In and around Urikaruus ... part 2

Relaxing on the veranda of our unit looking over the waterhole in front, wondering what might come along next, I was surprised by this tiny little fuit fly (Rhacochlaena pulchella Bezzi 1920 (Tephritidae: Adramini)) and some of its friends!

I'm not sure if it was after the sweat / salt or dry skin on my leg .... yes, that's my leg it is sitting on! But it did not seem to bite or sting, and when I zoomed in I was amazed at its colours and detail. This prompted me to start looking around for some other smaller occupants of the camp.

The next resident I discovered was this kite spider, she had built her web on the side of the kitchen unit, between it and our bedroom unit.

And what an amazing web. I tried to get a shot that would illustrate the density and complexity of this web. Theses are the best I could do.

The spider you see on the image on the top of the three above, is the black blob on the end of the sausage looking object, more or less in the middle of the image on the left (vertically) and on the left side (horizontally). The image to the right of the two lower images is a landscape crop of the left side image. If you look closely and use your imagination you can see the spider. But what I'm really trying to illustrate here is the density and complexity of her web. Other than webs of sociable spiders, which I'll post later this web has to be the most complex I've seen developed by a single spider.

Another regular visitor at this unit was the Kalahari Tree Skink. There were various members of this family around. This old chap looked rather as if he/she had survived a few wars! But none-the-less was relatively relaxed around us, and would check in every now and again to see if something interesting had been dropped for it to eat.

Then just to round off this post and the day, I spotted this little web glistening in the setting sun. I never discovered the occupant as it was quite high in a tree, and out of reach from the chalet veranda. I liked the way the sunlight picked up the strands, and I think it was possibly another kite spider.

And then to finish this post, one of the other regulars where ever we went. The yellow mongoose, put in and appearance, always alert always interested.

all the best,

Ivan

http://www.andersen.co.za/

The Kgalagadi Epic Adventure

As a family we embarked on what we thought would be a nice holiday, at the end of March 2010. Living in the suburbs of greater Johannesburg, South Africa, we planned this trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier national Park. A South African Game reserve in the North West of our country. See the google map below:
Point A is where we stay and point B the entry into the South African portion of this park.

According to google maps, the route we took, the total distance just to get to the park entrance from home was 1 141 km – about 15 hours 23 mins .... hhhmmm well !

As you can see from the map we did not take the most direct route, because we had been advised that that road was not in great condition. So we made the decision to break the trip into two "easy" days, and stay over at Mokala National Park. A relatively new (open 2007) National Park, just south of Kimberly.

A first days trip of approximately 579km, and according to google route maps should take us about 7hr52m. We could not really understand that as 579km, all things being equal should normally take us less than 6hrs. We hadn't reckoned on the roadworks! It wound up taking us closer to 7hr35m... what does Google NOT know??!

We had left home at 10:30am on the morning of Monday 29th March, and arrived at Mokala reception at 6:05pm. But what a welcome! On the short trip from the gate into reception (about 6km if I recall correctly), we saw buffalo (Syncerus caffer), black-bellied korhaan (Eupodotis afra) and kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros).

And then ...... the sunset! WOW.

more later.

All the best

Ivan
http://www.andersen.co.za