Fodor's Essential South Africa by Fodor's Travel Guides

Author:Fodor's Travel Guides [Fodor’s Travel Guides]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fodor's Travel
Published: 2025-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

260 km (162 miles) north of Upington on the R360.

If you’re looking for truly remote wilderness with surreal landscapes, and you’re not averse to foregoing luxury and getting sand in your hair, then the uniquely beautiful Kgalagadi—pronounced hala- hardy and meaning “place of thirst” in the San language—is for you.

In an odd little finger of the country jutting north between Botswana in the east and Namibia in the west lies South Africa’s second-largest national park (after Kruger). Kgalagadi was launched in 2000, when South Africa’s vast Kalahari Gemsbok National Park merged with Botswana’s even larger Gemsbok National Park to create southern Africa’s first transfrontier park. It’s now one of the world’s largest protected wilderness areas, consisting of more than 38,000 square km (14,670 square miles), of which 9,600 square km (3,700 square miles) fall in South Africa.

Passing through the Twee Rivieren Gate, where the rest camp is to the left, you’ll encounter a vast desert under enormous, usually cloudless skies and a sense of space and openness. There is no border fence, so your documents will be scrutinized upon entry, and you’ll be unaware of slipping back and forth between the two countries while in the park.

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is less commercialized and developed than Kruger. Its roads aren’t paved, and you’ll encounter far fewer people. Although there’s less game than in Kruger, there’s also less vegetation, so the animals are far easier to spot. The landscape of endless dunes punctuated by blond grass and the odd thorn tree is dominated by two wadis (dry riverbeds): the Nossob, which forms the border between South Africa and Botswana, and its tributary, the Auob. The Nossob flows only a few times a century, and the Auob flows only once every couple of decades or so.

A single road runs beside each riverbed. Along the way, wind pumps dredge up underground water into man-made reservoirs that not only help the animals to survive during periods when it’s utterly dry, but also provide unsurpassed game-viewing and photography viewpoints. There are 82 such water holes, 49 of them along the tourist roads.

A third “main” road traverses the park’s interior to join the other two. The scenery and vegetation on this road change dramatically from two river valleys dominated by sandy banks to a grassy escarpment. Two more dune roads and several 4x4 routes also have been developed. From Nossob camp, a road leads to Union’s End, the country’s northernmost tip, where South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana meet. Allow a full day for this dusty drive, which is 124 km (77 miles) one way. Note that the park infrastructure is particularly basic in Botswana, where a 4x4 is essential.

Most commonly seen animals include springbok, sometimes in extremely large herds; oryxes (aka gemsbok), with their impressive long, straight horns; wildebeest; ostriches; jackals; and lions, quite possibly lying right out in the open—at least when it’s not roasting hot. The park also has leopards, cheetahs, eland, blue wildebeests, jackals, giraffes, meerkats, and mongooses. Rarer species include elusive aardvarks, pretty Cape foxes, and adorable bat-eared foxes.

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