The Last Minute Crazy KTP Trip!
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 9:10 am
One day in August I was feeling very heart sore, so I went on to the Sanparks site and dreamily looked at Availability. I could not believe my eyes - there were 3 nights available at Grootkolk, 2 tents nogal too - for early October. Of course I took this as a sign, so I booked them. My sister and her SO were game, so the trip was on. The fact that there was virtually no other accommodation in the park for early October was just a minor issue. Well, I stalked ‘Availability’ for the next few weeks and just before we left our itinerary looked like this:
2nd - Twee Rivieren campsite
3rd - Nossob campsite
4th - 6th Grootkolk
7th - Mata Mata campsite
8th - TR chalet
We left Cape Town at 5.15am on the 1st. Had quite an eventful trip up with a very near write-off of vehicle and people(our guardian angel was working overtime), and lots of stop and gos. We met up with my sister in Upington and hit the road again to our ‘accommodation’ for the night. We arrived at our campsite(about 4kms outside the TR gate) just before 6pm, and decided that we could not waste an hour, so we entered the park and took a slow drive along the Nossob road.
It was great to be in the park, even if the light was bad. We enjoyed seeing a spotted eagle owl,a pygmy falcon and some springbok and gemsbok. As we neared the TR 10km sign we saw a small traffic jam. 4 lionesses were crouching in the bush and stalking a grazing gemsbok. Finally the gemsbok noticed that something was wrong, and as the one lioness charged, the gemsbok turned, kicked and was off to live another day. (Yes, I tried to take some pix, but all I got was blurrrs!) We were very happy, this was a good start to our trip. Our time was disappearing fast so we drove to the gate, and got to our campsite at Kalahari Lodge, where we spent a lovely evening soaking up the environment(red dunes, barking geckos, bliss!) and chatting around the fire.
2nd - Twee Rivieren campsite
3rd - Nossob campsite
4th - 6th Grootkolk
7th - Mata Mata campsite
8th - TR chalet
We left Cape Town at 5.15am on the 1st. Had quite an eventful trip up with a very near write-off of vehicle and people(our guardian angel was working overtime), and lots of stop and gos. We met up with my sister in Upington and hit the road again to our ‘accommodation’ for the night. We arrived at our campsite(about 4kms outside the TR gate) just before 6pm, and decided that we could not waste an hour, so we entered the park and took a slow drive along the Nossob road.
It was great to be in the park, even if the light was bad. We enjoyed seeing a spotted eagle owl,a pygmy falcon and some springbok and gemsbok. As we neared the TR 10km sign we saw a small traffic jam. 4 lionesses were crouching in the bush and stalking a grazing gemsbok. Finally the gemsbok noticed that something was wrong, and as the one lioness charged, the gemsbok turned, kicked and was off to live another day. (Yes, I tried to take some pix, but all I got was blurrrs!) We were very happy, this was a good start to our trip. Our time was disappearing fast so we drove to the gate, and got to our campsite at Kalahari Lodge, where we spent a lovely evening soaking up the environment(red dunes, barking geckos, bliss!) and chatting around the fire.
Wanda! 
