Dinner in the River - Kgalagadi

The Wink

 After doing my posts on Erindi, I mentioned that one of my favourite places is the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (the old Gemsbok National Park). I just love it there. My wife and I have done a few trips there which will make the basis of a few other posts. Some very interesting stories to tell!  During our various visits we have taken quite a few photos. Both of us, my wife (Marie) and I are  keen photographers and the Kgalagadi is a great place for photos. Of course the star of the show is the many lions which can be seen there, but there is also an amazing diversity of other wildlife, including insects, and smaller mammals like mice and African Blackfooted cat. 

There was a photographic competition a few years ago arranged by the Parks Board where photos taken in any of the six arid parks could be entered. These arid parks included Kgalagadi, Augrabies and Namaqualand. Marie and I both entered the competition and we did quite well! We had a few photos which were awarded prizes. One of the prizes was to get the photos published in a book on the Arid Parks. So between us, we have six (I think) photos published in this book.

The Book in which the photos are published

Getting the photos published was great, but the Parks Board also arranged a prize giving in the Kgalagadi. All of the people who had photos in the top three of each category were invited to this prize giving. Marie decided not to go, but I went. What an interesting experience.

Tent town in Twee Riveren

The Park had arranged accommodation for everyone in tents. The entire camping area at Twee Riviern had become a tent town. The tent was very beautifully set up with a nice bed and was very comfortable.

Shuttle to the venue

The prize giving was a "Black Tie" event. People were dressed up to kill. When it was time to move off to the dinner, a few of the large game drive vehicle arrived and we started the shuttle process to the "venue" in the late afternoon.

5 Star dinning in the river bed

For those who know the Kgalagadi, the main camp at Twee Riveren, literally means two rivers. The main feature of the park is two dry river beds which meet just a few kilometres from the camp. The two main roads (sandy dirt roads) run along the dry river beds. Many of the waterholes in the Park can be found in these dry river beds. It is a great place to look for animals.

The Venue

The "venue" for this function was in the place where both rivers come together. Two tents had been set up, one with all the photos on display and the other was the kitchen.  There were also a few other photos which did not get a prize also on display and a few more of our photos made it into the tent. Tables had been set in the river bed. These were not just you everyday bush picnic tables. They were set for full silver service. The whole nine yards.

Lion tracks

If there was any doubt of exactly where we were - in the bush in the Kgalagadi - one of the first things we saw when we approached the "venue" was a beautiful set of nice big lion tracks heading directly for the tables. They were a bit old (probably the previous night), but clear evidence that we were in lion country. We were in his kingdom!

Anyway, as the sun set, dinner was served. A really great meal served in the bush. Fully worthy of a Black Tie, Silver Service event. As it got darker, you could see the park rangers just at the edge of the circle of lights set up for the venue. I guess their job was to stop us being on the menu.

After the prize giving, there was an singing performance by the vocal quartet "Romanz". I guess that the lion was as impressed as I was with the singing performance! Remember, my favourite music is Iron Maiden! About half way trough the performance, the lion started letting us know just what he thought. An almighty roar! The lion was probably not more than about 200 meters away. Well, he continued to roar and the singers had their backs to the direction that the roars were coming from. I must give the performers credit. The show must go on and it did, in spite of the protest of the lion, who we could hear was moving in the direction of the stage. They carried on singing with very frequent, nervious glances to the back of the stage!

Dinner in the river

I guess that the park rangers did their job, because the lion did not join us for dinner.

The morning after the night before.

It was a great event and well worth the trip to get there. I stayed on for a few days and when to Mata Mata to get a few more photos.