The Adventures of PandA

Wildebeest in a playful mood

Great early morning view of lions just on the road near the junction to the camp. They like to use the roads to travel and as a toilet! Funny I was expecting them to bury it like domestic cats do

A trip over the dunes to gnu gnus camp, beautiful flowers inquisitive meerkats, starry night and lovely sunrise. No one else around us for 50km

A lion spotted high up on a dune slowly makes her way towards some wildebeest. But is distracted by a pair of jackal who are out hunting themselves and are heading straight towards her. She diverts from the wildebeest and crouches down then as the jackal gets closer she pounces and after a short chase to our amazement catches the jackal. As we are watching her we hear another lion roaring in the distance. The other jackal howls at the loss of its mate

Some great sightings at Polentswa, views over the pan, lions, bat eared foxes, brown hyena and a caracal. Large herds of springbok and red hartebeest too. The sound of bullfrogs and views of waders and a great painted snipe are unexpected sightings in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. It helps us get up to 300 different bird species identified on this trip

A very wet journey to Polentswa, the road was like a canal and the water at the top of the wheels!

Spectacular thunderstorms and lots of gemsbok

Great sightings at Rooiputs and amazing scenery with the heavy rains and our camp

I am glad we were in a vehicle the cape cobra went right underneath us and then investigated a hole on the other side. It came out about ten minutes later, obviously nothing to eat

Near to the camp and waterhole we see the two male cheetahs we have seen before in this area. They hunt a small group of kudu but a short half hearted chase and the kudu get away. They carry on marking their territory

Our first Cape Cobra and the youngest meerkat I have seen on our way to Twee Rivieren and then the wilder experience that is the Botswana side of KTP. And a new tortoise species a geometric tortoise

16/1/2022 A most amazing morning watching three male cheetah trying to capture a female cheetah. A very tense encounter, both her subadult cubs are quite stressed and the male cub tries to defend her which is very risky.

Nice view of a slender mongoose in KTP

Night drive from Mata Mata we see a couple of wild cats, bat eared fox and a puff adder snake which hunt at night

The next day we go looking for Lizzie nothing left under the bush and we hear she was at the waterhole and headed into the dunes with full stomachs. It’s more of a lion day as we see a young male as we head over the upper dune road. Plenty of steenbok up there in the dunes and a nice change of scenery. Although big black clouds are gathering and the rain catches us on the way back across to Mata Mata. More nice views of relatives of Lizzie, her sister Hannah and her four and Hanri with her family with a young wildebeest they’ve killed near Craiglockhard waterhole. We have seen 19 different cheetah around Mata Mata. Nice view of bat eared fox too. At the camp site an African cuckoo chick is being fed by its surrogate parent from go.

13/1/2022 A quiet days game viewing but nice view of a juvenile martial eagle before we spot our neighbours vehicle racing away from the waterhole and follow them. We come across a freshly killed springbok in the road and Lizzie the cheetah and her cubs resting under a Bush. After 30 minutes she goes and drags the springbok under the bush and they all tuck in.

Gemsbok sparring in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park