A Night in the Kalahari

The Khutse Game Reserve is located in the southern Kalahari Desert. In this semi-arid climate, the rains of Summer (December-March here in the Southern Hemisphere) bring vegetation, and with it, grazing animals such as the Springbok and Wildebeest. Predators such as Lions, Leopards, and Hyena naturally follow.

This weekend, some Penn flatmates and I hired a guide to show us the park. What we saw - and heard - and experienced - was astounding. We camped outside, in tents, in the wilderness - no fence, no lights, just 4 green tents under the clear crisp Milky Way.  

This post will be a pictorial of our trip, with an approximate timeline - be sure to check out the text for the overnight hours.

8am, Saturday April 5th: We Depart Gaborone for our roadtrip to the Kalahari.

2pm: We're here! The Khutse Game Reserve.

6pm: After hours of driving through the park, as the sun begins to set, we pass an unusually large group of Giraffes - for the second time, on our way back to Camp. What a strangely proportioned, yet somehow graceful animal. And, yes, that is a vulture in the tree...

6:30 pm: Dusk at the camp.



10 pm: After a great dinner and a glass of champagne, we go to sleep.

12:30 am Sunday, April 6th:  The whole group is asleep in our tents, lulled by the crisp, cool desert air...

Suddenly, a piercing howl awakens us - followed by a cacophony of nearby laughter, shrieks, and yelps that could only be one thing: Hyenas on the hunt.  This was immediately followed by the excited whines of scavenger Jackals.  The uproar lasted perhaps a minute or two, and we eventually fell back asleep.

To get an idea of what this all sounded like, you can check out this  great Animal Sounds site. 

4:30 am: We are again awakened, this time, to the menacing roar of a lion.  Loud and closeby.  It was the resonating sound of a series of loud growls, followed by some panting sounds, then silence.  A few minutes later, the same sounds came again, this time closer.  The lion had certainly gotten my attention - and I was mostly awake for the next 2 hours of growling.  

6:30 am - after a morning cup of coffee, we set off in our Land Rover to explore the surroundings.  Nearby, in a wide open pan, we find two female lions.  At first they appear to be stalking some Springbok, but then we catch this playful scene: 

To our great surprise, the lions then turned their attention to us... and approached.  They came right up to the road:

Stunningly beautiful animals.  At this point, we are parked alongside another vehicle that is also there to observe, and I captured this photo for perspective:

These are some of my favorite pictures from this trip, but we also saw much more that is not included, from Ostrich to poisonous snakes to massive dung beetles to Kudu, Oryx, Wildebeest, and Springbok.  

Finally, we visited a Bushmen (San) village and heard them speaking in their traditional language complete with the famous clicking sounds... but enough for today, more on that later!