Animal Game Drive at The Motse Tswalu, Southern Kalahari
Having settled into our amazing accommodation here at the Motse, it was time to go our with our guide and tracker to seek out animals.
The weather has been hot with temperatures at 35 degrees Celsius although a change is forecast.
We are taken by the enormous size of this Game reserve. On our side of the road which runs up the middle of the total park we have some 65,000 square hectares. The total size is currently about 140,000 hectares and planned to grow via acquisitions to 180,000 over the next 24 months.
Dylan is our guide and our tracker is named Jonnas and he is a mountain of a man. They have years of experience and quickly come across several buffalo, and onyx as well as Springbok.
The explain that we will see wonderful giraffe as well as a possible sighting of cheetahs. We see Cheetahs after a lengthy tracking process. We experience experience a wonderful process of chasing and identifying birds and animals.
Our daily schedule is as follows:
wake up call at 5.30am and vthen a drink and snack prior to departure in our Land Cruiser at 6.00am.
We then search for animals in the various areas of the Motse at Tswalu and it is immmnense. The tracker and guide are tasked with finding the animals, positioning the vehicle to advantage photos and video opportunities
We return to the lodge at about 11.00am after va dream for coffee at 8.30am.
The afternoon game drive is scheduled daily at 5.00pm and we spend 2 hours approximately out searching for game. during this time we also enjoy afternoon sundowners ( a gin and topic for Ken and soft drink for Jeanette).
Then return to the lodge at approximately 8.00pm change and then have a dinner.
There are no lions on this side of the park, but that is planned for a couple of days after this initial trek. I report and cover the lion search and viewing and return in late afternoon after they have gorged themselves on the kill,( an Oryx).
We commenced at 5.00 pm and travel some 15 km over about an hour and see all sorts of animals.
The photos reflect the stunning scenery. There are no elephants in this reserve and our tracker has never seen a live elephant in his life and will need to leave the Motse and travel to another camp to do so.
After about 90 minutes we stop for “sundowners” and we listen to wonderful stories from Dylan and Jonnas.
It is getting dark and we see rainfall on the horizon with the possibility of storms through lightning and heavy rainfall. This quickly changes with an electrical storm of lightning and thunder and squalls of heavy rainfall.
We can smell the storm in the distance. We travel for about another hour then return to the Motse where a dinner is served. We enjoy 3 courses and fine wines, before we exit for our villa.
This has been a special first day and the beautiful villa has set the scene and the standard.
Again tomorrow morning we will receive wake up call at 5.30am then depart after coffee and snacks for another game drive.
It has been a wonderful start. The photos are a wonderful summary. We have enjoyed this unique experience in the Kalahari as totally different to anything we have previously done in Africa.
It is amazing to see the significant differences from Addo Elephant Park in Port Elizabeth to this region of the Southern Kalahari.
I hope that this gives you some appreciation of the wonderful experiences which we have enjoyed to date.