Central Kalahari Game Reserve - Khutse part 1
The night was pitch black and the only thing lighting up the dark was the stars, their is absolutely no light pollution in Kalahari. I always think it is special to wake up for the first time in a new place and get familiar with the sounds and smells, and this was our first Kalahari morning. Warm and peaceful, we didn’t even wanted to talk because it would disturb the magic.
But before i tell you about our first day I have to show you some photos from last night that i forgot, the light was fantastic!
In the night we heard lions roaring all night and we set of to try to find them. Breakfast was already in the car so why not take it to go? :)
The scenery is so beautiful and the best thing - no other cars! I love the antelopes generally and it was real fun seeing some new ones, Springbock and Oryx! I had really looking forward to see the Oryx and I was not going to be disappointed during this trip :D
We didn’t find the lions but we saw some tracks in the sand close by. We decide it was time for breakfast and we thought we would have a look at some of the other campsite and one of them was already occupied by this guy!
Isn't that the cutest little creature you've ever seen? Very curious and he had chosen his accommodation with care because here the tenants usually brings free food. He took an All-Bran flake straight from my hand and hung around while we paused.
This day was crazy hot so after a late breakfast we decide to get back to camp and try to relax during the hottest hours of the day. This was easier said than done, normally on a safari when you stay in a lodge you can always take a shower, relax by the pool or even have AC in the room. But this time, saving water is important and and there is not a pool as far as the eye can see. I cope quite well with heat but Christian struggled. We had a sun roof that we could pull out from the side of the car to get some shade, he sat there soaking his shirt in water in front of one of our mini fans. BTW best buy ever, mini fans that you can charge with USD and power bank, perfect for sailing or this type of trips. After a while we gave up and decided to take a drive and enjoy the AC in the cars but also why not sit and be hot out on the plains instead.
We drove around for a bit, the animals were struggling as well with the heat and tried to find some shade under the few trees on the plains. We named the lonely hartebeest - Frank and camped out next to him under the trees, just reading and enjoying the view.
Brian and Owen are amazing with birds and pointed them out to us, and sometimes identified them from their sound. I would like to get better at birds some day, but one day at the time!
When the heat started to cool down, we parked the cars in front of the only water hole in the area and waited if anyone wanted to join us. The weather changed very quickly and it started to rain softly. Far back at the border of the plains we saw the queen, a beautiful lioness beginning to slowly move toward us :) The springbock started to sneeze and making alarm calls and the oryx moved away a bit, everyone was on edge. But the lioness already had her hands full, we could see more movements in the grass - CUBS! I have seen lion cubs on previous safaris but never the teeny tinny ones, so fingers crossed! We communicated with Brian and Owen on the radio sitting in the car next to us, but they couldn’t either make out the age or how many cubs, we just had to wait. Owen has written a such lovely blogpost about this encounter on www.searchingforspots.com, just must read it, he is so much better than me to paint the picture <3.
They took their time but finally they reached the waterhole, and three adorable little fury balls emerged making the cutes grows. Their mother really had a tough job keeping them in check and she really didn’t like that they would go far or near the water and constantly continued to carry them up a bit, but in the next second they ran back to the exact same place.
We just sat there and enjoyed the little family until they were happy and slowly returned to their sheltered place in a bush. In the distance we could also see another lioness constantly guarding her sister and her cubs. It was an absolutely fantastic end to the first day and we returned to camp.
Back in camp we had a nice dinner around the campfire and we heard the lions roaring, they were getting closer and closer to us. Christian and I had the first shower and when it was Owens turn, we actually had to make a paus to let the lions walk pass us! You don’t really expect to share a shower with a male lion right? Only in the Kalahari ;)
But before we move on I have to tell you about our exiting night. Christians stomach wasn’t feeling very great and in the middle of the night we had to break out of the tent (Brian told us to stay close to the tent, but that rule was totally forgotten by now, he had to get to the toilet). Because of the emergency status, we tried to open the tent a but the zipper got stuck and we had to crawl out of the zipper on the bottom of the tent, haha. I was guard while C did his business. I must say that it felt semi-scary standing in the complete darkness with only a flashlight and a tree behind you, trying to make out eyes in the night, but misson successfully completed!
Next part is going to please all of you pastell loving safaritlovers no filter needed! ;)