Kgalagadi Overlanding Trip

October 2004

View full photo album here

With swambo pregnant we decided to squeeze in one last over-landing trip to experience Kgalagadi. This was meant to be on a shoestring budget but the weather conditions on the last few days caused some havoc with the camping arrangements. We took 5 days leave and spend every single minute traveling to get the maximum out of the 9-day break.

Distance: 4000km
Time on the road: 60h
Fuel economy: 8km/l
Average Speed (in motion): 60km/h

Route Followed:

Day 1 CapeTown-VanRynsdorp-Brandvlei-Keimoes-Augrabries
Day 2 Augrabies-Upington-Askham-GemboksBorderport-TwoRivers-TweeRivieren
Day 3-4 Nossop
Day 5 Mata Mata
Day 6 Twee Rivieren
Day 7 Twee Rivieren-Askham-Upington- Groblershoop-Witsand
Day 8 Witsand-Prieska-Britstown-Victoria-Wes-Karoo National Park
Day 9 Karoo National Park – Cape Town

Highlights

The vast openness of Kgalagadi
The continuous roaring of the lions near Nossop
Interesting behavioural changes of the Kgalagadi game
Mini locust plague at Nossop and how the wild life gorged themselves with the locusts
Barking Geckos at night
Extreme temperature changes. 40 degrees in the day down to 4 degrees at night.
My 3year old looking for wildebeest and interacting with the campsite animals e.g. the ground squirrels
Night Drive at Nossop

Lowlights

Unexpected hot weather and pregnant swambo do not go together
Mata Mata clerical staff
A gusty sandstorm made camping conditions unbearable for 2 days.
Air-mattress deflating in the middle of the night
Too little camping, too much chalet
Other members of the party did not have a 4x4, which limited options

Recommendations

Buy the colour information booklet at Twee Rivieren reception (R35)

Day 1

We tried to get early on the road to allow for Jared to sleep. Managed to leave 5h30 but to late for Jared to sleep again. He dosed on and off. The road up to Calvinia is pretty interesting, but from Calvinia to Upington it is a boring “dead” piece of road. My family was delighted to finally get to Augrabies. We found that our Wildcards had expired and opted to renew it in order to avoid the daily per person access fees into the parks.

We went for a drive through the park, which should rather be referred to as a scenic drive as there is very little game in the park. The rhino breeding program was discontinued which was rather disappointing as it used to entail an exiting full day for spending time on the Gariep, 4x4ing and a game walk. Just before sunset we went to the Augrabries fall view site and I saw if for the second time in 21 years.

The evening was surprisingly hot and we did not sleep well. The campsite is pretty run down, especially the ablution facilities. Baboons also seem to be a problem and they ransacked a few campsites.

Cape Town to Augrabies waterfall

Distance: 890km
Time on the road: 11h

Day 2

The first day of breaking camp is always a bit slow until one gets into a routine. Such was the case at Augrabies. At Askham we stopped at the bushman arts stand at the intersection where the dirt road starts. By chance, we met the bushman depicted in the Kgalagadi brochures. Lito is currently starring in a TV ad with a vehicle but could not tell me which 4x4 it was. He is still one of the “orginal” bushman and speaks Afrikaans and San. When telling a story, he gets terribly excited and readily switches over to San without noticing it. He gave me his knopkierie as a memento of our meeting and invited me to come and stay in their grass hut village in the dunes the next time I visit. This was a most enlightening experience.

In order to avoid the corrugated road to Twee Rivieren we entered the park via the Botswana side. We went through the Gemsbok border crossing on the ZA side and then went looking for the community police station in Botswana. The border crossing was very relaxed and the officials had no intention in leaving their offices. We deflated to 1.6bar and found the road surface to be in very good condition with the occasional drifting sands on the corners. The road was marred by lots of donkeys and boerbok.

At Two Rivers we had to go through border control again (third stamp in the passport). We did not have to pay any road tax or 3 rd party insurance nor did we have to pay at Two Rivers to enter the park. The Twee Rivieren campsite was very full and we found a spot next to the ablution block. This turned out to be a bad decision as people kept on walking through our campsite and the crunching sound of people walking on the pebbles throughout the night disturbed our sleep. Swambo was particularly upset about a loud fart next to her side of the campsite has a guy returned from the ablution block. I eventually built a barricade with ammo-boxes, which forced people to walk around the campsite instead of through our campsite.

Augrabies to Twee Rivieren

Distance 370km
Time on the road: 6h

Day 3 – 4

We struggled to get out of the camp early enough to see the last of the nocturnal animals. I was a bit surprised with the small amount of animals but we quickly realized that game viewing in Kgalagadi is a bit different and by the second day we simply fell in love with Kgalagadi. The animal behaviour was of particular interest to us as they have adapted and changed to survive in the harsh unforgiving lands. Predatory bird species at waterholes was a special treat to see. I am by no means a bird watcher of note but one cannot help but to enjoy the large variety of birds. We arrived at Nossop (4hours after leaving Twee Rivieren). We heard that lions circled the camp the day before and the gates had to be kept close all day long. We found ourselves a tree and setup camp for two days. All the people we spoke to, had some fantastic lion sightings and though we did not have our mind set on a sighting lions, we were starting to wonder about the likeliness of seeing lions.

We had a very good sleep with barking geckos having a very busy night. We finally managed to get out early just as the gates opened. My parents were still sleeping as we took the road to “Marie se Draai”. Barely 5km from the camp we saw a large black- mane lion and a female at Rooikop waterhole. We got back to camp just in time for a lovely breakfast of toast, yoghurt and fresh juice.

In our absence a swarm of locusts settled in the camp. The numbers where so big that one could not take a step without squashing a few (if they did not fly away). The birds and insectivores had a field day with the meals with wings, catching them in mid-air as they leapt into the air. At first the starlings would catch them in the air but after a while they would get so gorged that they would simply sit on the ground and wait for the next locust to arrive. Interestingly they do not eat the legs and wings and would first break them off. The black backed jackals and bat ear foxes also caught onto this and were eating the locusts throughout the night at the waterhole.

That evening swambo stayed behind with Jared, while the rest of us went on a game drive. It is simply a must do experience and we had some fantastic nightlife sightings not even to mention the magnificent lion sightings. Such is the nature of the people that camped at Kgalagadi that several people stopped that night at out campsite to tell swambo where they saw lion that day to give us tips as to where to go and have a look. Though I enjoyed the evening drive I was saddened that swambo and Jared could not experience it.

Day 5

Another early morning start saw us on the road to Mata Mata. The change in scenery as we crossed over the dune veldt was greatly appreciated. I was also elated to find a huge male lion at Eland waterhole, which gave swambo and Jared the opportunity to view him from up close. The drive in the Aoub riverbed towards Mata Mata was most rewarding with the sighting of two large herds of giraffe.

A slight wind started to blow early that morning and through the day it became progressively worse until it reach Gale force proportions at Mata Mata. The wind was blowing straight out of the Namibian desert, picking up huge columns of fine sand. The campsite was a total disaster and one would not dare leave the vehicle for the fear of being blown over. This was particularly frustrating for Jared as he could not get out of the vehicle. It did not take much deliberation with Alex to decide to book into a house and we were fortunate enough to get a family unit. The wind continued to blow for two days and we saw some rather miserable people in the campsite that evening. Of particular concern was the structure overlooking the waterhole as it was swaying constantly in the wind.

Day 6

Due to the long distances that one has to travel internally in the park, we decided to make Twee Rivieren our last night. Swambo was suffering greatly due to 40-degree temperatures with the pregnancy and we ended up in a chalet again with the main purpose to use the air conditioner. That night the outside temperatures dropped to below 10 degrees…

We had some spare time on out hands and did the Leeuwdril 4x4 loop near Twee Rivieren. This is an unguided 4x4 route through the red dune veldt and though not challenging at all, we found it most scenic.

Day 7

We got another stamp in the passport after booking out at border control in Twee Rivieren. I wanted to see how bad the ZA road really was to Ashkam but it turned out that it is been repaired and we did not find it bad at all. We again stopped at the Bushmen to get some necklaces with painted / burned images on bone. Seven hours after leaving Twee Rivieren we reached Witsand. The camping site was full and we booked into a bungalow. The bunker beds took me a bit by surprise. The roaring dunes of Witsand were “broken” at the time due to the rain of the week before. Off course we only heard this after climbing the dunes up and down several times to get it to roar.

Twee Rivieren to Witsand

Distance: 480km
Time in the road: 7h

Day 8

The night temperatures dropped to 4 degrees and I woke up bitterly cold. Jared started to get a light cold and we dressed him very warm with beanie and all. The maximum temperatures for the day reached a meager 17 degrees accompanied with a chilly wind out of the Karoo. With concern for Jared’s health, we arranged for accommodation at Karoo National Park. I was a bit shocked with the exuberant prices they now charge for the chalets but could find nothing more reasonably priced. As we entered the park, the district got soaked as the rain came down buckets.

The cold conditions resulted in very little game been sighted. They also closed the 4x4 route, which was a bit disappointing. The restaurant at Karoo NP makes the most delightful meals and that night we enjoyed some real country styled cooking.

Witsand to Karoo National Park

Distance: 520km
Time on the road: 7h00

Day 9

Karoo National Park to Cape Town.

Distance: 450km
Travel Time: 5h00