” With our hungry stomachs competing with the thunder overhead we were discussing our skottel breakfast back at camp – and then it happened. I recall the Eland bark, the Jackal looking up – and following their eyes we saw a site that is engraved in my memory forever…”
It was only a four-night visit en route to Windhoek, but our stay at the Kgalagadi National Park will forever be entrenched in our memories for all the right reasons. The decision to deviate from the highway was not made lightly, what with the December desert heat, the extra time and distance and not to mention the infamous corrugated roads. But it was sanity that prevailed as my wife and I entered the transfrontier park at Twee Rivieren in December.
Upon immediate entry into the park we were confronted with the hardship that accompanies life in this dry landscape – tens of Eland carcasses around the water holes and dry river bed. This was our welcoming committee to the Kalahari. The dry years of 2011 and 2012 forced thousands of Eland to migrate south from the northern Botswana region of the park, but insufficient water, unsuitable grazing and expectant predators were their demise.
With the return of summer rain the Eland had returned home to the north. But not all the Eland returned, and it was one of these expatriots that pointed out our most special siting of our visit. At ‘Jasper se draai’ waterhole, between the Twee Rivieren and Nossob camps, my wife and I were taking pleasure in the smaller, less- noticed, residents of the park: a pair of squabbling Cape Sparrows, a couple of Jackel and a lone and thirsty Eland. With our hungry stomachs competing with the thunder overhead we were discussing our skottel breakfast back at camp – and then it happened. I recall the Eland bark, the Jackal looking up – and following their eyes we saw a site that is engraved in my memory forever, a beautiful sleek spotted shadow cautiously and stealthily moving down to the waterhole.
One moment it was there, the next it was gone! This leopard was spotted at Jasper se gat waterhole at about 07:30am.
This, one of the 150 Leopards of the South African section of the park, which along with the 130 Kalahari Lions and 200 cheetahs make the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park one of the best places to view the big cats of Africa. This is confirmed by the ‘Game Spotted’ Noticeboard at each camp where daily multiple sightings are evident – a useful guide when planning your afternoon game drive.
The park expanse is vast (over 3.6 million hectares) and game spotting requires persistence, patience and petrol – of which the latter is available at all three traditional camps (Twee Rivieren, Nossob and Mata mata). But in your game viewing endeavours beware of only pursuing the grand game – there is lots of joy to be had in the many animal species that call the park home, and none more so than in the prevalent Whitefaced Owls common to the camp sites.
While the Kalahari welcomes the summer rain, the same cannot be said for this mother cheetah and her two cubs at Marie se Draai waterhole.
But no single aspect of the park can accurately define it. It is not the ghostly leopard, the mother cheetah and her cubs huddled against the precious but unfamiliar rain, nor the black mane Kalahari lion gorging on his wildebeest that singularly captures and define the magic of this place. It is these things and so much more; it is the colour of the red dunes against the ominous thunder clouds, the cool shade of the camel thorn tree and the clean and dry air. It is the proud Tawny Eagle with his feathered legs silhouetted against the red setting sun (along with the diverse other 92 resident bird species within the park), and it is the peacefulness of the waterhole as gemsbok and springbok silently come to drink their fill.
Yes, the roads aren’t always the smoothest, short notice thundershowers are always a possibility (during the summer months), and your campsite is always vulnerable to a marauding gang of ground squirrels, mongooses’ and jackal (be sure to not leave any food out unattended). This is after all the desert, the Kalahari, and if you honest with yourself would you want it any other way?
This immature Tawny Eagle in the evening light was a special sighting which we did not have enough time to savour. The camps have a curfew of 19:00 for self-driven vehicles during summer. Should you want to be out later there are early morning and night game drives available to book at the camps.