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Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Namibia & South Africa, July – August 2024
Day 23 – Aug 2: Sossusvlei – Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
A long drive, but through some incredible scenery! Particularly the first 2 hours or so towards Marienburg is spectacular. Then a couple of hours through a bit boring monotonous scenery, followed by again a fantastic drive through the Auob river basin, all the way to the border post right before the Mata Mata Rest Camp. The border post is with South Africa; although the Mata Mata Rest Camp and immediate surroundings are still Namibia, most of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier lies in South Africa, which is also managing the park.
At the border post they asked to see our reservation for the park accommodation. It’s only then that I realized we didn’t have a reservation for today…! In our initial itinerary we were planning to drive to Windhoek first, together with Willem-Jan and Willeke, spend the night there and then the next day to the Kgalagadi…! But ever since we had decided to go direct to the park, but I forgot to book an extra night..!
Long story short, immigration didn’t let us into the park, unless we had a confirmed booking for today. They suggested I’d walk to the park’s office, just 100 meters further down the road, and try to book for the night. We were lucky…! The park is normally completely fully booked months in advance, but it turned out they had exactly 1 camping spot available, due to a cancellation… I then had to rush back to immigration, as they close at 4pm; I ran into their office with literally 3 minutes left..! All good.
We dropped our tables and chairs at our camping spot and decided to drive straight into the park, as we still had an hour and a half to explore the park, before gates would close.
Our first impressions of the park confirmed what I was hoping for: an incredible scenery of dry river basins with scattered Camelthorn and Shepherd’s trees, lined by hills covered with shrub and the famous Kalahari red sand dunes, sparsely covered by gold-colored Bushman’s Grass.
We returned to camp just before the gates closed, had a quick dinner and then prepared for the night… The Kgalagadi gets very cold at night this time of the year, usually well below zero. We used all 6 sleeping bags, and layered ourselves with cloths… It got super cold indeed!
Day 24 – Aug 3: Mata Mata Rest Camp area
We woke up early morning, as we wanted to be amongst the first to enter the park as soon as the park’s gates opened, at 7am. In most of the parks it’s always like that: the most serious safari-goers want to be ahead of the “crowds”, although in the Kgalagadi there are no real crowds as accommodation is very limited. The hope is then to spot some of the mostly nocturnal wildlife that is on its way to a place to sleep, for instance Brown Hyena, or the early hunters such as for instance lions and cheetah.
On top of our “target” list are the famous black-maned lions of the Kalahari desert. Followed by cheetah and hopefully leopards, although leopards are a relative rare sight in the park; they are mostly active at night. Far in the back on my mind I was dreaming of seeing a Brown Hyena as well, although in this park the chance of seeing one is incredibly slim… Well, at least the black-maned lions would mean everything to us, the rest will be “bonus”..!
We were back in our camp around 11, for a little siesta and lunch. Despite the cold nights the days still get pretty warm, usually in the low 30s. Most wildlife is then resting somewhere in the shade of trees, and so do we. At 2.30 we left camp for our afternoon drive.
There are lots of man-made waterholes in the park, and this is often where wildlife is hanging out in the area. It’s the lifeline for most animals, where water is pumped from the ground and then flows into some small man-made concrete ponds. So usually you drive from waterhole to waterhole, scouting the surroundings and horizons for any animals.
A good and productive afternoon drive, with lots of different wildlife. No lions yet… But plenty of days to come, so no worries. Back to camp, for another cold evening and night… Minus 6!
Day 25 – Aug 4: Mata Mata Rest Camp – Twee Rivieren Rest Camp
Time to move to our next camp, Twee Rivieren in the far south of the park. We were not in a rush though, and decided to take most of the day driving to check out the waterholes along the route. At 7am sharp we were on our way, hoping we had more luck finding lions nearby..!
We had an excellent start of the day, when we found a herd of Blue Wildebeests. We had hardly found a good spot to have a closer look when all of a sudden they started to chase each other in circles, kicking up a lot of dust. All right in front of us, making for a great spectacle!
The chasing was followed by different pairs of males fighting each other to determine dominance, kicking up more dust. We really enjoyed these wildebeests, which are usually just slowly grazing around. But this was an awesome sighting!
We reached Twee Rivieren Rest Camp around noon. This camp is by far the largest in the park, and the main entrance for South Africans. We checked in and picked a camping spot, where we will spend the next 2 nights.
Twee Rivieren, or Two Rivers, is named after the confluence of 2 rivers, the Auob and the Nossob. Both rivers have their source in Namibia, but here in the southern part of the park the Nossob River forms the border between South Africa and Botswana. Both rivers are dry, and only fill with water after extreme and long rainfall further north in the Kalahari desert, which only happens a few times in a century!
After our lunch we left for our afternoon drive. We decided to drive a loop, first back through the Auob riverbed from where we came, and then turn east through the red sand dunes to the Nossob riverbed. From there back south to Twee Rivieren.
A long day with a lot of driving, but the ever changing scenery and abundance of wildlife made it so worth it! The scenery in the south of the park is quite different from the north, and particularly the red sand dunes in between both riverbeds is spectacular. But still no lions…! We put our hope on tomorrow.
Day 26 – Aug 5: Twee Rivieren Rest Camp area
Today we had a full day to explore the area around Twee Rivieren. Apparently there have not been any sightings of lions here recently, but we never give up hope. So again we were amongst the first ones through the gate, with our usual high hopes!
Right out of the gate it was clear we were going to have a spectacular sunrise. After a very cold night the river basin was covered in a blanket of thick morning mist, with the usual blue skies above. This was going to be awesome, we knew that from a previous trip to Namibia! So we decided to just drive very slow and enjoy the morning show.
What an awesome start of the day! We had happily given up to keep driving in the hope of lions on the road, which is our usual morning routine.
Time to continue our drive up north, through the Nossob riverbed.
We soon saw a single car stationary along the road. We scanned the area next to the car, but saw no animals. So we slowly drove next to the car, and asked the two ladies in the car if they saw anything special. “We earlier saw three cheetahs hunting, but they failed! They are now behind that ridge”, pointing in the distance. “we hope they show up again”. And so did we, so we decided to park just behind the ladies, scanning the ridge with our binoculars… Nothing.
Slowly more cars arrived and joined the wait. Some stayed a couple of minutes, others half an hour. Eventually the two ladies gave up and drove off as well. We were the only ones who stayed put, not giving up hope…
Then suddenly some commotion: two jackals were sneaking along our side of the ridge, clearly interested in something on the other side. A couple of eagles also appeared from behind the ridge, circling around… I instantly knew what was going on! The cheetahs did NOT fail in their hunt. They were successful, and must be on their kill just behind the ridge, while the jackals and eagles are waiting to pick up some scraps once the cheetahs are done…!
And yes, suddenly a cheetah came from behind the ridge, slowly walking a bit towards the road we were on. Two other cheetahs followed…! It was a mother with her two large young. Their faces covered in blood…!
Unfortunately the cheetahs didn’t come much closer and eventually disappeared in the thick bush a bit further up the ridge… But what an exciting experience! We spent more than an hour waiting, and this was our reward! Not great photos, as the distance was too far. But a memorable sighting nevertheless!
We continued our drive through the Nossob riverbed, for a well-deserved lunch break at the Melkvlei picnic site.
After our picnic lunch we decided to drive the same loop as yesterday, but in reverse direction. We really enjoyed that scenic road through the red sand dunes, even though wildlife seemed a bit sparse along the road.
Our full day safari drive came to an end; what a day! The misty morning sunrise spectacle and the cheetahs… But still no lions. Tomorrow we are going to move camp again, to Nossob, a small camp site further north.
Day 27 – Aug 6: Twee Rivieren Rest Camp – Nossob Rest Camp
Nossob is a small rest camp, but extremely popular. Initially I could not get a booking there, but eventually one night became available; I didn’t hesitate and booked the place. I really had high hopes for some great wildlife encounters, as the area around Nossob is known for regular sightings of lions as well as leopards. Would we finally get lucky…?!
First things first: checking out the area where we saw the cheetahs yesterday..! But no cheetahs… We then drove slowly along the dry riverbed northwards, checking out every waterhole along the route, as well as painstakingly scanning the riverbed for any signs of lions…
It was past 10 o’clock and we literally didn’t see anything interesting. It was getting warm, and we slowly felt a bit meh… There weren’t many cars driving along this part of the riverbed either. So when we finally saw a stationary car ahead of us we immediately got excited again..! We stopped next to the car, and again two women rolled down their window. We asked what they saw. “We saw a leopard! It was quite far away, but we followed it for half an hour walking through the riverbed. It has just disappeared in the thick bush on the other side of the riverbed”. I thought “damned…! We are (again) too late…”
We thanked the ladies, who decided to continue their drive northwards as well. What do we do…? Silly question. We stay put, and wait… Patience usually pays off. The chance of the leopard showing itself again is probably larger than the chance finding lions or another leopard further down the road, this time of the day..!
Well, it didn’t take too long… “There he is!”, yelled Mega. She has such a good eyesight, and is so good at spotting animals nowadays. Amazing! It took me a minute to finally see the leopard, all the way across the riverbed, pretty far away. This was the best photo I could take, as the hot air in the riverbed was distorting everything too much…!
The leopard continued its journey through the riverbed, occasionally marking some trees. We slowly drove parallel to the leopard, but it didn’t come any closer… Almost half an hour. What do we do? I then noticed on my GPS map that the road ahead turned a bit more into the riverbed, and that the riverbed was narrowing. I was hoping that over there we would get closer to the leopard, so we drove ahead and parked where I was estimating we would get close, IF the leopard would continue in the exact direction it was going. I saw no reason why it would not continue in more or less a straight line! And it didn’t…!
We were super thrilled! Here we are, all alone with no other cars in sight, and the leopard rewarded our patience by crossing the road exactly where I was hoping it would! I had hoped she would stop for a second and look at us, but that would have been too much to ask… She crossed the road and kept walking, slowly up the ridge on the other side of the road. We slowly drove alongside her, until she finally disappeared on the other side of the ridge. What an experience; our first leopard in the park, and so up close!
Well, after the first couple of hours of today with so little action, this certainly made our day!
I later was in contact with the Kalahari Leopard Project, who are studying the leopard population in the park. They identified this female leopard as Namabies, an older female. She has an injured right eye, most likely due to running through a thorny bush; quite a common injury amongst leopards. But she’s been doing fine and it doesn’t seem to affect her hunting skills.
We continued our drive to the Nossob Rest Camp and picked our camping spot. What a nice little intimate camp! No wonder this camp is so popular and hard to book… And lots of birds.
We had lunch and a little siesta, and then decided to explore some waterholes north of the camp, which apparently are great for lion sightings…! Would we finally be lucky…?
We drove up to a great view point with 360 degrees views of the entire surroundings, including a long stretch of the riverbed. We scanned the entire area, but no lions. So we decided to continue and check out the next 2 or 3 waterholes along the route. And soon we were lucky! Fresh lion tracks on the road! We followed them for quite some distance along the road, but eventually the tracks disappeared in the bush. Would they be at one of the next waterholes…?
No lions at the first 2 waterholes; onwards to the next waterhole. Then we noticed a pair of vultures in a tree near the road. Vultures are always a good sign, as they usually follow hunting lions, to feed on the leftovers.
But no sign of any lions… What to do..? Continue to the next waterhole..? Nope. I told myself that it was obvious lions were in the area between us and the Nossob camp, and their tracks we saw earlier were really fresh. So they can’t be far, so we decided to head back towards Nossob and continue our search, first again at the Cubitje Quap waterhole.
Still no lions, and as it was getting close to sunset we decided to check out the Marie Se Draai waterhole, south of Nossob.
And so the day came to an end. Of course the highlight was absolutely the great leopard sighting, but it would have been awesome if we could have topped off the day with lions! We felt so close to finding them; they must be around…
Day 28 – Aug 7: Nossob Rest Camp – Bitterpan Wilderness Camp
At night we heard lions roar, very close to the camp! So they were absolutely still nearby, perhaps they were hunting last night…? The roaring came from north of the camp, so we decided to visit the Cubitje Quap waterhole again. This waterhole is well known for the large flocks of visiting sandgrouse and doves and raptors and jackals hunting them, but also lions often visit for a drink.
It was rather disappointing to find out there were no lions… So again to the Kwang waterhole.
No lions at Kwang… And we didn’t have much time left to search, as today we had to drive to our next destination, the Bitterpan Wilderness Camp, and we did not want to do that too late in the day. So we decided to drive back to Nossob Rest Camp, and carefully scan the area one more time for lions…
And then, right next to the Cubitje Quap waterhole, lions! We couldn’t believe it, our perseverance paid off, again..! Two female lions, still with their faces covered in blood, were grooming each other.
So it was clear these lions had a successful hunt earlier this morning, or indeed last night. The tracks we saw on the road the previous day seemed to be of more lions, including some cubs. So probably the rest of the pride was nearby, and most likely still at the site of their kill.
The females eventually left, heading towards the Nossob camp. We followed, until they disappeared in thick bush. We were of course hoping to see the rest of the pride, and the black-maned males…
Time to drive back to Nossob Rest Camp and report ourselves for the drive to the Bitterpan Wilderness Camp. The road to this camp is only accessible for guests of this wilderness and you have to report to the rangers who then open the fence to the road.
The Bitterpan Wilderness Camp has only 4 canvas tents on a wooden deck, overlooking a small salt pan and man-made waterhole. This camp is one of the most popular places in the park and always completely fully booked a year in advance, but we were extremely fortunate that less than a month ago a tent became available due to a cancellation. I booked it right away, as I knew it would be a highlight of our stay in the Kgalagadi! And a night we didn’t have to put up our own tent…
Normally our days ended shortly after sunset, with a barbecue dinner, or braai, and an early night in the roof top tent on top of our car. But not tonight! The waterhole here is popular with leopards and lions, and with such great views over the waterhole right from our terrace we were planning to stay awake as long as possible, hoping for some night-time thirsty visitors..!
We had hardly finished our barbecue dinner and I was still cleaning up the braai. All of a sudden a leopard came walking through the tall grass left of our tent, and walked to the waterhole…!
After drinking the leopard literally walked straight towards our terrace and passed me within 2 meters, with only a meter high fence separating us..! Super exciting! The leopard didn’t even look up at me and disappeared in the tall grass at the other side of our tent…
What a great start of the night; ready for more excitement!
Barely an hour had passed, and another dream came true! A Brown Hyena came from the same direction as the leopard, and walked straight to the waterhole. Brown Hyenas are not extremely rare in the park, but they are mostly nocturnal and therefore rarely seen. At Bitterpan they are seen at most once or twice a month, so we were extremely lucky..!
What else could we dream off…! First a leopard, then a Brown Hyena. Well, the answer was of course “a male lion”..!
We spend another few hours on our terrace, but eventually the night won; I fell asleep in my chair… To only be woken up by other guests, with whom we had agreed to walk each other up when something was happening at the waterhole. “Lion! There was a male lion at the waterhole, it has just left and behind your tent!” We ran to the other side of our tent, where I just got a glimpse of the back of the lion… And he was gone. “Damned”, I thought quietly… I fell asleep..! But who would have thought a leopard, brown hyena and then a male lion would visit the waterhole, one after another…?
Day 29 – Aug 8: Bitterpan Wilderness Camp – Mata Mata Rest Camp
After a very short night sleep we woke up early, hoping to still see something of interest at the waterhole. It was quiet though, so I decided to look around the camp a bit, when it slowly started to get a bit lighter. Then, all of sudden I spotted something, hiding behind a little tree trunk about 30 meters from our tent. Another leopard… Looking straight at me! It slowly sneaked through the tall grass, inching closer to me without taking it eyes off me. I called Mega. The leopard then sat up, scanning the surroundings of the camp.
While we were watching the leopard a few other guests in the tent next to us just woke up, and a lady was heading towards the little gate of the fence around the camp, to their car.
The leopard then continued sneaking towards the gate… It was clearly stalking, and in hunting mode…! I ran up to the unsuspecting lady and said “don’t go out of the fence, there’s a leopard, clearly stalking us!” Just in time… The leopard sneaked between our parked cars, and came straight up to the fence! It was less than 2 meters from us. I’ve been around leopards before, on foot and without fence in between. But this was different..! This leopard was not afraid of people at all, and on a mission…! We all backed off a bit…
The leopard then turned and walked around our bathroom, where Mega was standing, behind an only meter tall fence. The leopard walked straight to her, to within a meter, and then looked ready to jump…! That’s when I yelled at Mega “get into the bathroom!”, while I went into our tent to get my camera tripod. At least I had something to protect us with, in case the leopard would really jump..! It was the first time in my life I was getting a little bit worried being so close to a apex predator…!
The leopard then walked again around our bathroom to the main gate of the camp, where the other guests had gathered. I guess when the leopard realized we were now all very aware of its presence it slowly walked away and disappeared in the tall grass. It got the message that there was nothing to hunt for… What a thrilling start of the day!
Bitterpan is indeed a true wilderness camp! I later learnt from people involved in a leopard census and identification project that this young female leopard was the same individual as we saw the evening before. I had submitted some photos to the project and these were actually the first photos of her. She has temporarily been given the code name L-229 and was seen again at the camp a few months later.
So this leopard actually came back to the camp after visiting the waterhole the night before. A rather disturbing finding, as it means this leopard is indeed not afraid of people and may see guests in the camp as potential prey.
I have reported our experience to the park’s authorities, as I believe in the future this leopard may become a real threat to oblivious guests in the camp. I can’t imagine what could have happened if the lady I warned not to go to her car had indeed gone through the fence. She would have walked straight into the leopard, checking out the cars…! The park authorities have not come back to me…
Time for breakfast, and enjoy sunrise over the pan and waterhole. What an exciting start of the day!
Soon the flocks of Ring-necked Doves and Namaque Sandgrouse arrived at the waterhole. An awesome sight, as flocks of hundreds of birds take turns to decent on the small waterhole for a drink!
It was time to leave the camp, and slowly make our way through the red sand dunes towards to Auob riverbed and again to the Mata Mata Rest Camp, for our last night in the park. We were hoping to catch up with the male lion who had visited the waterhole last night…! As despite all the great sightings we had so far, the black-maned male lions were not yet checked on our wish list…
Again no lions…! We arrived at Mata Mata Rest Camp just before noon, checked in and had lunch. After a little siesta we drove out again, for our last afternoon in the park… Checking out the now familiar waterholes in the area, with our last hope to find a male lion…!
Two years ago a wildfire raged through parts of the Auob riverbed and burnt a lot of trees in the riverbed. Some of these trees will recover, but the draught and fire was so intense that even some of the most fire resistant trees did not survive. This created an eery landscape in the most affected parts of the riverbed. These wildfires are natural, and in the long run beneficial.
We were slowly giving up hope to see one of the famous black-maned male lions in the park. So we decided to just enjoy our last afternoon and appreciate whatever we would come across!
The sun was setting, it was time to go back to camp, for our last braai and evening. The next day we had to drive back to Windhoek…
Day 30 – Aug 9: Mata Mata Rest Camp – Windhoek
Our last morning in the bush..! We had carefully calculated the time we needed to drive back to Windhoek and return our car on time at the car rental company. We were pretty confident that we could still spend an hour and a half in the park, so we decided to enjoy one last short morning drive to some of the nearby waterholes!
We again had some hope… And rushed from waterhole to waterhole: Sitsas, Craig Lockhart, Dalkeith… Nothing. Almost an hour had passed. Time for one more waterhole…? OK, the last one, and then we really had to turn around and leave the park. Up to Veertiende Boorgat…
And would you believe it…?!?! About a kilometer before we reached the waterhole a male lion was walking on the road, heading towards the waterhole!!! Mega and I looked at each other, with tears in our eyes! We really couldn’t believe it… This is how the park and its lions reward perseverance!
Then we saw another lion a bit further down the road, a female. The male lion was probably wounded, as it had a hard time walking and could not keep up with the female ahead of him. We slowly followed him from behind.
While we were slowly following the male lion another car joined us from behind, obviously as excited as we were! As we wanted to give them a better look at the lion we decided to slowly pass the male lion, driving slowly passed him and trying to keep as much distance as the road allowed us. We drove 50 meters ahead of the lion and then waited for him to walk towards us, for some head-on photos.
The male then left the road, and disappeared into the bush…! Oh no, too soon…! Did he follow the female? We drove towards the waterhole, to check if the female had disappeared in the bushes as well. But no, she was still heading towards the waterhole!
So we decided to drive back a bit, as I was sure the male was going to appear again. And he did! I must just have checked out the other side of the ridge, perhaps to check on other male lions.
As it was now clear that both lions were heading to the waterhole we decided to find a good spot to park our car close to the waterhole and let the rest of the action unfold in front of us, not wanting to know the time and fact we actually had to leave the park…
The female seemed not very interested in the male, who had a hard time keeping up. He hadn’t reached the waterhole yet, while the female already disappeared over the edge of the ridge… The male then slowly appeared walking through the riverbed, equally ignoring the herd of Springbok. The Springbok weren’t so sure though he would leave them alone, and kept running around to keep their distance.
Finally the male lion made it to the waterhole. He had a good drink and then continued in the direction the female disappeared, but not before giving us a good look and showing how beautiful he still was!
Mega and I looked at each other, still with tears in our eyes. We hugged, and knew we were rewarded for our patience, perseverance and growing knowledge of how to make a safari trip as successful as possible!
The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park had long been on my bucket list of safari destinations, particularly to see the black-maned lions. Little did I know that it actually wasn’t as easy as I thought, to actually see them! But after a slow start of spectacular wildlife sightings the park eventually delivered big time, and rewarded us in the same way as many other parks have rewarded us before! We agreed we will come back, sooner than later, for an even longer stay and hopefully much more time to spend with these resilient and awesome Kalahari desert lions!
We rushed back to the Mata Mata park entrance, for a long non-stop drive back to Windhoek, where we arrived just in time to return our car, our safari home for the last 30 days!
WE WILL BE BACK !
Other Trip Reports from Africa
Namibia & Botswana - 2018
Tanzania - 2015
You still have Africa on your bucket list?
Are you still dreaming of an authentic, original and adventurous safari experience?
Do you like this type of safari adventure, or perhaps a bit more comfort?
Do you not want to organise such a trip all by yourself?
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Do you want to see more wildlife than others?
Then reach out to me to discuss!