Today we were up, had breakfast and packed by 6.45am as we were off on the morning walk organised by SAN (South African National) parks. We were the only ones walking with the two armed and very knowledgeable young guides. The good part was we drove to an area of the park that other users don't get to go to; the bad part was a really cold wind that got up with the sun and it never really warmed up - we had dressed in layers which weren't removed as anticipated but the guides in shorts and jumpers were caught out by the weather, particularly after the heat of yesterday, and they looked decidedly numb when we finished! Nonetheless it was an excellent leg stretch and we learnt a lot. We saw oryx running down the slope and crossing in front of us , springbok, cape fox and jackal. I had a brilliant time photographing a pair of pigmy falcons who had, no doubt, emerged from their rented room in the sociable weavers colony close by, we heard and saw flocks of Namaqua sandgrouse, saw a fiscal shrike, and kori bustards both strutting and flying - the bird equivalent of a jumbo jet. We learnt the history behind a collapsed 150 year old camel thorn tree - part of the strain was a large, now abandoned, sociable weavers nest but the killer blow was from the inhabitants of another very large but messy nest - the home of tree rats who never leave the tree (until it collapses) consequently the corrosive build up of acid from their urine caused the tree to rot and finally collapse. We also saw a beetle left impaled, and forgotten, on a thorn by a fiscal shrike and a nocturnal spiders nest.
We returned about 0930 much wiser but colder so before we set off for our days drive to Mata Mata with Hein we had to have a hot chocolate!
1000am we were off; we got a glimpse of the female Verreauxs eagle owl on the nest, the male was nowhere to be seen - to add to our list of sightings we had during the day, we saw the rear end of a lioness as she disappeared up a slope and over a ridge which put an enormous herd of springbok on high alert - but she wasn't interested in eating, a group of young male kudu, a scimitar bill, cape crows, a lilac breasted roller, a black chested prinia, several fork tailed drongos and pale chanting goshawks, a secretary bird, a pair of crowned plovers and 3 fluffy little chicks, a tawny eagle, a martial eagle on a nest, a black chested snake eagle, a male and female African shelduck,a mating pair of white backed vultures, a white faced scops owl which would only let me photograph it side on despite sitting in hope it would turn round, a crimson breasted shrike, a black backed jackal scavenging on an ostrich carcass by the road and today's picture a flock of red headed finches going back and forth from their perch to drink in a water hole. Lunch was at a picnic spot by an old boer settlement, now a small museum, - really interesting - but life must have been tough.
We finally arrived at Mata Mata at approximately 5pm this time we were on the Namibian border - thats why this is called Kgalagadi Transfrontier national park. As soon as we were checked in we made a much needed cup of tea and watched the large colony of ground squirrels beside our lodge. I took some photos out of the bathroom window as it meant I didn't disturb them. Just as we were getting ready to go to the bird hide on the camp site I noticed a yellow mongoose running around the ground squirrel colony and circling a bush, I got a slightly better picture today -at least this one was front facing!
The bird hide was near a waterhole but the only birds drinking were doves - cape turtle dove and the laughing dove. a peaceful spot but after 20 minutes it was back to the lodge to sort out photos and have another lovely BBQ supper prepared by Hein.