Kalahari – Page 3 – Taraji Blue

Trip report. Day 3 in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

We headed out at first light fuelled by caffeine and rusks and headed out Nossob’s Northern Gate. Opposed to scouring the plains we decided to choose a spot by the riverbed and wait to see if anything would emerge. Our patience was rewarded with a distant sighting of a mother cheetah and 4 furry cubs. The cubs were independent and curious, frequently venturing away from their mother’s watchful eye to climb a dead tree branch or play fight with one another. They were the quintessential cubs – very fluffy, very playful and a handful for their mother. We tracked them until they disappeared out of view and into the long grasses of the riverbed.

Over lunch we decided to change our plans and head over to Kalahari Tented Camp a night early, so we packed up the car and off we went. It was a beautiful drive and we were treated to stunning landscapes – rolling dunes and hilltop vistas.

The closer we got to camp the more the landscape opened, treating us to wide vistas with sightings of giraffes ambling across the Auob riverbed, bat eared foxes hunting for insects and from hilltop vantage points in the late afternoon sun we spotted another cheetah mother with 3 cubs on the hills opposite.

Upon arriving at Kalahari Tented Camp at 6pm we set about unpacking and lighting the braai – scouring the riverbed at sunset for hyena (contrary to expectation none emerged during our entire stay). We popped on our thermals (it was -10 degrees) lit a fantastic braai and treated ourselves to the most incredibly tasty meal of boerewors and bbq’d butternut squash with garlic, spices and creamed sweet corn all washed down with cape red (recipe courtesy of fellow forumites). We loved it so much we had exactly the same meal again the following night. After dinner we settled into our (freezing cold) tent, both of us snuggling into the single bed by the window overlooking the riverbed with a hot chocolate and Amarula (again, thanks forumites!!) and fell contently to sleep.

More photos from our trip are available in the Taraji Blue Kalahari photo gallery.

Trip report. Day 2 in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

We jumped out of bed way before the alarm went off, awoken by the smell of braais and excited by the promise of our first full day in the Kalahari. I quickly showered, brewed some strong black coffee, made some bacon sarnies for lunch and loaded the car with our camera gear, all the while unable to take my eyes off the perimeter fence, hoping to capture a glimpse of something.

Thermals on and fleeces zipped up, we headed out Nossob’s northern gate at first light eager to find big cats and birds of prey. We headed about 25 km to a picnic spot and, in the company of gemsbok, delved into our first ever bag of rusks. We felt instantly at home. In the distance we heard the unmistakable roar of a lion – we waited around to see if they would materialise but their roars became increasingly more distant.

Despite all the advice from forumites and all the pre-reading I conducted prior to the trip, I was still a little shocked at how hard it was to spot wildlife and how rare sightings were. Being used to Kenya and Kruger, I had set my expectations a little too high and on the first morning we’d seen little more than an eagle, springbok and jackal. This didn’t bother me too much though, because I quickly became happy with occasional sightings of tree climbing mice, ground squirrels, meerkats, mongoose, rollers and bee eaters.

After a busy morning driving’ around North Nossob we retired for lunch. I’d retreated into the kitchen to start preparing the food and was about to head out to the braai when I saw my husband frantically arm waving, asking me not to leave the building. I was very confused. We attempted to lip read and I, somehow, interpreted that a porcupine was outside the door… I lay flat on the floor and inched open the door, peering tentatively around it. There, on the patio, was a tiny scops owl. I’d been looking for them ever since we’d arrived and here he was, quite literally on my doorstep. We looked at each other eye to eye, neither one quite understanding nor expecting to see the other. I daren’t breathe or move, I was close enough to almost touch him. It was an incredible encounter.

That afternoon we headed out of Nossob’s Southern gate to explore the nearby loops and waterholes. We were treated to sighting of gangly legged secretary birds hunting, colourful bee eaters frollicking on branches by the roadside and herds of springbok and ostrich. To our delight the roads had also been repaired, so the bone shaking was kept to a minimum which provided for a much better safari experience.

That evening we retired to the hide at Nossob with an Amarula to watch jackals and gemsbok at the waterhole.

More photos from our trip are available in the Taraji Blue Kalahari photo gallery.

Trip report…Day 1 in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

We’d taken our time getting to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, stopping over in Cape Town, Sutherland (to visit SALT) and Upington and we’d had lots of adventures along the way … running out of petrol, making a 4 hour detour in the night courtesy of our sat nav and narrowly avoiding a head on collision with a speeding car. By the time we reached the entrance gate of Twee Rivieren our excitement and suspense had reached ridiculous levels and we could not wait to get in and explore the park.

Our excitement was short lived when we realised just how little time we had to make the journey to Nossob. We set off in haste, forgetting to deflate our tyres and proudly apply our yellow ribbon… but a quick detour back to Twee Rivieren remedied this. Through the maze of roadworks and incredibly corrugated roads we saw so many animals which we did not have time to stop and appreciate (bat eared foxes, a cape fox, curious jackals, secretary birds, eagles galore and wildebeest). As we pressed on, the road conditions got worse and worse. The 4×2 rattled and shook until I was convinced it’d fall to pieces. We had to slow to unimaginable speeds to control the vehicle and avoid it tipping, already aware that we had very limited time to make it to camp. The vibrations from the road were so intense that Ali took his wedding ring off to prevent blistering. My bones rattled and shook and I got bruises galore. It’s fair to say that we became more than a little disheartened – this trip was a dream trip to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary and it was not a promising start.

However, as we neared Nossob the roads improved slightly and we were able to stop and take stock of where we were and which roads we have left to travel. We spent a few minutes aside a very friendly black backed jackal who ran alongside the vehicle and regarded us with such curiosity. We felt our spirits lift – these are the encounters we’d travelled so far and so long to experience.

We arrived at camp exhausted but delighted to be there, and immediately grabbed a cold beer, checked out the sighting boards, amused ourselves watching the cheeky ground squirrels, scoured the trees for scops owls and set about lighting the braai. It was magical night – two jackals prowled around our braai – we couldn’t take our eyes off them for a minute otherwise they’d steal our steaks.

After dinner we grabbed an Amarula each and walked across the campsite to a clearing where we could stargaze. What I saw moved me to tears – the night sky was lit with thousands of diamond bright stars, it was simply breath-taking. We spent many an happy hour that night putting to practice identifying the constellations (as taught to us by astronomers in SALT) and spotting shooting stars. This was the Africa I fell in love with 10 years ago on honeymoon and I was thrilled to be back.

More photos from our trip are available in the Taraji Blue Kalahari photo gallery.

Cheetahs Go For Olympic Gold in the 100m run ..62mph in 3 seconds!

Cheetahs are incredible athletes. They achieve by far the fastest land speed of any living animal—between 112 and 120 km/h (70 and 75 mph) in short bursts covering distances up to 500 m (1,600 ft),. They have the ability to accelerate to over 100 km/h (62 mph) in three seconds. That gives our Olympians something to aspire too.

On our recent trip to the Kalahari we were lucky enough to see a cheetah chase a kill a wildebeest and see her sprint in full glory. We’d spotted her at first light walking along a riverbank – she was clearly on the prowl. We stayed with her for an hour or so and then decided to take a gamble and leave her, driving off in the direction she was heading to see if there were any large herds of prey which she might decide to hunt.

We stumbled a cross a herd of wildebeest and stopped there to wait and see if she’d appear. 45 minutes later her silhouette appeared on the river bank – she paused briefly before sprinting down the riverbank, reaching full speed as she arrived at the herd – sending them into blind panic. She locked onto one wildebeest and begun the chase. The cheetah’s speed was no match for the beest and she quickly caught and strangled it – not before she’d chased it right into the direction of our car, narrowly missing us. It was an unbelievable opportunity to see the sprint – to literally feel her speed as she sped by the car, her tail hitting the car door. They really are incredible athletes and very, very beautiful animals.

Further images of cheetahs are available in our Taraji Blue Kalahari Photo Collection.

The Little Things In Life

Regular followers of Taraji Blue will know that I have an obsession with macro photography – especially insects. That’s why, on our recent trip to the Kalahari desert, I took time out from spotting big cats and focussed on the little beasties that we were temporarily sharing our living quarters with.

This wee fella (above) is a grasshopper (I think). He was immobile for three days (apart from a wee twitch when I got too close). He is a real beauty and seemed quite content for me to spend some time photographing him.

I will be honest and say that I have no idea what this wee guy below is. I saw two of them during our stay, one was really rather large – like a fat grasshopper or large dung beetle, and the other identical one was more small beetle sized. He is darn cute and had the most enchanting googly eyes. I suspect he might be some sort of thorn bug?!

And finally, we were surrounded by these wee guys who lived in the fence outside our cabin. They were very timid, but stunningly beautiful. The longer you spent with them, the more acquainted they became to you, but they repeatedly resisted any close ups.

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