Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park Safari - Episode 4

At Sesatswe Camp, it’s only a tree as infrastructure again, next to another dry pan, and we set up camp.


I end up unpacking the back of the Mazda-rati and doing what repairs I can to the battery system. When I repack the car, there seems to be a lot more space now, but it’s mainly only due to repacking things more space-consciously than before.


A flock of finches settles on the open door of the canopy and Steph puts out a bowl of water and some oats for them. After this, everyone starts talking about how they met their respective partners and Steph gives her version of how we met. I have a slightly different story but leave them with her version.

Despite the darkness of the night we don’t get any visitors and there are no fresh tracks through the camp the following morning.

Friday 14th May

We have a decent sup of coffee at about 06h30 and it’s not too cold seeing as we had some cloud cover. The previous evening I had predicted rain either today or Saturday, due to distant cloud build-up and oppressive heat.

Camp is squared away by 08h00 and we move off into the bush, this time with Attie leading. I want him to play “pathfinder” for a change as we have been doing it for the last week.

There are, as usual, no animals other than buck and birds and when we eventually stop at the Botswana Government’s Kaa Camp to beg some water from the border staff, we go through some theories as to why there is no abundance of wildlife on the Botswana side of the park. A signboard just outside the camp gates gives away one of the reasons, organised hunting safaris.

We had noticed that animals on the Botswana side are very skittish as they run away before we can get anywhere near them. The SA animals, on the other hand, are not like that at all and are quite relaxed. Granted, they move if you get too close, but casually and not in a stampede. If you get to within about 1km of the Botswana animals, especially the large buck species such as Eland and Kudu, take off as they presumably relate vehicles (or convoys of them) with rifles, hunters, and death.

I need to understand how the SA government would allow us to open the park borders to Botswana if they were aware that hunting, in a national reserve, was permitted even if it was “controlled”. It does not make any sense as all that is happening is that the SA animals are beginning to migrate that way and are being killed off. Which also means that SA is financing Botswana’s hunting trade. Which possibly means that our ministers also go on hunting trips with their Botswana counterparts. I would call it “legalised corruption”. Could it also be possible that Botswana Parks people are baiting animals across to their side of the reserve? If it’s true, the park is doomed as it is no longer self-sustainable under these conditions, as it had been until the frontier was opened up.

Anyway…

At Kaa, there is a cold-water camp shower available to us and everyone, except Steph, Rea and Anna, has a shower. It is cold, but it’s great. The ladies want to get to our next camp, Lang Rambuka, warm some water, and use the portable camping shower instead.


The rest of the drive to Lang Rambuka is, as usual, boring and there is nothing of great interest to see. We get to camp around 14h30 and camp is set up quickly, refined over the duration of the trip.

The “first drink” goes down nicely and is cold, and the second goes down even better.

A few of us take a walk out onto the “dry” pan in front of us to find that it is not as dry as it looks. Some places are bone dry with no moisture, or so it looks. The animals, however, find patches where there are layers, an inch of dust on top, then a four-inch layer of damp sand, and from there down, totally dry again. They paw open a shallow patch, let water seep into the hole, then drink from that. As Attie and I discuss and agree later, the water will continue to flow at a constant level, until the animals paw through the damp layer, upon which the water will just seep away into the dryness below. These animals might look dumb, but they are survivors and have to be clever to survive in those conditions.


We dig a hold next to the animal’s hole, a little deeper, to see if we can emulate their digging, and will go back in the morning to look at the results (as it turns out, we forgot to go back and have a look at the hole, so do not know what the results were).

Aside from a few Gemsbok, the only animals we have seen at this camp are a cute field mouse, which was given a helping of peanuts, and a lonely jackal that howled to itself on the pan before sunset. Usually they are only heard after dark, and sometimes through the night.

We have a braai for dinner, and somehow the “Smash” (powdered mash potatoes) Rea makes doesn’t quite fit in the bush environment, but it warmly fills the hole in our bellies.

As I had predicted, the rain comes. Just a light shower, but enough to put Steph and Rea off having their shower. It is, however, heavy enough for Attie to erect his camping gazebo and for us all to gather under it for dinner, a chat and a couple of drinks, including a fine Port we had bought from the Orange River Cellars in Keimoes.

At around 21h00, we call it a night and crawl into our respective tents, hoping for a peaceful night and a good sleep.

I have come to know what it must feel like for the animals out in the bush, having only a flimsy tent over us, knowing that it is very precarious living in this environment, not knowing whether you will have an encounter with a predator and, thus, not sleeping too well at night. The rest of them have a dig at me and a laugh at this, but I know their laughter is also a sign of personal nervousness and that they have similar fears in the back of their minds.

With the wind suddenly picking up, I’m going to try and get some sleep…it’s 21h40 and tomorrow we head back to Polentswa and the end of the second wilderness loop.

Saturday 15th May

The flapping of Anna’s laundry on the line through the night made a few of us lose some sleep, possibly only she didn’t lose any as she slept in the Pajero again, for the second night in a row. It appears Anna’s inflatable mattress has developed a slow leak and she would prefer to sleep in the vehicle rather than have Johan try to find the leak and fix it.

We had no visitors again, thankfully, and awoke to a breezy dawn, with rain threatening. However, the rain held off until we were well into the bush, probably an hour after we had had our coffee and packed away the camp.

What started off as a patchy drizzle, ended in a steady downpour towards the end of the 80km trail and, at Polentswa, into a torrent.


Coming off the trail, we had about twenty kilometres to go on the main road towards Nossob before turning onto the Polentswa trail, and the heavy rain made for some fun driving in the slippery conditions, with both vehicles hanging their back ends out on occasions, controlled by counter-steering.

At camp, we found our campsite and, in pouring rain, erected two tents and a connecting gazebo then carried them out to their pitch sites. It was not easy to get them lined up in the rain, but thanks to Attie’s experience, we managed in the end, but got soaked in the process.

The Pajero came along while we were doing all this and those three didn’t even get out of the car for the first fifteen minutes, and just sat and watched us. I couldn’t blame them though, as the weather was atrocious and bitingly cold. The four of us knew they weren’t going to hang around and pitch a tent in the rain and, suspicions confirmed, Johan told us they were heading for Nossob to see if they could hire a chalet for the night. We told them we would not expect them back if they were not back by dark.


After completing this trip, I can confidently say that the rumour that a rainbow ends at a pot of gold is a crock of shit, as this one ended over our toilet.


After the others left, we arranged our chairs and tables under the lean-to, erected a tarpaulin to keep out some of the rain and wind, then proceeded to put away a couple of bottles of white muscatel and OBS. There was also a good measure of brandy and Coke, some scotch, and more OBS drunk. Between us, we ate a can of soup each, sharing all four among us as they were all different flavours. Attie and Steph put together a chicken potjie, with couscous for starch, which was very tasty and warmed us all to the bones.


Following dinner, sunset was upon us and the usual evening photos and video were taken. There was a full rainbow in the dying light thanks to the sun in front, and the rain behind us.

Due to the wet and cold, we didn’t stay up much after 7pm (perhaps it was also the alcohol that closed some eyes) and went for the relative warmth of our sleeping bags.


The wind was still blowing but died somewhere through the night. I wanted to do some writing but gave up as Steph and I were sharing my ¾-size inflatable mattress as hers had sprung a leak a day ago, which we could not find. It was too uncomfortable to lie with a headlight on my head, propped up on my right elbow and write left-handed so I decided to try and get some sleep, expecting to hear the lions grumbling into the night and lose some sleep to that.


The night went by quietly, the only noise coming from jackals howling at each other in the near pitch-darkness throughout the night.

Again, I was awake sometime in the early hours, partly because I’d gone to sleep early and also because my arse was on the ground as my mattress had also started deflating. I stayed on the mattress though, thinking that my weight would push the remaining air to Steph’s side and she would be comfortable.

As it happens, the mattress had deflated to such an extent that Steph’s butt was also on the ground, and both our heads and feet were cushioned on the leftover air for the rest of the night.

I didn’t look at my watch to see the time, at any time I’d woken through the night on the whole trip, in case I got disillusioned with the time left before dawn that I’d have to stare at the tent roof light. I prefer to try and fall asleep again instead of tossing and turning for the few hours.

Dawn broke chilly, as the wind had picked up again and the hot coffee was very welcome in our cold hands.

Breaking up camp and, in particular, the tents was done hurriedly as the rain returned and we didn’t quite get everything packed away in time and the tent was damp when we tucked it into its bag for the trip back Twee Rivieren, and our last night in the park.

On the road back to Nossob to meet the rest of our troop, the rain cleared away and the sun came out, making the trip more enjoyable, though we didn’t see much in the way of animals.

Meeting the others, we decided to travel the 220km in convoy, rather than going separate ways. As it turns out, it was probably just as well…

At a leg-stretch stop, I got talking to an elderly guy towing a trailer and it happens to be that he and his wife are on their way to Botswana via the Kaa gate, the way we had just come over the last few days and I told him about the weather he may still experience. In return, he told me we may be in for a treat, as 60km to the south, they had seen three male lions lying very close to the road. Needless to say, the convoy took off in the direction of the sighting, barely at the Park speed limit of 50km/h, to see if we can find them. After roughly an hour, we find nothing and I wonder aloud if the old man hadn’t been “leading us around the bush”, but a few kilometres further we spot two cars close to the road’s edge and are very happy when we see a young male lion lazing in the sun with his two brothers about 15m away, also sleeping.

We pull up slowly, turning off the engine to try and not disturb the sleeping beasts, but the first one raises his head to see what the commotion is and then goes back to sleep.


Cameras are clicking and video is turning as we all take our shots. Aside from the lone lion a week before, and having heard lions almost nightly, these are the only other lions we have seen, and this on the last day in the Park.

While we were watching the sleeping cats, Steph points to two little creatures coming in behind, and to the right of the lions, and asks what they are. I look up from the DVD viewfinder to see two honey badgers (Ratels, in Afrikaans) approaching and think we may be in for some fun. However, the two look like they know there are lions on the other side of the dead tree and give it a wide berth, going off to the left. The first lion, which has since moved in behind his brothers, lifts his head, possibly when he smelled the badgers going past, but looks at them disinterestedly for a while, then lies his head down again.


After about twenty minutes, Attie and us decide to drive on as a couple of us needed to pee and the nearest loo was about 10km further. Johan’s crowd decide to stay a while and take more lion photos.


Episode 5 - last one - coming up