Our last morning game drive was done in cold, overcast and windy conditions, with the animals inactive and hiding from us. We did get to see a group of three lionesses with one young male with them, eyeing the wildebeest before stalking away in the long grass. They were so well camouflaged that you would not see them if you didn’t know where to look.
The bravery of the trackers never ceases to amaze me.
We saw one more sleeping adult male lion on our way back to the lodge.
Our flight from Madikwe to OR Tambo ended up being 90 minutes late, resulting in a mad rush to make it in time for our flight back home. Fortunately Federal Air, who were responsible for our lateness, arranged to have us fast tracked through bag drop and security, resulting in us arriving at our boarding gate for the flight home with 10 minutes to spare.
We had our usual early morning start. Sam decided to take us to a spot close to where hyenas with their cubs were known to den. According to him, the curious cubs would often come out to look, when they heard a vehicle stop nearby. We could see them lying under a bush, but after waiting a while, we thought that they were not going to come out and we decided to leave. Soon Sam got a call on the radio, informing him that they had emerged when another vehicle stopped there, as we were leaving. This led to us making a U-turn and returning to the site.
Adult hyenas may be considered part of the “ugly five”, but their cubs are extremely cute.
After this we drove north to an area with open plains, where we saw some Springbok
and also found the lions we had seen at the zebra kill on our second day, now relaxing and sleeping in the grass. One male briefly acknowledged our presence, before lying down again.
The afternoon was cold, windy and overcast, the animals pretty much hiding from the elements and from us. My attempt at photographing a Wahlberg eagle in flight was not a great success, the dark eagle against the white clouds not photographing well. I did take my obligatory Lilac Breasted Roller shot though.
Once again, we saw numerous elephants and Wildebeest (Gnu).
In the overcast conditions, darkness arrived rather quickly, with none of the previous days’ spectacular sunsets. Just before dark, we found a group of two lionesses with 8 cubs. With aperture wide open, shutter speed as slow as I was comfortable with while shooting handheld and ISO as high as I was comfortable with, the photos were still very dark and some work in Lightroom and Topaz Denoise was required afterwards to make them usable.
A Jumble of Lions
This day was also an unfortunate reminder that things do not always go to plan during traveling. First there was an unfortunate little incident, resulting in my one camera meeting with a sharp edge on the floor of the game drive vehicle. This rendered the camera inoperable, but at least it was at the end of the day and I did not lose any photography opportunities due to this.
As if this wasn’t enough, when we arrived back at the lodge, we were informed that our flight out of Madikwe the next day, was going to be at least an hour delayed, causing concern about our ability to still be in time for our flight home. Not much one can do about that except wait and see.
The usual early morning start, after a quick cup of coffee, had us out on our game drive as the sun was rising, providing a lovely background for a shot of a Pale Chanting Goshawk in a dead tree.
My pursuit of the perfect Lilac Breasted Roller shot (as mentioned in a few of my older blog posts) continued.
You cannot move far in Madikwe without seeing elephants. Sadly, elephant conservation in Madikwe is a victim of its own success, with the number of elephants now exceeding the carrying capacity of the reserve, resulting in significant destruction of vegetation. While debates about the management of this problem are ongoing, the size of the problem just seems to be increasing.
There was much activity at a nearby water hole.
About 90 minutes into our game drive, Sam received a radio message that the Wild Dogs had been seen in the far eastern part of the reserve, where they had caught an impala. Obviously we wanted to go there despite the distance and time involved. After another long drive to the east, we arrived close to the sighting, where we had to wait a while for our turn, since only 3 vehicles at a time are allowed at a sighting. But it was absolutely worth the wait. A pack of 14 Painted Wolves, including six pups of about 5 months old, with full tummies and in a playful mood, greeted us.
Liana got some lovely video
All too soon we had to move along and allow others their turn at the sighting. Driving along on our way back to the lodge and aware that we were going to be quite late for brunch, we just had to make a brief stop when we saw a group of four lions chewing on the remains of a wildebeest right next to the road.
After an action packed and exciting morning, the afternoon game drive was a somewhat more uneventful affair, but I did continue my pursuit of the perfect Lilac Breasted Roller shot
After our 5:30 am wake-up call and a quick cup of coffee, we were off at 6 am for our morning game drive. Soon Sam, our guide, received an update about a sighting of lions feasting on a zebra kill and we proceeded in that direction. Upon arriving, we saw a group of two adult males and several females and youngsters feasting on what remained of the zebra.
Some had already finished eating and one male moved away to go and drink at a nearby water hole, then returned to start grooming himself.
He seemed a bit irritated by our close attention, but soon decided to ignore us.
Leaving the lions to finish their breakfast, we returned to the lodge to enjoy our breakfast, after which we did some photo downloading and editing.
During the afternoon we spent some time in the hide, seeing elephants, kudu and a klipspringer visit the water hole.
After high tea, we set of on a game drive to look for the Painted Wolves, whose tracks had been spotted in the eastern part of the reserve that morning. This was a pretty long drive, during which we saw a few Black-backed jackal, a spotted hyena and many elephants, but, unfortunately no Wild Dogs.
During our afternoon drinks stop, we were mesmerised by a beautiful sunset.
Despite spending a long afternoon, not finding the Wild Dogs, it had been a very pleasant game drive. Back at the lodge, we had another excellent dinner, after which we tried to catch up on some sleep.
This story has a few twists and turns even before we arrive in Madikwe Game Reserve. Shortly after our 2024 Okavango trip (links to all posts for that trip in my Archives), we started researching our next destination. Many South Africans are unaware of Madikwe, in Northwest Province, close to the Botswana border, despite this being the fifth largest game reserve in South Africa. One of the big attractions of this reserve, as far as I am concerned, is that it boasts a healthy African Wild Dog population. The reserve is run as a partnership between government, private lodge owners and local population. Since some of the lodges offer SADC specials, we decided to make use of on of these offers. Bookings were handled by Biggestleaf Travel, who had also organised our Okavango trip.
Soon we had decided on a suitable lodge, one of our major requirements being that it had to have a photography hide. Jaci’s Tree Lodge seemed like a great option, with good SADC specials and a lovely hide. However, no sooner had we paid our deposit, than we received an email informing us that the lodge had suffered severe flood damage and all bookings were being canceled, leaving us with three options: cancel and get a refund, postpone until an unknown date when they would be ready to receive guests again or book another, more expensive lodge where the SADC specials were not nearly as good as Jaci’s. Since we had made up our minds that we wanted to visit Madikwe and had already arranged leave for our intended dates, we opted for the third choice.
On the morning of our departure from Gqeberha, the weather forecast was for heavy winds. Our Airlink flight was luckily able to take off before the wind picked up too much. Arriving in Johannesburg, I saw that the flight meant to arrive in Gqeberha 20 minutes after our scheduled departure, could not land due to the severe wind.
A 3 hour wait at OR Tambo, followed by a short hop in the ubiquitous Cessna Caravan, saw us arriving at Impodimo lodge just in time for High Tea.
After tea, we set out on our first game drive. Our guide, Sam, informed us that the cheetahs had been spotted at the opposite end of the reserve and that we could choose between a hard drive to get there in time, or a leisurely game drive which would not allow us enough time to get to see them. Since we were keen to see them and one other couple on the vehicle, who were on their last day at Madikwe, were equally keen, the choice was made to go for the cheetahs. Having found them, I was slightly disappointed to notice that both were collared. This was understandably necessary from a conservation perspective, since the reserve had recently lost two females, only had four males left and were trying to study their behaviour before reintroduction of more females. From a photography perspective, this meant that I had to stick to tightly framed and cropped head shots if I did not want the unsightly collars in my photos.
We stuck around with them as long as possible. Having seen them launch an unsuccessful hunting attempt, we decided that it was time to return to the lodge, arriving back well after dark and just in time for an excellent dinner.
Stayed at Vyfster The Old Jail, had excellent supper at Transkaroo Country Lodge Country Cafe who also do excellent take away coffee if you are just passing through.
Nossob to Twee Rivieren : On this day we took a detours to 13th and 14 boreholes, not recognised by Google Maps and therefore not visible on the map. You will have to use a paper map of Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park to see those.
On the way there, we stopped at Upington Slaghuis, definitely the place to buy your meat if you are traveling in the vicinity and also a good source of local information from the friendly staff.
Another worthwhile stop, requiring a slight detour, was Kanoniki Padstal, where we had excellent coffee and pancakes, an informative and interesting chat with the owner and did some shopping.
Van Zylsrus to Witsand Kalahari reserve : because of heavy rain on the day we were traveling here, as well as damage to the roads by heavy rains some days earlier, we wanted to avoid the gravel roads and took quite a detour in order to stay on tar roads. In different circumstances, we would have chosen a very different route between Van Zyslrus and Olifantshoek.
Camping at Witsand Kalahari was quite tricky to arrange since they didn’t respond to email and we eventually got hold of them on Whatsapp, using the number in the link. Then, getting an invoice out of them was equally tricky. But eventually well worth the effort.
Mokala to Graaff Reinet : We drove the length of Mokala National Park, exiting at Lilydale. For some reason, Google Maps will simply not show this, so my map starts at Lilydale. Approaching Ironstone Cottage near Graaff Reinet, Google maps can once again not be trusted. Here we had clear instructions from the owners on which route to take.
Ironstone Cottage is a beautiful cottage in a stunning setting, an excellent weekend getaway from Gqeberha.
For breakfast the next morning, we had roosterkoek and coffee from Chargo Farm Stall in Graaff Reinet. Their roosterkoek are well worth it, but be sure to be very hungry when tackling one.
In summary: 12 days, roughly 4000 km, some criss-crossing of our route, necessitaded by available dates in National Parks, an awesome experience.
After heavy overnight rain, we woke up to a persistent light drizzle, but with lots of standing water still around. The roads in Mokala were muddy and, despite 4WD we were slipping and sliding in some places.
Most of the animals were far off in the hills,
although a few did come down to play in the mud.
In Britstown we got coffee, then heading to Graaff Reinet. At one stage it looked like the clouds might clear and I had some hope for astrophotography opportunities in Graaff Reinet, but this was not to be and by the time we reached Graaff Reinet, heavy clouds and light rain greeted us. At Ironstone cottage, I realised that the place was perfect for astrophotography, so immediately booked another stay there in July, hoping for better weather.
Thus ended our 12 day road trip, with a return home the next morning, fueled by Coffee and excellent Roosterkoek from the new Chargo Farm Stall in Graaff Reinet.
We woke up to the sound of light rain falling on our tents and quickly broke up camp, fearing a deluge like we had the previous day. However, the rain remained light. Soon we were on our way, once more marveling in the scenery.
We stopped at Proviand in Griekwastad for an excellent breakfast and coffee. Passing through Douglas, we decided to make a detour to view the confluence of the Orange and Vaal rivers. Sadly, not much is made to promote this as a tourist spot and the viewpoint and picnic site were in poor condition, badly letting down the natural beauty of the spot.
A Goliath Heron was doing its streches on a tree stump at the edge of the river.
Approaching Mokala, we met up with two tortoises walking along the road, one of these refusing to be photographed, but the other quite happy to pose
At Mokala, we stayed at Haak en Steek, which consists of a two bedroom cottage and a few camp sites next to a water hole. We were greeted by a herd of Buffalo, coming to drink at the water hole.
Soon the dark clouds started gathering and my plans for astrophotography got canceled. Instead, I tried some lightning photography. When the rain started coming down, we were very happy to have the option of sleeping in the cottage instead of our tents.
We woke up to a thunderstorm and pouring rain. Once again, it was decision time, since we had originally planned to take the gravel road between Van Zylsrus and Olifantshoek, but in the pouring rain and with recent rains having caused some damage to that road, this could be a risky choice.
Eventually we decided to take the tar road over Hotazel, Kuruman and Kathu to Olifantshoek, which is quite a detour.
By the time we reached Olifantshoek, the rain had stopped and we were on the gravel road to Witsand for the last 75 km
Witsand is an interesting geological phenomenon, with white sand dunes in the otherwise red Kalahari sands. In the right conditions, these dunes make a roaring sound when you walk on them, but unfortunately, due to the recent rains, we did not get to experience this. Nonetheless, it was an interesting place to visit and a bit of a challenge climbing the dunes.
On the road to the dunes, we encountered a tortoise, having a drink from a pool of water left in the road after the recent rain
Climbing the dunes is thirsty work and we returned to our campsite under lovely shade between the trees, for a refreshing cold beer and a braai.
Having learned our lesson about not putting too much trust in Garmin and Google Maps, we got instructions from the owner at Van Zylsrus Hotel before setting out. A brief stop in Upington for breakfast and we were on our way, carefully watching the distance and signposts in order to follow instructions.
We couldn’t stop being surprised by the green and colourful Kalahari.
Van Zylsrus Hotel is a true oasis in the desert, albeit an unusually green desert during the time of our visit. The hotel is a hub of social activity for the locals as well as a favourite stopover for hunters and sleepover for people visiting Klein Jan Restaurant at Tswalu Game Reserve. A few days before our arrival in Van Zylsrus, Klein Jan Restaurant suffered major water damage due to a flash flood and had to close down temporarily.
We arrived to find the hotel bar overflowing with locals, some of whom had traveled up to 100 km from their farms and neighboring towns to visit with friends. Through the course of the afternoon, they started heading home and the hotel quietened down.
A walk through the hotel is an interesting experience in local art
Even the toilet seat lid in our bathroom was a piece of art.
After a relaxing cold beer in the bar, we had a great supper and went to bed early. Much as I enjoy camping, the occasional night in a hotel bed is a nice break from sleeping in a rooftop tent.
Etienne's Camera 