Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park Safari - Episode 5 - final

At the loo stop, I am looking through the binoculars for cheetahs on the flat, dry, riverbed but stumble upon another Cape Cobra hunting in the same fashion as the one before, except that this one is in a dead tree lying horizontal on the ground. It’s longer than the first one and must be over 2m in length. I take some shaky video and we see a young Martial Eagle in a tree about 50m away from the snake, looking about, and we hope it takes a dive at the snake as they are a regular meal for these raptors. Instead, the eagle flies directly over the snake and carries on gaining height, eventually disappearing from view.


Back into the vehicles, suitably relieved, we find a group of vehicles, occupants staring up into a large tree and I get a sighting of a Giant Eagle Owl, the one item I really wanted to see on our visit to the Park. As it happens, it’s the last animal of interest we see on the entire trip and those of us who had wanted to see something in particular, except for a lion kill, have all seen our choices.


We had forgotten about the extra distance the forced detour to Twee Rivieren would add to our trip out of the reserve and had to put our feet down when our distance suddenly doubled. Thankfully, we make it out of the gate before closing time at 6pm and proceed to set up camp, picking a site where we would get all three tents up in the same area so that we could socialise on our last night together in the Park.

Attie and I don’t think Johan will make it out by 6pm but are shocked to see him pull up with about ten minutes to spare. At times, they must have had to travel at up to 80km/h to make the cut-off time and they are lucky there are no speed traps in the Park, and didn’t hit any animals either.

The evening isn’t as cold as previous nights had been in Twee Rivieren, but maybe that had something to do with the Captain Morgan and Coke I was putting away like juice. The only two evenings I’ve had anything more than two drinks (except for Polentswa in the rain) are both nights in Twee Rivieren. The camp is outside of the reserve so you don’t have animals you need to keep in mind or worry about whether they might drag you from your tent if you’ve passed out and forgotten to zip up the door. I always wanted to be aware of my surroundings and too many drinks would have taken that away.

We build a fire fro ma bag of wood that Rea had bought earlier and we manage to keep it going for a few hours. I sit up to watch it to its last few embers and to finish my drink, then head to the sleeping bag at about 22h30, having seen some amazing star patterns in the black night, moonless for the past week.

We all sleep until 07h30, or thereabouts, and make a big pot of coffee to warm our hands in the cool morning air as the temperature had dropped overnight and there had been a heavy dew fall. All our tents were wet between the tent and covering flysheet and we had to let them dry out in the sunrays before packing them away for the very last time on the trip.

Johan’s trio left a half hour ahead of us, once all the drivers had filled diesel tanks and pumped tyres back to normal running pressures, as they wanted to visit a lodge a little way down the road home.

After getting our final park checkout signature and stamp, we hit the road to Upington, a boring 226km away.


We were about halfway to Upington when a familiar vehicle shape pulled up behind, then overtook, us. It was Johan, whose visit had run a little longer than planned and he was trying to make up some time, pushing the Pajero on the tarmac. As expected, Anna had her video camera in hand and filmed us as they passed, waving furiously. That was the last time we saw them on the road and I hope their trip ended safely.

We stopped in Keimoes for some more biltong, the butchery located at a strange place, next to a funeral parlour. Some questions are better not asked…

We then headed for Brandvlei, where we were going to rent a chalet for the night instead of camping, but when we got there and filled the fuel tanks, decided we didn’t want to spend the night there and moved on to Calvinia, still an hour and a half away.

We arrived there just before dark, saw the name of a Bed & Breakfast (“Rolbos” – Tumbleweed), then drove around a while looking for a place off the main road. After thirty minutes or so, we ended up back at Rolbos as it looked the most homely and secure for our packed vehicles.

Speaking to Joey, the proprietor, or at least listening to her as she did all the talking with us nodding agreement or smiling politely most of the time, she drove us around to a house she was letting two blocks away from the main road. It was perfect for us as we were the only occupants for the night. Joey also recommended a restaurant, Myl250, and when she discovered our vehicles could only carry two people because of the loads, offered us the use of her own bakkie for the evening. Such hospitality is rare these days and you’ll only get it in little towns like this. On top of that, she only wanted payment the following morning, so she trusted us on all levels and didn’t even ask for a phone number or address.

Dinner at Myl250 was very good, with three of us having a burger and Steph having a roast baby chicken. We also had some reasonably tasting, cheap, table wine and a couple of beers to start with.

All told, it worked out to about ZAR150 per person for dinner and drinks, including a double scotch for me and Irish coffees for the rest at the end of the meal. Good value, I thought.

Back at the house, Steph had a scotch with Attie and I, while Rea went to bed to read. Steph then also went to bed and Attie and I sat through another round of scotches before retiring ourselves. Attie had won the coin toss earlier, so they had the only double bed in the house, while Steph and I had single beds to sleep in for our first night in a bed in two weeks. Regardless, it was good to be on a firm mattress instead of an inflatable one (or the ground, for that matter), even if I did wake up and stare at the ceiling, as usual.

Eventually, I took a look at my watch and was stupefied to see that it was already almost 08h00. The blinds had darkened the dawn to such an extent that it looked like it was still much earlier than it was.

We all showered, packed our few things back in the vehicles and Steph and I went to pay Joey while Attie went to the Supa-Quick to have a slow puncture fixed. Amazingly, this was our only vehicle problem in over 3,760km on the trip, over some very good and very, very bad roads. We also had to go back to Myl250 as Steph had left her reading glasses there the night before, which the staff had just found when we phoned to find out if they were open.

“Myl250” is called as such because Calvinia is supposedly 250 miles from any of the other towns around it.

After a springbok pie and strong black coffee for breakfast at The Hantam House, a converted stable by the look of it, Attie’s car was ready and we headed out onto the road again for the last, long, stretch to home.

This last piece of the trip was long and boring, but there was some picturesque scenery to remember, most notably the ocean as we came over Chapman’s Peak, a few kilometres from home. We briefly stopped in at Attie and Rea’s place to say thanks to them (again) for organising and inviting us on the trip of a lifetime.

You could feel the relief in the Mazda-rati as we pulled into our driveway just after 4pm, having been on, and off, the road for a day over two weeks.

While there is a lot we will miss, being back in the city, it is good to be home again and we’re looking forward to our next major adventure, which, we think, may be Namibia next year sometime.

I’ve enjoyed spending time with Attie and Rea, down to earth people in all respects and chatting about technical stuff, vehicles and otherwise, with Attie.

We are both glad to have met three other people we can now call “friend” and will be organising a get-together sometime soon to view the photos and videos. Johan and Mariet may soon be moving to Simonstown, also where Anna lives, to retire so I’m also looking forward to fishing with Johan. Although he prefers boats, he is also a keen angler. I’m sure we’ll have many a get-together in the future.

I also learned a lot about myself in that I took our personal security to heart and didn’t always know what to do in some situations (like the hyena episode) but learned how to handle them safely.

Thanks to Attie, I also learned to handle my 4x4 better and am more confident in its capabilities and my handling of them.

In closing, there are a few thoughts I want to share with whoever reads these ramblings…


Water – it is not to be wasted. When you have very little of it to carry out even the most basic of tasks (washing dishes), you realise how precious it is and that the water saving adverts are not talking crap.

Food – you can survive on a lot less than you would normally eat at home, and still eat sufficiently to not feel hungry afterwards.

Home – the security of a home comes to the fore when you are out camping in a wilderness reserve with very little protection around you. Too bad there are others who still want to take our homes away from us in this day and age.

Time – the old adage that time should not be wasted rings true out in the bush. It should be used wisely and to maximum effect. If you have some time on your hands and know someone who could use some assistance, give them your time. It became apparent how much time the home daily tasks took from us when we were out in the bush surviving the elements.

Lastly…

Hygiene – it’s okay to have a fifteen-second bos-kak instead of a fifteen-minute throne-dump at home as the results are the same, except you don’t come away with pins and needles in your legs in the bush…


I urge everyone to undertake a safari like this, at least once. You will learn more about yourself in two weeks than you think possible...