Barberspan 19/10/11 (Day 45)

Long drive here - went on for ever compliments of a slight hangover & road construction with rather long waits at stop and go detours!
Weather has turned - it's windy and mainly overcast with the odd sprinkle of rain. Will be getting out warm clothes and extra blanket. Luis has done so well with all the driving. This is his unwind day prior to the final leg of the journey and the "commence clean and tighten bolt maintenance" on Brutus & The Rad.
The day did brighten up a bit but remained very windy and cold

I read a book and Luis had a well earned kip.
Looking forward to getting home tomorrow!

Pudu Game Lodge, nr Olifantshoek 18/10/11 (Day 44)

The drive from Mata Mata to Twee Rivieren is 120kms on hellishly corrugated roads. It took us 4.5 hours. We had a lovely sighting of a Bat Eared Fox, Cape Fox and pup.

Other than that it was quite quiet.
The intention was to stop for provisions in Upington and then find a campsite just outside the town. The wheels fell off. Firstly we bypassed Upington and did not want to back track into the town centre. So .... no meat! New plan, stop at a lodge just outside Upington and avail ourselves of their dining facilities. Guess what, no lodge, just campsites! Next plan - just drive until we find a lodge..... 150kms later, we pulled into the dump known as Olifantshoek ... First lodge in town (Mala Lodge) - what a dive!!!! Just outside O'hoek a signboard saying "Pudu Game Lodge 15.5 kms" and here we are.
What a gem of a place! Campsite is beautiful but quite a way from the lodge where grub is served so we opted to stay in one of their chalets.
The decor is amazing - so simple but so effective. Natural rock is incorporated in the construction.

The couple who manage this place, Yvonne & Lawrence, are friendly & entertaining. We had a lovely meal and spent more time than planned at the bar!
A group of 15 Portuguese tourists arrived - limited English - Luis to the rescue! Yvonne ran around preparing a late meal for them, then joined us at the bar. We watched the group constantly getting up to replenish their plates and Yvonne was worried that there wouldn't be enough grub but pleased that they were enjoying the impromptu meal. After about an hour she noticed that they only had side plates - she'd forgotten to put the dinner plates out!

Mata Mata 16 & 17/10/11 (Day 42 & 43)

16th
Took us 7 hours to complete 120 kms from Twee Rivieren to Mata Mata!
Usual suspects along the way including jackal and cheetah but had a couple of unusual sightings. First up was Cape Fox with young (actually had two separate sightings of Cape Fox, both with young):

Meerkat Manor ( not that unusual but often don't see them!)

Extra special highlight as there a only a few recorded sightings of the Barn Owl in this area:

Today was owl day. Spotted Eagle Owl sitting on two chicks:

Went round the other side of the tree and one of the chicks popped his head up to see what all the noise was about:

Luis getting arty again - pic of reflection in window. I call it "Withering Heights":

Lovely mild evening.

17th
Bit of a dry run this morning (cat wise). There appears to be less Gemsbok than normal but I suppose they could be lurking over the dunes.
Magnificent creatures.

Mum and chicks were out in the open warming up after a fresh morning.

A lot of breeding vultures, black shouldered kites and tawnies.

Proof that the Kgalagadi roads are hectic! This Xplorer, an off road RV, sheered an axle:

I've been telling Luis not to waste his time taking pics of the wildebeest as their eyes are always shielded which makes the pics boring. Luis had to prove me wrong (correctly) and hence we have A GNU WITH A GLINT!

Back at camp, a wind blew up creating sandstorms of note. Very unpleasant - I shut myself in the rad with everything zipped up & read a book. Luis managed to get this shot from inside the car:

It lasted about 6 hours before it finally blew itself out! After that the evening was most pleasant.

Twee Rivieren 15/10/11 (Day 41)

Pleasant evening, nice & cool - slept well! Springbok were prancing around again. And this strange looking little fella appears to be a "black" (?) springbok:

Once again, the local birdlife soon got acquainted with our bread.
Baby Whitebrowed Sparrow Weaver bleating "feed me, feed me!"

Once at Kgalagadi, we earmarked out site and went out for a drive - bit silly as it was very hot by that time, but you never know.
We have a suspicion that this heron may have been blown off course by the strong winds that have prevailed. Why else would a water bird be in an arid area?

These Secretary Birds were having a territorial dispute at the waterhole:

At Kij Kij waterhole a pride of very sated lions were snoozing. We counted 4 males and 1 female who may have been pregnant. Reasonably sure that there would be more lurking around in the shadows.
Cats obviously do not like getting their feet wet!

Luis getting up to his arty shots again, with some degree of success, I may add!

Posting blog early tonight as not sure how long signal will be with us.

Monate Lodge, nr Upington 14/10/11 (Day 40)

The wind did NOT die down. It kept getting stronger and stronger, blowing dust and debris all over the place! Was still pumping this morning when we woke, albeit not quite as strong.
Last night's sunset and appearance of Evening Star, taken from our campsite:

We went through the border without a hitch, not even a car search after all our efforts to get rid of/consume anything which could be impounded.
Managed to get a booking in Kgalagadi for 3 nights - one at Twee Rivieren, two at Mata Mata.
Stopped off at this venue to break the trip. Luis had already done 600 KM today and it's still a further 260 kms to Twee Rivieren.
This is a lovely place - wide open grass plains but well tended grass in the campsite area. Once again, we are the only souls here! There is a small herd of Springbok in the campsite enclosure. As the sun set, they perked up and started bokking, pronking and running around. They come right up to you - obviously quite humanized. Too dark for pics and flash would destroy the ambience.
Luis got all arty and took this pic of the sunset reflected in Brutus - I rather like it:

Wind is only starting to die down now (19:00). It's still blowing but much more mildly than the rest of the day.
On reflection, 99% of our travelling has been with a headwind or a strong crosswind. Typical!

Norotshama 13/10/11 (Day 39)

Wow, that was one hot, uncomfortable night! We went to bed at 21:00, temperature was 38 deg. Just before dawn it had dropped to 21 deg. We still managed to sleep, though.
As suspected, the lighting is still too harsh by the time it hits the mountains.
Our campsite is under a large, shady tree. It would appear to be the favourite tree for a variety of small birds to raise their young. There is a constant bleating from the little ones begging for food. Spadgies, White Eyes, Bulbuls, Robins .... They all have their say.
A flock of swifts paid us a visit going after the 'orrible, biting, black flies. They don't call them "swifts" for nothing. After 100 attempts, I managed to capture 2 workable shots!

No mean feat!
Another hot day. I spent mine in the pub (beautifully air-conditioned); Luis spent his fishing - caught 7 yellows.
At about 15:00 the wind blows up a storm. It's hectic but should die down again around 19:00. We have no meals left so will be eating at the lodge tonight. It was planned that way in order that we would have no cross border meat! (Having lost our meat twice, we weren't going to risk it again!!!)

Norotshama, nr Noordoewer 12/10/11 (Day 38)

Luis experimented with his camera on bulb mode and a torch to "paint" a quiver tree. I think this would work really well on a dark night but with the full moon, it was almost daylight! It's still quite a nice effect.

Quite a few barking geckos appeared by our light to reap the bonus insect benefit.

Fell asleep to the trilling of Rufous Cheeked Nightjars (thanks, yet again, Sasol Birds!)
On the way out of the camp we came across more love birds.

For a distance of about 150kms on the main road to this venue, there were loads and loads of geckos on the road. Luis managed to dodge most of them! We're guessing that they were out for the dead butterflies (100's of them, as well).
This is a lovely venue. Shady sites, grassy lawns, river view and mountain vista. Lighting is a bit harsh at present, will try for a "softer" shot later.

We have a lapa/braai/conversation pit leading off the site

Lovely swimming pool just off the pub! Guess where we are when Luis is not fishing!
The sun sets behind the mountains we look on to so I'm guessing that the lighting should be good tomorrow morning (although there's mountains to the east of us which will probably delay sunrise).

The above was taken latish afternoon.
Yeehah, Luis caught another fish (actually two - the first was a barbel which he released). I must add, at this point, that Luis is fishing about 500m away. I get the royal summons per cell phone, have to grab the camera, lock the car, close the Rad and briskly walk said 500m in the searing heat only to be asked "what took you so long?" - me not happy camper!

Din dins tonight is Mamelodi Microwave on Luis' homemade stand, note the homemade lid lifter, as well. Not to be outdone, please also note the potato portion that got away, front left off centre!

Quiver Tree Forest Rest Camp, nr Keetmanshoop 11/10/11 (Day 37)

Woke to a beautiful sunrise

We are miles away from anyone (still @ Anib), so one tends to prance around scantily clad to say the least. There's something deliciously decadent about showering in the open and walking around naked in the bush.

Arrived at Quiver Tree in the heat of the midday sun (in retrospect that's pretty much the norm!).

I finally managed to capture the elusive love bird (sort of) - there were three of them and it took much stealth to get anywhere near enough to try and capture a pic.

The minute I got closer, he took off. This is not the most brilliant pic and framing is really bad, but given how quick the little blighter was, I'm quite chuffed:

They have a Cheetah project here which afforded us a photo opportunity. In total, they have 7 cheetah ranging in age from 1 year to the old girl whose 17. Ali, one of the 1 year old brothers:

Talk about being caught 'twixt & 'tween - awesome moonrise on one side:

While sun was setting on other:

Ah, all is good in Africa!

Kalahari Anib Lodge, nr Mariental 10/10/11 (Day 36)

Had a lovely meal last night. Luis had prawns, they were huge, pink and firm. I had crumbed chicken breast with a pineapple sauce. Yum! Luis had his promised bottle of wine, a Meerkat Pinotage! Whole bill, with tip, was R260 - excellent value. We spotted a small herd of Nyala on the walk to the restaurant. Also, a stunning sunset over the lake - needless to say we did not have any cameras with us.

Had a couple of common waxbills pop in to scoff some bread:

A yellow billed duck gracing us with his presence

Anib has a baby Zebra (4 mnths), orphaned at birth - her best pal is a male sheep and a warthog.

It's a lovely place so reminiscent of Kgalagadi which is about 350kms away. Red dunes, creamy grasses, stunted thorn trees.

We had a Bokmakierie hanging around our campsite with his tuneful, piercing whistle.

There were 100's of these little butterflies gracefully alighting on the large flowers of the Black Thorn

The Bokkies were bucking

Ostrich eggs are phenomenally strong and much heavier than we expected

Luis doing his wifely (ostrich) duties:

Had a four course meal at the lodge, scrumptious. Kitchen staff did their dance & song routine - very entertaining.