The Kalahari Gemsbok park… just down the road.

The Kalahari Gemsbok Park is a 4 hours drive from Kathu where we started the journey… the four hours turned into 6. A blowout, a tyre purchase in the town of Van Zylsrus, and a refill of petrol in Askham, took its toll on the time as well as the fact that 185 km. of the trip is on dirt roads…..

An easy start… paved roads… and lovely scenery…and even some Gemsbok…

Wild flowers and desert scenes… and one big blowout…

Van Zylsrus… here you can’t get lost… but we found a tyre (which I couldn’t believe) and then an older Gentleman even fitted it to the rim for us… Van Zylsrus works on a different time scale to the rest of the world… “What’s the hurry? You’ll still get there..” they don’t mention when…. but what a helpful little town… with a hotel and a great pub….

And now when you finally get going again… you are seeing real desert scenes inter mingled with some shrubbery…. long straight dirt roads that pass the local farm homesteads…. windmills tell the story of how they get their water, and everything looks as though it is on Van Zylsrus time….

The local policeman in a hurry to somewhere… maybe it’s to the pub in Van Zylsrus to quench the “dorsland” thirst….

And as time marches on .. the vultures come in to roost, or maybe they thought we were in more trouble than we were… and might just turn into a meal…

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh …. the big town of Askham….. petrol for a thirsty bukkie, and refills for thirsty travellers…. now this is a one horse town, and it’s owned by the sheriff…..

AND FROM HERE WE TRAVELLED A FEW KILOMETRES TO OUR OVERNIGHT RESORT… MOLOPO SEE YOU TOMORROW….

Lizards that I Found at Augrabies…

Broadley’s Flat Lizard

The Augrabies Flat Lizard (Platysaurus broadleyi).

Females and juveniles have a dark brown back, with three thick, cream stripes on the back. These stripes may be broken up into spots, or have spots in between the stripes. The belly is white, sometimes with a black dot on it, and at the rear there is an orange colour. The tail is straw-coloured. Adult males have a bluish head and a greenish back. A darker area in the middle and the vestiges of the juvenile stripes and spots are also present. The forelimbs are yellow to orange, the throat is dark blue, and the belly is black in the front but becomes orange near the tail. Above the tail, it is a tan colour, while below and on the sides, it is orange. All this coloration, while it helps attract females, also has a downside: predators such as kestrels easily spot them. Females, on the other hand, have much more subdued coloration and are less likely to be eaten.