Africa Wild

Day 11: A trip up north

We had been up to Grootkolk and to Unions End on previous trips, but besides the stunning scenery up north, we had never really had any amazing sightings up there.

Mind you now I say it, I remember on our very first trip to the KTP way back in 1990, we saw a lion bring a springbok carcass up to the road, wave it in our faces, and then proceed to hide it just behind a bush just next to the road for the rest of the day. We didn’t even have a camera or a set of binocs with us.
The debate between Debbie and myself is as to where we saw him. I know it was just north of Polentswa, but she insists it was near Kwang. (She is probably correct, but anyway!!)
Nevertheless, on recent trips we had had pretty quiet trips up north, so we really didn’t expect to see too much, but were hoping to see some of the hyenas from the Lijersdraai clan.

We woke up on Friday 11 May having had a glorious night’s sleep only interrupted by some nearby hyenas during the early hours, got ourselves all sorted and headed of north.

First stop was a very deserted Polentswa waterhole, Oh well the birds ARE still asleep!

We were busy admiring the sunrise when after about 6kms out of camp we came across this very dead bat eared fox stuck up in a tree!




The question is, Where was the leopard?

Well after waiting for a good half hour or so, all I can say is that, we still don’t know!!


Further on, between Lijersdraai and Kannagauss, we came upon this family of yellow mongooses.








We carried on only to spot these piggies on the way to market. Warthog are seldom seen in the Kgalagadi, but if they are seen, it is usually up north. This far away sighting was thus really special.(unlike in Addo where you see loads!)





Then just north of Gunong!!

Day 11 continued..Animal Aerobics!.

We followed her as she strolled down the road.



She was very alert and most certainly on the lookout for some breakfast.



After a while she decided that she had had enough excersise for the day and settled down under a tree on the side of the road. (As all good lions do!)



In my haste to post the pics of the lioness, I forgot totally to mention the wildebeest we had seen earlier that morning also doing his morning excersise.








As well as this stunning Rooi Hartebeest.

Spots!!!!!!


After leaving the lioness to contemplate her navel under the thorn tree, we carried on up towards Union’s End.

It was about 10 am when I spotted these guys in the riverbed.




Once spotted, they rewarded us with yet another an amazing Kgalagadi sighting.


Let the pictures do the talking , as they came up to the road, walked along it for a while, before moving up onto the dune on the west!






Pretty girl!!






They eventually disappeared over the dunes, and we carried on our merry way.

Yes, we were really blessed with this sighting

---See my avatar!

Where do you look???


We decided not to carry on to Union’s End as time was marching on, so we turned around and drove back to Polentswa.

It was a quiet drive, but after the morning’s sightings we were certainly not complaining.

We arrived at the waterhole at Polentswa to find that not only was the light putrid,
(we were looking straight into the sun from wherever we positioned ourselves), but that the waterhole was a pretty popular pub!!!

-O

Just about every raptor in the area had come for afternoon sundowners!!

Debbie just plutzed

”I don’t know what to photograph first!” she lamented.

I don’t know which photos to show first, but this is my best shot!!


To start off we saw this Harrier Hawk. (Gymnogene), which was a first for both of us!






With a white stork thrown into the mix!!






Not to be outdone, this Bateleur also was on display!











Whist it's child and the Gymnogene looked on!!





Loads more to follow

The Polentsswa Pub cont...


The white stork was still around, chatting to the Battie.





Whilst this BBJ arrived on the scene to cause some trouble




But not before the secretary birds had had their say..





And all a along the Tawney was observing all the Polentswa patrons!




A crow was also in the mix, but then we don’t do crow photos!!

Polentswa Paradise


We returned to camp at about 3pm, to have a break from the car and to stretch our legs a bit.

Debbie decided to settle down and download some pictures to the pc, whilst I thought it might be a good idea to sweep around our campsite, so that we could see who may have passed by during the night!





We decided to go back to the waterhole at about 4.30 with the idea of having some sundowners all on our own in the middle of paradise!

As we arrived at the waterhole, a couple of juvenile bateleur eagles decided it was time to leave,





But the gynmogene flew down from his perch in the nearby tree to get a drink.







He too soon flew off

The waterhole was quiet, so we took a few pics of the nearby scenery before we returned to camp.







We had neighbours this evening, they were far away in unit no 1,but this tiny familywere a whole lot closer!





We were able to enjoy a perfect evening back in camp.

Debbie was stretching her legs all right
What a cute family of mice

Day 12: A sunrise and thoughts about a grave

We slept soundly that night, and awoke to a new African sunrise!




I checked the spoor around our campsite, and found what I think were hyeana spoor on the road near the campsite. We didn’t see or hear them anyway.




Our plan was to head up north to Lijersdraai before returning to pack up the camp as quickly as possible. We would then head off to Nossob for two nights.


We had passed an unmarked grave as we entered and exited Polentswa over the last few days, and each time we went past the grave, I said to Debbie, “We must get a photo of the German’s grave”.
We stopped this time on our way out and took the photo.




According to the book called “Kalahari Gemsbok National Park” by Gus Mills and Clem Haagner, the grave was that of one Hans Schwabe, a diamond prospector who was passing through the Park on his way to Namibia (then South West Africa) in 1958. He enquired whether there were diamonds in the area and didn’t believe it when he was told that there weren’t any. Schwabe abandoned his car and went in search of diamonds on foot. He left a note in his car saying that there was no water for the car (which was untrue as the radiator was found to be full) and did some illegal prospecting along the way. Game rangers later found his unsteady tracks and saw vultures overhead. It wasn’t long before they came across what was left of his remains. As it was impossible to remove his body, they buried it where they found it and placed a little wooden cross on his grave.



Our last trip up north


We carried on with the plan to go up as far as the Lijersdraai loops before turning around to move on down south.
This pale Tawny eagle perched on a tree at the Polentswa waterhole.






The dead bat eared fox was still in the tree (Note to self: “ Good move in not waiting for the leopard!”)

Lijersdraai Latrine Lessons.


Carrying on up north we saw pretty little until just after Lijersdraai this guy popped out of the bushes on the side of the road. :



I don’t know who got the biggest fright, him or us!!



Once all parties had regained their respective composures, we turned around and followed him as he walked along the side of the road.








He eventually arrived back at the Lijersdraai picnic spot, and proceeded to inspect the facilities.



When I first brought Debbie to the Kalahari and we stopped at the various picnic spots, I always told her not to worry about predators at the picnic spots, as they had all gone to “Lion School” and had been instructed in no uncertain terms that the area on the other side of the white rocks around the picnic sites were out of bounds!.

This chap obviously was either from another planet or a delinquent of note!!





I am not too sure if they passed muster, as he turned his nose up and carried on. Talk about a “knyp” moment!!






Once he left the picnic site we followed him a bit further, until some other vehicles arrived when we decided to turn around and head off on our merry way.






The Lijersdaraai loop proved to be void of animals, with the hyena clan we had hoped to spot not playing the game that morning