Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Back in August we were having dinner with my parents when my dad mentioned that he really wanted to go to the Kgalagadi. But my mom doesn’t handle heat very well. So my wife (who is also scared of the heat) says that my dad and I should go. For my sin in choosing the wrong career, I am basically forced to take the bulk of my leave during the December school holidays, so we had to jump quickly and to some extent we could not pick and choose the best camps.
Fortunately, we were able to book three nights at Rooiputs and two nights at Two Rivers (note, not Twee Rivieren), which suited us very well.
The two of us left Joburg at around 4AM on the morning of the 14th December under threatening skies. Al went swimmingly until we hit Kuruman, where my old banger, usually totally reliable, decided to just die. 15 minutes of anxious fiddling later it magically started up again, but before leaving Kuruman I purchased a replacement coil as insurance (the coil felt very hot). As a result of this and some excellent conversation and a first-class brunch with my second cousin, as well as the car getting progressively sicker we arrived at Twee Rivieren rather later than expected. After signing in we proceeded on to Rooiputs where we would be spending our first three nights, but not before unpacking our cameras.
Stopping at Rooiputs waterhole to photograph a Gemsbok, somebody drove up and said there was a lion under a bush just a couple of hundred meters away. So we went haring off to find it, and indeed a beautiful male lion was soon found.
Unfortunately, the sun had already dropped behind a dune, so we headed off to campsite no.1, which turned out to be a no.1 camp, and very soon we had the tent pitched, and the food heating (we have developed a habit of taking a cooked meal for the first night as we are invariably tired after a long drive, in this case it was leftover sheep’s offal, a favourite delicacy of ours) to the accompaniment of a magnificent sunset (which I was too late to capture) and the manic barking of thousands of geckos. As an encore, the lion roared us to sleep.

The next morning we were up at five out of the camp at five thirty. A solitary Springbuck ram was waiting for us at the waterhole, standing guard over his domain, as was the ubiquitous Jackal. General game is quite common in the riverbeds, particularly in the early morning and late afternoon, and we saw a lot of raptors as well. It was also evident that some rain had already fallen, with some small puddles of water in the road between Kij Kiy and Melkvlei. But close to Melkvlei we came across a very sad sight: a very emaciated lioness was lying in the road, drinking from one of the puddles. There were already a couple of jackal hanging around, and three or four vultures relaxing in the trees.
Shortly, two more lion appeared, one a youngster, the other a slightly older male. The male had an injured eye and a wound on its’ back, while the cub looked fine until it jogged, when it kept one paw in the air. A Spotted Hyena arrived after a few minutes and circled to approach the lioness, then noticed the other two lions and decided to keep its’ distance. However, it stayed in the area and was obviously really looking forward to lunch…
Driving south after brunch, the car died again. I tried fitting the new coil but that did not solve the problem. Eventually I asked a passer-by to give us a tow back to Twee Rivieren in the hope that there was a mechanic there. We were fortunate in that there was. With his assistance, and a phone call to Grootseun we decided that it was indeed the coil. The problems were two-fold, and as always caused by not keeping things standard. The first was that whoever had fitted the dual battery system had moved the coil to the side of the wheelwell, (rather than the top), and in this location it was very close to the exghaust, and secondly a previous owner had bridged out the coil resistor. The correct Nissan coil (which I had fitted about a year ago) is designed to work at a lower voltage, and this voltage reduction is accomplished by the resistor, and as a result of the resistor being bridged out, the coil was overheating. However, when the resistor was re-activated, the car started but immediately died. So the reason the resistor was bridged out is that it was bridged out because it was blown. The reason the car still started up is that there is a secondary circuit designed to bridge out the resistor when starting the car to obviate the voltage drop caused by the current draw of the starter. The new coil was an incorrect type and would not work at all.
So we re-installed the damaged coil, but in a different location further from the exhaust.
Midday was spent in the same pastime as most of the wildebeest in the Kalahari: hiding under a shady tree. Later in the afternoon, at Rooiputs waterhole, we watched three Gemsbok queuing behind… two secretary birds, who were waiting for… a Tawny. The bloody-minded eagle took at least half an hour to finish drinking. In the end it flew off, but by then the Gemsbok had given up and charged off into the dunes. I was starting to think the Wildebeest had competition in the madness stakes in these parts. We also had the privilege of watching a Pale Chanting Goshawk hunting (unfortunately unsuccessfully) on the way to Kij Kiy.
It took us quite long to spot the lion resting on the dune above Kiy Kiy, but fortunately we had been entertaining ourselves photographing the pigeons drinking until he woke up, had a good scratch and then ambling down for a drink. The lions around here certainly know when the tourists have to leave to make it back to camp before gate-time!

The next morning, we just missed three cheetah drinking at Kij Kij. We followed them for a while, but they disappeared into the dunes.
Near Melkvlei, we found the emaciated lioness, lying under a tree not 30m from where it had been drinking from the puddle in the road the previous morning. It was still breathing, but only just.
At Melkvlei picnic site, there were two Spotted Eagle Owls sitting over one of the picnic tables. For once, the real struggle was getting far enough away. I eventually lay on my back to get far enough away to achieve focus.
Heading back south, the lioness had stopped breathing. We found her erstwhile companions under a tree about 2km south, looking very sorry for themselves.
At Kij Kij, two secretary birds entertained us with an elegant dance.
As did, a little later and a bit further south, two ostriches.
At Rooiputs, just on sunset, a wounded hyena was standing in the drinking trough. Shortly after we had our fire going and we were relaxing in front of the roof, we heard scratching on the roof, and I was just in time to get a couple of photos of the Wildcat that had decided not to share our campsite with us after all.
As a special treat, there was a brown hyena at the waterhole the next morning. He didn’t really hang around for photos though, but fortunately the ubiquitous two jackal turned up shortly thereafter, followed not too long thereafter by a beautiful male lion. The rest of the morning was spent in a leisurely drive back to Twee Rivieren. Along the way, three Springbuck picked a fight, a family of suricates, a lanner falcon, a pale chanting goshawk, some sociable weavers, a kori bustard, some Namaqua and spotted sandgrouse and a black shouldered kite entertained us. After brunch at Twee Rivieren’s beautiful picnic site, we took a drive up the Aub for a change. Shortly after re-joining the riverbed, we followed a hunting secretary bird for a while before continuing to Monro, where for the first time in our holiday, we hit a traffic jam. We thought the jam was caused by a male lion lazing under a tree. This was far too boring for us, so we pulled back to get the ideal spot at the waterhole for when he came to slake his thirst. This turned out to be a mistake, because in fact what had caused the traffic jam was due to the mating display. Which we missed. Although we heard it. Too late. Doh. As a small compensation, three Lanner falcons and a couple of crows put on their best show. Meanwhile the car was still giving problems as the damaged coil kept getting worse. It would run OK when cold, but progressively get worse as it heated up. So we headed back to Twee Rivieren and with the assistance of Driko who supplied some contacts and a reserve staff member who was going to Upington the next day, a new coil and resistor where ordered.
The next two nights we slept at Two Rivers, the Botswanan campsite just across the road from Twee Rivieren. This one is quite luxurious by Botswanan standards. It has a proper ablution block with showers, flush toilets and the works! Although, to be honest, the geyser obviously hadn’t worked in years, and was now more of a nest. One of our major hopes had been to experience a real Kalahari thunderstorm, and that night the weather looked quite promising. Unfortunately the storm missed us by quite a long way. We spent the day in camp, as the car was in no mood to co-operate. Fortunately the new coil arrived just before sundown.

Dankie Piet
Goeie verslag. Stuur dit vir WegRy.
Is jou trollie nou reg?

More pics:

Mooi Piet gooi meer ons moet soontoe gaan ....

Peter,
Thank you for sharing this peace of wonder left.
It was very nice reading.
Hope your troll is now sorted.
Was the white 4.8 also guests/forum member?
Great write-up.
Bruin Beer

Peter

As usual, fantastic photography.

Thanks

Great write up Peter!

Our next three nights would be spent at Nossob, so we headed north. About 50km from Nossob, we came across several large puddles in the road: last night’s rain. We reached Nossob in the mid-afternoon and pushed on a bit further for waterhole action. It was a quiet day though, at least in terms of predator sightings, although we had some good raptor and antelope sightings. That night the lions roared all around the camp. Wonderful. The car was still missing slightly, so we moved the coil even further away, and then I discovered that the distributor was slightly loose, and thus the timing adjustment had changed. We advanced the timing until the idling speed was correct, and that mostly solved the problem!
Following a pretty sunrise, we headed north to Polentswa waterhole (this was quickly turning into our favourite waterhole).
Waiting for us were a couple of Tawnies, some tousling Springbuck and a few Gemsbok. We had not been there long when we heard a lion roaring, followed by a second one. The roars were repeated and were obviously coming closer, and it was not long before they appeared from the brush on the other side of the riverbed, and approached the waterhole, still roaring most beautifully. What an awesome sound when heard close up!
The resident pride consists of three females and two males. Watched carefully by the various antelope and a couple of avid photographers, they had a relaxed drink and then ambled off past us.
Shortly, the rearguard jackal arrived for his morning drink. After this, we headed back south, and at Bedinkt, we found a single cheetah just lying around. Being a cheetah though, he was constantly moving around, looking here there and everywhere. Eventually, there were five or six cars there! This in a national park that was apparently virtually fully booked at the time!
Eventually, he had a drink and then moved off. We followed for a while, but the banks at the side of the road in this area are so high, and the driedoring (Rhigozum trichotomum) so tall that we lost sight of him. As he had been heading north, we kept going, getting nice sightings of a roller and a Yellow-billed hornbil. And ended up back at Polentswa where a couple of white storks were searching for frogs in the water. Heading back to Nossob, I spent a while in the hide. A couple of jackal came for a drink, and had a bit of a barney, unfortunately too far and too dark for good photography.

Thanks guys!