We got going early and both were really excited to be on our way to Union’s End again. The distance is 122km and according to the park’s information boards one needs at least 3 hours to get there. There were herds of animals enjoying the lush riverbed, but it was quiet at the waterholes. Once one passes Bedinkt waterhole, one sees less and less cars and going even further north one has the feeling that you have the park to yourself. Approaching Polentswa waterhole, we came across a magnificent lion casually trotting along on the road. He was not in the least interested in us and just made a little detour through the grass on the sandbank next to the road to avoid our car before continuing on his walk. It was coffee time by the time we got to Lijersdraai and our Ashkam milk tart came to an end here! The sociable weavers and some very greedy glossy starlings gave us a great show, especially the young starling chicks that were demanding food from their parents! At Geinab waterhole a huge young male lion was relaxing in the long grass but he did lift his head to show us his beautiful mane. The far north is a lonely world, but we love it up there. There were flowers everywhere and at times one simply could not believe one was in the Kalahari. The grass next to the road was high and we really wondered what might been hiding alongside the road! Once again, we had Union’s End all to ourselves. This time there were no sheets of water as we had experienced on our previous visit, but it was obvious that there had been water very recently. In fact the Nossob as well as the Auob had been in flood after the abundant rains in January and February. This time the riverbed was teeming with gemsbok. We lingered a while and Stephen found the book where one notes that one had been to Union’s End. We have been there three times before, but never noticed the book! We stopped at the Union’s End picnic site for lunch. There is not much shade to be found here, but we managed to squeeze ourselves into the shade of one of the sparse trees. There was no one else about. On the way back, we popped into Geinab again and initially thought that our young male lion had gone off. But on having a closer look, we discovered that he had just “sunk” deeper into the grass and was fast asleep. He did not even lift his head this time! We stopped often to enjoy the flowers alongside the road. At times it looked as if it was springtime in Namaqualand. We stopped at Lijersdraai again and enjoyed photographing the wonderful flowers. Stephen caught sight of and photographed a very cute mouse, but we have not been able to identify it. We were thinking of doing the route past all the termite mounds we had driven previously, but decided to start heading back south. There were quite a lot of these termite mounds visible from the picnic spot. It is strange that there are so many in this area and virtually none anywhere else. There were animals enjoying the lush riverbed everywhere, but no special sightings at the waterholes. We also saw lots of raptors and in one of the trees there were at least ten raptors perched in the branches and several strutting around on the ground. Many were juvenile bateleurs. Amazingly, we did not actually get to see a mature bateleur close up this time. Back in the camp site, we discovered that our favourite site in the camp (without power) was free and instead of moving in next to our Uitenhage couple’s site, we went there. We were also so excited about the prospects of going to Bitterpan, that Marianne nearly forgot to collect the fresh bread we had ordered. This time we made use of the kitchen facilities and cooked a delicious potjie stew (left over sausage, butternut, potatoes and onions) on the electric stove provided. We settled down on our lovely site with a full view of the fence, but sadly the lions stayed away this time. The bat-eared foxes were back at the hide, but this time stayed away from the flood lights. We went to bed thinking of our new adventure to Bitterpan, which would be a 4x4 drive through the dunes.

Geschreven door Leartravels