Southern Africa 2006 - 2017
Over the last years we made several trips to Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. We enjoyed the combination of vast, unspoiled (semi-)desert and fascinating wildlife. These pages offer an impression of the beautiful wildlife and scenery we encountered there.
Our favorite destination is the Kgalagadi Transfontier Park, lying on the border between South Africa and Botswana, in the midst of the Kalahari Desert: a vast area consisting of red sand dunes with limited vegetation. The
word Kgalagadi means the dry land, or waterless place in the Setswana language.
The Kgalagadi Park is a relatively small area (about 38.000 square kilometers, or 15.000 squary miles; about the size of The Netherlands) in the southern Kalahari at a height of about 900 meters above sea level. The
sand dunes are enclosed by the river beds of the Auob and Nossob rivers are the lifeline for the majestic Camel Thorn trees and for most of the wildlife wandering around. Both rivers are predominantly dry; they might flow
for short periods after very high rainfall: the Auob flowed last in 1973 and 1974; the Nossob in 1964. The Auob river (Auob meaning bitter water) flows from its spring in the Anas Mountains near
Windhoek in Namibia to join the Nossob river (Nossob meaning dark clay) just north of Twee Rivieren settlement. From there they continue in southern direction as the Nossob river.
One of our favourite places in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is Cubitje Quap waterhole in the Nossob river bed. It is a good place to stop and wait to see what will happen at the waterhole. Cubitje Quap is the name the San
gave to this place. In the San language |Khupugi |hoab means: Stony flats of the anteaters, it is also translated to Afrikaans as Erdvarkgat or, in English, Antbearhole.
San heritage furthermore tells: This |hoab is quite large and was used by anteaters. The small rounded stones found in the |hoab are often swallowed by ostriches
for digestion.
We decided to bring the harsh but beautiful Kgalagadi to the web under the name of this popular waterhole just north of Nossob camp... a place to experience the fascinating homeland of the San people.
The photo pages below are organized in a few chapters for easy navigation:
In the paragraph
Flora and Fauna we show the huge variety in wildlife in the region:
- Birds in Focus raptors like the impressive Martial Eagle, waterbirds like the Great White Pelikan or the colorful Lilac-breasted roler
- Mammals in Focus shows the big predators like lion, leopard and cheetah, but also browsers and grazers like the elegant gemsbok and of course South Africa's national symbol Springbok. You will also see rodents like the special Elephant shrew.
- Other fauna in Focus focuses on the world of reptiles, amphibians and insects.
- Fauna observations is a collection of typical animal behavior we encountered. Eating animals, hunting animals, mating animals, you will find it here.
Beautiful images don't tell a special story, we just picked some nice images to give you an impression of what we experienced every time we travelled around.
Finally, References give some useful information about the region; Dagboeken or Diaries in English is our day-by-day story of our trips. The actual journals are in Dutch and on a protected page.
Enjoy the images and tell us what you find!
Yovka & Ger
