Paradise under stress: KTP October 2019

[GavinW]

Thanks everyone for your interest and input. It is really appreciated

Wednesday 2 October 2019

We woke up to the sound of roaring lions. Lions getting closer and closer.
By the time it was starting to get light, the lion sounded as if it was right behind the dune near the lodge, so we peeked out of our tent
At first we saw and heard nothing, then on the horizon, on the crest of the dune at the vacant campsite no 5, we saw the silhouette of a big male lion walking south towards no 4, giving the occasional roar as he went.
Sorry no photos, but we did get one of the sunrise.

We quickly got ourselves organised and once on the road, we initially went south in the hope of picking him up. No luck, so we turned around and set off to Kij Kij.
This tawny eagle was about all we saw on the trip up,

and at the Kij Kij waterhole we saw these eland, who after much deliberation, gained the courage to come and drink.

[GavinW]

After driving to Melkvlei and back, the eland had been replaced by these wildebeest at the waterhole

Getting back to Rooiputs we were amazed to see that the owls were still in their respective trees, and surprise surprise we bumped into our Australian friend Jenny, who was stalking caracal.


The resident owls again Because I can

We also found out that it was her birthday



That meant that when we got to Twee Rivieren later, while I was doing all the admin stuff like buying wood and ice, Debbie and Jenny got stuck into some Kalahari Truffels gin, which just happened to be in the back of our bakkie.


Our evening drive back up to Kij Kij was also pretty quiet, besides these springbok which we saw at the Kij Kij waterhole.

That night we were again early to bed...... So boring

[Alf]

Nothing beats the roar of a lion early morning

[Richprins]

How lovely to see a lion from the tent, Gavin!

What on earth is a Kalahari Truffels Gin?

[Mel]

What on earth is a Kalahari Truffels Gin?

And is it any good? We still have an unopened bottle sitting in our cabinet

Love that symmetric eland shot

[Klipspringer]

I love these owl sightings

[Lisbeth]

So do I

[GavinW]

Thanks everyone


Thursday 3 October 2019



After the relatively quiet day yesterday, we woke up early and hoping for some awesome sightings on our morning drive.
We left at 6am and set off, as usual towards Kij Kij.


10 minutes after leaving camp we came across a spotted hyena on the springbok carcass from the previous evening.
She was either pregnant or really well fed.

Two more came walking down the riverbed and also had some of the springbok for breakfast.

[GavinW]

The one hyena then decided to take a snack home with him, which provided us with this photo, which is now one of my preferred desktop backgrounds

Carrying on we got to Kij Kij and found these eland calves on their own. We wondered how long they would last with all the predators around at the moment

[GavinW]

After our usual trip up to Melkvlei and back, we eventually got back to Rooiputs to find Jenny still looking for a caracal.

This time we were in luck

Hiding in the waterhole the caracal was waiting for her breakfast to come to her.
(You need to enlarge the photo )

It didn’t, so after a while she went and looked for something to eat instead.

Crossing the road, she suddenly set off just like a cheetah in full flight

Her target, a ground squirrel