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Published: August 6th 2009
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Rain and lions in the Kalahari
It rained in the desert! We had to crack open our raincoats for the first time in SA as we set up second camp - then there was a spectacular thunderstorm (which they said was unusual) that evening and rain over night. Couldn’t believe it - rain in the desert! It actually wasn’t much but was wet enough to need a coat for a bit.
And now it is spot the lion - that’s what it is all about - we have now joined the ‘great 4x4 lion-hunters’ brigade. One peers at the sightings board at each camp, chats to neighbouring campers in and out of the ablutions and kitchen blocks and pulls up beside any other vehicle and say “have you seen any?” You also get lined up at the camp gates prior to their opening at 7am, permit papers in hand, to be first out to catch the wandering lion as it returns from it nocturnal hunting. Well, we didn’t suss that early on and managed that only on our last two mornings when we had slept fully clothed because of the cold and had packed everything we could away the night before
and had a thermos ready for only a cup of tea before we left. Tough times!
We only managed to find two lions ourselves: one popped its head up over a sand dune mid afternoon and the other did come marching along the road towards us at about 9am (not 7!) only metres from one of the few picnic sites where there are toilets. The signs always say “alight from your car at your own risk” and Hugh had done so only 30 secs before so that was a bit unnerving. We did see an amazing sight early one morning in the pale pre-sunrise light just 1km from the park gates and barely 2 metres off the road. There were 3 lions (one male and two females) gnawing on a fresh carcass! Three large cubs were watching from a distance. The previous afternoon we had known they were sleeping there but as they were obscured by bushes we had determined that this time we would show extreme patience and wait until they arose from their afternoon sleep. Well we waited for 3 hours and had to give up and get in the gates by 6.30pm so that morning sight was
indeed a reward. We also joined a night drive one night and watched a lioness stalking (she missed) and another curled up by the road. Their size always impresses - they are huge animals.
Springboks replace the impala of the Kruger as the common small herding antelope and the gemsbok replaces the kudu as the large one. Both have dramatic markings and are easily seen grazing on the flat grassy valley floor - neither were very car-shy - they just stared and you could almost feel their puzzled gaze. Another very common herding animal is the wildebeest and there were plenty of these also. The three of these were often seen together especially at water holes but they all kept their distance from the ostriches that often seemed to be in the same places.
The bird life became more and more interesting viewing: in the mornings as it warmed up there were the big prey birds perched on many treetops watching for the ground squirrels, rats and mice to come out of their holes; several owl species took over at night but you could also find them in the day perched inside a tree; the big kori bustard stalked along
and occasionally ran for takeoff like a big lumbering jumbo jet; the secretary bird high-stepped through the grass; then in the camp grounds were the small crimson-breasted shrike and out in the veld millions of tiny sociable weaver birds and some plain black foktailed drongos (like the name??). The weaver birds build gigantic which can house several hundred birds - a great woven collection of twigs, stalks and grasses looking like a small haystack in a tree - or out of the park on a telegraph pole.
We also saw again bat-eared foxes, hyenas and black backed jackals - a few more than we saw in the Kruger. The foxes were a dag out there on the dried up flats scratching around and digging for insects I guess - very busy they were. One hyena seemed to make regular tracks around one camp’s perimeter fence each evening - mean and ugly they look as they stealth along just two metres away from your tent. At another there were warning signs not to leave any food out as jackals got into the grounds. At one spot only in the whole park are giraffes - they have been reintroduced here and apparently
there are two surviving herds- we did see a few beautifully posed or poised on the skyline in the distance.
All this (and the selection of photos) might seem as though these parks are teeming with animals and around every corner you see something. Not so - we sometimes drove for ½ day before seeing anything but that of course doesn’t mean they’re not there - I’m sure we didn’t know what we were looking for half the time. We became very practised at following other vehicles just out of dusts way and pausing everytime they did to peer with binoculars. We were extremely lucky to chance upon two cheetahs - there they were prowling around a car just up on a lookout point as we approached. Our arrival, careful as it was, did scare them off.
One of the key differences (other than no impala and kudu but springboks and gemsbok) between this park and the Kruger was the absence of elephants - and the damage they do. Some patches of the Kruger looked as though there had been a tornado or the earth had been scorched, so many trees were broken and busted. Here it was positively park
like: grasslands and scattered trees in between low vegetated sand dunes - some sections seemed like Queen Elizabeth Park at Paekakariki but going on from there to PN and further with red sand instead of black.
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