Central Kalahari Game Reserve - A Tour

The central Kalahari is one of the largest wildernesses in the world. You only need to be out on its vast, open pans in the quietness of day to realise this. The space is overwhelming.
For most part of the year, the animal’s head out into the scrub where they feed on the acacia scrub and drink from waterholes. In the rainy season though, the pans fill up with water and provide enough sustenance for sweet grasses to grow. This encourages the animals onto these lush plains, which in turn attract the predators. So, in contrast to most other wildlife destinations, the central Kalahari is the place to visit at the end of the rainy season. Which is exactly why C4 Images and Safaris were there for the first week of April this year.

Nature had one more dice to throw though. It sent one of the largest high-pressure systems I’ve ever seen at this time of year over the whole of the Kalahari, causing lots of rain and inclement weather. Not that this deterred us though. It takes a lot more to keep nature photographers indoors!

Initially, we spent some hours working the animals on the pan in front of camp. We worked Gemsbuck (oryx), springbuck and wildebeest all in very good light, making sure we had good images of the more common animals.

The real highlight though was seeing our first male Kalahari lions. Although they weren’t full maned males, these two brothers were very good looking and we spent the whole afternoon with them. The day ended up with the sun sneaking out from behind the clouds to give us a perfect “golden 5” of some glorious Kalahari light.

Of course the Kalahari is also known for it smaller creatures and we managed to see bat eared foxes, honey badger and of course, the irrepressible ground squirrels. We managed to spend quite a bit of time with these charismatic creatures and got to see some excellent behaviour as well as photographs.

However, the real highlight of the tour was to be found in the most unlikely of places- on the road. Driving towards deception Pan, we came across lots of pugmarks on the road. We were inspecting these, trying to interpret what had happened, when, ahead in the road, we noticed two small moving animals. Bringing the binoculars up, they turned out to be two leopard cubs!
I was immediately sure this would be as close to them as we would get. We were about 200m from them and they were already aware of our vehicle. But with the excellent driving of our guide Hector, we spent the next 40 minutes inching closer to the curious cubs, habituating them to our presence. Eventually, their curiosity got the better of them and they came closer to us. We managed to get full frame images of leopard cubs in the Kalahari!

Not to be outdone, in the afternoon on the selfsame road, we came across a large male leopard. Again, we managed to get within a few meters of him, allowing us to get some very nice images before he headed off on his way.
Seeing leopards in the Kalahari is something you don’t plan for. Seeing 3 leopards in one day is something I’ve never heard of before.

That’s what it is about in nature. We enjoy getting out into natural and wilderness areas to experience its beauty and solitude. Then all of a sudden nature throws up an unexpected surprise of 3 leopards in one day and your perception of nature changes. It’s these unexpected surprises that keep us hoping for more and staying out in these wilderness areas. Its what the core values of C4 Images and Safaris are all about, and why we plan our safaris in such detail. It’s about getting our clients into the best wildlife areas, in the optimal season.

Thank you to Peter and Maggie for an excellent safari with C4 Images and safaris!