13 April Today we have got rather a long drive to Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park. We will go on up to Upington and then on from there towards the north. This park borders Namibia on the western side and on the eastern side it is actually part of Botswana, it is also the first Transfrontier Park that was sanctioned so has had time to get it right, both Botswana and South Africa have made a wonderful park for all to enjoy. We were very excited about going as we tried to book in last year, but it was fully booked. I only managed to get 4 nights this time around; 3 at Twee Rivieren and 1 night at Mata Mata. We filled up with fuel at Upington and also grabbed some sandwiches for lunch. It is a very long, dry, hot and barren drive up to the park. The temperature was now hitting around 37 degrees at the highest point – hot, hot HOT!!!

We finally arrived at the gate and promptly checked in and paid our conservation fees; we had paid for all camping at Augrabies. We had decided we had to pick our site carefully at Twee Rivieren as we were going to be there 3 nights and it was very hot, so the more shade the better! Unfortunately there were already a lot of people already camped so we eventually agreed on a spot and set up camp. As it turned out it was a very good spot and we could only see maybe one or two better that were already taken so we did well. Yellow mongoose frequent this camp and are very relaxed so we managed to get some lovely pictures of a whole family; Mum, Dad and three babies! Needless to say ground squirrels were also around the camp, as they had been in Augrabies as well. We had some lunch and then headed out for an afternoon game drive. There are big distances between camps and also for the game driving circuits. We saw springbok, gemsbok, wildebeest, steenbok, red hartebeest, kori bustards, secretary birds, tawny eagle, black bellied bustards, ostriches, whistling rats and the scenery was awesome! What a fantastic first game drive up here. You have to be back at camp by 6.30pm after having dropped your permit off at the gate. The guys at the gate keep every bodies permits and you go and collect them when you want to go on game drives or move on to another camp – quite a good way to police how many are in the park, where they are staying and what game drives they do. We had a lovely meal, good wine and watched the stars in the huge big sky!

14 April We got up early and had a light breakfast and headed out for our game drive. We were hoping to do a loop which crossed from one side of the park to the other and then going north until we ran across another road leading back to the other side! The distances are far greater than you realize and we only made it across then decided to come back the same way! We should have checked out the map better last night, we could have then packed a lunch and then stayed out until the afternoon. Never mind we still had a fabulous time; saw an ostrich family of Mum, Dad and 19 chicks which was great fun. On the way back spotted 3 African Eagle Owl in a tree and then some meerkats which are very comical to watch. Got back to camp and had a nice brunch of eggs and sausages – very yummy!!

We decided to drive out to sit and watch the meerkats in the afternoon, which was so much fun. They really are interesting to watch and look like naughty little things before you begin. We sat and watched there antics for about an hour which included the lookout falling off his perch several times (he was perched up in a dead tree to watch out for danger whilst the rest of the family foraged for food). It was just magical watching them go about their daily life, the little ones getting into trouble and trying to steal food from the adults, to see them digging furiously and almost burying themselves and then coming up with some bug or grub in their mouths – all truly funny. We drove back to camp and then had a lovely hot shower, man do you get really dusty up here! Had a lovely dinner and decided to do an all day game drive tomorrow. Thought we might drive up to Nossob Camp (we couldn’t get in as it was fully booked) and take a look around the Botswanan side of the park.

15 April We woke up slightly later this morning and had a hearty big breakfast to keep us going, you can only stop and get out of your vehicles at the designated picnic spots which also have toilets. We then packed up our lunch and plenty of drinks for the long day. This year we have got a small fridge installed in the vehicle and it certainly makes a big difference, we should have done it last year. We headed out and saw the usual suspects in the antelope field as well as some lovely birds, there are so many secretary birds which are also quite comical to watch as they stomp on their prey and then eat it. We finally arrived through to the Botswana side through the red sand dunes which are very typical of the Kalahari. Once through to the other side the area opens out a lot more just like the parks we had been through last year in Botswana. We actually didn’t see very much in the way of wildlife, but it was still a fabulous drive. Once at Nossob we had our lunch whist watching the ground squirrels playing and foraging for food – also begging for food from us tourists! We drove back a different way to try and cover as large an area of the park as we could, it got very hot during the hottest part of the day up around 37 degrees – man is it hot!! We got back and had a well deserved shower and then dinner and bed.

16 April Today we are driving to the north western part of the park and to the Mata Mata campsite which is very close to the Namibian border. We got all packed up and away in good time and started the 120km trek up. We saw giraffe today which seem to be more in the north as this is where the bigger trees seem to be, they were introduced from Etosha and are doing extremely well numbers are growing at a good rate. We got to Mata Mata at around 2.30pm so it was really hot, but managed to find a great spot under this stand of big trees, sharing with a South African couple and a couple from Botswana who manage a lodge in the Central Kalahari. We set up camp and then had some lunch before setting off on a game drive. There seem to be a lot more animals up here in the north, the herds of antelope are bigger and a lot more variety. We decided to do the three loop roads off the main road to see what we could see and towards late afternoon we were rewarded with bat eared foxes which happen to be one of my favourite mammals. Unfortunately we only had the one night at Mata Mata as they were fully booked as the park always seems to be, so we were making the most of the short time we had. We had a lovely chat with our fellow campers and dinner and then bed (of course the lovely hot shower was in there as well).

17 April So today we are leaving the park as we couldn’t get any more nights – so we packed up and headed off back down to Twee Rivieren which is where we had to exit. We also wanted to try and get the new carnet stamped as at this stage the car is nowhere! We had a fantastic game drive down firstly seeing a cheetah eating a springbok, three lions lying under the trees by the road and then a martial eagle trying to catch a cobra (a very big cobra at that); the eagle tried to fly off with the snake in its talons, but the snake kept curling up and trying to bite it whilst sort of being dragged along the ground, the eagle eventually landed and tried to pin down the snakes head, but I think that it was just too bigger dinner for this bird. He let the snake go and watched as it slithered into the bushes at the side of the road and then flew off – very exciting to watch. We got to the gate and managed to get the carnet stamped which will mean that we will now not have any problems trying to enter Mozambique.

We had decided to drive back down to Worcester as there were a few things that either needed changing, looking at or replacing as rather do it now with people who know what they are doing than with people that are unsure of the vehicle. So once we left the park we steadily made our way back south and kept a look out for somewhere to stay once it got to around 4.30pm. We stopped in Brandvlei for fuel and asked at the pub if it was okay to camp at the hotel in town, the said yes, but did we really want to stay in town? They then told me about a guest farm about 15km back up the road called Oom Bennas so we drove back to there to find a lovely little self contained house we could stay in overnight which meant we didn’t have to unpack everything. It had been a long day and we were both knackered to say the least, but we had a lovely bed, hot shower, good food and a roof over our heads – needless to say we had an awesome night’s sleep.

18 April We were up and away by 8.30am on our way back to Worcester. There were some stunning views from the Bloukrans & Hex River Passes overlooking the valleys below. We arrived back in good time early afternoon and Lina & Kenny who own the guest house (which is like our home away from home) were there to welcome us back. Kenny moved all the vehicles around so that we could park our huge rig inside the gate – it measures around 13 meters all up! So back in Worcester and Martin seems to have a list the length of his arm of things to do so it will be off early in the morning to the Bushwakka factory to get it started.