A later breakfast this morning interrupted by the sighting of three Spotted Hyaena down at the waterhole in the salt pan. I am talking to Richard and Toby outside the office when we hear more Hyaena close to the camp – as we head off to see where they are, they race towards us right up by the chalets, then down towards the pan where they have a right set to, leaving one with a bleeding ear.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Excitement over, we pack up and head back over the dunes for the final time to pick up our minibus and drive back to the gates and our second stay at the Kgalagadi lodge. Our current species count is 48 mammals, and our trip back, while encompassing Lions, Wildcat and Jackal alongside assorted prey species, does not yield any new ones. (Although we do have some nice Secretary Birds as a new bird species). Our last chance is tonight’s night drive, from the main gate, where Toby says we have a reasonably good chance of Genet and Brown Hyaena.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

There are four other people (who are staying in the National Park) on the drive. As we set off we see the familiar Springhare, Cape Fox and Bat-Eared Fox. We also see three different owls – Barn Owl, White Faced Owl and Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl, but the Genets and Hyaenas are obviously hiding in a different part of the Kalahari. That is, until we are about 100 metres from the gate when we suddenly spot a Brown Hyaena in the bushes – the light reflecting off his eyes giving him away – as we watch he comes out into the open.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

An early breakfast this morning as we have a “full days drive” in the river bed – so back over the 96 dunes we go, bouncing the breakfast down, and spotting something like 10-12 Kori Bustards on the way. (The first we’ve seen on the trip).

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

We stop for a loo break at the rest point where we were picked up on Monday, and then push on further North up the river bed, coming across a group of Spotted Hyaena resting right by the road, and as a second new species, while we have stopped to look at some birds we spot a Honey Badger behind us! (It just goes to prove you really do need eyes in the back of your head when looking for wildlife.) Some creatures we have previously seen at night are also in evidence – both Cape and Bat-eared foxes on the ground, and a couple of Wildcats sleeping in trees.

We return back to the pick up point for a picnic lunch. It is now very hot and we are offered the option of returning to camp now and going out again, closer to the lodge, later. We ask if that can be another night drive, and Andre and Melissa say yes, so that’s what we do.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

We update the trip checklist before dinner, only for the Cape Serotin Bats to emerge as soon as we put them away! The night drive is very pleasant, with Cape Fox, Springhare and Cape Hare. The most exciting part though is a particularly bumpy dune that Andre has to accelerate into, leaving us wondering how Melissa managed to stay on the spotters seat which is mounted on the front bumper.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

A 6AM wake up call for coffee and rusks, followed by a brief drive out and a walk back to camp, led by Melissa and her fellow guide Andre – We have an excellent start, seeing both Bat-eared and Cape Fox before we’ve even got out of the vehicle. Along the way our guides point out various plants, and explain how the bushmen used them for food, or medicine, or other purposes, along with signs of wildlife (tracks, burrows, etc.) including a porcupine hole that is big enough for Andre to stand up in! We arrive back for breakfast, after which it is time for another walk, this time to the bushman craft village, hidden by a rise a short distance from the camp. As we descend towards the salt pan, Melissa and Andre spot lion tracks – more than one animal, they suggest, and quite fresh. It looks like they came down to the waterhole in the pan, and then went back up past the village. (The crafters do not sleep in the village, because of the potential danger from wild animals. They have accommodation in the staff quarters for their time here). The crafters are sat around a fire engaged in preparing beads for necklaces and bracelets from ostrich egg, porcupine quills and camel-thorn seeds, as well as using pyrography to burn pictures onto pieces of bone. They have several examples of their work for sale at what appear to be very reasonable prices and we all acquire souvenirs.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

We walk back, stopping to look at the lodges “resident” Yellow Mongoose, and are then free until lunch at 1, and a “sundowner” trip at 5 – or at least that’s the plan, but the guides discover where the lions whose tracks we saw earlier are resting up, so we have a mid-morning unscheduled drive to see them. A group of seven lions, probably all young males who have been ejected from a pride by a new alpha male. (Although Melissa thinks she saw more tracks leading away from the lions across the road, so they may be waiting while fully adult lions have gone hunting?)

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Following an afternoon of leisure we reconvene at 5 for our sundowner trip. I head up early to get a coffee, only to discover Neville and Mary had the same idea and have just used the last of the hot water. More is on its way but seems to take an age to arrive – still I manage a quick cup before heading off.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

We see mostly Steenbok until we approach the lions from the other side – they have moved a little, and it isn’t so easy to be certain that all seven are there. We watch for a few minutes, then leave them to move a couple of dunes away to a crest from where we can see the camp (and, in the opposite direction, if they stand up, the lions) for drinks and snacks while watching the sun go down, returning past a Bateleurs Eagle sitting in a tree.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

A certain amount of confusion at breakfast this morning when Neville and Mary ask for poached eggs but were brought hard boiled ones. It turns out the chef isn’t sure what poached eggs are, but Toby explains, and gets the hard boiled ones added our packed lunch, so it all turns out well.

We haven’t even left the lodge when we spot a Four Striped Grass Mouse close to the track, and once back in the National Park, we are soon able to add Black Backed Jackal to the list, as well as more sightings of Whistling Rats, Ground Squirrels, Gemsbok and Springbok – including a very young Springbok lamb, still quite wobbly on his feet. Staying with the very young, we see a Spike Heeled Lark with a nest on the ground about a metre and a half from the road with two hungry chicks.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

We also see two different Owls – Spotted Eagle Owl, (which we’ve seen before) and Verreaux’s Eagle Owl (which we haven’t) – and three different Eagles – Martial (two different ones at rest), a Bateleurs (which lands briefly at a waterhole, but takes off again almost immediately) and a Tawny, soaring above us.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

While we are eating lunch, we hear reports of a couple of cheetah further down the road, but try as we might we can’t find them before meeting up with the !Xaus lodge vehicle for our transfer 30 km and 96 dunes away from the “main road”. Once there we are met by Richard, the lodge manager, who gives us a quick orientation briefing over a glass of wine, and introduces us to Claudine ‘The only Guinea Fowl in the Kalahari’. Apparently she blew in on a storm a few years previously and was identified as a male, christened “Claude” and has lived here ever since, only revealing herself to be female earlier this year when she laid an egg!

Our guide for our stay is Melissa, as she tries to tell us the program, the wind picks up again, forcing us to retreat indoors – this also means dinner tonight will be in the dining room rather than out on the balcony.

After dinner we go for a night drive, finding Wild Cat, Bat-eared Foxes and Black Backed Jackal – along with a Barking Gecko and a large Scorpion.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

It seems cloudier and cooler today, with more wind. It has obviously comfused one of the Rock Hyrax around camp, as we spot it up a tree! As we leave the camp there are both Baboons and Vervet Monkeys beside the road.

 

When we reach Uppington, we persuade Toby we should have a coffee stop, so we call in to McDonalds to get drinks we can consume “on the go” – Toby is happy to pay for these, especially when they tell him “Old people get free coffee”, so he only ends up paying for 2.

It stays cool, and the wind picks up as we head North, with a lot of sand in the air, making visibility poor. According to Toby’s itinerary, (but not ours) we are due a night safari tonight. We decide in view of the weather we’d rather skip that in favour of a (shortish) afternoon drive in our own vehicle. After lunch in a lodge largely decorated with Ostrich eggs, we arrive at our own lodge for tonight, just outside the gates of the National Park. It looks quite forbidding from the outside, but the rooms are excellent (and later on dinner is also of a very high standard).

After dropping off our stuff we head up into the National Park – there is even more paperwork than normal as the park crosses the national border and is shared with Botswana. The wind (and sandstorm) has abated, so we are able to add Brants’s Whistling Rat to our Mammal list, and Black Mole Snake and Karasburg Tree Skink to our reptile list, along with Giant Millipede to the invertebrates, and a number of birds including the Crimson Breasted Shrike and the Mariko Flycatcher.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

The restaurant doesn’t open for breakfast until 7:15, so the plan is to take a walk back up to the falls to look for the Augrabies Flat Lizard. This is somewhat curtailed by the lack of water in the chalets. I have just enough to flush the loo and lather soap over my hands, but not enough to rinse it off again! However I still manage a quick trip up, and am just about to give up when I spot a tail twitch in the corner of a large rock by the side of the path – success! Looping back towards breakfast I also manage to catch a Pale Wing Starling with wings akimbo displaying the pale patches that give it the name.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

We set off in the bus, with early sightings of Baboons, Vervet Monkeys and a lot of runners, as there is some sort of race going on in the park. (Toby says they also do this in the Kruger, where, no doubt the presence of the Lions encourages the competitors not to dawdle). We visit a couple of viewpoints which overlook the Orange river, where we find more Augrabies Flat Lizards and are able to look down on a Fish Eagle while incorporating a coffee stop. We are hoping to find Mountain Zebra here (It’s the only place they can be found in South Africa) but without success – we do see giraffe, which we hadn’t seen before on the trip, although they are a long way off. Much closer, and therefore more exciting, are the Namaqua Sandgrouse, including one couple with a chick.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Back to camp for an early dinner (5:00 pm) as we have a night drive booked at 7:00 pm. Since this a national park trip, we aren’t sure how many participants there will be, so we turn up early to ensure good seats, It turns out to be just the four of us, with a driver/guide called Richard. We tell him we are interested in small mammals but not to ignore any leopards he might find. The first few sightings are quite brief as the animals disappear as soon as they are spotted (including an Eagle Owl which flies away from it’s roadside perch. Margaret and I are on the right side of the vehicle and manage to see it, Neville and Mary are not so lucky). As we progress things become a little more co-operative, if not always close enough to make photography viable. However we see much closer Giraffes than earlier, some Scrub Hare and Red Rock Rabbits (another first for the trip, as are the Klipspringer) and, finally some Mountain Zebra – a long way off and well hidden against the trees, but visible with binoculars. Richard rounds off the trip with some Astronomy and local geology.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

A long drive to Uppington, where Toby discovers the restaurant he planned for us to have lunch in has closed down since he was here last! A quick drive around town finds a restautrant/bar called Dros at a shopping mall. It is apparently a well-established name and indeed the food turns out to not be dross at all – and in plentiful portions. My kingklip and chips also includes rice, while Neville shares his pizza with all who wish to partake, and still has some left over.

 

We have asked Toby if we can get some fresh fruit, so he pops to the supermarket while we have coffee and returns laden with apples, oranges and bananas

From Uppington it is another hour and a half to the Augrabies Falls National Park, where we are staying in some very smart chalets. We stroll down to the falls before dinner to look at the Dassies basking in the last of the sun before dusk. Then, after a meal of Springbok Stroganoff we go looking (unsuccessfully) for scorpions by the light of Toby’s UV torch.

Theoretically, at least, more of the same. After breakfast we return to Mokala, entering this time by the gate we left from yesterday to concentrate on the other half of the park. Early sightings of Blesbok and Eland are followed by very little, and nothing we didn’t see yesterday (exceopt brief Baboon sightings at the start and end of the trip, and an Elegant Grasshopper part way through). More Agama at lunch, as well as a Leopard Tortoise, and managing to see the tailfeathers of the Pygmy Falcon in the Weaver nest. We head back to camp early as dinner is 5 for 5:30 so we can get to the Night Drive earlier.

Margaret decides to skip the night drive, and there are no additional passengers tonight, so we are in a smaller vehicle, which is good, as this time the floor is within reach of our feet! We are rewarded with an early Aardvark encounter, with some quite prolonged viewing rather an yesterdays high-tailing it off into the undergrowth. This is followed by Springhare and Scrub Hare, as well as a couple of (distant) porcupines, a couple of ground-nesting birds, a Spotted Eagle Owl with a killl (probably some sort of Gerbil), a couple of Large Eared Field Mice, another couple of Aardvarks and then, to top it all off, an Aardwolf. The guide sees one briefly, and Toby also manages to spot it, but Neville, Mary and I don’t. I saw some movement in the grass, but not what caused it, but then a minute or two later we see a second one, which is in clearer terrain and, while it doesn’t really hang about, remains in view for a reasonable amount of time, allowing for good binocular viewing and some attempted photographs.

//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Breakfast at a very civilised 7am then into the minibus for a drive around the Mokala National Park. There are a couple of places where we can get out, including a waterhole where Toby finds some Barn Owl pellets, and a bird hide where we see Vervet Monkeys, Kudu, Nyalla and Springbok, in addition to the Birds – Blacksmith Lapwing, Black Winged Stilts. African Wagtail, African Shell Duck, Namaqua Dove, Three Banded Plover, and Violet Eared Waxbill. Lunch is also in the park, at a site where we find both Southern Ground Agama and Western Rock Agama, and a Sociable Weaver nest which is also home to a Pygmy Falcon, There is plenty of larger game in the park – including Warthog, Gemsbok, Red Hartebeest, both Black and Blue Wildebeest, Tsessebe and Roan.

Dinner is supposedly 6 for 6:30, but it served closer to 7 – which makes it a bit of a rush to get to the Night Safari at another Game Farm where we are joined by another couple who are staying there. We start well with Springhare and a Barn Owl, before spotting a Black Footed Cat a way off. Toby has warned us that they are very skittish, and you can’t usually get close to them. However no one had told the cat this, which seemed quite unconcerned by our approach and was happy to pose for us!

We also see African Wildcat, Bat Eared Fox, Scrub Hare, a Spotted Eagle Owl and an Aardvark before passing under a colony of roosting Swallow Tailed Bee Eaters on our return to the camp.

Arrival yesterday at Heathrow couldn’t have gone smoother if I had tried! When I walked in to the departures hall the screen said bag drop off for our flight opened in 2 minutes. I wasn’t the first there though – Margaret was ahead of me, and we waved identifying Naturetrek logos at one another. There was another couple with Naturetrek labels behind me, so I assumed they were Neville and Mary, right up until I encountered them again getting off the plane, and when I pointed out the Menzies rep with the “Naturetrek Rare Mammals” sign they said “That’s not our tour…”. Once all assembled the transfer to the Kimberley flight was smooth and uneventful (although the flight itself was a little bumpy in parts).

Toby was ready to meet us and proposed a quick drive up to the Kamfer’s Dam to see one of the 4 sites in Africa where the lesser flamingo breed – although he did warn us that access to the site was apparently becoming more restricted (to protect the site, which is good but…). A combination of fences, terrain, and the railway embankment meant our best vantage point was the side of the road – quite a way back, but still an amazing sight, with some greater falmingo also present. From there we went to “The Big Hole” the site of the largest manually dug diamond mine, and now quite literally a big hole, partly filled with water, and the site of a museum/craft centre where we stopped for lunch before heading for the Langberg Game Farm where we we will be staying for the next three nights.

An afternoon walk on the farm finds Nyalla, Grey Mongoose, and the remains of both Nyalla and Steenbok, suggesting larger carnivores in the area. There are also Sable and Buffalo on the farm. Dinner then bed, as we have all been up far too long.