Kgalagadi Journey By Steve Bailey (3)

On all my trips to the Kalahari / Kgalagadi there have been moments of intense excitement and moments (days) of mind numbing boredom

It’s always wonderful to be in the African wilderness but as a photographer I crave the excitement of a sighting and unfortunately those sightings happen to be the Cats, Cheetah, Leopard and to a lesser degree Lion. My photo albums are full of Lion but there is a great dearth of Cheetah and Leopard.  So one sets off each morning with the hope that today will be the day. Day three was not the day, in fact it was one of the worst “animals” sighting days I have experienced ever in my 19 trips. As I mentioned, the night before was devoid of the normal animal noises, no jackal howling, Lion roaring  or even a Scops Owl hooting.

North of Nossob  camp was virtually empty of any form of life, the odd  territorial Springbok (Lone rams, often seen in dry riverbeds, mate with the herds of females moving through their area and defend the territory against any other intruding rams. It’s a very strange behavior as they spend months and months sitting in the same place in a river bed, alone, open to sneak predator attack waiting for the herds of females to move into his “piece of river bed” in the hope of being able to mate with them. Some years the females fail to arrive. )

We viewed a lone Jackal south of Kwang waterhole, early morning “golden hour” light made this photograph a “keeper”

Kwang  area was completely empty  of wildlife, the viewing area must be a distance of three kilometers  around the waterhole, again strange, but as we learnt, this was not the day.

We continued north through Bedinkt, Langklaas Kousant waterholes without much of interest, The odd Gemsbok or Wildebeest in the distance.  Not long after the Polentswa waterhole we came across a Cape Cobra in the road ( please remember the story of the last Cobra incident ) it was having difficulty  moving and based on the vehicle tracks it had just been run over. How the hell this can happen I do not know, why drivers drive without constantly scanning the road ahead. There was NO WAY I was going to drive anywhere near the victim. Another bowel emptying moment was not on. The Cobra although still, alive was mortally injured and it was a matter of time before it was taken out by an Eagle, Jackal or Hyena chancing upon it.

What is of great interest with this Cobra is the tick parasites on the back of its hood, never seen this before or even aware that this occurred. We drove onto the road shoulder and away from the stricken snake.

We noticed that the area had recently had an extensive bush fire that had cleared the long grass. Possibly caused by lightning? It made viewing easier, only problem nothing to view. Desert flowers were in evidence.

We had breakfast at Lijersdraai picnic area, famous for its resident Leopard, but not to be today. Lijersdraai is one of several picnic areas in the Kgalagadi totally open and unfenced that give one that wonderful sense of the open African wilderness.

Temperatures had moved into the mid thirties at 8.30, quite a change  from the 12 degrees at 05.30 the time we set off.

We turned to travel south and stopped at  the Cobra sighting, no Cobra, no tracks, no spore around where we had found him. One wonders what had happened in the two hours we had been north of him.

Just before Langklass  a wonderful sighting of two spotted Eagle Owls, in a tree above the road.

Was well pleased to get this photograph

The drive south was very much the same as the drive north, devoid of anything of interest, the sighting  of this Steenbok with a seed pod in its mouth was the only moment of excitement

We arrived back at Nossob camp and as usual asked the question of anyone we met “seen anything?”  no the reply, so we were not alone in having a quiet day. After the mid day siesta we moved out again, this time south at 16.00. The afternoon drive was as empty as the morning drive.

With much grumbling and moaning set about to demolish a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc wine over a meal of steak with blue cheese sauce, cooked over the braai. Besides being an internationally famous photographer of no mean repute my kitchen/braai  skills are quite good as well. (If I must say so myself )The second bottle tended to lift the gloom of what we thought was a crap day in Africa, which of course it was not, because any day in the Kgalagadi is being in wilderness heaven.

Click here for Day 1 and Day 2 morning and afternoon