On our way to the wilderness – day 1

Before dawn on the 15th of August ’21, Joubert and I had the Duster packed and were ready to set off for the Kruger National Park. The whole route from Pretoria to Malelane Gate we drove under overcast skies, with thick mist and occasional drizzle.

Signing in at Malelane was a breeze and in no time at all we were on our way to Skukuza. With Afsaal picnic site packed to the brim with visiting people when we arrived we decided to give it a miss. We enjoy the Park packed with animals of all description much more than jostling with other picnickers for a spot at a table.

White-backed Vulture in flight

Kudu cow

Kudu bull (photo by Joubert)

Fork-tailed Drongo

Golden-breasted Bunting

Steenbok

Spotted Hyena family (photo by Joubert)

Spotted Hyena family

Pearl-spotted Owlet

Red-crested Korhaan keeping an eye on an eagle flying overhead (photo by Joubert)

Klipspringer

Warthog

Elephants congregating in a dry river bed (photo by Joubert)

Elephants congregating in a dry river bed

Magpie Shrike

Right at Skukuza’s gates we found this elegant nyala bull – only to find that he wasn’t as elegant as first impressions suggested…

Nyala bull (photo by Joubert)

Nyala bull – go buy some manners! (photo by Joubert)

At Skukuza’s reception our check-in went just as smoothly and pretty quickly we were unpacked and settled into our bungalow, allowing us a chance to stretch our legs and gawk at Skukuza’s resident birds.

Beautiful impala lily in bloom at Skukuza’s reception (photo by Joubert)

Unit #3 in Skukuza’s Nwaswitshaka Research Camp

Cardinal Woodpecker

African Dusky Flycatcher (photo by Joubert)

Red-capped Robin Chat (photo by Joubert)

Yellow-fronted Canary (photo by Joubert)

Brown-headed Parrot (photo by Joubert)

Brown-headed Parrot

By the time we hit the road for our afternoon game drive there was only about three hours left before the gates would close, so we stuck to the roads around camp and along the Sabie River.

Nyala ewe just outside the Skukuza nursery

Water Thick-knee at the causeway over the Sabie River

Elephant munching on a thorny branch

Hippos in a quiet pool of the Sabie

Spotted Hyena on the move (photo by Joubert)

Spotted Hyena profile

Buffalo chewing the cud

After our braai (barbeque) – what else would two South African men be eating when they’re forced to feed themselves than “pap en wors” (maize meal porridge with barbequed sausage) – and before going to bed, we walked around camp with our torch looking for nocturnal creatures.

We think this might be a baby Turner’s Thick-toed Gecko (photo by Joubert)

On Sunday we’ll tell you about day two as we prepared to tackle the Sweni Wilderness Trail from Joubert’s birthday.

A Wilderness Birthday

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Parents often anguish about the perfect gift to give their children on their birthdays. This year however, for us anyway, things couldn’t have worked out better in preparation for Joubert’s 12th birthday.

You see, the minimum age requirement to join one of the wilderness trails in the Kruger National Park is 12 years. Joubert has been wanting to go on a trail for almost as long as he can walk. When a late cancellation then became available on the Sweni Trail, the most popular of all the trails in the Kruger Park, right on his birthday, there was just no way we could pass on the opportunity, even if it means he’ll have to work very hard to catch up his missed school work this coming week.

Joubert and I spent the past week in the Kruger National Park, half of it on the trail. This first set of photographs were all taken in the days leading up to his wilderness birthday.

Klipspringer

Elephant youngster wielding his weapon of choice

Sable Antelope bull

Baboon murder

Hamerkop at sunset

Black-backed Jackal

Hunting Cheetah

Lazy Leopard

Leaping Kudu

Lions at Orpen Rocks

Of course, there’s a bunch of stories to be told – and you can be sure that we will – but as a little teaser, Joubert was 12 years and 1 day old when these lions took offence at us invading their territory ON FOOT. We will tell you all about it soon.

The wide-angle lens doesn’t show adequately how close those lionesses were!

Yep, she’s growling at us!

And here she comes!

Common Bush Brown Butterfly

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Bicyclus safitza

The Common Bush Brown inhabits savannas, woodlands and open forests on South Africa’s eastern coast and borders, stretching from Knysna on the Garden Route to the Soutpansberg in Limpopo. Adults have a wingspan of around 45mm and can be seen throughout the year, flying low to the ground and settling often. Males are darker than females. They are fond of rotting fruit.

Common Bush Brown butterfly

Common Bush Brown

Common Bush Brown (dry season form)

Common Bush Brown

Common Bush Browns in flight

Common Bush Brown

Common Bush Brown Butterfly

Common Bush Brown butterfly

Jameson’s Firefinch

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Lagonosticta rhodopareia

The tiny (11cm, 9g) Jameson’s Firefinch is a bird of dry woodland and savanna, usually with a dense grass component and near water courses (they need ready access to surface water from a reliable source). They feed mainly on grass seeds supplemented with soft-bodied insects, being especially fond of termites.

Usually encountered in pairs or small groups, often in association with other small seed-eating birds, Jameson’s Firefinches are monogamous and may breed throughout the year. Their nests are oval-shaped, with a side-entrance, and built of grass by both partners, usually close to the ground in a dense shrub or grass tuft. The pair take turns at the incubation of the clutch of 2-7 eggs over a 2 week period. The hatchlings leave the nest when they’re almost 3 weeks old and then become independent of their parents within 2 weeks thereafter.

Jameson’s Firefinch is found in the northern provinces of South Africa and beyond our borders to Angola, the Congos, South Sudan and Ethiopia. The IUCN lists it as being of least concern.

Jameson’s Firefinch

Jameson’s Firefinch (photo by Joubert)

Jameson’s Firefinch

Forest Leopard Butterfly

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Phalanta eurytis

In South Africa, the Forest Leopard Butterfly is found over most of Kwazulu-Natal and along the escarpment in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, where it inhabits dense woodland and forests (coastal, riverine and montane). Beyond our borders their distribution stretches through tropical Africa to Sudan and Ethiopia. Adults have a wingspan of about 45mm and are on the wing year round. They’re attracted to flowers and wet mud.

Forest Leopard butterfly

Brimstone Canary

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Crithagra sulphurata

In South Africa, Brimstone Canaries are found from the Western Cape through to Kwazulu-Natal’s north coast, and then along the escarpment of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, reflecting the species’ preference for coastal and montane thickets and forests. In the rest of Africa they’re also found patchily as far as Angola, the DRC, Uganda and Kenya. The IUCN considers it to be of least concern. They do venture into well-planted suburban gardens and exotic plantations.

Brimstone Canaries feed mainly on seeds and fruit and are rarely seen in flocks and then only in response to a localised food source, being more usually encountered singly, in pairs (which are monogamous) or family groups – often in association with other kinds of canaries. They may breed throughout the year, though mainly in the warmer months. The female builds the cup-shaped nest using grass and other fine plant materials in the fork of a tree, and incubates the clutch of 2-4 eggs over a 2 week period while the male provisions food for her at the nest. The chicks leave the nest when they’re between 2 and 3 weeks old but remain with their parents for quite some time after. Adults weigh about 29g and measure 15cm in length.

Brimstone Canary

False Dotted Border

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Belenois thysa

In South Africa the False Dotted Border occurs in and on the edges of coastal and riverine forest habitat in Kwazulu-Natal and the extreme eastern parts of the Eastern Cape. Adults fly slowly and settle often and are on the wing throughout the year. They have a wingspan of around 55mm. Larvae feed on plants from the genus Boscia, Capparis and Maerua.

False Dotted Border

False Dotted Border butterfly

Celebrating 90 years since the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park was proclaimed

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Wedged into a remote corner of South Africa’s Northern Cape, between Namibia and Botswana, lies a very special piece of the Kalahari Desert. Here a wilderness of dunes, pans and dry, sandy river beds is a safe refuge to a rich variety of natural life, and one of the last fully functional ecosystems remaining on earth. The beds of the Auob and Nossob Rivers very rarely boast flowing water – the Auob perhaps once in ten years, the Nossob only once or twice in a century.

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Rooikop waterhole near Nossob is a great place to wait for wildlife to come and drink

Gemsbok herd on the move

Gemsbok in the Auob River

On this side of the marker you are in the Republic of South Africa

On this side of the marker you are in the Republic of Botswana

When the First World War broke out over a 100 years ago, the British Colonial government of the Union of South Africa and British Bechuanaland considered the beds of the Auob and Nossob Rivers a strategic access into German South West Africa and started sinking boreholes in the rivers to supply advancing troops. After the war, the area was divided into farms by a Scotsman, Roger Jackson, explaining how many of the waterholes today carry very Scottish-sounding names. The newly settled farmers however found it tough going – the fascinating museum at Auchterlonie providing a glimpse into this hard life – and had to turn their rifles on the herds of game moving through the area in order to make a living.

Auchterlonie Museum

Auchterlonie waterhole with the museum in the background

With the game population falling drastically, and shortly after South Africa’s first national park was proclaimed (the Kruger in the then Transvaal) two influential men from the region invited then Minister of Lands, Piet Grobler, on a “hunting trip” in the Kalahari and deliberately took him to an area denuded of wildlife. So disturbed was the minister by the lack of game that he immediately set about the process of proclaiming the area between the Auob and Nossob Rivers South Africa’s next national park – the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park coming into official existence on 31 July 1931. Soon more land to the southwest of the Auob and its confluence with the Nossob were added, bringing the size of the Park to 9,600km². Then, in 1938 the government in neighbouring Bechuanaland (today Botswana) proclaimed an even bigger piece of land on the other side of the Nossob (the unfenced international boundary between the two countries) the Gemsbok National Park. Informally the two conservation areas were managed as a single unit ever since, but it wasn’t until 1999 when the leaders of the two countries signed a treaty to formalise the arrangement. The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, covering over 34,500km², was officially opened on 12 May 2000 and is one of the biggest, and most unspoiled, conservation areas on the planet.

Gemsbok statue at Twee Rivieren’s reception, symbolic of the two “Gemsbok” parks joining together to form the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

On the South African side of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park guests have a choice of three “traditional” rest camps offering basic amenities like accommodation, camping, a shop, fuel station, swimming pools, and guided walks and drives. Twee Rivieren is the main entrance, biggest camp and administrative centre of the Park (it also has a restaurant and border control) and offered the first tourist accommodation in the Park in 1940, while Mata Mata (on the Auob River, opened 1955) and Nossob (on the Nossob River, opened 1966) lie deeper into the Park, about 120m and 160km away from Twee Rivieren respectively. Union’s End marks the point where the borders of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia meet and is one of 6 rustic picnic sites available on the South African side of the Park. Six smaller Wilderness Camps are also spread throughout the Park – these offer only accommodation to overnight visitors. Between Twee Rivieren and Mata Mata lie the Kalahari Tent Camp, Urikaruus and Kieliekrankie, between Nossob and Mata Mata is located Bitterpan while Gharagab and Grootkolk is located north of Nossob on the way to Union’s End. While there’s around 500km of prepared roads (very sandy and corrugated in places, not recommended for sedans) to explore the Park in relative comfort, there is also a selection of guided and self-guided 4×4 trails available.

Kalahari Tented Camp

Grootkolk Wilderness Camp

Picnic Site at Kamqua

View from the units at Kieliekrankie

A luxury riverview unit at Mata Mata

Welcome to Nossob

Cottage 1 at Mata Mata, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, June 2018

Cottage 8 at Nossob, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, June 2018

Cottage 25 at Twee Rivieren, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, June 2018

Urikaruus Wilderness Camp

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park must be one of South Africa’s most out-of-the-way tourist attractions, lying about 1060km from Pretoria and 1040km from Cape Town. The nearest major airport with daily flights is at Upington, about 250km away from Twee Rivieren.

Relative locations of Twee Rivieren, Mata-Mata, Nossob and Union’s End in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

The location of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

For such an arid area – average rainfall measures around 200mm per annum – the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is home to an astonishing variety of wildlife. Apart from a wide variety of desert-adapted plants and invertebrates, the Park’s lists boast 62 kinds of mammals, 274 species of bird (of which 78 are resident throughout the year), 48 sorts of reptiles (including 17 snake species) and seven kinds of frogs.

Giraffes

Gemsbok

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

Southern White-faced Owl seen in Mata Mata

Springbok showing off

Lanner Falcon with prey

Pearl-spotted Owlet seen in Nossob

Lion close-up

Red Hartebeest

Lion on a dune in the Kgalagadi

Springbok herd

Meerkat Family (Suricates)

Camel Thorn tree

Gabar Goshawk

Black-backed Jackal

Kalahari lioness

Large concentration of blue wildebeest at Langklaas waterhole

Springbok Rams

Red-headed Finch pair

Chestnut-vented Warbler

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Sylvia subcoerulea

With an unfortunate English name drawing even more attention to its most noticeable characteristic, the Chestnut-vented Warbler (or Chestnut-vented Tit-babbler) would probably prefer to go by its Afrikaans name “Bosveldtjeriktik” which imitates the first notes of its cheerful song.

Chestnut-vented Warblers are found in dry savannas, woodlands and thickets along drainage lines and hillsides and will also venture into gardens in small towns. They are very active when foraging, looking for insects, fruits, seeds and nectar amongst the foliage and flowers of trees and shrubs. Chestnut-vented Warblers are common and confident little birds usually seen singly or in pairs.

Chestnut-vented Warblers may breed at anytime of year, though there is a distinct peak in spring. Their nests are thin-walled cups of dry grass and twigs built in a tree or shrub. The parents take turns to incubate the clutch of 2-4 eggs and feeding the hatchlings until they fledge, both stages taking around 14 days. Fully grown they measure around 15cm in length and weigh 16g.

The Chestnut-vented Warbler occurs throughout South Africa and also in Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and marginally in Lesotho. The IUCN considers it to be of least concern.

Chestnut-vented Warbler

Chestnut-vented Warbler on nest

Chestnut-vented Warbler

Chestnut-vented Warbler (photo by Joubert)

Suni

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Nesotragus moschatus

One of the smallest antelope occurring in South Africa, the Suni weighs only around 5kg and stands a measly 35cm tall at the shoulder. Only the ram carries the short horns, while the ewes are slightly more heavily built.

Sunis are very particular about their habitat, preferring dense, dry thickets in deciduous woodland and riverine forests, often on sandy soils. They are browsers, feeding selectively on nutrient-rich leaves, fruit, shoots, mushrooms and herbs.

Usually encountered singly and more infrequently in pairs or small groups, Sunis are most active from dusk to dawn and have favoured spots where they rest during the heat of the day. Rams mark their territories with their prominent pre-orbital scent glands and dung middens, and both sexes are inclined to use well-trodden paths through their home range, making them especially prone to predation and poaching.

Suni ewes give birth to single lambs, usually during the rainy season. The lambs are hidden for the first few weeks of life, with the ewe returning to them regularly through the day to nurse. The lambs are weaned when they’re 2-3 months old and sexually mature by the time they’re a year old. Their natural lifespan is estimated at 9 years maximum and usually much shorter.

While overall the IUCN lists the Suni as being of “least concern” with an estimated population of 365,000 individuals distributed along Africa’s eastern coast and adjacent interior from Kenya to South Africa, these diminutive antelope are considered to be endangered in South Africa, where they are found only in northern Kwazulu-Natal and the Pafuri and Punda Maria areas of the Kruger National Park (their numbers in Kruger were supplemented by several introductions from KZN, but confirmed sightings remain few and far between). The total population in Kwazulu-Natal is estimated at around 1,500, with the biggest single populations being the estimated 750 protected in the Tembe Elephant Park and around 360 in the uMkhuze Game Reserve. Poaching and loss of habitat are considered the major reasons for their decline in South Africa. Interestingly, burgeoning populations of elephant, nyala and large predators in conservation areas have a severely negative effect on the Suni, as they suffer heavily from predation and the larger herbivores denude the lower shrub layer so crucial to the Suni’s survival. Thankfully Sunis breed well in captivity and this offers hope for their reintroduction into areas from which they’ve disappeared locally.