September 3-7: Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park – Nossob River

NOTE: It will be a minimum of 9 days, possibly more, before my next post, as we are heading into the real wilderness of the KTP, so please don’t worry, all is great!

We left the KTP Mata Mata campsite and the fossilized dry riverbed of the Auob River – one of two major fossil river beds in the KTP – and traversed the rolling dunes over to the Nossob riverbed – the other major fossil river bed in the KTP (destination #2 on the map below):

As described previously, the KTP is considered a semi-arid desert, although actually it should be considered a gradient from true desert with as little as 6 inches of precipitation per year in the southwestern part of the Park to semi-desert with as much as 13 inches in the northeastern part of the Park.

The landscape has three distinct environments that can be readily distinguished by landform, vegetation and wildlife. These include: (1) the fossilized dry riverbeds of the Auob and Nossob Rivers, which only have surface water and “flow” a little in scattered places once or twice every 100 years under the current climate – so not really a “river” anymore by current standards, hence the reference to “fossilized” river; (2) salt clay pans of varying sizes, some expansive and others very small and scattered about, with the biggest pans in the northeastern part of the Park in Botswana; and (3) rolling dunes, which constitute the vast majority of the area. I should note that although the riverbeds typically have no surface water, apparently there is still plenty of sub-surface or ground water in these riverbeds to support the tree growth – and the tourist camps!

The vegetation varies from bare ground (which increases in coverage during the drought years) to grassland (which varies opposite the bare ground, and in wet years, such as 2025, can be quite prolific) interspersed with bushveld (scrubby, thorny shrubs) and tree savannahs. In addition, interestingly but not surprisingly, the grasses in the dry riverbeds are more nutritious than those in the dunes, hence the wildlife is largely concentrated in the riverbeds.

In part because of where the accessible Park roads are located, but also because of where the wildlife is concentrated, almost all of the Park tourists drive up and down the riverbeds, stopping at the intermittent waterholes maintained by the Park. The downside of this Park (similar to Etosha) is that virtally ALL the visitors are constrained to a single road up and down each of the two dry riverbeds.

Here’s a few pictures of the riverbed and dune landscape to get you in the mood, but note that this was a year of exceptional rainfall in the summer so the grass cover and height is exceptional as well. We will be here again next year and the differences could be dramatic:

What is most surprising about the Kalahari, and the KTP specifically, is the abundance of wildlife in this semi-desert landscape. In addition to the concentration of large mammals in the dry riverbeds and more ostriches than can be counted, the ground is alive with desert mice running every which way and that, skinks and lizards everywhere, ground squirrels and mongoose running all over the place, sociable weavers in the thousands making picnicking near nesting colonies a real challenge, turtle doves galore especially at the waterholes, various raptors on every other tree it seems, and owls everywhere. So far, in our brief visit, we managed to see lions, cheetahs and African wild cats on multiple occasions, and on one morning we saw both bat-eared fox and the elusive cape fox, and of course black-back jackals everywhere!

Our first two nights in the Nossob River valley were spent at the main Nossob restcamp (#2 on the map) and we did both day and night drives. The campsite was pretty nice, all things considered, even if we had relatively close neighbors. The coolest thing about the campsite was the spotted eagle owls flying all over the place, including our campsite, and even landing on our camp chairs. Who ever heard of eagle owls as camp pests?

After two nights at the Nossob restcamp, we drove north up the Nossob River to a campsite called Polentswa (#3 on the map) in Botswana, which was a spectacular site. There were only 3 well-spaced campsites and each had a magnificant view out over the vast grassland savannah and riverbed. We stayed in two different campsites at Polentswa. Gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, starlit skies, few people, lots of wildlife nearby, and lions roaring outside of the campsite at night – doesn’t get much better (unless you are Rick perhaps, in which case the latter might not be desired anymore, ha)! Here’s some pics:

Our fourth night in the Nossob River valley was back at the main Nossob restcamp (#4 on the map), only this time we went Full Monty and stayed in a riverfront chalet with a front row view of the lighted waterhole. Hard to believe you are in the middle of the Kalahari desert and the KTP when you are sitting on your deck, with wine in hand, overlooking a waterhole 100 feet away, with a blood moon rising and total luna eclipse unfolding. Here’s a few pics to make you jealous:

There were too many wildlife sightings and encounters to describe them all, so I will only describe the ultimate one. This was a bucket list item for me and one that I have been waiting 25 years for: a cheetah chase and kill! That’s right, not just cheetah sightings, which you may recall we had in the Auob River on two occasions and I have had elsewhere on a few occasions, but an actual chase from beginning to end, and a successful one at that! Here’s the scene:

We were just leaving the Nossob restcamp in the morning, a bit latter than most people, which turned out to be fortuitous on this day, and I noticed two springbok sprinting at lightning speed down the riverbed on the opposite side. I couln’t believe the speed of the spingbok – I had never seen them run even close to this fast – they were flying. The only thing that could cause this was a cheetah chasing them. Sure enough, an adult female cheetah was close behind and moving with blazing speed, but the springbok had too much of a headstart and the cheetah quickly tired and gave up the chase and turned into the grassland fringe of the riverbed. Shortly, she returned to the riverbed and plopped down in plain sight to us to recover from the chase. Then, about 50 yards upriver, we noticed movement and spotted 3 cheetah cubs, perhaps 1-year olds, waiting and watching mamma at work – hopefully learning the art of hunting springbok. As the cubs slowly made their way closer to mom, close enough to watch her but not interfere with her, mom rose up with intent on trying again with 3 unsuspecting springbok in the opposite direction. How those springbok didn’t notice the cheetah chasing their cousins moments before, we will never know, but they made the ultimate mistake of not being more vigilant. I should also note, that we were the only ones watching this event unfold – a truly personal and intimate experience with one of the greatest predators in the animal kingdom!

We could see momma cheetah getting ready for the chase, her eyes absolutely fixated on the springbok, as she rose up, took a few careful steps in the direction of the springbok, and then burst into action. She went from standing still to blazing speed in an instant. I have never witnessed such amazing acceleration. The 3 sprinbok took off at full speed away from the charging killer. Within a couple of seconds the cheetah was rapidly gaining on the springbok, and as they went around a corner, we briefly lost sight of both the attacker and its prey, but a cloud of dust gave away the ultimate ending to the chase. We quickly moved up around the corner to see the cheetah on her victim and the 3 cubs approaching excitedly. The whole chase and kill took all of about 6-7 seconds, but I tell you it was perhaps the most exciting 6-7 seconds of my wildlife career! The following video tells the rest of the story, but here’s a couple of Steve Destefano pictures of the cheetah chase first:

KTP Nossob River video (13 minutes), including a full 6+ minutes of the cheetah encounter!

OK, we are off to the KTP wilderness for 8 nights!

Photo Gallery:

New Species:

• Cape fox
• Kalahari 4-lined mouse
• Black-tailed tree rat