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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 3645862" data-attributes="member: 12449">18 June. Kgalagadi.Fantastic morning, Kgalagadi at its best –  a Spotted Eagle Owl and Pale Chanting Goshawk having a showdown just after dawn, the two perched nose to nose hissing at each other for some five to ten minutes, the owl hunching down and raising its wings, the goshawk bobbing in return. Then, as the owl finally gave up and flew to another tree, then bumped down the sandy track a few hundred metres more to find two African Wild Cats playing around an old stump, chasing each other, rolling around in the grass, jumping up and down the stump. And then things got even better! A mere kilometre or so further, a gasp as I looked right - sauntering  across the hillside through acacias and open grass, a mean looking beastie long-haired and dark, no less than a Brown Hyena! Only my third ever, all in the Kgalagadi, this one was absolutely nonplussed by its admiring fans, on it walked, always parallel to the track, occasionally glancing our way, but seemingly intent on some distant destination. Gemsbok and Springbok eyed it with suspicion, I with pure admiration. Eventually our paths veered apart, onward we continued ...perhaps our luck could continue with a Cheetah I optimistically hoped. Not quite, did add a Leopard Tortoise, a couple of Steenbok and a  range of birds, including 15 Swallow-tailed Bee-eaters all stuffed up against each other in a tight bundle, but not another feline of any sort. Arrived at Twee Riverien early afternoon and set up camp, a usual assortment of birds waiting for snacks as usual. Realising I was running out of time for a Cheetah, set out pretty early for an afternoon/evening drive back up the Nossob Valley. Oodles of Kori Bustards and Ostriches, quite a number of Red Hartebeest, a party of Meerkats and both Slender Mongoose and Yellow Mongoose, but things didn't quite go according to plan – not only did we not find a Cheetah or indeed other cat, but we also destroyed one of our tyres and lost a wheel hub cover! Changed to the midget emergency wheel and limped back to camp, needless to say rather later than we should have, fortunately incurring no further problem. White-fronted Scops Owl calling somewhere in the darkness, still a very good day it had been.</blockquote>

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