Kgalagadi: September 2009 (Part 6)

Today we would be leaving the Kalahari Tented Camp and move across the dunes to the Nossob riverbed on the border with Botswana. 

This is a view of the tents that I captured the previous morning:

And this Barn Owl was living on our roof under the awning...

We got up early and packed all the luggage and food so we can hit the road early and have good light for photography. The sunrise looked promising so right before we left I took the time to capture some landscape photos behind our tents.

So we hit the road. The usual suspects made their appearance...

Blue Wildebeest

Then we found them...our first Kalahari lions!! This was a mating couple, and for the moment they were out for the count - but we knew they would be up-and-at-it again soon. It was great to have them next to the road.

This look speaks volumes...

After a couple of bouts of copulation, they laid down again, and this time we knew we had to push on. It was still a long way to Nossob, and we would have to pitch camp again as we were camping old-school style in Nossob.

A Black-Shouldered Kite watched us amble by. These birds are quite populous in the Kgalagadi - in fact this place has a very healthy diversity of raptors and is a haven for bird photographers.

We saw a herd of Wildebeest approaching and I used the opportunity to capture the scale of the red dunes on the banks of the dry Auob river.

A flock of ostriches were enjoying the Kalahari dust...

Just before we came to the upper dune road we saw our first Red Hartebeest of the trip.

I was keeping an eye out for those cheetahs, but they were out of sight on this day.

Another raptor frequently seen is the Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk. This one took off nicely for my camera...

We arrived at Nossob without much further excitement, and pitched our camp. After some lunch, swimming and siesta (all the main camps have nice swimming pools which are necessary to visit in the heat of the day!) we set out for a short afternoon drive to a nearby waterhole. The only noteworthy sighting was this Black-backed Jackal who came to quench his thirst.

"Don't get your feet wet!"

We drove slowly back to camp...and had a surprise that night as we had to deal with many more of these jackals. They patrol the inside of the Nossob camp at night (I don't know where they get in - crawling under the fence or something) but it's been a nuisance every year. You often hear them rummaging through your trash or even your food if it's not properly stored. Quite the excitement as you chase them from your camp in the middle of the night in your PJ's.

I'll leave you here until I continue this trip report with the next morning's drive.

Morkel Erasmus