Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park has always been on our bucket list, so we were very excited when we finally made it there in August/September 2019.
We spent two weeks travelling through the park, staying in 6 out of the 9 camps on the South African side – Twee Revieren, Kieliekrankie, Nossob, Bitterpan, Mata-Mata and Urikaruus.
When we were there, the park was incredibly dry. So dry, that most of the wildlife had moved North into Botswana, where it was less dry. Nevertheless, we had an incredible time!
The South African side of the park has two main roads, running alongside (and sometimes in!) the two dry river beds. The Auob river road takes you West from Twee Revieren, past Urikaruus and Kalahari Tented Camp, and ends at Mata-Mata camp, where you can also exit the park across the border into Namibia. The Nossob road takes you past Nossob camp, up to Grootkolk and Garaghab and ends at the Union’s End picnic side, where South Africa, Namibia and Botswana come together. You cannot exit here, though. It is a dead end.
In between the two main roads are the two so-called “dune roads”. Contrary to their names, they don’t actually require any dune driving. Both dune roads are well-maintained gravel roads. In fact, they are usually the best roads in the park!
The “lower” dune road is closer to Twee Revieren and takes you past Kieliekrankie camp. The “upper” dune road is deeper into the park and passes a few kilometres East of Bitterpan, which can only be reached via its own, dedicated 4×4 access road.
In between the camps, there are a few basic picnic sites as well as a few viewpoints where you can drive onto the dunes that flank the river beds and roads to get a view of the interior of the park, as well as a bird-eye view of the river beds.