Kgalagadi September 2016: raptor kills and roadside rescue

[Tdgraves]

Day 12: Upington, 22/9/16

 

We arrived at our B&B in good time, so I could go and catch a few birds in the garden while the OH rested. Last time we had arrived it was straight to the pool, but temperatures were much more manageable compared to the summer!

 

Orange river white-eye

 

 

Cape wagtail

 

 

Cape robin-chat

 

 

Muscovy duck

 

 

White-backed mousebird

 

 

 

Speckled pigeon

 

 

Our roadside rescuers had recommended a restaurant in town, so we thought we'd try it, rather than the place we had been to before. The B&B manager suggested that we should make a reservation, which we duly did. As we were driving down, the OH wondered whether indeed our rescuers would be there, but we thought that they had one night left in the park. Au contraire - as we walked in, the women and children were all seated! We went over and said "Hi" and then made our way over to the Maitre'd to get our table. The place was packed, so I was glad that we had booked. We were waiting and waiting and eventually the owner came over and apologised that he had given away our table (seemingly to two young girls....). Could we leave and he'd call us when a table was available? Where would we go?? He didn't even suggest that we could have a drink at their tiny bar. Our South African rescuers had been watching this all unfold and of course, came to our rescue once again - did the restaurant have 2 spare chairs? Yes. Well, then we could join them at our table. Rescued again! The shame! We had a lovely evening and the food was very good, if not the initial welcome.

[Atravelynn]

Those rescuers could be considered your guardian angels. How funny, and they have a good story as well. Such adorable owl chicks. When I saw your first meerkat photo, in the approaching mode, I immediately thought coati. But that's the wrong continent. Similar characteristics can be prominent in different poses and activities. It's great you saw meerkats.

 

Glad the road rage incident was fleeting.

[xelas]

Interesting story ... about being overbooked. Glad you have rescuers, but myself, I would not want to patronise such a business. At least the food was good. Fine trip it was, and even better trip report!

[Tdgraves]

Interesting story ... about being overbooked. Glad you have rescuers, but myself, I would not want to patronise such a business. At least the food was good. Fine trip it was, and even better trip report!

@@xelas I know what you mean, the OH was all for leaving, but as you know, there are not that many places to eat in upington and our reservation was at 8pm. Thanks for the compliments.

 

@@Atravelynn we repaid our guardian angels by buying them dinner!

[michael-ibk]

Excellent trip report again, I really enjoyed visiting the Kgalagadi again through you lens! You must be off very soon to Kruger now, no? We are choking under snow right now, and you are off to sunny wonderful Africa again - life is not fair.

 

Have a great time, and bring back lots of great photos!

[Tdgraves]

Excellent trip report again, I really enjoyed visiting the Kgalagadi again through you lens! You must be off very soon to Kruger now, no? We are choking under snow right now, and you are off to sunny wonderful Africa again - life is not fair.

 

Have a great time, and bring back lots of great photos!

You are right @@michael-ibk we fly out on Thursday (a day after the BA strike - phew!) and will be in the park on Tuesday - can't wait. It looks like they have has some rain, so we'll be back to green pictures again and hopefully lots of birds, supplemented by a trip to rietvlei with @@Peter Connan

[Peter Connan]

I am looking forward to finally meeting the two of you.

 

I had 103mm of rain yesterday, and a friend who lives on the opposite side of Rietvlei had a similar amount, so I am atl least pretty sure Rietvlei will be green.

 

As for the Kruger, I recently received some photos of a flooded low-water bridge on the Sabi river, so at least some areas have had good rain now.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Peter Connan

[Tdgraves]

Epilogue

 

We left upington for joburg on a Friday, so that we would not have a flight deadline and could chill out for the day before we left. Of course this meant traffic, much, much more traffic. Top tip, if you can drive to/from KTP on a weekend. Not only did we keep getting stuck behind ore lorries, but also we were stopped at 3 separate police roadblocks. This seemed to be a combined road safety, education and home office operation. Documents were checked and we were allowed to move on. Minibus taxis received moe scrutiny however! This education was needed, as we saw a dead body on each journey along with a total of 4 completely written off cars...

 

The end!

 

We are now in the lounge awaiting our flight to joburg and KNP, TR to follow!

[Peter Connan]

Thanks for a great TR.

 

Looking forwardto the next one, and thanks for allowing me to share some of the first day with you. I had lots of fun.