Adventures in South Africa - The Kgalagardi Transfrontier Park

The Kgalagardi Transfrontier Park straddles the border between South Africa and Botswana and comprises two adjoining national parks: Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in South Africa and Gemsbok National Park in Botswana. Its total area is 38,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq miles). Approximately three-quarters of the park lie in Botswana and one-quarter in South Africa.  The terrain consists of red sand dunes, sparse vegetation with occasional trees, and the dry riverbeds of the Nossob and Auob rivers. The rivers flow only about once per century, but a flow of water underground provides life for grass and camelthorn trees growing in the riverbeds.

The weather in the Kalahari can be extreme.  Midsummer temperatures are often in excess of 40 °C (104 °F) and winter nights can be quite cold with temperatures below freezing.  Regardless of the hardships, the park has abundant wildlife. It is the home of large predators such as the black-manned Kalahari lion, cheetah, leopard, and hyena. Migrating herds of large herbivores such as wildebeest, springbok, eland, and hartebeest also live in the park.

There are three well-equipped camps on the South African side of the park, namely Twee Rivieren, Nossob and Mata Mata.  From Upington, Twee Rivieren is 260 kilometers north and it the closest.  We spent one night there before going as far north as Nossob.  We returned to Twee Rivieren for one more night before leaving the park.  All camps have a small shop with food, ice and drinks as well as fuel pumps.  Hundreds of ground squirrel dens also litter the camping areas.  Their antics are truly fun to watch while resting around the campfire, but watch where you place your feet.

The arid landscape of the Kalahari reminded me of Etosha National Park in Namibia, but the dry riverbeds gave it more contour.  The grass can be quite high, so being in a truck, high off the ground, gave us a game spotting advantage.  Also note, many of the roads through the Transfrontier require a 4x4 and should only be attempted in a caravan of at least three vehicles.  That said the game viewing was tremendous.  Our first night, we went on a night drive with a park ranger.  Among many other animals, we saw an Egyptian cobra, bat-eared foxes, springhares, many night birds and countless species of antelope.  Over the next few days, we had the luck to see leopard, cheetah, jackal, hyena, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, hartebeest, eland, gemsbok, springbok, and so much more.  However, the highlight for me was when we were leaving the park and ran across a pride of lion feeding at a gemsbok kill.