Not what we expected KTP Dec Jan 2017

[Mel]

My praise is that I nominated a few really unique photos from here

Particularly love the BEF captures and the sunset shots and sandstorm arriving

[GavinW]

My praise is that I nominated a few really unique photos from here

Particularly love the BEF captures and the sunset shots and sandstorm arriving

Thank you Mel

[pooky]

Catching up again

Great sightings, Nice handsome lions and a kill in the middle of the road.

All the giraffe

Beautiful sunset and sunrises. And thank goodness you were in accommodation for that sand storm.

[GavinW]

Last night’s road block revisited

Thanks once again for all your amazing comments

After passing the giraffe , it was not long until we spotted this tawny eagle perched in a tree. We waited for it to take off so that we could get a picture of it in flight, but it was going nowhere, so after a while we left to slumber on.



A little bit further on this lady was peeping around a bush



It was the same pretty girl we had seen the previous evening in the middle of the road





Her mate was passed out on the side of the road. Only they know what he had got up to during the night



With the male lion flat out, our attention turned to the lioness once again.



After a while there was some movement on the right as His Majesty decided to acknowledge our presence, and lifted his head



Here is a close up of his face showing his amazing eyes as well as all his battle scars on his nose



A herd of wildebeest were innocently making their way down the riverbed, and we got excited at the prospect of maybe seeing the couple help themselves to some breakfast.

The male lion noticed them first, and they certainly pricked his interest, but not enough to warrant the extra effort of trying to go and catch them



That’s her job after all



But the time she woke up to see what was going on it was veusie verby as they say, as the wildebeest picked up on the lions presence



And it was back to the job off looking pretty

[Lisbeth]

A very pretty lady

[Mel]

She is indeed and you captured her amber eyes very well in some of the photos

[GavinW]

Petrol, what’s that?

We decided to go up as far as the lion kill just before Thirteenth borehole in order to kill time before we could book in to Urikaruus.
We shouldn’t have bothered. The brothers were passed out under a tree on the far side of the riverbed.

We needed to fill up with petrol and purchase wood and ice for our stay at Urikaruus, and our plan was to go up to Mata Mata to do so. After driving the road as far as thirteenth we decided that Twee Rivieren was the better option as the Mata Mata road obviously was almost due for the next sleep, so we retraced our steps.

Just near Urikaruus these three cheetah were asleep under a tree. I'm not sure how we missed them going up, but we did.



We sat with them for a while before they got up and went up over the dune

Back at Kamqua our sightings were not over yet.
A large male lion was casually walking up the riverbed







We watched him as he walked past the picnic area heading up north, and once he had passed, we left him and his new found entourage of cars to carry on north. A bit like the Pied Piper, but with a difference

The rest of our trip down to Twee Rivieren was uneventful

At TR we stocked up with wood and ice and I managed to get 14 litres of petrol before the pump stopped working.
What we had been warned about had come to fruition

I still had half a tank of petrol , and with my reserve 40l I was not too perturbed so we set off for Urikaruus.

Just after leaving Twee Rivieren a car behind us was flashing their lights at us. Wondering as to how many leopards we had just driven past, I pulled over for them to catch up.
No leopard, just an open tail gate to our bakkie and we were reunited with one of our gas bottle which had taken the opportunity to go awol.

Thank you kind people

Further on we spotted these Spotted eagle owls hiding away



As well as another mother and baby Rooi Hartebeest



On the side of the road near Rooibrak, we spotted this martial eagle having breakfast





They are such impressive birds



Our last sighting of the morning was this journey of Giraffe near Kamqua





We arrived at Urikaruus at about 1.30 and happily settled into our favourite unit (number 1 ) after been greeted to the camp by Eric

[Lisbeth]

The giraffes seem to be growing in number, or am I wrong

Handsome lion

Beautiful martial eagle

[Philip1]

Thank you for sharing a magic adventure and pic's, GavinW.

[Mel]

Would you have a pic of the cheetahs standing, please?
Even when not totally crisp, they'll be easier to ID than lying