The Kgaladi

This past weekend I went on a camping trip / game drive to the Kalahari Desert with a company called Africa Insight. They picked us up on Saturday morning in a custom Land Rover with three rows of stadium seats and wood panels. The effect was something rather like the Beverly Hillbillies vehicle.

Apparently it had been customized for nature filming and much of the Discovery Channel footage of the Kalahari had been done from cameras rigged on it. Our driver was Chris, who was born in Zimbabwe and looked like Santa Claus on safari and Kenny (sp?) who is Batswana. They were both incredibly knowledgeable and friendly.

We all loaded up into the vehicle and away we went on our drive from Gabarone to the Kalahari.

The drive was about 2 hours on paved roads and another 2.5 on dirt roads. Being an open vehicle, we were all completely covered in dirt and dust by the time we arrived.

We spent most of our time in a small section of the Kalahari desert called the Khutse Game Reserve, which is a small spur hanging off of the south end of the larger Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

The Kalahari is a so-called "living desert", or more correctly, a "dry savannah" and is mostly covered with low scrub bushes, sparse trees, and dry grass. There is a species of Lion that lives there that is fairly unique to the area called the "Black-maned Lion", which I was pretty excited about seeing. Not to jump straight to the punchline, but unfortunately no manes were seen, black or otherwise.

This was my first time getting to explore my new camera, the all-singing, all-dancing Canon SX50 HS with 50x zoom lens. It was really quite impressive. Here is a shot of a tree on the veldt, with a tiny yellow Hornbill on the top.

This isn't even fully zoomed out, mind you. Now here it is, zoomed in. Again, not even fully.

The zoom is so good, you can tell what religion he is.

When we got to camp we first sat and ate some lunch, which was a pretty basic bread and cheese affair.  Here is Chris, our guide, telling us about being taken on safari when he was just weeks old, in a bassinet hung from the ceiling of their Land Rover.

We then set up our tents which seemed like they were obtained from a museum somewhere. I later learned that the canvas lining of the tent was sewn through with nylon and the tents were supposedly "lion-proof". I wonder if the lions are aware of that? I'm incredulous. They should try wrapping their livestock in lion-proof canvas. See how that goes.

As campgrounds go, this was a pretty swanky place, with built in toilets and showers. I'm not sure the other campers saw it that way but they probably haven't had to dig a hole to use as a latrine before.

Afterwards we went on a drive through the game reserve.

We came across a family of Bat-eared Foxes, which look just like they sound.

I got this great shot at full zoom capacity, which is about 200x. It put even the guide's binoculars to shame.

Here is the lone lion we came across, which may or may not be a Black-maned lion. It was impossible to tell due to conspicuous lack of a mane.

I learned from the guide that a lioness in oestrus will mate every 7 minutes, 24 hours-a-day, for 5 days straight. Exhausting!

Well, back to work.

We stopped and watched the sunset before heading back to our camp for some dinner.

Back at camp, dinner was eaten and we then sat around the fire, playing guitar and telling stories.

Every 7 minutes or so, the silence surrounding the camp was broken by the sounds of grunting lions. Then the sounds of a cigarette being lit.

We were greeted in the morning by a beautiful sunrise and a curious yellow Hornbill.

The other campers didn't believe me that the zoom on my camera was so good that you could make out the craters on the moon with it so I had to take this shot to prove it. This is hand-held. No tripod.

Here is a nice shot of our campground before we departed. Love that lens flare.

We then went on another game drive and came across this family of ground squirrels. Amazing that squirrels seem to have made their way to just about everywhere on earth. These ones are quite attractive, though.

Again, check out the amazing zoom capabilities.

Here is a Vulture.

And a Springbok.

I saw two small African Wild Cats, but they were too quick to get on film. They looked just like tawny tabby cats. I learned later that they are the direct ancestors of our domestic house-cats. Here is a picture (not mine) for reference.

The two other small cats that live in the Kalahari are the Caracal, or African Lynx:

And the tiny Black-Footed Cat, the smallest of the wild cats. It is mainly nocturnal and feeds on small insects.

This is a tiny Pearl-spotted Owl which, conversely, hunts during the day.

It's only about a hand's-breadth tall.

On our way out of the reserve we came across a group of young Springbok bachelors.

So long, gentlemen. 

Signing out, from The Kalahari.