Saturday
2 Sept 2017
We know the train comprised at least 80 wagons, and possibly three engines.
Our private garden (shower is in the corner you can't see)
We don't have to leave too early this morning. The decision was made to have a birding walk around the camp and to the gorge and waterfall before breakfast, meeting at seven fifteen (a veritable lie in).
Some good species seen, including African Hoopoe, Fish Eagle, Acacia Pied Barbet, and some Ground Squirrels.
The back end of a Pied Barbet on an Acacia tree.
Plus some interesting 'footprints', which one of our guides tell us are likely to belong to a Centipede or the like. Wouldn't like to meet that on a dark night.
Lovely early morning light on the gorge 
and waterfall (bit difficult looking into the sun!)
Some good species seen, including African Hoopoe, Fish Eagle, Acacia Pied Barbet, and some Ground Squirrels.
The back end of a Pied Barbet on an Acacia tree.
Plus some interesting 'footprints', which one of our guides tell us are likely to belong to a Centipede or the like. Wouldn't like to meet that on a dark night.
Back for breakfast at eight. It's already warm and we decide to have breakfast on the terrace. Get ourselves settled and then some drama/comedy. A Vervet Monkey decided to come and help itself to some sugar sachets from an adjacent table. As our guide approached to scare it away it was quite comical to watch to it stuffing as many sachets in its mouth as possible, and grabbing more in its hands before running away. The waitress suggested we eat inside or our breakfasts might go the same way!
Watching the sun terrace from inside the restaurant while we have our breakfast, we notice that the monkey has returned to pick up some of the sachets of condiments it had dropped on the floor. What is it eating? Looks like it is trying to tear open a tomato ketchup plastic sachet with its teeth. Obviously managing to open it this way, the monkey sits and squeezes the sachet, sucking the ketchup from the top as it comes out. That and the sugar are not very good for it we would think.
Watching the sun terrace from inside the restaurant while we have our breakfast, we notice that the monkey has returned to pick up some of the sachets of condiments it had dropped on the floor. What is it eating? Looks like it is trying to tear open a tomato ketchup plastic sachet with its teeth. Obviously managing to open it this way, the monkey sits and squeezes the sachet, sucking the ketchup from the top as it comes out. That and the sugar are not very good for it we would think.
It is a long drive today, over four hundred kilometres.
We still find time to stop to admire some roadside flowers not long after we leave the Augrabies Reserve.
Definitive identification to follow.
Along the way we pass some of the informal housing in the area.
We have a roadside stop in a busy market town to view an historic monument. The water wheel was not in action today.
Behind the waterwheel you may be able to see it's a vineyard. There are many of these along the way. They grow the grapes not only for that famous South African wine, but also for dried fruit such as raisins, which they are also renowned for.
We saw some White-backed Mousebird in the vineyard, which have a little crest and white on their beak. Rather cute.
We still find time to stop to admire some roadside flowers not long after we leave the Augrabies Reserve.
Along the way we pass some of the informal housing in the area.
We have a roadside stop in a busy market town to view an historic monument. The water wheel was not in action today.
We saw some White-backed Mousebird in the vineyard, which have a little crest and white on their beak. Rather cute.
Back on the van we are on our way to Upington for lunch. The riverside restaurant that is a usual stop is not open. We brave the local supermarket to buy a picnic lunch. It is Saturday and the place is jumping. Think Christmas shopping at a large superstore and you'll get the idea. We think that the entire population of Upington are here purchasing lots of giant packs of chicken wings. I guess for lunchtime family barbecues, or braais as they call it in Africaans, which is the main language spoken by everyone here.
A lady in the next queue had the most amazing hair ever seen. It was grey and black and looked a little like a Sociable Weaver nest on her head, but immaculately held in place. Thought it would be rather rude to take a picture. I wondered how long it took her to do her hair in the mornings. Later on, back in the bus, our guide tells us it was probably a wig, they are big on these in South Africa apparently.
Finding a place to picnic seemed a bit more problematic. Our guide knows of a municipal chalet and camping site that accepts day visitors for free. There is a barrier across the entrance and even though the signage says it's OK for us to go in, the lady on the gate has other ideas. First she doesn't want to let us in at all, and then she wants to charge us six hundred Rand to pass. That's roughly forty to fifty pounds in real money. We tell her we'll only be about an hour, this doesn't seem to hold any water with her. Our guide exits the bus for some negotiation. Eventually she lets us in for nothing 'to have a look'. Lots of barbecue places but no seating, so partook of lunch in standing up mode.
Some good wildlife spotting while we munched, with a better view of a Hoopoe,
Grey-headed Sparrow, Crested Pied Barbet and a plethora of Ground Squirrel.
Ground Squirrel - when it's hot and they are out in the open, they use their bushy tail as an umbrella.
Some good wildlife spotting while we munched, with a better view of a Hoopoe,
and also Cardinal Woodpecker, 
Grey-headed Sparrow, Crested Pied Barbet and a plethora of Ground Squirrel.
Ground Squirrel - when it's hot and they are out in the open, they use their bushy tail as an umbrella.
Plus a form of South African Willow tree, with the flowers sprouting directly from the trunk. We still need to check identification for many of the flora and update accordingly.
Lunch consumed we needed to get some miles under our belt. Luckily it's a good Tarmac road now. We had travelled quite a large number of kilometres on the N10, roughly parallel with the Orange River,
View of the Orange River.
before it suddenly dawns on people (including our guide) that we were on the south side of the Orange River.
We should be on the N14 north of the river. Oops...
Later view of Orange River from the other way.
There's a connecting road between the two a little further on (limited number of places to cross the river), but it is a gravel road. The decision is made to go this way.
We pass a rather large house with many glass windows behind some pretty serious electric fencing (which must cost them a fortune alone).
We turn onto another dirt road - the landscape is quite barren...
but suddenly...a set of gates and some vegetation set into the high fencing. No other buildings, just this section set in the fence.
So, it's a privately owned game reserve. We have passed a lot of fenced off land that is either farm or private game reserves. This is one reason why the great animal migrations, like Wildebeast and Springbok, no longer occur in this region.
The last picture also gives you an indication of what the dirt road was like.
Some Aloe with horizontally growing flowers are seen through the fence as we bump along. Species to be confirmed later!
Twenty to Thirty Kilometres and two rather special Bustards (birds) later, a Northern Black Korhaan plus Karoo Korhaan, we emerge on the other tarmac road. Too bumpy to attempt photos of the birds.
Lunch consumed we needed to get some miles under our belt. Luckily it's a good Tarmac road now. We had travelled quite a large number of kilometres on the N10, roughly parallel with the Orange River,
View of the Orange River.
before it suddenly dawns on people (including our guide) that we were on the south side of the Orange River.We should be on the N14 north of the river. Oops...
Later view of Orange River from the other way.
There's a connecting road between the two a little further on (limited number of places to cross the river), but it is a gravel road. The decision is made to go this way.We pass a rather large house with many glass windows behind some pretty serious electric fencing (which must cost them a fortune alone).
We turn onto another dirt road - the landscape is quite barren...
but suddenly...a set of gates and some vegetation set into the high fencing. No other buildings, just this section set in the fence.
So, it's a privately owned game reserve. We have passed a lot of fenced off land that is either farm or private game reserves. This is one reason why the great animal migrations, like Wildebeast and Springbok, no longer occur in this region.
The last picture also gives you an indication of what the dirt road was like.
Some Aloe with horizontally growing flowers are seen through the fence as we bump along. Species to be confirmed later!
Twenty to Thirty Kilometres and two rather special Bustards (birds) later, a Northern Black Korhaan plus Karoo Korhaan, we emerge on the other tarmac road. Too bumpy to attempt photos of the birds.
Call in for petrol and a rest stop. We have to beg two Rand from a fellow traveller to use the facilities. The three loos are occupied by three small children and the mother is changing the baby's nappy on the floor, so we have to wait a while.
Back on bus again and although we are bowling along the Tarmac road we still manage to see a new bird - a Red-billed Hornbill. We still have to confirm this record as it is out of the range for this bird, but the bill looked very red (compared to the yellow or grey bill of the other two species).
Next stop - Hotazel - Eric thought this had to be worth a photo op. It really was hot here; we were told that 47 degrees Celsuis has been regularly recorded here, and the highest was over 50 degrees C.
Eric seeks some shade in the lee of the sign, which rather dwarfs him.
Eric seeks some shade in the lee of the sign, which rather dwarfs him.
We have passed two large mines, one for iron ore and one for manganese.
Photo courtesy of our relatives.
There is also a very long train taking the ore down to the steel works at Soldano, near to where we were earlier in the trip.
Photo courtesy of our relatives.
There is also a very long train taking the ore down to the steel works at Soldano, near to where we were earlier in the trip.
We know the train comprised at least 80 wagons, and possibly three engines.
Because of our wrong turn earlier we are running about two hours late, so should have reached Vanzylsrus by seven. Unfortunately, a left turn was missed and we end up on a dirt road. Backtracking was now necessary, adding an additional half an hour and into the start of darkness. The upside was that we saw Jackal and Hare and also an industrial landscape highlighted against the sunset.
as well as a rural sunset landscape.
The hotel was a bit quirky, with a courtyard garden that had lots of sculptures.
The hotel was a bit quirky, with a courtyard garden that had lots of sculptures.
Given our room keys and we find we are in the honeymoon suite. All the rooms are individually themed. Ours is the sea. We even had our own private garden with an outdoor shower - pity we won't be her long enough to use it (or even see it properly as it will be dark when we leave as well).
Selection of pictures below.
The bed and the double shower
The bed and the double shower
His and Her washbasins
Dinner and bed as it's an early start tomorrow - six o'clock departure and a packed breakfast to take away.
Sunday
3 Sept 2017
Wake up at three in the morning thinking our guide had told us we were leaving at five o'clock, not six. Reset the alarm as we do not want to be an hour late as we were on the first day due to time differences on the phone. Arise at four fifteen and have a shower. Ready at five but it seemed no one else was up. Oh well, it must have been six after all. Never mind, it gives us time to stand by reception and use the Wi-Fi, which this morning seems to be working better than last night. Managed to get some of the words for missing days in the blog, if not the pictures - yet. So time well spent.
It's a long drive again today but mostly because it nearly a hundred miles on gravel road to reach our accommodation on the outskirts of Kgalagadi National Park.
This time we have a sunrise view of the rural landscape.
This time we have a sunrise view of the rural landscape.
The journey is broken up by a visit to a Meerkat research centre.
The project, run by a collaboration between Cambridge and Zurich Universities, has been running for over twenty years. It was the place where they filmed Meerkat Manor if you watched that on the television. They split our group up so that there were only two or three people with each research volunteer to make sure it was not too stressful for the Meerkat. We were going to see the 'Whiskers' group.
Jump into a truck with our volunteer researcher. Arriving at the 'Whisker' Meerkat group site we sit and wait for them to wake up. Apparently there are nine in this group currently, and they generally wake up at the same sort of time every day. A choice of burrow entrances are available but there is an arrow made out of small stones pointing to the burrow where they first emerged yesterday. Positioning ourselves close to this we chat until they emerge. It turns out that our research volunteer's grandparents are from Wales, and it's her birthday today. She tells us about the project and gives us a sheet of paper with the names of the Meerkats in this group, plus details of their markings, ages, which ones are the dominants etc.
First Meerkat emerges, but not out of the marked hole. In fact, she comes out of a burrow immediately to the rear of one of us, and proceeds to lean against my warm fleece, soaking up the early morning sunshine.
Gradually the remainder emerge and sun themselves for a while.
Excellent close up views of these really very cute animals.
They are habituated to humans so tolerate them around and accept their weighing regime in return for some scraps of egg. As they came out the volunteer hummed a little tune to them, and then said 'yum yums' quietly when placing scraps of egg in the weighing tray. She told us that when she first started she thought the others were 'having her on' as a newbie when they told her she needed to to do this routine.
This one was particularly keen to be weighed multiple times!
As it is Sunday they just do this in the morning and evening. All the other days of the week they follow the Meerkat groups while they are our foraging, and study plus record their behaviour. This can be for three of four hours across their territory. The dominant ones in our pack have a radio collar on so that they can track them.
Return to the meeting point to wait for remainder of group to return from their forays. Whilst hanging around we see Yellow Mongoose.
and a Yellow-billed Hornbill next to a Glossy Starling (I'm sure some one will correct us if these identifications are incorrect.)
The Hornbills have an unusual behaviour - once the eggs are laid in the nest, usually in a hole in a tree, the hole is sealed up (with the female inside on the nest) until only the bill can poke through. The male then feeds the female through the hole, so she is completely dependent on him. When the chicks are ready to fledge then the hole is broken open.
Back in the van for the remainder of the bumpy journey.
Passing a variety of habitats; a Sociable Weaver nest that looked like a Bassett Hound's head; some Vultures on their nests; and a dead Bat-eared Fox along the way.
The driver asks where the petrol station is a he needs to fill up with diesel. We stop at a filling station not too far from our next accommodation as they do not always have fuel at the one in the National Park (or they may have diesel but no petrol, but it's a bit too iffy to risk it).
This guy had some alternative transport so didn't need to fill up, so we wondered why he'd stopped.
Turns out he thinks we may give him ten Rand to take a picture of his horse and cart. We only found this out after we left and had taken this picture while he was talking to our guide around the other side of the van, apparently asking him for money to take a picture!
We eventually arrived at our destination, Molopo Lodge, with it's extensive gardens and pools.
Our 'bungalow' was below the pool area and was quite spacious.
Passing a variety of habitats; a Sociable Weaver nest that looked like a Bassett Hound's head; some Vultures on their nests; and a dead Bat-eared Fox along the way.
The driver asks where the petrol station is a he needs to fill up with diesel. We stop at a filling station not too far from our next accommodation as they do not always have fuel at the one in the National Park (or they may have diesel but no petrol, but it's a bit too iffy to risk it).
This guy had some alternative transport so didn't need to fill up, so we wondered why he'd stopped.
We eventually arrived at our destination, Molopo Lodge, with it's extensive gardens and pools.
Our 'bungalow' was below the pool area and was quite spacious.
After all that bouncing around it was decided to have a relaxing afternoon around the gardens.
But firstly, a latish lunch. South Africa is very relaxed at mealtimes, they allow time for socialising before each course. Consequently it is difficult to go anywhere in a hurry.
Our one guide is leaving us tomorrow and another joined us tonight.
After a freshen up we have a short walk around the grounds of the lodge with both guides.
Common Scimitar Bill is a new bird,
a Marico Flycatcher,
some Red-headed Finch
Red-billed Quela - these are considered to be a pest species (for crops) - and there certainly were large numbers of them around.
African Palm Swift - and although their tail is long with deep forks, usually held closed so look like they come to a point,
and a view across the landscape from the top of a dune, lovely evening light again;
but the best view was of a Gabar Goshawk stalking and then catching a Red-billed Quelea in the centre of a very thorny Acacia mellifera.
some Red-headed Finch
but the best view was of a Gabar Goshawk stalking and then catching a Red-billed Quelea in the centre of a very thorny Acacia mellifera.
Time for dinner and farewell to our first guide before bed. An enjoyable meal was consumed. Hoping for a good nights sleep tonight as tomorrow is a six thirty breakfast followed by a full day and evening in the park, to include a sunset drive.