Kgalagadi Edition

The Kgalagadi.

The very name gives me reason to pause; to look out at the somewhat empty night sky through my window and long for those red sands.

Gemsbok (back) and Sprinkbok (front) in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

The Kgalagadi is a desert extending from the north-west regions of South Africa up into Namibia and Botswana (two places I still hope to visit). Kgalagadi itself means ‘land of thirst’ and travelling through you understand why. Sparse vegetation, red sand dunes, dry river beds… yet life abounds. I find myself in awe of how evolution allows for such existence to occur. Even the San people roam this desolate landscape. As we drove through, even with our snacks and drinks within reach, I found awe creeping into my mind, how did these people survive this landscape? If the opportunity ever arises I would jump at the privilege of spending time with the San, learning how they perceive this desert, how they win the timeless battle of survival. Unlikely…but we can always hope!

We started our trip at the Twee Rivieren camp, then spent two nights in Mata Mata and then a final night in Twee Rivieren again. Unfortunately we didn’t get to go up to Nossob but next time! The first day held in store some lion porn which my parents recorded with plenty photographs. Not quite my idea of ‘the perfect shot’ but, well, whatever blows your hair back. I focussed more on the intervals between the mating bouts – lions if you didn’t know, mate every 20 odd minutes for 2-3 days though the actual act is rather brief. Anyway, that is where I took my ‘Lazy Days in Africa’ photo, which I think is pretty awesome. I also managed to take some fairly decent photos of the moonrise while having sundowners. It wasn’t quite as spectacular as the one at Slypsteen but then I couldn’t remember how to take moon photos (macro setting for future reference, go figure). Driving up to Mata Mata the next day along the (dry) river valley was slow, partly because my mom is currently in a photo-obsession-phase, especially with birds so every new bird demanded a stop (eventually me & dad just called them L.G.B.B’sl; little grey-brown birds) and also the roads on the Mata Mata side were terribly corrugated. Definitely came out the trip thoroughly shaken, not stirred. Well, shaken in body, stirred in mind may be a better way of putting it. 

'Lazy Days in Africa'

I always find it incredible how quickly I find inner peace when I’m in the wilderness. Maybe it’s a step towards going back to my roots, to when my distant ancestors roamed in the brutal harmony that is nature. Their lives linked to the Earth, its balance, theirs.  I only had three days in the middle of nowhere, in one of those islands of no-signal (horrid places to most, I know) that are getting rarer all the time. It was fantastic. I could almost feel the stress ebb away, evaporate and become lost in the sheer vastness of the wild. I wish I could have bottled up that peace and kept it for when I’d need it in the future. I wasn’t worried about what was happening in friends’ lives, or even the rest of the world, I couldn’t worry about what I would be doing for the next six months, if I got the job at Summerhill or if the hunt would be on again for some form of income, I didn’t care what happened next on any of the tv shows I missed episodes of…it was just me, my heart beating in tandem with Africa’s. Living for the moment… if only it could have gone on forever.

Apart from the expected sightings of gemsbok, springbok and wildebeest we did get to see some special critters. A surprising sight were giraffe. I didn’t expect them to see them in a desert environment, thinking them more suited to the savannah, clearly I was mistaken. I suppose there were plenty of Devil Thorn (Acacia) trees… Anyway yes, giraffes! With little giraffes! First time I think I’ve seen a suckling one. I do love giraffes, they always appear so calm and walk ever so elegantly. I always seem to be mesmerised by them. Then I got super excited when we came across bat-eared foxes. I was absorbed by their cuteness, those huge ears and their expressions while hunting. We saw lots of them and I never tired of watching them. On two occasions we managed to see cheetahs with cubs (different females). The first time wasn’t all that noteworthy because all you could see were heads in the grass but the second time was really special and still brings a smile to my face as I remember it. Watching the cubs play was amazing, they ran up and down, tackled each other and all that jazz, learning all the skills they’d need in the future as graceful hunters. Magical. 

Two of the cheetah cubs playing

At Mata Mata I had a fabulous time taking photos of the ground squirrels and yellow mongoose that lived behind our chalet. They were both timid and curious, always an adorable combination. One of the young mongoose ran up to me, stopping maybe half a meter a way, stared at me with this amazed look before running back to its mom. I couldn’t help laughing and it just looked at me in confusion. One of the ground squirrels was quite brave and came all the way up to me, smelling the camera before darting off. It came back a few times after that. I spent a good hour out there, observing their behaviour and taking photos. Wish my mom managed to get a shot of that but she was off hunting for birds to photograph…typical. 

The young mongoose that wasn't sure what to make of me

The sunset drive at Mata Mata was well worth it, even though our guide was somewhat more interested in entertaining his lady-friend than on guiding and it took him a rather long time to discern the difference between a jackal and a bat-eared fox…*facepalm* Anyhooo, I got to man the flashlight (which I found more fun than perhaps I should have); unfortunately my side of the road was useless in providing animals, all I managed to spot were a few springbok, gemsbok and a springhare, oh, and an owl. The other side was far more interesting. For the first time ever I got to see a Brown Hyena, Cape Fox and an African Wild Cat. Mom was super happy about the cat, she’s been wanting to see one for years. As a bonus I figured out how to take half decent photos on night drives; macro setting again, it is turning into my favourite setting. Unfortunately we didn’t see the lions that hang around the Mata Mata area but, well, such is game viewing luck. 

African Wild Cat

I look to the stars with such facination,
The magic of life moves my motivation
~ The Parlotones 'It's Magic'
 

That night was so stunning. There was not a cloud in the sky and at 10pm, when the electricity generators were switched off, the Milky Way was revealed in all its awe-inspiring magnificence. Nothing I’ve seen before could even compare to what I saw that night, not even the starry nights in the Berg. The sky I see from home will always remain empty to me from now on. If it wasn’t so bloody cold I would’ve got a mattress out and just lain on the ground staring up at the sky, letting the lions’ roars sing me to sleep (they did anyway). I think every person on the planet should witness a starry sky like that. It was an experience that was incredibly humbling, for the universe beyond our planet is just so very vast, so extraordinary, so beautiful that you almost feel unworthy of being part of it; yet at the same time I felt uplifted because I am. The universe made me, I am made up of atoms of elements formed in the heart of those glittering stars so far, far away. The Universe and I, we’re one and the same – is that not such a beautiful thing? Can you imagine, thousands of years ago, our ancestors looking up at that same sky? What would they have thought? Did they find it humbling too? Was this the source for believing in something divine?

In those moments, looking up towards the centre of our galaxy, I couldn’t help but think about the world we live in. We’ve disconnected ourselves from nature, turned away from that connection that links all life. Nature is divine. We destroy it for our own gain, ignoring the consequences to come. To satisfy our needs, we take away the needs of all other species. For what is the loss of one species in the light of our ‘great’ civilization? What is one frog? One beetle? One canid? One antelope? After all everything come and goes. All the species now on the brink of extinction would probably become extinct at some point in the future without man’s influence – it’s not a fact I deny. But what if it was humans who were on the brink? Would that be sufficient to force some form of action? Some desperate change in our mindset that will make us realise what we are doing and seek to change it? Well, that is where we stand. We stand on the brink. And it is we who have put ourselves there. We’ve played god, taken far more than we ever should have from the planet. While I am not religious, I do think about the concept of ‘god’ often. And I ask, why would a god create man as such a destructive entity? Why would he idly sit by and watch the rest of his creation being ripped apart by his ‘greatest’ one – the species that he apparently created in his image? Has he forsaken us and the rest of Earth? And this then goes back to my own views of who or what god could possibly be. If god is life, is that interconnectedness between all living things…maybe he has forsaken us because we have forsaken him?

Animals seen:

Cheetah

Lion

African Wild Cat

Black-backed Jackal

Bat-eared Fox

Brown Hyena

Meerkat

Yellow Mongoose

Slender Mongoose

Ground Squirrel

Whistling Rat

Springhare

Gemsbok

Sprinkbok

Blue Wildebeest

Giraffe

Hartebeest

Steenbok

Birds seen:

Martial Eagle

Black-shouldered Kite

Kestrel

Pale Chanting Goshawk

Eagle Owl

Secretary Bird

White-backed Vulture

Kori Bustard

Little Bustards

Ostrich

Hornbills

Crimson-breasted Shrike

Namaqua Doves

Social Weavers

Lots of L.G.B.Bs