August 20th, up the Auob river to Kilie Krankie wilderness camp

Early riser? Yeah, but this time I didn't leave the camp to watch what's going on in the riverbeds of the Auob and Nossob. When I went to pick up some diesel at the gas station I saw that one of the tires was flat. So I went to the workshop to get it fixed and even though they found the tiny hole they weren't able to repair the damn thing. Well, put the spare tire on and off I was. They'll order some sort of a tube to fix it on Saturday. Which is perfectly alright cause eventually I got the opportunity to take part in the 214km long 4x4 eco trail (4 days, 3 nights) starting on Monday. I went to speak to the Twee Rivieren camp manager and he was even able to squeeze me into Nossob camp the two nights after the eco trail. Now that's really cool!

So I finally managed to take off at 1:15pm and drove up the Auob to see what's going on there. This morning people have apparently seen two leopards, meerkats and even lions. Well, that was this morning. I didn't get to see nothin so I hope that I won't have any more flat tires from now on. ;) But I, however, wasn't the lonesome guy all the way up there, cause I saw quite a few animals no matter what. Amongst them was another huge herd of springbokkies, blue wildebeests, a ground squirrel that had quite some trouble to get around a lot of curious antelopes in order to reach its destination, a little artificial waterhole. So after I went up the Auob I checked in at Killie Krankie wilderness camp. What a beauty!! 4 chalets with space for 2 people each overlooking a little waterhole and a massive desert scenery! Simply stunning. And guess what? Two German and one South African couple would be staying in the other chalets. The Germans both are photographers and it was nice to have a little chat. So after the check-in at 4pm I went to take off for another little drive. Spotted a huge Kori Busstard, a few of the very graceful gemsbokkies as well as a beautiful pale chanting goshawk 3m away from my car and stopped by a waterhole along the way until I finally decided to drive back and prepare for some serious braai in the wilderness camp.

Well, if at any point someone heard me complaining about being alone out there...he did something about it. Just name any kind of insect you can imagine that doesn't have a sting on its tail...it was there to give some company and provide hungry mouths(?) for the leftovers of the lamb chops and the baked potatoes. Moths, huge flying ants, grashoppers, beetles...you name it. The whole family gathering! If I'd have the choice, company-wise, I'd definitely go for the two leopards, but that's alright to start with. :) Well, although our heavily armed guard (assault rifle) told us there were leopards and lions around the camp last week nothing really happened that night. But hey...don't bring it on all at once, right?