Our Gecko friends Cathy and Alec are travelling with us and I have persuaded Cathy to Guest Blog alongside of me. Here is her story so far.
Once again we are two Geckos on the move heading off into another adventure. Helen has covered our very uneventful trip from home to Kgalahadi so I won’t go over all that again. We arrived at the gates at Twee Rivieren on a beautiful sunny morning, ready, willing and able to enjoy our new retirement adventure.
We checked in with a delightful young lady at Reception and drove down to the campsite. There was a fairly stiff breeze blowing and I have previous experience of this campsite in windy conditions; the dust is horrid! I was determined that we were going to camp at the top of the site so as to avoid the dust. Fortunately, there were two shelters next to each other that were free so we took one while Earl and Helen set up next door.
After setting up I turned to look and saw the wind whipping up the dust and blowing it down the campsite. I was just so thankful to be protected by the bank so the wind and dust passed us by.
Two Geckos Set Up Camp
We took a short drive in the late afternoon along the road to Nossob. Just outside the gate, we saw the first of many, many springbok and gemsbok. These two magnificent creatures are ubiquitous in the park and you see them repeatedly throughout a drive. There were also many lovely birds with the most common raptor being the Pale Chanting Goshawk.
Gemsbok
Springbok
Pale Chanting Goshawk
Crimson Breasted Shrike
Yellow-billed Hornbill
On the first evening, we enjoyed a lovely braai put on by Earl and Helen and retired early to bed.
Next morning our drive was along the road to Mata Mata. The first few kilometres must be one of the prettiest drives in the park. The road leads you over a dune belt so it meanders up and down. There are beautiful colour contrasts with the white calcrete-type road surface that shines brightly in the sun. Then there are the Kalahari brick-red sand dunes and blending the two together is the sage-green, gold and brown of the vegetation. It makes for a very pretty scene. While we have never seen a lot of animals in this section you do come across the stark white and black face of a gemsbok, crowned with two rapier-like horns or the pretty brown-striped face of a springbok that may dance away cheerfully pronking its way through the scrub.
Contrasting colours
One of the common sights in the Park are the stunning Sociable Weaver nests. These enormous nests nestle in the branches of many large trees and often become so heavy that the branches break. The industrious little birds then start building again, using the sticks from the nest that landed on the floor.
Beautiful Sociable Weaver Nests
We also came across the cutest little meerkat standing and looking for the rest of the troop. It was unusual to see one little chap all on its own.
The cutest little meerkat
We continued on our drive and stopped at the Auchterlonie Picnic Site, where you also find a small museum to the original owners of this land. We pulled out our faithful flask and were soon enjoying coffee and crunchies while admiring the view. Two little Slender Mongoose soon made an appearance and it was very apparent that they were accomplished beggars that were often fed by picnickers! They were very tame and not shy to nip your toes if they thought they could get you to give them some food.
Auchterlonie Picnic Site
Alec looking at the mongoose begging for food
I may be cute but I shouldn’t be fed!
We visited the museum, which is housed in the original farmhouse. One can only marvel at the toughness of these original farmers, who must have struggled to keep their stock fed and watered in this hostile environment, not to mention dealing with lions, leopards and caracal!
Museum at Auchterlonie
On our way back we were trundling along when all of a sudden I thought I saw something that looked like a giraffe. Asking Alec to stop I said I saw a giraffe and he looked at me as though I was mad – you could hardly miss a giraffe but, humouring me, he reversed and there lying behind a tree was a giraffe! The most gorgeous male giraffe just lay there and looked at us. I love giraffes and it made my day!
Don’t you think you may have missed this?
A gorgeous male giraffe
Later in the afternoon we drove out to Kij Kij waterhole as we had been told there were lions there. We arrived and joined the throng but were lucky to see the lioness with her four sub-adult youngsters and the two magnificent black-maned males. As it was late afternoon but still very warm, everyone was stretched out doing what lions do best and that is sleep!
Doing what lions do best
We couldn’t wait much longer as it was a long drive back to camp so we left them to their slumber accompanied by the alarm calls of the gemsbok and springbok in the area!
Next morning we set off again on a drive along the road to Mata Mata and took the loop past the Tierkop waterhole. Along this loop, which had the most horrid corrugated surface, we saw a magnificent Secretary Bird. Dressed in its smart grey suit with its quills stuck behind its ear, it strutted confidently through the veld looking for anything to eat. They are some of the most striking and elegant birds in Africa!
What an elegant bird!
A little further along and we came across a Pale Chanting Goshawk standing staring intently at a bush. This caught our attention and the next moment out popped a Honey Badger. What a great sighting! The Honey Badger, the Pale Chanting Goshawk and the Black-Backed Jackal have a symbiotic relationship when looking for food. The Honey Badger will dig for mice, rates and other small rodents while foraging but they are often not fast enough to catch the rodents that they are attempting to dig up. The mice or gerbils flee out of an alternative entrance to their burrow system and the jackal and goshawk can catch a meal with little effort on their part!
One of the two badgers seemed more interested in finding a cool spot and digging in to while away the heat of the day but the second kept foraging. A few times it lay down and flipped sand over its side. The second just kept foraging and when it got several metres away the first would stand up, shake and amble after its mate. I have no idea which was male and which was female but I guessed the one wanting to sleep in the shade was the male!
Let me sleep!
Come on, I’m hungry!
Leave something for me!
On our way home past Rooiputs we came across four female lions lying on a dune overlooking the waterhole. Apparently there were five there and the people in cars watching the scene felt that they may attempt a kill late in the afternoon. As it was just after midday, we were not inclined to sit for the next five or so hours and wait as there were a number of housekeeping chores that we had put off, but were needing to be done before we set off for Nossob in the morning.
More lazy lions
Our stay at Twee Rivieren has not been as bad as I initially thought. The wind died and has not returned so we have had lovely warm days and chilly nights. All in all, it’s been a successful start to our Kgalahadi adventure. Tomorrow we are off to Nossob for five nights which should be great. We’re looking forward to spending some time in the magnificent hide there.
Adventuring into Retirement 