The thrill of a sunset drive in the Kgalagadi

​By Roxanne Reid
If you only have two or three days in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, you want to make the most of your time there. Going on a guided sunset drive is a great way to do that, leaving the camp behind to watch the sun set in natural surroundings and spot nocturnal animals after dark. 

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The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is part of the greater Kalahari and stretches across the border between South Africa and Botswana. We recently spent just 48 hours in the Kgalagadi on a jaunt around the Northern Cape’s arid parks. It’s possibly my favourite of all SANParks’ national parks around the country, both for its wide open spaces and its excellent wildlife sightings.

We were thrilled that Nossob field guide Johan Vaalbooi was on loan to Mata Mata for the night. He grew up in the Khomani San area south of the park and used to work at the private !Xaus Lodge. And he really knew his stuff.

Guide Johan Vaalbooi

We saw a jackal nosing around the veld on the lookout for a sundowner snack before Johan took us off the tourist road to watch the sun set. A Verreaux’s (giant) eagle-owl on a low branch of a camel thorn inspected us with pink-lidded eyes.

Sunset in the Auob riverbed

On the move again, we saw a few scrub hares. ‘They’re smaller than the Cape hare, which also occurs in the park,’ he said. Not to be outdone, six or seven spring hares made an energetic appearance. ‘We call them Kalahari kangaroos because they can jump three to four metres horizontally on their back legs. You’ll never find them at the waterhole because they get all the moisture they need from the plants they eat.’

Once it was fully dark, the spotlight picked up a white-faced owl. A spotted eagle-owl took off from the road ahead and disappeared into the tall grass in search of dinner, just a few rustles to pinpoint its location. 

Southern white-faced owl

This is the joy of a sunset drive – a chance to see how pretty the sky and clouds become at day’s end and then a chance after dark to see nocturnal species like owls, genets and spring hares.

I was thrilled to see four bat-eared foxes, which you only see at night in summer though they forage early in the morning and late in the afternoon in winter. They were hunting for beetle larvae, fruits and termites. Their huge satellite-dish-ears help them hear movement underground and then they dig to unearth the tidbit. Our spotlight drew the attention of insects so one of the foxes came barrelling towards us. The grass was so long we couldn’t see the fox, just follow the ripples as it got closer. Then it popped out on the edge of the road to grab and gobble.

Cape fox

A Cape fox looked at us over its shoulder, its body slender, its tail bushy. A steenbok sniffed the air and Johan told us, ‘They’re solitary except for mother and child or when breeding, and get all their moisture requirements from grass they eat early in the morning when it’s juiciest.’ ​

Verreaux's (giant) eagle-owl

​Perhaps first prize on a sunset/night drive is a leopard or hyena – and both brown and spotted hyena live in the park. But this drive was worth it for the close-up with bat-eared fox, a Cape fox and three species of owl.

And it’s always thrilling to be out and about in the park when everyone else is confined to camp. How glorious the Kalahari sunsets are when you see them radiate through an open landscape unencumbered by the trappings of man.

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