Amber Sky Creations

Kgalagadi – Kieliekrankie

Posted on September 3, 2019March 28, 2023 by wilma

The first camp we stayed in after Twee Revieren, was Kieliekrankie. It is a beautiful camp situated high on a dune, overlooking a waterhole. There is no electricity, but with solar-powered lights and gas geysers, fridges and stoves, you hardly notice it.

First view of Kieliekrankie from the access road

The highlight of Kieliekrankie is definitely the deck, featuring a braai with a view over the red dunes and flood-lit waterhole.

The only downside of Kieliekrankie, for us, was that lack of wildlife in the area. You rarely see anything on the dune road. You really have to drive to either one of the main river-bed roads to see a lot of wildlife. So Kieliekrankie was not a good base for wildlife photography, in our experience. However, it would definitely be a good place to go if you want solitude, quiet and beauty.

Staying at Kieliekrankie, and hanging out around Aughterlonie as late as we dared in the afternoon, did give us one of the best sightings of the trip – an African Wild Cat, lying in the riverbed and then getting up and walking away.

Kgalagadi, September 2019

Posted on August 31, 2019March 28, 2023 by wilma

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park has always been on our bucket list, so we were very excited when we finally made it there in August/September 2019.

We spent two weeks travelling through the park, staying in 6 out of the 9 camps on the South African side – Twee Revieren, Kieliekrankie, Nossob, Bitterpan, Mata-Mata and Urikaruus.

When we were there, the park was incredibly dry. So dry, that most of the wildlife had moved North into Botswana, where it was less dry. Nevertheless, we had an incredible time!

The South African side of the park has two main roads, running alongside (and sometimes in!) the two dry river beds. The Auob river road takes you West from Twee Revieren, past Urikaruus and Kalahari Tented Camp, and ends at Mata-Mata camp, where you can also exit the park across the border into Namibia. The Nossob road takes you past Nossob camp, up to Grootkolk and Garaghab and ends at the Union’s End picnic side, where South Africa, Namibia and Botswana come together. You cannot exit here, though. It is a dead end.

In between the two main roads are the two so-called “dune roads”. Contrary to their names, they don’t actually require any dune driving. Both dune roads are well-maintained gravel roads. In fact, they are usually the best roads in the park!

The “lower” dune road is closer to Twee Revieren and takes you past Kieliekrankie camp. The “upper” dune road is deeper into the park and passes a few kilometres East of Bitterpan, which can only be reached via its own, dedicated 4×4 access road.

In between the camps, there are a few basic picnic sites as well as a few viewpoints where you can drive onto the dunes that flank the river beds and roads to get a view of the interior of the park, as well as a bird-eye view of the river beds.

Mapungubwe – Maloutswa hide

Posted on March 5, 2019June 15, 2020 by wilma

The Maloutswa hide was, for us, the highlight of Mapungubwe. Of course, we were fortunate to be there when the dam was full. When there is less water, it would be considerably less spectacular.

View from the Maloutswa hide, towards the left

Nevertheless, we spent three two mornings and three afternoons in the hide. The view over the dam was simply beautiful. The hide is perfectly designed to allow photography both in the morning and in the afternoon. One simply has to sit on opposite sides of the hide and shoot in the right direction for the current light conditions.

Sightings included Little Egrets –

Grey Herons –

African Jacana –

A Woodlands Kingfisher, perching so close to the hide that I eventually had to switch to a shorter lens!

Elephants playing in front of the Maloutswa hide

And the last morning, we even saw a small herd of Elephants swimming and playing in the dam a few meters from the hide.

Overall, this was one of the most successful photography trips we had ever taken. Many more photos taken from the hide and around the park can be found in the Trip Gallery.

Mapungubwe – Western section: Limpopo Forest Tented Camp

Posted on March 4, 2019June 15, 2020 by wilma

At this stage, one unfortunate still has to leave the park to travel between the Eastern and Western sections. The upside for us, however, was that between the two sections, we were able to get out of the car and photograph the never-ending fields of duwweltjies!

Our tent was tucked in under a massive Njala tree. The tents are beautiful and quite luxurious, even though the kitchens had to be closed in some years back, due to repeated raids by baboons and monkeys.

The Western section offers less in terms of structured activities, but it does offer better game viewing and, the jewel of Mapungubwe when we were there – the Maloutswa dam hide (but more about the hide in the next post!)

Wildlife sightings included a few very easy-going Steenbok

Several sightings of a smallish herd of Blue Wildebeest, and almost daily sightings of Black-backed Jackals.

Mapungubwe – Wildlife, Birding and more Scenery

Posted on March 3, 2019June 15, 2020 by wilma

The rocky outcrops around the camp offers a lot of opportunity to see wildlife species that you won’t often see in other national parks, like Rock Hyrax and Klipspringers

Reptiles, like lizards and agama are also very common.

Zebra pan offers the opportunity to spot some larger game (although we didn’t, sadly) as well as water birds and dragon flies.

Further along, you can get a spectacular view over the Shroda dam.

There are also two 4×4 routes to drive, but we found both routes to be underwhelming both in terms of a 4×4 adventure and in terms of wildlife and bird sightings. We did, however, manage to get a few wonderful bird sightings from the comfort of our bungalow’s patio, such as this Diederik Cuckoo, courting a mate with a worm!

Diederik Cuckoo trying to impress a female

For many more photos, please visit the Trip Gallery!