Kalagadi - July 2016

We decided to visit the Kalagadi Transfrontier Park again but did not book until very close to the departure date - like two days before leaving.

As a result we were unable to get any camp site bookings and the bookings worked out as follows:

First day - Askham with Hannetjie van der Westhuizen at the Kalahari Lodge Askham.

Second day - Twee Rivieren.

Third day - Nossob.

Fourth day - Kharagab.

Fifth day - Kharagab. It was freezing at night.

On arrival at Twee Rivieren I decided to ask whether there was any possibility of extending our stay. The result was:

Sixth day - Kieliekrankie. A chalet with a lovely view.

Seventh day - Kalahari tented camp.

Eighth day - Nossob (Camping - so some of the camping gear packed away in the vehicle could be used.) Here we used our little tent to cook and eat in. People we met had a lovely gas heater and we spent a few minutes with them outside before heading off to out electric blanket on the top of the 4x4. (Unfortunately the power goes off at ten and does not return until five in the morning and we made the mistake of not taking our special warm sleeping bag liners upstairs to make it a bit warmer.) It was interesting to note that the camp site to our left and to our right were unused. (We were told there was a place on the 4x4 trail but were unable to get a booking at Nossob and Kieliekrankie was too far away to possibly reach Nossob for the start of the trail.)

Ninth day - Bitterpan. So cold at night we did not get out of bed to try and see the lions roaring nearby. Here we used the sleeping bag liners and it was still far too cold to bother to get out of the bags to try and see the roaring lions here.

Tenth day - Kalahari tented camp. Still cold at night. More lions roring and Sylvia made the mistake of leaving her sleeping bag. Correction - now I recall it was freezing in the early morning.

Eleventh day - Red Sands (Kuruman). We decided to try and get a chalet although we were prepared to camp. Phone call was made on route and chalet reserved. Excellent restaurant and warm chalet. The weather had warmed up significantly.

In many of the places the roads were very good - in others the corrugations did their best to shake and rattle our poor vehicle apart. Luckily I carried tools and could tighten bits as they threatened to fall off.

Special care needed: The showers are extremely slippery and so are the bed mats placed beside your beds in the chalets. I moved the bed mats out of the way immediately on arrival.

In total we travelled 3446 kilometres.

The route is shown in the first two pictures.

The camera shutter was activated by us both just over six hundred times and most of the pictures are here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/105203493367845189954/6309301450294634497?authkey=Gv1sRgCKewhZ6t_IaGdw

There were a few exciting moments which we were able to catch on camera - a leopard which climbed a tree and a secretary bird devouring every tree rat unfortunate enough to have decided to nest on the road to Bitterpan.