It is easy to understand why Urikaruus usually books out within less than an hour after the bookings open. It is simply spectacular!
The entire camp is is built on stilts, with the units interconnected by raised walkways. Each unit consists of two tents – a lower tent, containing the kitchen/dining area, with a balcony and braai overlooking the river bed and waterhole. The upper tent contains the bedroom and bathroom, with second, smaller balcony, also overlooking the river bed and waterhole.
The lower balcony is perfectly placed to photograph anything that happens at the waterhole. Such as a Kori Bustard coming for a drink:
Or a Black-backed Jackal doing the same:
Or even the elegant little Cape Fox that came trotting by just after sunset!
Later that night, well after dark when we were finishing our dinner, two massive male Lions strolled up to the waterhole for a quick drink, and strolled away again up the river bed.
Much later still, just after 3am, we were jerked awake by the sound of lions roaring. We assumed it was the same two we saw earlier, but unfortunately we were unable to catch a glimpse of them.
In the end we went back to bed, only to be woken again, about 20 minutes later, by more roaring. When we finally managed to go to sleep again, there was barely more than an hour left until we needed to get up again. However, anyone who has spent time in the African bush knows that it is impossible to get upset when you are kept away by sounds like that!
The nest morning, as we were sitting on the balcony with our coffee and rusks, trying to wake up after getting very little sleep, we were treated to a Honey Badger trotting across the river bed, straight towards us!
Sadly, this guy is clearly used to getting food at the camp, as he came to a stop right under our balcony and stood looking up at us. He seemed to be analyzing the support structure of the balcony, trying to find a way up, but in the end he stopped at simply growling at us a little and moving on. Talk about a close encounter!
We finished our coffee, loaded the car, and decided to drive in the direction from which we had heard the lions roaring the previous night. We knew our chances of finding them were very slim, but thought it worth a try anyway! And lo and behold – chilling on the dune crest, next to the turn-off to the upper dune road, was one of them!
What an experience! What a camp!
Of course, there were many more sighting and many more photos, but we cannot possibly capture everything without writing a full length novel. Please do visit the trip gallery for more photos from the Kgalagadi!