wild animals
28 September 2004

We head north into the Kalahari towards the Kalahari Gemsbok transfrontier. A national park that is revered in this area for its animals in the wild. This park lies on the borders of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Its about 600 miles away on dirt corrugated rocky road. The van stops dead about an hour into the trip. Tom suspects its the fuel filter. We have a spare, change it and are on our way.

We pass salt pans, (flat wide open spaces that collects salt to the surface), for an hour or so, before the red sand dunes of the Kalahari appear and stay with us for the next few days. They look stark and awesome. We come across a small family/tribe of the bushman in their loincloths next to their teepee like, grass huts, except a lot smaller. They are selling their wares of bone necklaces and bow & arrow sets. They also have huge smiles and we stop to say hello. After getting our permit and going into the park, we immediately see herds of wildebeest, ostrich and springbok. The park is constructed with a road running north south (about 600 km), which we took first, and another running east - west where we went west.

Along the roadway are waterholes which draw the animals and tourists alike.This is the way we get a close up view. We see a couple of cars parked up alongside the roadway, which is usually a good sign something is happening. What was happening was a giant cape cobra attacking a huge birds nest. These bird nests are a story within themselves. They are made from a straw type grass, are on average about 6 feet high, 4 feet across and house probably over a hundred birds. They are built around branches of trees and on telegraph poles.

Anyway this snake was crawling over the nest and into some of the holes while a heap of birds were attacking it at every chance. We went over for a closer look and watched the action for about half an hour when the snake disappeared. There were snake holes everywhere on the ground so it was a bit eerie walking around looking for him. We see gemsbok, like a large deer with two long straight horns like antennas about 5 feet long. All these animals are in large herds, hundreds of them everywhere. On dusk we see a jackal with his kill in his mouth. He eats it just a bit away from our car as another joins him.

The place we stay at is a cabin near a watering hole where we can watch animals though the night. We cook up a Barbie, light a fire and settle in with the full moon to assist. Two large hyenas drink at the waterhole nearby, at dawn. We stay at a different spot the next night setting up the tent. The compound is enclosed by a huge fence for our protection. On the third day we see our first lion. Tall proud and majestic he walks along the sand ridge just above us. After a while he lies down so we wait and wait.... and wait...., then go.

It was about this time that we read the 10 rules of the park and discover we have infringed on about 7 of them. Rules like "do not get out of your car" and "do not leave the road". The minimum penalty for these is expulsion from the park, to a court appearance. Just after we read this, we were pulled over for speeding. 64 in a 50 zone. It was quiet funny because of a radar gun "out here". Anyway they asked why the hurry. We almost said "look out there's a lion coming" but held back. There were 8 of the rangers in the one jeep. They wanted to fine us about 50 bucks but we we're saying the rules (that we just read) said expulsion from the park, as we were on our way out anyway. They said it was for more serious cases. Anyway we had a laugh with them, took the fine and headed out of the park for Namibia.

We crossed endless sand dunes that day. Down up, down up like huge waves on the ocean. To keep our minds occupied, we copied a game from a TV add where we took turns in creating the perfect meal, using our imagination. I'll leave it at that in case you think we got too much sun and notify the authorities.

We saw another Cape Cobra. We passed him on the road so we reversed back and he was about 3 meters away. He was trying to get a rat type animal. He went into one hole and after about a minute, came out another. The rat came out of yet another and looked very nervous. Then he went for a lizard but the lizard anticipated him and got away. It was great to see this up close. The last animal we passed on the road that day was a large bat, hanging on a bush. We turned around and went back for a better look. It looked a bit weird so got out of the van and walked up to it. On a close up inspection we discovered an oily rag. We decided we'd had enough animal watching for that day.