The three stooges of the Kgalagadi.

In all my times in the Kgalagadi, there are 3 players that always stand out and always get my attention. The pale chanting goshawk, the ubiquitous jackal and the star of the show, the honey badger. I have taken to calling them the 3 stooges of the Kgalagadi.

These inseparables, or so it seems, are always up to something. Of course it is the honey badger doing the heavy lifting just poking his nose into everything looking for food and the other two just hang around waiting for leftovers. As the world is, some people willing to work and others willing to let them work. LOL. Anyway i hope you like the photos.

DOVES AT THE WATERHOLE - KGALAGADI

When the suns rays are at a low angle and the heat of the day is dissipating into the cool of the night, animals and birds IN THE KGALGADI come for a drink. The waterholes are busy and the unwary are in trouble. We sat by a waterhole before sundown and waited. Nothing. Well the waiting game is played best by playing it. So we stuck around, and before long we were greeted by wave upon wave of doves. They were so numerous it seemed like 100s came and went over the period of an hour or so. Lanner falcons and red necked falcons and even jackals bide their time at these waterholes trying to snag a plump dove for dinner but no such luck this time. It was how ever surreal to capture an ever-changing collage or you could call it a live mosaic of these beautiful birds as they came in to drink stayed a while and left. The setting sun gave us a hint to head home and we did albeit sadly to leave such a beautiful sight.

COME ON SAFARI WITh US AND HAVE YOUR OWN AMAZING STORIES TO TELL - www.dreadlionsafaris.com

The dessert that I love. KGALAGADI

OK OK.... its not dessert..... its desert, and I love it. The Kgalagadi and its red sand dunes have a way of sneaking into your soul. Let me give you an example. 

It was the dead hours in the Kgalagadi, sun shining high in the sky, animals looking for cover from the blistering heat, and we  were driving along among the dunes. Frankly I had had it,  cuz nothiong moves at that time in that heat. A movement barely visible in the red sand on the left caught my eye and i slowed down. There is something there i said and my guests looked and said seems like a cat but bigger and has long ears.

 CARACAL! I could not believe it. My first sighting of this usually nocturnal cat. I parked by the side of the road and we all just watched this handsome cat walking through the clumps of grass and the bushes across the dunes. 

The red colouring of the fur blending so well with the sand and the background of the dunes, its not really easy to spot as you drive along. Its a medium size cat, about the size of a Dalmatian dog with rough red fur and long tufts on their ears. The ears are the ones that really stick out, tufted ears that are long and black at the back. Makes them look quite striking. They are primarily bird hunters and will take small or young antelope occasionally. But such a handsome creature we were all mesmerised by him. 

 

COME ON SAFARI WITh US AND HAVE YOUR OWN AMAZING STORIES TO TELL - www.dreadlionsafaris.com

Getting up on the Table!

The huge flat topped massif in the bay was how mariners since Vasco da Gama described the entrance to Table Bay which lies as the best anchorage on the southern tip of Africa. El Cabo de Boa Esperanza, it was called by that intrepid explorer and wanderer of the oceans and it was in fact the gateway to the east: the Spice Islands, India and of course the mysterious lands of Cathay.

The Cape of Good Hope was also called by the more practical minded sailors who feared for life and limb in its stormy waters as the Cape of Storms because of the terrible winds that lashed at their wooden ships and caused them no end of grief.

We often forget the struggles of the ancient seafaring men who opened up the world and for whom going ‘home’ represented 6-10 months of sailing and so many never made it back. Sir Francis Drake left England to circumnavigate the globe with 3 ships and over 400 men with promises of plunder and riches, and came back with 1 ship and a skeleton crew having lost all others to storms and sea battles.

So Table Mountain was a very welcome sight to sailors heading to the Orient in the old days and nowadays it is a most interesting tourist attraction.

The cable car operates on days when the weather is good and it is a breathtaking view of Cape town that greets one a few seconds after it starts. The car itself is round and rotates so everyone gets a full view all around.

The top has the usual curio shops and restaurant obligatory to such places but there is also unique wildlife up there that has become quite used to people. Witness the rock hyrax or dassie as it is called. About as big as a rabbit they live up here among the rocks and tourists, quite happy to sit and pose.

There are also the intrepid adventurers who eschew the cable car and the pathway and prefer to do it the hard way. Climb the massif. Well, good luck buddy better you than me! 

COME ON SAFARI WITh US AND HAVE YOUR OWN AMAZING STORIES TO TELL - www.dreadlionsafaris.com

Python in the tree

We were driving along one day and spotted a large number of cars on either side of the road and that in Kruger means there is a predator about. Given where we were on the Lower Sabie road it usually means lions. But I was wrong. The whole crowd of people were staring up into a tree and quite a distance off at that! Which is why the pix are rather awful!

Some waved me over and said “Python eating something in the tree , over there do ya see it hanging?” Now for the life of me I could not figure out what he was talking about, cuz I was looking in the wrong tree. Then I saw it, thick as my thigh with a raptor in its coils and man it was big! Really big. He probably went up there to get a monkey and the eagle of some sort got snacked on. That’s fate for you!

COME ON SAFARI WITh US AND HAVE YOUR OWN AMAZING STORIES TO TELL - www.dreadlionsafaris.com