Overland Travel With KMcGee

Nancy and I sadly said goodbye to Mark, Kirsten, John and Annette in Windhoek and head east to Botswana en route to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR):

Some of you long-time followers of my blog may recall that during my 2023 journey from Cape Town to Nairobi, I spent several days in the CKGR prior to picking up Nancy in Maun. It was an epic visit to this most remote of places in southern and eastern Africa. I provided a pretty good overview of the CKGR in my 2023 post so I will refer you to that post for the details:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/june-1-respite/

Briefly, the CKGR was established in 1961 and is absolutely huge (20,368 sq. mi.), and covers a large portion of south-central Botswana. It is purported to be the 2^nd largest reserve in Africa and by far the most remote reserve in southern Africa. The CKGR, of course, occupies the central portion of the Kalahari Desert (or more correctly, semi-desert, as precipitation can exceed 10 inches annually in many parts).

The land is mostly flat and gently undulating between fossilized ancient river drainages. The land is covered with large open grasslands, prevalent in the salt pans and ancient river beds, and semi-arid shrub savannah and scrub covering the sand dunes, as well as scattered areas of acacia and Terminalia trees. See my previous post for a description of “salt pans”. Despite the precipitation received, because the Kalahari is essentially a huge basin of sand, as much as 200 feet deep in most areas, there is essentially no surface water. Hence all the sparse precipitation percolates into the sandy substrate, leaving no surface waters, excepted in isolated pans, and even then, only during the “wet” season.

I could go on and on about the Kalahari, which you might have gathered is one of my favorite places in all of Africa, but I will spare you. I will just say this: the CKGR, in particular, is one of the most remote and less visited places in all of southern Africa. The wildlife diversity is relatively low and the populations small and dispersed compared to other places, so much of the time is spent driving lonely roads through the dunes, around the pans, or along the fossilizied river drainages without seeing much, including other people. Indeed, in our 6 days in the CKGR, we encountered perhaps 10 other vehicles/parties at most. Most importantly, while the wildlife sightings were relatively infrequent, what we did see was spectacular and totally private; i.e., all of our wildlife sightings over the entire 6-day period were private (i.e., no one else around for miles). This is why we absolutely love the Central Kalahari.

I share some of our most exciting wildlife sightings below in the pictures and, better yet, the video, but there is one encounter we were not able to capture on film. On our last night in the CKGR, we were asleep, snug in our sleeping bag atop the Green Dragon, when, at about 10:30 pm, we heard a Steenbok (common dwarf antelop of the Kalahari bush) emitting several piercing alarm calls (sounding like a sharp, loud whistle) from the bush on the edge of our campsite. This stunned us awake and alert. Then, a minute later a Leopard uttered a loud but low growl as it moved through our campsite unseen. They repeated their spine-shivering growl 3 or 4 times as they moved right past our campsite. This was the closet we got a leopard sighting despite our intense efforts to sight them. However, hearing their growl up close was perhaps just as exciting.

OK, enough background. What follows are some highlight photos that I have grouped for convenience. But for those of you that really want to see and virtually experience a little of our visit, you really should watch the composite video below that includes some rather spectacular sightings (at least, in my opinion).

People: Here’s a few “people” shots, including some of our campsites, sundowners, lunch breaks, siestas, etc.:

Driving in the CKGR: Driving the CKGR is really “fun” if you like rolling up and down over short dunes, dodging holes in the sand dug out by elephants, snaking around bushes and fallen trees and pushing through narrow gaps in the thorn bush. But there is also the wide open grasslands and pans that provide a respite. Here’s a few shots:

Landscape: I included several “landscape” pictures in my 2023 post (see above for link), so I am only including a single classic African Savanah picture here, along with a couple of photos of some stunning sunsets:

Wildlife: As I noted previously, the diversity of wildlife is relatively low, by comparison to other places in southern Africa, but what we did se was spectacular. Here’s just a small sampling of the variety species and sightings:

Video: Hopefully the photos above gave you a taste of Africa and the CKGR, but the real action that will transport you to the front seat of the Green Dragon during some very exciting wildlife sightings is in the video below. This video includes the following:

• Elephants at a waterhole (note, in my haste when we arrived at the waterhold and I first saw the herd and started videoing, I assumed it was a large family unit; however, after careful scrutiny of the herd, we concluded that it was simply a large gathering of bulls, some young and some old, that eventually broke up into small bachelor groups as they headed off into the dunes;
• An amazing scene of a male lion mating with two (yes, two) lionesses (we were 20 feet away) from this spectacle;
• A sprinkling of giraffe (because they are really cool), wildebeest (because they are quite rare in the CKGR thanks to the veterinary fences), and gemsbok and springbok (because they are the quintessential large mamals in the Kalahari);
• A mystery animal that surprised us (not too mysterious though);
• A amazing sighting of a Caracal up close (only the second time we have seen one);
• And last, but possibly not least, due to a request from sister Kara, a short campfire scene and flute playing.

Composite video (23 minutes)

Ok, Nancy and I are off to Maun to meet up with great friends Frank and Jane for the next leg of our journey. Probably won’t post anything from Maun – not too exciting – but will after our visit to Nxai Pan National Park. See you there!

We left the Namibian coast and said goodbye to the Atlantic Ocean, and headed inland to the southern portion of Damarland (region dominated by the Damara tribe) and Spitzkoppe National Monument:

Once again, this visit was mostly a repeat of last year’s visit with Steve and Ki, with a few minor variations. Nevertheless, here’s the link to last year’s post in case you are interested in the differences:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/august-2-3-spitzkoppe-mountains/

Briefly, the Spitzkoppe Mountains are a 130 million year old group of bald granite peaks or inselbergs (i.e., isolated mountain of rock rising up from the plains) kown as the “Matterhorn of Namibia” located on the eastern edge of the Namib desert and rising more than 2,000 feet above the plains. Here’s a few photos to help you visualize the spectacular landscape:

We had an awesome campsite nestled up against the rocks in a narrow gap between two rock koppies, and with plenty of space to separate the vehicles that allowed the revervberations of the snoring members of our party to (partially) dissipate before reaching the neighbors.

We had lots of campsite attendants, but by far the most abundant and interesting were the many rock hyrax (or rock dassies) that plastered the rocks and fed in the bushes all around us:

One great feature of this campsite was the fireplace up agains the big rock wall that had a natural chimney formation that funneled the smoke up and away. This afforded us some very pleasant evenings around the campfire, including a little fireside flute music:

Another great feature of this campsite was its location between the rock koppies that allowed us to ascend the granite slopes for a spectacular sundowner:

We had one full day for hiking and made the most of it. We hiked cross-country from our campsite to the “chain”, which ascends a steep rock face with the aid of a chain up to a large cave known as “Bushman’s Paradise“. The cave is famous for its ancient Bushman rock art. Recall that the Bushman (or, more properly, the San people) were the original indigenous people of southern Africa who led a hunter-gatherer life style before being displaced, enslaved, or massacred by the invading Bantu-speaking tribes from the north and then the Dutch and eventually the Germans and Brittish as the Europeans colonized the land. However, the San left behind a remarkable legacy of rock art that is well-distributed throughout southern Africa. Bushman’s Paradise is but one example:

We continued our cross-country hike past Bushman’s Paradise into a hidden nested valley, where we came upon some beautiful desert-adapted plants, and then descended through a canyon that even had us squeezing through a cave at one point, but only after scaring a large hare out of its mid-day resting place

We said goodbye to our last night of camping in Namibia, before Mark, Kirsten, John and Annette all leave to continue with other adventures (John and Annette to Botswana for 10 days, and Mark and Kirsten back to Nairobi and then home to Bend, Oregon). But not before one last bit of overlanding excitement. Leaving Spitzkoppe, John and Annette’s vehicle almost lost a rear wheel when 5 of 6 wheel studs sheared off, leaving the wheel barely attached by one stud and lug nut – yikes, another close call averted. After a few hours of waiting by the side of the road, eventually a mechanic arrived and quickly replaced the studs and sent us on our way with a big sigh of relief:

We made it to our final destination in Namibia, Bella’s tiny house and gypsy wagon (a.k.a. as “Laura’s house“, as I named it last year because I know Laura would love this place and all its creative designs), located near the airport outside of Windhoek.

However, the most important activity at Laura’s house was celebrating Kirsten’s birthday, which we did with a flare by making cinnamon rolls (her favorite) and an egg/potatoe scramble for brunch:

That’s all she wrote for our visit to Namibia this year. Everyone else is on their way and Nancy and I are headed into Botswana for the next exciting leg of our journey. Please NOTE, we will be in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve for the next 6 days without any cell or wifi service, so you will not hear from me for a while; that is, assuming we get past the hungry desert lions!

After leaving the Naukluft Mountains and visiting the cheetah sanctuary near Solitaire, we headed to the coast at Walvis Bay:

En route to Walvis Bay we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and stopped for the obligatory picture:

Our visit to Walvis Bay this year was similar to last year’s visit with Steve and Ki, but with an additional sea kayaking excursion. Here’s the link to last year’s post for those interested:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/august-24-25-sandwich-bay-in-namib-naukluft-national-park/

Like last year, we stayed in Wind beggars efficiency apartments, with each couple enjoying their own private room. Pretty sweet digs and in stark contrast to camping out of our rigs over the past weeks. This included self-catered dinners in the shared dinning/bar area and front-row seats watching the Argentina-Egypt World Cup knock-out game (in an amazing come-back from being down 2-0, Argentina won 3-2 in the last 11 minutes). Somehow, we have been lucky enough to stay at places that have allowed us to watch some of the World Cup games.

Walvis Bay, I will remind those of you that followed my blog last year, is the Port city on the coast that does all of the shipping inports/exports for the country, including one of the countries major exports, salt, which is harvested from extensive saltworks located adjacent to the city. Briefly, first, salt water from Walvis Bay is pumped into two huge (~12,000 acres) reservoirs. Then, after some settling and evaporation, along with unique salt-loving algae that feeds on the nutrients from flamingo excrement which gives the water is distinctive pink color, the water is pumped into evaporation ponds, where it sits for 8-10 months while the water evaporates, leaving the concentrated salt deposits as much as 30 cm thick. Lastly, the salt layer is scrapped off the top by harvesters and piled into mountains of salt – jokingly referred to as “Namibian coccaine”. Most of the salt produced gets shipped to the U.S. and northern Africa for both industrial uses (e.g., road salt) and human consumption. Indeed, that Morton salt on your table might very well have come from Walvis Bay in Namibia.

Another noteworthy feature of Walvis Bay is the extensive tidal wetlands that have been designated as a RAMSAR site, i.e., a wetland of international significance. The wetlands provide critical habitat for many different species, but chief among them are both lesser and greater flamingoes, which overwinter here in the tens of thousands:

One final factoid about Walvis Bay and this portion of the Namib Desert along the central coast is that this area receives essentially no precipitation. Other than the exceptionally rare rainfall of only a few millimeters, the only moisture any of the plants and animals get comes from the fog that rolls in and out on occasions. Otherwise, the plants have to send down deep taproots to the below-ground aquifers that follow the fossilized riverbeds, and the animals must get their water needs from the plants they eat or the fog droplets they lick off the plant surfaces. Despite the paucity of water, there is abundant desert-adapted species, even in the sand dunes. Here’s a few of the creatures, large an small, that eke out of living in this harse landscape:

Our first full-day excursion was a 60-km beach and dune ride down to Sandwich Harbour for a gourmet picnic lunch. We sped along the beach next to crashing waves, raced up and down steep-sided dunes, not always able to see what was waiting for us on the back side as we toppe a dune, stopped to view desert-adapted wildlife, such as those shown above, marveled at the dazzling display of colors in the minerals of the purple/pink beach sand, and spent some time birding the RAMSAR wetlands of Walvis Bay. Here’s a few pictures to get you in the mood:

More fun in the sun on day two at Walvis Bay. This excursion was a morning Sea Kayaking tour of the Cape Fur Seal colony at Pelican Point in Walvis Bay. This colony, perhaps over 100,000 strong, is the second largest Cape fur seal colony in Namibia. There were lots of very playful young seals, perhaps 6-8 months old, frolicking in the water with us and moms and a few dads on the beach overlooking the entire affair. Here’s a few pictures and a short video of this excursion:

Here’s a short 4-minute video of us kayaking with the Cape Fur Seals:

Kayaking with Cape Fur Seals video (4 minutes)

OK, that’s all she wrote for Walvis Bay and our dune and Bay excursons. Next stop, Spitzkoppe for a couple nights camping before heading to Windhoek and a sad goodbye to Mark, Kirsten, John and Annette.

After leaving Naukluft Mountain Zebra National Park, we headed north a short way to the famous crossroads of Solitaire, where every tourist en route to Sossusvlei stops for a visit to the German bakery, at a minimum.

We, of course, paid a visit to the German Bakery for some delicious baked goods, but our real purpose in stopping in Solitaire was to visit the local Cheetah Sanctuary. The sanctuary was established in 2017 when a female cheetah was captured by Namibian Wildlife after she killed some local livestock and was found to be pregnant. She immediately gave birth to 6 cubs, but only 4 survived, including 2 males and 2 females. The mom was quite old and died soon after giving birth to the litter, so there was no other option but to place the young cubs into captivity. The Sanctuary was created by the Solitaire Lodge owner to preserve the lives of the cubs, and to allow tourists to see these beautiful creatures and learn about their life history and conservation. Here are a few photos of these beautiful animals – my favorite of all African wildlife, along with Elephants:

Our visit to the Cheetah Sanctuary was en route to our one-night stand at Bushman’s Desert Camp, where Kevin and Nancy recreated Steve and Ki’s grilled cheese and onion with chutney sandwiches cooked over coals at the exact same spot as last year (thanks, Steve and Ki, for introducing us to this delicious sandwich), and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and sunrise from our lounge chairs.

OK, that’s all for this brief but very pleasant stopover at Bushman’s Desert camp en route to Walvis Bay on the coast for some fun in the dunes and in the Bay. See you there!

We left the Namib Desert and the spectacular red dune landscape of Sossusvlei and headed a short way inland to the Naukluft Mountains and the former Naukluft Mountain Zebra National Park, now folded into the Namib-Naukluft National Park:

Once again, our visit to the Naukluft Mountains the Park was mostly a repeat of last year’s visit with Steve and Ki, the only difference being that this year we did an extra little hike from the campsite in addition to the full-day Olive Canyon hike (see below). However, in case you want to revist last year’s trip, here’s the link to the corresponding blog post:

overlandwithkmcgee.com/august-26-27-naukluft-mountain-zebra-park/

Briefly, the Naukluft Mountains form the eastern part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park and originally it was a separate Park designated as the Naukluft Mountain Zebra Park to protect the Hartmann’s mountain zebra, but it was folded into the Namib-Naukluft National Park in 1979. The mountains have a very complex geologic history and, as a result, contain some incredible rock formations. Here’s an example:

The mountains largely extend westwards from the Great Escarpment out to the Namib Desert, but they “feel” like they are part of the escarpment itself, although they are not. Here’s a few photos of the Naukluft escarpment and our entrance to the Park:

We had an awesome campsite with fantastic ablutions and, of course, another set of great meals by all parties. Here’s the campsite and Mark and Kirsten preparing another great curry dish:

Our first hike started from the campground and proceeded up a canyon to pools, and eventually to a waterfall but we didn’t make it that far in our short afternoon hike. We did encounter some spectacular Quiver Trees and some dazzling desert wildflowers, including some in “rock gardens”:

Day two included a full day hike up to the top of the escarpment and down the narrow Olive Canyon, including traversing a deep plunge pool along a steep rock face with the assist of a chain bolted to the rock – fun fun fun -, as well as some very cool wildflowers and wildlife sightings along the way, such as the Dassie Rat (equivalen to our Pack Rat of the American Southwest) shown in the photo below:

Our last day in the Park finished with a dinner at the Park restaurant (we were the only guests), followed by an evening at the bar watching the Canada versus Morocco World Cup knockout game (Morocco won). Let me remind you that we were in a fairly remote Park in Namibia, yet we managed a restaraunt dinner and a World Cup soccer game. In case you are surprised by this, I should point out that Namibia appears to model their Parks, and more specifically their Park facilities, after the South African Parks, in which the campgrounds are more often than not exceptional and the facillities first rate:

Not a bad way to finish off a great visit to a great little Park, right?. We are off to the coast at Walvis Bay for some fun in the dunes and in the Bay, but first a stopover to the small but famous little crossroads of Solitaire and Bushman’s Desert Camp. See you there!

With a bittersweet taste in our mouths, we reluctantly, but excitedly, left the Khalagadi and headed toward Sossusvlei in the Namib Desert but with a one-night stand along the way outside the small town Mariental:

Once again, I refer you to last year’s post on Sossusvlei for more background information along with photos and videos and a slide show.

Sossusvlei blog post 2025: overlandwithkmcgee.com/__trashed-4/

Briefly, Sossusvlei is without question the most iconic place in Namibia, and certainly the most photographed place in the country – for very good reason! Sossusvlei is a large salt pan (something I have talked about before several times in this blog) formed by ephemeral flooding of the Tsauchab River and the accumlation of salts in the clay topsoil. However, the red sand dunes – purported to be some of the, if not THE, highest free-standing dunes in the world – surrounding Sossusvlei are the real stars of the show, as the photos will illustrate. Sossusvlei and neighboring dunes are but a tiny speck in the expanse of the Namib Desert, which is purported to be the oldest desert in the world, with origins dating more than 40 millions ago. The Namib is the only true desert in sub-Saharan Africa, with precipitation ranging from less than 1 inch in the driest regions to a high of around 7 inches in the wetter regions. At over 62,000 square miles, the Namib extends more than 1200 miles along the Namibian coast from South Africa in the south to Angola (and beyond) in the north, and more than 30 miles inland from the coast, getting redder and redder as you move farther and farther inland as the sands get older and older giving more time for the iron in the soil to oxidize and giving the sands their picturesque red color.

Sossusvlei and neighboring dunes are part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, which had its origins in 1928 when South Africa, then administering these lands, declared part of the area a game reserve. The Park has grown over time and currently encompassees more than 19,000 square miles, making it one of, if not THE, largest National Park in Africa.

Our visit this year was almost an exact repeat of last year’s visit with Steve and Ki. What follows is a brief description and a few highlight photos of each activity, followed by a slideshow of the entire visit and a short video of the hike up Big Mamma dune in the windstorm.

First, to get to Sossusvlei and the Namib Desert we had to travel across the central plateau and descend through the Great Escarpment – the same one we ascended when we left the Tankwa-Karoo. This was a stunning drive down off the escarpment and the approach to the Namib Desert was tantalizing to say the least:

We spent all 3 nights in the Sesrium campground. Our campsite was close to last year’s site, only this time we secured our favorite site in the campground with a seating area and fire pit/brai stand beneath a towering camelthorn acacia with a huge spreading crown, and a circular stone wall around the tree to provide some degree of privacy.

Our day hikes involved driving 60 km up the valley of the Tsauchab River – this is an intermittent river that only rarely has water – surrounded on either side by towering red sand dunes and sparse desert-adapted grasses on the flat plains with occasional Gemsbok and Springbok herds and the odd ostrich:

Driving in this country, when road surfaces frequently change from pavement to hard gravel to loose gravel to hard sand to soft sand requires frequent airing up and down the tires. Here’s what that looked like for the guys; while the gals stood watch over the operation with valve covers in hand:

Our first hike after arriving was to Sesrium Canyon. This is a narrow gorge cut down through 20-million year old conglomerate material deposited by rivers over time. The walls of the gorge reveal 100 feet thick of river stones pressed in a mud matrix, all consoladated into a highly erodable material that makes for great canyons. This year, due to the anomalous abundant late-season rainfall, the canyon was partially flooded, so we were unable to get into the narrow part of the gorge – without wading and freezing our begeebees off – but we managed to hike the rim and descend into the lower gorge. Here’s a couple of photos (but see last year’s post for more of the gorge), and note how Mark is fearing for his life as the rest of the gang attempted to topple the mass on top of him:

One of the big differences between this year’s visit and last year’s visit was the abundance of water this year. As noted above, this region had anomalous abundant rainfall earlier in the year, leaving behind scattered pools, pans filled with water for the first time in several years, and valleys and stable hillsides with a flush of green vegetation – mostly short grasses. This made for some striking scenes, as shown here:

Of course, the highlight of our visit was the dune hikes and associated pans. Our first dune hike was Big Daddy Dune, the tallest dune in the region at over 1,000 feet, and also the dune climbed by thousands of the most capable tourists. Despite the crowds, it is still something not to be missed – and we did not! The fog and clouds of the morning eventually dissipated to provide us with stunning vistas of the dunes and pans. See the slideshow below for lots more pictures from Big Daddy:

We descended Big Daddy Dune to the most photographed place in Namibia: Deadvlei Pan. This Pan is famous for its fossilized (or skeleton) trees. These trees were established 1,000-1,200 years ago when the Tsauchab River flowed through this area and the trees got established in the floodplain zone. Around 900 years ago, climate change and a shift in the River left this area isolated from the river, and the developing salt pan killed the trees, leaving the eerie-looking skeleton trees:

Our final hike was an exciting ascent of Big Mamma Dune, made challenging by the blowing winds and sand that made walking difficult and keeping the eyes clear of grit impossible – a day later and I am still trying to wash out sand grains from the back of my eye sockets. Annette even had to resort to putting on full-length pants for the first time to keep her legs from getting sandblasted raw. The upside of climbing this dune under such conditions was that no other tourist dared the challenge, so we had it to ourselves – wonderful!

Here’s a short video of our asscent of Big Mamma Dune in the blowing wind and sand:

Big Mamma Dune climb video (2 minutes)

For those that want to see more, here’s a 6-minute slideshow of our entire visit to Sossusvlei this year, starting with photos of our descent off the Great Escarpment to the Namib Desert and each of our hikes. However, I didn’t spend the time to put slides in chronological or logical order, so it’s a bit of a mishmash of photos. Enjoy:

Sossusvlei slideshow (6 minutes)

OK, we are leaving the Namib Desert, but “we’ll be back”, and heading into the nearby Naukluft Mountains for some exhilarating hikes and two nights camping. See you there!

After leaving the Tankwa Karoo and a brief one-night stopover near Brandvlei en route to the Khalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP), we arrived on the Botswana side of the Park for several days of safari going before moving to the the South African side for even more fun.

For you folks that followed our travels last year, you may recall that we spent a total of 18 days in the KTP, split between the remote wilderness of the Botswana side and the rather tame, by comparison, South African side. For you newcomers, if you want to see what I discussed about the KTP, along with photos and videos of the trip, I refer you to the appropriate posts here:

First KTP post with some background info and our first several days: overlandwithkmcgee.com/september-1-2-kgalagadi-transfrontier-park-mata-mata/

Second KTP post with description of our next several days on the Nossob drainage: overlandwithkmcgee.com/september-3-7-kgalagadi-transfrontier-park-nossob-river/

Third KTP post with description of our next several days in the Botswana wilderness portion of the Park: overlandwithkmcgee.com/september-8-15-kgalagadi-transfrontier-park-botswana/

Fourth KTP ost with description of our last several days on the lower Nossob drainage: overlandwithkmcgee.com/september-16-18-kgalagadi-transfrontier-park-lower-nossob/

Understandably, if you don’t want to revist last year’s post to learn more about the KTP, here’s a brief summary. The KTP is a transfrontier park in the Kalhari Desert, which you may recall from previous posts, is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in southern Africa covering 350,000 sq mi, including much of Botswana  as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa. The KTP occupies 15,000 square miles, which is actually only a small portion of the Kalahari, and was created by combining two Parks, one on either side of the border, for a supposedly seamless management without fencing to allow for free movement of animals within the Park. So far, it seems to be working well for the ecosystem and the tourists.

For this year’s post, I am going to treat our visit to the KTP in a single (long) post, but with an emphasis on photos and videos since I already discussed a little of the natural history in last year’s posts (see above). Moreover, I am going to divide the photos into logical categories rather do a chronological listing, and I appologize for posting so many photos, but that is what most people say that want to see. So here it goes:

Campsites:

Note, we camped at a couple of great rustic Botswana campsites that had minimal ablutions, but also splurged for a couplel of luxury campsites, a chalet and a tented camp to satisfy desires for creature comforts:

Miscellaneous people pictures:

Here’s some miscellaneous people pictures from throughout our KTP visit:

Food and drink:

We all equally contributed meals, and believe me when I say that not only did we NOT go hungry, we also ate gourmet meals that you wouldn’t believe for bush camping. There were lots of amazing meals by Mark, Kirsten, John and Annette, but the photos below are biaed towards mine and Nancy’s contributions (sorry guys):

Landscapes:

Here’s a few photos of the KTP landscapes, but see last year’s posts if you want to see more. Note, the KTP is centered around the two ancient river beds of the Nossob and Auob. These are fossil river beds that formed eons ago and rarely have any water in them today, other than the maintained water holes and the occasional flows during exceptional rainfall years (e.g., once every 20 to 50 years):

Wildlife photo gallery:

Here’s a sampling of this year’s wildlife sightings:

Last but not least, here’s a composite 19-minute video of our cat sightings, with a black-backed jackal thrown in for good measure.

Yikes, I forgot to include a short video snippet of an amazing sight of 30 or giraffe marching in single file with purpose. I have never seen a giraffe on a march like this before. Unfortunately, after being mesmerized for several minutes, I finally got the phone up to capture the last string of giraffes in this long column, so here’s another short 1 minute video:

For those of you that made it this far through this post, congratulations! Now I am going to reward you few, sort of, with a somewhat embarrassing story in an attempt to preempt Nancy and others from telling this story. Having been through many border crossings in Africa, and having been told that I can’t bring meat, dairy and poultry products across borders because of the risk of hoof and mouth disease, despite the fact that science indicates that there is no risk to humans and minimal risk of transmission to livestock. Nevertheless, the law is the law and I have been flirting with disaster by ignoring the law and hiding packaged cheese, yogurt and milk in my vehicle before crossing borders. Until my latest crossing, the most the agricultural agents have ever done is open the back door of the Green Dragon, look in my cooler, and send me on my way. SO, having this vast experience under my belt, I was confident that I could hide those products in the Green Dragin when we crossed from South Africa into Namibia after leaving the KTP. I even convinced Mark, Kirsten, John and Annette to do the same. John and Annette had the good sense to give me their prohibited products, and Mark and Kirsten had the smarts to hide their products in fool-proof hiding places. I, on the other hand, only took minimal measures to hide my products. Anyways, the Ag agent was on a mission and tore apart my vehicle to find prohibited products, and sure enough he hit the jackpot with me. At this point, with all watching, including other tourists crossing the border, it was announced that I was hiding prohibited products and would face the option of 2 years in prison or 8,000 dollar fine (several hundred USD). You can imaging what happened next. Every tourist starting throwing prohibited products out the window left and right. After much scare-tactics and scolding, and with a little pleading on our part, the Ag agent let us go with just a verbal warning! Wow, we (I) got off lucky. I should note that the Ag agent wanted to know who, Nancy or me, was responsible for the deception. Nancy volunteered, thinking they would never put her in jail, but I quickly confessed that it was solely my fault, thinking I would just pay the fine. Anyways, lesson learned – it’s not worth it violating the law to save a package of cheese and half-gallon of milk.

OK, that’s all she wrote for the KTP. We are off to the Namib Desert and the famous Sousouvlei dunes. See you there!

After getting our fill of South African wines at the Spier Winery in Stellenbosch, we headed inland to Tankwa-Karoo National Park:

Here’s a link from last year’s post on the Tankwa-Karoo, which provides some background information on the natural and cultural history and, of course, pictures of our visit:

http://overlandwithkmcgee.com/september-20-21-tankwa-karoo-national-park/

In case you don’t review last year’s post, briefly, the Tankwa-Karoo is part of what is referred to as “Succulent Karoo”, which is dominated by succulent plants prevalent in the western region of the Karoo, and it is also within the “Lower Karoo” as it is located below the great African Escarpment. In fact, the Park is sandwiched between the Great Escarpment, specifically the Roggeveld Escarpment, on the north and the Cape Fold Mountains on the south.

Any visit to the Tankwa is special for lots of reasons, but its roads are notorious for tearing up tires. We succumbed to the treachery of the these roads shortly after getting there, but our crew pulled together and changed the flat at a speed that would make a Formula 1 pit team jealous:

Despite the challenging road conditions, we managed to get in a little 4×4 driving in to add to the fun:

Our campsite this year was in a spectacular setting at the end of a 4×4 road at the base of the Roggeveld Escarpment, and at the site of an old homestead. And the hot showers were to die for:

The difference between this year’s visit to the Tankwa and last year’s was the vegetation. Last year, albeit 3 month later in September at the end of Winter here, the ground was practically barren of vegetation – think moonscape. This year, the region had way above average precipitation and abundant rainfall just 3 weeks prior to our visit. The result was a sort of mega-bloom of wildflowers. The basin was awash with grass and forbs and colorful wildflowers – a greenscape to behold. Here’s a few pictures to wet your appetite:

Our exit from the Park involved driving up to the top of the Roggeveld Escarpment via Ganaga Pass, which is a marvel of 19th century engineering built on the backs of convicts with pick axes and shovels, but nonetheless breathtaking:

OK, we are off to the Khalagadi Transfrontier Park for a wildlife adventure, hopefully to match last year’s sightings. See you there!

Nancy finally arrived after an agonizing 2-day delay in transit (Argh!) and we met up with Mark, Kirsten, John and Annette to begin our journey – the first leg of this year’s overland for me. Our first destination was Cape Point and Table Mountain National Park, with a brief visit to the African Penguin colony at Boulder Beach.

Does this portion of the trip sound familar? It should, as this is identical to what Nancy and I and Steve and Ki did last year at the end of our trip. Here’s a link to the post from last year that covers things pretty well and includes lots of pictures.

http://overlandwithkmcgee.com/september-22-24-cape-point-and-table-mountain-national-park/

The penguin colony at Boulder Beach is a must stop, because penguins are really cool, but the viewing is quite commercial – one of those places you have to stop at and simply accept that it is not going to be an intimate wildlife experience, kind of like stopping at the south rim of the Grand Canyon and looking over the edge with the throngs of other tourists. I have no new photo to offer this year as I was busy picking up Nancy from the airport while the rest of the gang visited the penguins, so check out last year’s post if you want see penguin photos again.

We stayed two nights at Smitswinkel out on the Cape next to the entry to the Park at Cape of Good Hope. You may recall that this is a really nice site in the trees, with beds in tents for each couple and a full kitchen and louge area – pretty easy living, and an easy transition into the campground camping coming up next. Here’s a reminder of what this site is like:

Next, of course, were the hikes out on Cape Point. Spectacular setting, of course, and some wildlife and Fall flowers to boot. Here’s a few shots:

OK, that’s it for the Cape. Next stop, Stellenbosch and the Spier winery for a very “soft” segway into the Wild country ahead! This was a bit of overlanding South African style (i.e., spare no expense at comfort):

Are you now rethinking doing some overlanding yourself? OK, enough of the easy life; we are off to the Tankwa Karoo to experience some real remote and wild country. Try See you there!

With time still on my hands, in part because Nancy got stuck in airport hell on the east coast and was delayed in transit for 2 extra days – argh, I took another short 2-day expedition to the Cape Fold Mountains, this time to the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve just outside of Stellenbosch, about 45 minutes from Cape Town.

I don’t have much to say in this post other than to point out again that there a quite a few private “Nature Reserves” in the Cape Fold Mountains. I put Nature Reserve in quotes because these Reserves are truly multi-use and not always primarily focused on preserving nature. Jonkershoek, for example, is a mountain biking meca, with many miles of tracks, ranging from easy to insane, but it also has some hiking trails too. Some of these Reserves include tree plantations, orchards and other land uses besides just protecting areas from further development. You might notice in some of the pictures below that this Reserve includes non-native pine plantations. On the positive side, the area “protected” by private reserves is substantial and adds to the national Parks and Reserves in a non-trivial manner. On the downside, you have pay for a permit to enter each of these reserves. Here’s some photos to make you Dolores hikers – you know who I am talking too – jealous (at least a little):

Next stop, Cape Point, with the whole gang. See you there!

Cheers