a reference, that is.

[Kesheshe]

[Flutterby]

The jackal and cheetah pics are amazing...well done!

[General Gump]

Kesheshe you have done a good job in encouraging us to yearn for the Kgalagadi !!

[Kesheshe]

Day 11 - 13th October - Continued

What a fantastic end to the day another one of those ktp treats that are sometimes very unexpected.

We arrived back at camp at 6.55pm handed in our permit and unpacked the few items out of the van. Dinner tonight will be butternut, onion and fillet steak with premade peppercorn sauce. After such a good day the red wine bottle was opened and good drinking was had.

While waiting for dinner I decided with SO’s help to TRY my luck at star photography no trails tonight just stars.

[Kesheshe]

Day 12 - 14th October

We got up at 5am just as the lights came on. We had a lot of packing to do as it was a moving day to Kieliekrankie. SO made coffee while I started throwing everything into the van. It is amazing after one week of the trip you would think I could find more space in the van as we depleted some of the food and drink products but unfortunately I am a man therefore it doesn’t seem to work like that. We eventually finished this process at 5.50am in time to get to the gate at 5.55am.

I do not know why people insist on parking in a queue at the gate (Kruger style) as there is no guarantee that permits will be issued in that order. I actually think it is quite rude. Fortunately this morning we didn’t have that problem as we all ended up rushing like mad things for cameras to get to the hide as a leopard was spotted 100m north on the road coming to the waterhole. By the time we reached the hide which took no more than 2 – 3 minutes the leopard had completely disappeared without explanation.

We then proceeded back to our cars and the plan was to travel south we ended up going north in the hope of finding the leopard. After 1 km and many people in cars searching for this leopard the leopard eluded us. We then turned around and went back to go south after opening shutting and opening shutting the gates we only managed to travel 200 meters and ran into a female lion. Which explains why the leopard bolted.

We then turned around and headed back again to the hide. When we got to the hide the female lion had only a few sips of water and then proceeded to go north so guess what we had to go and open shut north gate and travel up again to follow the lion who was now in the middle of the road with many cars following. After about 1 km she veered off into the bush ending the 30 minutes of chaos.

Once again we headed back to open shut north gate and then open shut south gate to eventually start our trip south to Kieliekrankie. We elected to drive around marie se draai which ended up being fairly quiet beside general game and the usual black back jackals. We suspected there was a honey badger across the river as there was 2 pcg’s siting low in the tree but way to far to confirm this. We then proceeded south and decided we would have breakfast at Kaspersdraai.

On arriving there breakfast was immediately put on hold as SO said to me look there is a leopard and then proceeded to say sorry there is 2. We sat with the mating couple drinking and mating for about 40 minutes and took in the region of 400 photos. We have seen a few leopards in our time and this is only the 2nd time we have seen mating leopards and both times it has been at KTP and even more surprisingly both around Nossob which is supposed to be a lion dominated area.

[nan]

magnificent Leopard.... in the Lion's kingdom

[Tina]

wonderful pictures

[Mel]

Leopard walking towards you - what a treat!