Kalahari
Gemsbok National Park
February
5th, 2002
After
a quick, but delicious breakfast we drive on eastward on the C16. In Klein
Menasse we cross the border to South Africa. The officer is a real nice guy and
tells us that will meet again in 4 years - while the World Soccer Championship
2006 in Germany - and smiles. In the early afternoon we reach 0the Kalahari
Gemsbok Park via the R31 and R360. As we are about to register at the park
entrance we notice a faint gas stench. Through a small hole in the tank gas
pours in the sand, probably since two hours. Fortunately the park has a garage
where the tank is welded. After all this trouble we check out our bungalow in
Twee Rivieren which is equipped with an air condition. We relax a bit and have a
Savannah. In the early evening we take part in a night tour through the
actual park, that is
normally
closed at this time of day. The park stretches over 9510 km2 and was
united with the Botswanan Gemsbok National Park (28500 km2) in 1999
to form one of the biggest protected ecosystems, the Kgalagadi
Transfrontier Park.
We
are pretty curious what we will discover and are happy about every animal we
spot. As it becomes dark bright halogen spots are directed in the bush and we
suddenly detect pairs of eyes everywhere. Most of the belong to black backed
jackals and their food, the spring hares. Andrew, our guide, explains
that a year ago the tour was taking part in a different area of the park, but
the jackals there found out that the spring hares were blinded by
the light beams and therefore easy victims. After a while the number of hares
dropped massively. Later that evening we see herds of Oryx and Blue
Wildebeest, a few owls and two smaller wild cats. After our return to the
bungalow we sit on the patio and enjoy the starry night.
February
6th, 2002
This
morning we get up a bit earlier since we plan to do a long trip through the
park. After breakfast Steffen, Geraldine and I get started taking along a huge
picnic box. Gudi wants to relax in the camp. It looks like it's going to be a
nice, but hot day. At the gate we leave our tour plan (for the case we're not
back in time) and follow the dried out river bed of the "Twee Rivieren" (two
rivers) Auob and Nossob. Right behind the gate we discover the
first animals...
The
landscape here looks like an overgrown desert, sand dunes with bushes. As we
enter the river bed of the Auob the surface suddenly becomes green. Even
though the rivers are dried out there must be sub-surfacial water. From time to
time we pass water holes that filled by wind mill driven pumps. These are
remains of the time when this all was farm land and they still attract many
animals to this part of the park that can be discovered by car. Right away we
see a herd of springbok followed by a big herd of Blue Wildebeest out of which
two animals break free and chase down the valley.
The road now follows the river bed and so we see herd after herd and big
birds like secretary birds and bustards. As we drive around a curve we don't
really believe what we see: a cheetah just strolls across the road not
distracted by us or the herd of springbok to its left.
We see a lot of animals on our trip through the park. We take the first cut-off
to the Nossob river bed and follow it back to our camp at Twee
Rivieren. After a total of 123 km we reach our bungalow in the early
afternoon. We relax a bit on the patio and later go for dinner at the local
restaurant.
February
7th, 2002
Today
Steffen and Gudi want to stay at the camp while Geraldine and I get up at 5:30am
to experience the sunrise in the park. At 6am the gate opens and go for another
safari. As we enter the Auob valley we can see no animals, probably
they're all still asleep ;-))
Shortly later we see the first jackals that are curious and come a bit closer.
We
keep on driving towards Mata Mata, the second camp in the park. Here we
were told we would have good chances to spot giraffes that were freed just a
year ago. And indeed - we spot a herd of about 15 giraffes.
We
can't take our eyes off those huge animals and stay for an hour. Then we drive
to Mata Mata where we have a picnic for lunch. As we get going again we drive
back some kilometers and follow the second cut-off to the Nossob river
bed. This road we follow back to Twee Rivieren, but on our way we have (the
forth) flat tire. Its no good feeling changing tires while a lion could be
around the next bush but at least it's done in 5 minutes. We have to hurry up a
bit in order to be back at the gate at 7:30pm but we make it in time and see
some more wild animals on our way.
As we
get out of the car after 300 km of gravel and sand road we are glad we can jump
into the pool and we hit our beds early tonight. The days we spent here were
quite intense and strenuous but they have paid off. Tomorrow our trip will go
on, but the Kalahari National Park is the highlight of it already...
