News / Camp News

Little Kulala - November 2008

27 Nov 2008

Sosussvlei is known for its landscapes, but when it comes to wildlife, it is rather the small things that count and so it was with great excitement that we observed a very different kind of kill recently.

We watched a very opportunistic bibron's gecko stalking an insect that was wandering around on the floor. The gecko stalked the furry, soon-to-be-dinner bug and caught it. The gecko bit off a little more than it could chew though.

A Black-headed Heron is now getting settled in quite nicely here at Little Kulala. We normally see it in the early mornings with the other birds sitting on top of the camel thorn tree with the immense Sociable Weaver nest. We have noticed that sometimes it sits on top of the weavers' nest pecking away on what we think were probably insects. 

Sarah Omura visited us to do a Children in the Wilderness workshop and while she was busy having her afternoon tea, she noticed the heron at the waterhole, with a sociable weaver in its beak. This heron species is often found way from water and has been recorded to feed on other small birds but mostly on insects, reptiles, arachnids and even golden moles!

With the abundance of mice there is plenty of food for snakes at the moment. We had had an empty day (no guests in camp) on Saturday the 15th and the staff had a soccer match against some neighbouring lodges. We stayed behind and as Johan was walking out of the courtyard I noticed he did a bit of dance and went to investigate. Quite breathlessly he said: "There is a huge Cape cobra between the gas bottles!" I ran home for the camera and he started looking for it. So, carefully perched on a fuel drum, I took the pictures and he successfully caught the snake. It was a difficult place where our friend decided to hide away because of the weight of the full gas bottles and not knowing where it will be popping out. We normally leave the snakes be but because it is close to the lapa where guests and staff walk around, the decision was made to catch it and then released it far away from camp which we did. After the excitement, we went for an afternoon drive to the Canyon and released it on the way there.

Not one day is the same at this time of the year; with some cloud cover, the sunsets over the desert are absolutely spectacular. Every night is different with the sky changing constantly and just when you think: this is amazing, it changes again and you are caught unawares!

On the afternoon of the 25th of November, we noticed a big dust cloud moving down the Tsauchab River and while we are still admiring this, the cloud was on top of us. It was unlike anything I have seen here in over a year. The wind howled, completely obscuring the dunes and brought enough sand inside that anybody that wanted to climb Dune 45 could do that just inside the lapa. We swept but more sand came in. Normally a storm like this precedes a big rainstorm but only a few drops came down; the wind kept blowing until early in the morning. 

We woke up to cloudy skies on the 26th and plenty of butterflies - mostly brown-veined whites.  It was a sight to behold as they tried to scramble for the few flowers that came out during the night.

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