Sun, Sand and Sand... The Kalahari

Threads soon to follow chaps. If anyone has got any interesting info on the Kalahari please add your comments and thoughts. Recommended books and/or journals would also be very helpfull! Thanks a stack!

Have you seen a Brown Hyena yet?

I drove across the trans-kalahari highway. The only thing I saw was vast quantities of donkeys. Did see hyena tracks when I got to the Skeleton Coast though!!!

Brown Hyena...TICK, Aardvark...TICK, Bat eared fox...TICK, the diversity of fauna as well as flora is incredible. Still need info on vegetation of hear guys, Help?!?!

The Hari is starting to get hot chaps, with mid-morning temperatures rising to the low 30's. The flowers are staring to blossom and the mellifera's are staring to bloom. We still wait for rain and those magnificent afternoon localised thunderstorms though... Aardvark activity has been amazing as well as black rhino and viewing. We managed to track and view 7 Black rhino in one day, which is a true feat to accomplish.

Guys, does anyone have any info on Barking Geckos??? There are 3 different species but only the Common Barking Gecko occurs on Tswalu, or are there more species here? So little is known about this area so any info would help. Yours in guiding Adrian

Kalahari Wildflowers are BLOOMING lads, and identification has talen itself to a new level! Any reference material that one would know about (in particular the Kalahari duneveld, thornveld and Korranneberg mountain range ecozones) would be greatly appreciated! Keep living the dream Adrian

A sizzling happy new year to all guides and trackers from a super hot Kalahari Basin. Lads I've starting one of these blog thingy's so if anyone is keen to check out pangolin, aardvark, porcupine, brown hyena (i.e. all of the great things that we hardly see out on drive) check out http://adrianbantich.blogspot.com for Kalahari updates, pictures, videos etc. Your in guiding Adrian

Thanks Adrian, keep us posted. Some of us only dream of such places. It would be nice if you could list some common plants there for us on this thread

No problem Saskia, I'm on leave at the moment but will update you on some Kalahari flora within the next two weeks. I'll also offer a link to a new post that I will publish on my blog so that you can get more detail with pictures etc. Happy guiding! Adrian

Hi Adrian Have seen good cheetah there, in either of those riverbeds - auob/ and nossob..if you going to that SA section of kalahari ? Have seen brown hyena, but there better places for them (eg. madikwe, pilanesberg). Other good mammals - cape fox, g squirel, y mongoose, and I hear honey badgers..have seen leopard twice, but they not so common, lion are seen more frequently as they tend to concentrate on riverbed lines..raptors are great, esp in wet summers.. Enjoy man..plants - j

Sorry, good books - Mills & Haagnmer - visitors guide to kalahari, and then theres wildflower book by Elias Le Riche - whose family have worked tehre for oodles of years...

@ John Power. Thanks a stack for the info bud. The only real comprehensive book that we can make use of out here (being the southern basin section RSA side at a reserve called Tswalu Kalahari)is "Flowering Plants of the Kalahari Dunes" by Noel van Rooyen. I'll have a look at Le Riche's and Mills' books so many thanks! Honey badgers and Leopard are real rarities out here (of which I put down to their infamy during the farming years) but now and again we see Leopard tracks and scat deep within the Korranneberg mountain ranges. Again thanks a mil for the info! Yours in guiding Adrian

Cool man, say howzit to my cousin, barry. Ive seen leopard in the National Park, but there theyve been harassed for far too long...cheers man J

@Adrian Have you tried getting hold of a book by the name of : Blomplante van die Kalahari-duineveld, it is available in English. Stunning book. Have you guys also had as much rain as we here in the Kgalagadi? Jan

@Jan, sorry for the late reply, haven't checked out this thread in ages. Flowering Plants of the Kalahari is, im my opinion, one of the most comprehensive Field Guides for the Southern Kalahari and surrounding areas...Its damn amazing! I just wish that one had more material and literature on this (largely unknown) area Jan. Yes, we have had an incredibly high amount of rain fall this year. It was even hailing un June...crazy. Where are you based in the Transfrontier?