Kgalagadi Tranfrontier National Park

Everyone knows Lindsay loves his lions, so when he heard that Botswana had lions with black manes he had to put this on our list.

Honey Badger, which are nocturnal, but we saw quite a few

Kgalagadi is accessible from Namibia from the eastern border. Too far to go straight to our campground so we had booked a night at Anib Resort, 280km south of Windhoek that has three camping spots. They offer a night drive but why would we want to have someone else drive us around when we were about to do it ourselves.

Lots of Ostrich

It was day one of camping; time to see how everything worked. We had bought some spaghetti and decided to have an easy meal. OMG. Namibian spaghetti is awful, it was just a gluggy mess. Our washing up bowl leaked slightly but not enough to worry about as long as I didn’t move it after it was filled up and washed quickly. We had forgotten to buy a sponge and scourer. I knew we should have camped in Windhoek to do a dry run, with no shops for the foreseeable future, we would have to try a service station for one.

We only saw giraffe on one occasion

Bed was pretty simple to set up, just open up the back and lift up the roof. The hire company had supplied pillows, a sheet and new sleeping bags rated to -3°C. Lindsay had brought over his MacPac -6°C rated sleeping bag but I’d left mine at home as always get too hot in it. Big mistake. It’s mid July and the desert can get freezing at night, not every night but quite a few. Lindsay gave me his sleeping bag, yay. I had brought over a polar fleece blanket which was also very useful. The nights are quite warm to start off with, so I would start off with the -3 bag, then progress as the night got colder, -6 bag, then add the blanket.

Meer cats come into camp to beg for food and people can't resist them

Our camper had two gas burners & bottles, one on the back of the truck – always set up and accessible and one packed in the side hatch with a burner on top. It was a little windy so the portable one is handy to sit in a sheltered spot but we also parked into the wind to protect the other one.

Nothing is close by

We had a paper map that our friend David had given us. I had also done screen dumps of google maps to each destination and I had downloaded Namibia on the maps.me app and saved each camp with a star – which came in handy a couple of times, especially when we had no mobile coverage. We had bought a MTC 3gb mobile phone plan that lasts 60 days at the airport. I had heard that there would be lots of places that would have no reception, so didn’t think we needed any bigger. We made sure we turned everything off and didn’t even use half of it.

The bitumen road stopped after the next town from our first camp, then it was gravel for the next week or so. We filled up with fuel as we had no idea where our next fuel stop would be and reduced our tyre pressures.

Our first young male lion - he hasn't grown is mane yet

There is no border control going into South Africa at Mata Mata camp (pronounced marta). When you check into the South African run camp you have to give your passports to the policeman. The national parks lady organised our parks fee which you can pay by credit card. I had read numerous times that not many service stations took credit cards, so we got some money out at Johannesburg airport as they use two currencies in Namibia – the Namibian dollar and the South African Rand and some more in Windhoek. The maximum you can withdraw is $3,000 in either currency and they are worth the same value – this was $A310. So just take off a digit to get approximate Australian dollars. The South African machines charged us a $R150 withdrawal fee each! We had two accounts, so got out $N6,000 and $R6,000. I had read that you couldn’t exchange Namibian dollars back into another currency but you can Rand, so my plan was to use up the Namibian dollars first, then the Rand. I don’t know if this is true as we ended up spending all our cash. We had two fuel tanks so could sometimes need $1200 - $1500 to fill up, so I didn’t want to get caught out. Most service stations took credit cards, there were only two that didn’t.

Oryx

We explained (complained really) to the national parks lady that we had tried to book the Rooiputs campsite with Botswana but they hadn’t answered our emails or the phone when we rang. Everyone we spoke to complains about Botswana National Parks. She knew what they were like and offered to ring them for us, but no they were booked out but they could book a campsite nearby called Two Rivers. This was our only chance of seeing the black maned lions, so we agreed and would have to ditch Fish River Canyon. We had forgotten that we had gone into another country and hadn’t turned off our phone. Not only that but I used it to ring Namibian national parks to try and cancel our booking – not surprisingly it chewed up all our talk time. You have to send an email to cancel any bookings soI had to buy some South African WiFi at the store. I would only get 25% back, less if you count the WiFi cost, but better than nothing. This won't be the last time we change our plans, I really dislike having to book campsite ahead for this reason.

Considering lions can sleep up to 20 hours a day, do you wait around until he decides to wake up

You don’t get allocated a campsite at Mata Mata, you just go and choose one. We found one under a nice tree for our two nights. The site has power and water and the ablution block also has a room to wash your dishes. The store makes fresh bread, you order it in the morning and pick it up after 4pm. They had said that the camp was fully booked but there were a number of sites empty. We didn’t find out until the end of our trip that they work on the number of people in the camp that the facilities can handle. Some sites have quite a few people and sometimes 2-3 vehicles if friends are travelling together, which means other sites cannot be used. Prices are based on per person, so the camp is still getting the same funds, it’s just a pity that you can’t book sites next to each other so that friends don’t have to all squeeze onto one site. Mata Mata had fuel but they were rationing it, so it was lucky that we filled up the day before we left. We could then fill up again the following day and the allocation allowed had reduced again. Their store has basic supplies and you can also purchase WiFi but you can only get connection inside the park reception, where there is no where to sit, so you do what you have to do and that's it.

On the first night we caught up with a couple of teachers from England who normally go to Kruger twice a year. On one trip they saw over 20 leopards. Guess what has been added to our bucket list! The following night a group of South Africans invited us over for a drink after dinner. Even though they knew we had eaten, they insisted on feeding us some some more. I tried to say no, but you feel really rude. When they barbeque or braai as they call it, they always do a number of toasted sandwiches with tomato, cheese and spanish onion over the braai, they tie them up with string. The meat and sandwiches are put in separate metal grids that can be lifted up and flipped over. It must be some type of tradition as we had them at Randal's place in Windhoek too. The next morning when Lindsay went to say goodbye, they insisted on giving him a bottle of South African red wine. So welcoming and generous.

Our campsite at Mata Mata

The gates open at sunrise and close at sunset. 7:30am and 6:30pm while we were there. Today was our first self-driven game drive. Because we have a rooftop camper we have to pack it up every time we want to use the car. The sleeping bags can stay up there but not the pillows. We leave our table and chairs to claim our camp site.

Our campsite at Nossob, you don't get allocated a campsite, you just go and choose your own

All the camps are fenced and the gates are shut but the jackals somehow get in at Nossob.  We were warned not to leave anything out, especially shoes as they steal them, much like our dingos. Nossob also has fuel as well as a basic store. We didn't have power at our site, but other sites did - I like to choose a site not too far from the toilet block for those late night trips. Every time you leave the camp you have to pick up your parks pass and when you come back you have to drop it off again so that they can track when you go in and out of the park, we never put it on our dashboard but I'm thinking we were probably supposed to. Not being the driver, it was my job to open and shut the big gates to the camps. As I was wearing synthetic pants, I would get zapped every time with the static my pants had created!

We decided it would work best if I sat in the back and had hired a double cab Hilux for that reason. That way Lindsay could have his cameras on the front seat and I could have the back seat and move to either side of the car if needed. Rangers do patrol the park. There is a 60kmh limit and Lindsay got pulled over for speeding. He apologised profusely and luckily there were no consequences.

What did we bring? Canon 1DX with the 200-400mm with built in extender and his old 1D Mk4, a cropped lens with the 70-200mm. I had my 7DMk2 with 100-400, the cropped lens making the range 160-640mm. I would also use my little Lumix to take video.

He guarded his kill for 3 days

an owl in Nossob camp

Wildebeest

We saw this lion on our way from Nossob camp to Two Rivers camp in Botswana

Our camp site at Two Rivers was in Botswana, so we went into border control to register our campsite, "exit" South Africa and "enter" Botswana. The person in charge of passports couldn't find anything that had let us into South Africa, so she couldn't log us out. She told us just to go. Okay, not realising this could be a problem when we wanted to leave.

Two Rivers campsite doesn't look awful, it just was

Our campsite at Two Rivers was awful. The wind was howling through. There was no-one else there, which normally wouldn't worry me, but it did this time. It was a lonely, desolate place. The ablution block was run down and the toilets were broken. Someone had blown up the hot water systems or maybe they did that themselves, whatever, we weren't going to be having showers. We sneaked into the campground on the South African side to have a shower. The first afternoon we drove up to the Rooiputs camp to have a squiz at the campsite we missed out on and to see if the British couple we had met in Mata Mata were there, but they weren't.

We checked out the resort on the South African side and got ice creams at the store. It had a restaurant which would make a nice break from camp life that night. We could move freely between Botswana and South Africa as long as we were "in the park" or the Twee Rivieren resort which included a petrol station, campground, hotel, restaurant and shop. We could get from the restaurant to our campsite without going into the park, so didn't violate the entry/exit times. But if we had been staying at the Rooiputs camp, we wouldn't have be able to go to the restaurant as you would have to drive through the park after sunset.

Our camp site had a fence around it but there was no gate at the entrance. We could hear lions far away, but what if they came into camp during the night... just as I had to go outside? I wasn't going outside our camper in the middle of the night here. Luckily I had made arrangements for this scenario and now was the time to use it.

We had heard that the jackals would jump up and try and catch the birds. He didn't for us but he loved scaring them off

There aren't a lot of roads to go exploring in the park but we would go out at sunrise and come back at lunchtime. We knew that the animals don't do much in the afternoons, so didn't waste energy and fuel trying to look for them.

Still guarding his kill, it helped that he water close by. 

Predators often attack their prey as they are drinking, so you see animals warily approach the waterholes. A pair of Kudu's took over half an hour to move a few metres out of the cover of the trees to the waterhole before they felt comfortable that nothing was going to attack them.

Eagle

Sometimes they are just too far away and then they just walk off

We probably drove past many lions, there are two in this picture, with another just to the left - but they are lying down, so you can't see them.

There has been a drought for four years in this area and it's taking it's toll. Many of the animals have migrated to Botswana.

A rare picture of the two of us - thank you Elaine

Arno and Elaine invited us to join them at their Rooiputs campsite, the campsite we had tried to book with Botswana over a year ago, which they booked only a couple of months ago. They had paid for four people but his sister and husband couldn't make it. We couldn't believe how generous they were. Elaine couldn't believe that she had asked complete strangers, whom they'd met on the side of the road, to share their campsite! All was good though and we all had a great time. It is encounters like these that make our trips memorable.

This camp is not fenced, any animal in the park can walk through and they do. The lions just walk pass the campers, it would be an amazing experience - if only... but sadly not for us. They came through the night before; Arno dived into the camper and Elaine grabbed her camera! The jackals are a bit brazen and will come up to your camp fire in the hope of getting a hand out.

Why is our bonnet up? the cigarette plug on the inverter wasn't working so we had to connect it directly onto the car battery to charge non USB items. You can hire one with your car but we brought ours from home. It will be getting some modifications before our next trip.

When it came time to leave, there is a big gate we had to go through and you have to have your passport stamped before they will let you through. We had to go back into the border office and sort out the issue with our passports, and we got a different person this time. Undesirables it says will be banned from entering the country for 18 months, which would mean we couldn’t get home as we need to transit through Johannesburg. We had to depart from South Africa, even though we had been in Botswana. Confused? so were we. Long story short, the border officer said we were fine and stamped our passports, but where was our parks pass? We told him we had been in Botswana and had handed it in when we arrived but a week later I found it in the glove box - oops.

The actual border is about 10kms down the road. We had a bitumen road in South Africa but as soon as we entered Namibia, it was gravel, a clear demarkation. We had to "depart" South Africa and "enter" Namibia. An officer on the South African side asked us if we had any meat and explained that Namibia might have an issue with it. We had been asked by fellow travellers in Mata Mata if we had been asked by border control AKA the policeman if we had any meat, but he hadn't. We did, but apparently you aren't allowed to bring meat from Namibia into South Africa. Now it seems we couldn't take meat from South African into Namibia. We explained that the meat had come from Windhoek, so was Namibian. Was it labelled? no because we had got them to cryovac it, so they had taken it out of the original package. Did they know we shouldn't have brought it over the border into South Africa? After much discussion we were allowed to keep it. I'm confused, are we all supposed to be vegetarian? Where are you supposed to buy meat in the middle of nowhere? This won't be the last time this issue comes up. Just as Australians find ingenious ways to hide alcohol going into places like Cape York, the locals here do the same with meat.

Next stop, Keetmanshoop.

Want to start at the beginning of this trip? Namibia - Pt 1