Close shave with Kalahari lions
KGALAGADI Transfrontier Park, which incorporates parts of South Africa and Botswana, is one of our favourite game reserves. We hadn’t been for several years after two previous visits, and last month it again lived up to expectation.
They had a lot of rain in late summer, so grass covering both dunes and along the two rivers, Nossob in the east, the border between South Africa and Botswana, and Auob is in the west, was high. During a dry winter this is where most game gather and where “action” between predators and prey takes place.
This year, however, many animals and birds dispersed to puddles and pans in sand dunes, which saved them trekking to waterholes. It didn’t spoil the trip as there were still waterholes where birds and animals were attracted to.
It was Easter, and the park was full. We had to book our choice of camps a year ahead and first stop was Two Rivers camp on the Botswana side, which has four campsites, just two of which were occupied, while Twee Rivieren nearby was packed. We enjoyed the quiet solitude. However, there was a minus; the ablution block was badly neglected – birds had even made nests in broken gas water heaters, so you can imagine how long these had been out of action.
Never mind, you get used to this camp, not more than 10m from our vehicle, roaring and marking territory. Clearly they were after the lioness’ favours.
My brother-in-law, Pete, had descended from his roof tent to mark his own territory (!) when the lions arrived and he quickly shot back up the ladder when campers nearby shouted a warning.
Phew! It was close. We all had fantastic, elevated views of the lions passing by, but sadly had not taken cameras with us the night before, so no photos.
Another highlight around Rooiputs, about 30km north of Twee Rivieren, happened when we came across two carloads of visitors gazing into a camelthorn tree with several sociable weavers’ nests in it.
“What are you looking at?” we enquired. “There’s a barn owl’s nest,” one replied. Sure enough, in a large cavity in one of the nests stood mama owl and beside her three young owlets all gazing down at us. We made several returns to it over our time in the park.
Gharagab, a self-catering SanParks wilderness camp near Union’s End at the top of the park, was our third port of call – a seven-hour drive from Rooiputs during which we spotted a leopard crossing the road. We were able to get some great photos when we approached him sitting under a tree a few metres from the road.
Gharagab, only approachable in a low ratio 4-wheel drive vehicle, lived up to expectations and our two nights in a comfortable cabin with beds, lights, cooking facilities, fridge/freezer, hot water showers and flushing toilets was a lovely change. We sat out on the veranda and watched birds, steenbok and a mixed pride of lions with cubs drink at the nearby illuminated waterhole both nights there.
Nossob camp was our next stop, where we camped for three nights, driving back and forth along roads in the area, and came across cheetahs, a mother and three nearadult cubs that had brought down a springbok 50 metres from the road. They were fat and lethargic and left the remains of the carcass for vultures and jackals to finish off.
Our last stop after Nossob was a second luxury wilderness camp, Urikaruus, halfway between MataMata and Twee Rivieren. Nice and central, it gave us plenty of time to do drives or watch comings and goings at the waterhole where a family of Verreaux’s giant eagle owls visited each night.
Finally, we had to head home and left Urikaruus at 7am for the exit, only to spot a cheetah stalking a herd of wildebeest. Finally he charged and got close, but decided to back off and look for smaller prey. It was a great sighting to finish our stay.