A cold Kalahari winter

Winter safari in the desert

We have never been so cold on safari, even with all our gear on, blankets and hot water bottles. Minus temperatures in an open vehicle will chill you to the bone after some time. We even had Glühwein for sundowners! It was great to see what the cold weather does to normally shy nocturnal animals like pangolin, aardvark and aardwolf. This time of the year they sleep during the night because it is simply too cold. They come out during daytime to warm up in the sun and get their metabolism going and go forage for food. Obviously this gave us some great photographic opportunities during the golden hours in the Kalahari.

The cold turns night into day

During the cold winter months shy animals that normally feed under the cloak of darkness will come out to forage during daylight hours. During the night they return to their burrows to preserve their precious body heat. Food is scarce during the cold winter months, a time of hardship for many animals, who struggle to find enough food. Like this skinny aardvark which was very busy digging up termites.

Starry nights

Due to its remoteness and the dry climate the Kalahari is probably one of the best places in the world for star gazing. With the naked eye we could observe various star constellations and the milky way galaxy. The fun part was of course taking funky star trial pictures. Here Willem plays around with his head torch lighting up a tree against the starry sky.

Kalahari gallery