Saturday 19 August 2023  Love in the Kgalagadi

Once again it was very cold when we woke up this morning.  I had to put on my gloves, fleece and a jacket.  On my feet I donned my Ugg boots! But these outer layers were discarded as the day became warmer with a high of 26 degrees C.  There was also a bit of wind today.

After collecting our permit, we took the North road and went as far as Bedinkt Waterhole.

The birding was good there and back and the highlights were Grey Hornbill, Lilac-breasted Roller and Gabar Goshawk.  Of course, we enjoyed the other usual canaries, sparrows, flycatchers and weavers.

When we reached Cubitjie Quap there were quite a few cars observing the wildebeest and gemsbok. It was interesting to see two large herds of wildebeest coming towards each other from different directions.   They seemed to be very pleased to see each other as they greeted each other with low bleating grunts and galloped about side by side enjoying their reunion.

One by one the cars pulled off to continue their journey.  We were going along slowly with the cars no longer in sight as we stopped to look at one bird after another. 

Then suddenly out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a lioness emerge from the veld and cross over the road in front of us.  Of course, there was an explosion of excitement in the car.  A minute later a very handsome black-maned lion emerged and followed her.   She waited for him some 50 metres ahead and we thought that when he caught up, they would continue across the veld.

But they did not move.  Another car pulled up behind us just as the male flopped down beside the object of his affection.

Before we could shut our modest eyes they were mating!   We managed to get some photos but now I wanted a video!   We’re not moving till they do it again, I declared.

The other car, perhaps wanting to give the honeymoon couple some privacy overtook us and moved on so now we were the only car there.  Ten minutes later there was another love scene and this time I got it on film.   When they were done the male stood up and roared and the female answered as she lay in the afterglow.  Then they both flopped down, turned over on their backs with legs in the air as if to say – Oh my that was wonderful!  Lion pornography at its best!

Lions in Love

We continued on but nothing else quite so exciting happened.  By midday, we were back at camp where we had some left-over chili con carne for lunch and then spent time doing camp chores and relaxing and only went for a short drive to Marie se Gat at half past four.   There was not very much to see until Priscilla alerted us to something hiding under a tree. How interesting to find a Pale Chanting Goshawk with its dinner.

We also enjoyed seeing a number of Kori Bustards

A very large herd of springbok were standing stock still and we were sure that there was a predator in the area but we did not have time to wait and see what happened.

It was our turn to cook so Earl did a braai. I cooked some butternut with chutney and tinned tomato and onion in the smart space pan and prepared a Greek salad.