Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (1)

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) is one of South Africa's Arid Parks, sharing with Botswana this big area for wildlife. My wife and I love to visit this place for its animal life, unfenced camps on the Botswana side, the relatively few visitors and therefore fewer traffic than for instance the other popular Kruger National Park.

 

 

For us it means a travel from Cape Town of about 1200km to get to the park, which we did for the sixth time during the past four years. Add to that the same distance back, plus at least 1000km driving in the park itself, which then amounts to about 20 000km's in the past four years.

In this place we really get to forget a bit of our day to day work and pressures of being always available on phones etc, and just to switch off and concentrate on looking for the way nature presents itself in a harsh but beautiful manner.

We usually get up very early and make sure we leave the camp at the time the gates open, and we stay on the roads or at water holes for the rest of the day, meaning about eleven hours per day in the car, until we get back to camp just before closing.

Being a hobbyist photographer, I am keen to find whatever is interesting and to try and capture that interesting animal, bird, or insect in the best possible way...

I actually prefer some action, and try to get a technically correct picture, whilst always open to learn from others on the best or better way to do it.

My wife Elaine enjoy planning the day in the car with al the foodstuff, and then to be the spotter of animals. I am driving, camera next to me on the passenger seat, and she sits at the back on the same side as me - thus being able to enjoy the same sightings as me, and being next to the cooler box on the other side of the seat.

We love to try and find the predators. Lions and cheetas are high on our list - while we try to read the language of the other animals, usually good indicators of whether the big guys are in the vicinity or not.

While being on the lookout for the adrenaline stuff, every other photo opportunity are taken!

It can sometimes take more than a day or two to get to a really exciting sighting - driving up and down, or sitting next to a water hole, waiting for nature to show us something, and also trying to read nature with our limited knowledge and experience of how this lovely place presents itself.

...until suddenly we get paid for our patience and perseverance with a sighting of lions, cubs, or cheetas chasing or eating! Usually lions roar through the night or early mornings, while we are still in camp. Part of the fun is then to try and locate the direction of the roaring sounds, and then driving in that direction, hoping to find the lions on their way or near a water hole, coming in to drink, after a night of hunting etc.

To be continued....