Exploring Kgalagadi: Our Ultimate Off-Grid Adventure
Index
- Planning the trip
- Accommodation Options
- Essential Tips
- First Day in the Park
- Wildlife Encounters
- Exploring the Park
- Augrabies and Home
Planning the Trip
We started by planning the trip with friends since we have been to Kgalagadi Transfrontier park before, but they have not.
It was not easy, since it is exceedingly difficult to find accommodation at the park, even if you are staying in the main camps in the chalets or similar. It’s a bit easier to get to camping sites but try to get that bookings in 12 months in advance when the booking become available.
Accommodation Options
We booked in August of 2023 and had to wait until May 2024 for our trip, but this gave us lots of time to plan and get things in place. We managed to get our accommodation booked as follows:
- De Werf Lodge (Keimoes) – 1 night
- Twee Revieren (Kgalagadi) – 2 nights
- Nossob (Kgalagadi) – 3 nights
- Twee Revieren (Kgalagadi) – 1 night
- Augrabies Waterfall (Augrabies National Park) – 1 night
The long wait allowed us time to put some funds away every month in a joint account to save up on travel expenses, even though the accommodation was paid, the fuel bill was going to be a hefty one. The time we had to get everything in place was just enough to save up for fuel, get our wild cards paid for and everything else we needed to get in place.
We started by listing everything we would need on a big whiteboard, and we thought of something we might forget we would add it, to make sure we did not forget.
A few months before the trip we started getting things sorted, like the servicing of our vehicles, they had to be in good condition as the road was long and the conditions not very favorable. Roads in Kgalagadi are rough and dusty. Some of the things we sorted were our auxiliary batteries and DC to DC/solar chargers to ensure that our fridges in our vehicles would have sufficient power to make it through the time when the vehicles were not being driven or the nighttime. It is always a clever idea to check your batteries, they tend to last exceptionally long, but you don’t want to find out they reached the end of life in the middle of your trip.
Essential Tips
We had some other things to do before we left like buy all our provisions, food and other things. Since we had fridges in our vehicles it was easy to transport and preserve our meat. A Top Tip: I ordered my meat from a trusted butchery in my area, let them cut and process the meat and vacuum pack it for us. When vacuum-packed meat uses much less space and can last much longer in a fridge instead of freezer. The butcher can also freeze the meat for you so you can put it in a fridge rather than a freezer, so -4 C instead of -18 C, this helps with keeping the fridge power consumption down, and allows you to also store things like salad, milk and other products in the same fridge without freezing them. -4 C works best for my National Luna Twin weekender. This is also a perfect temp for keeping your drinks cool, like beer, since it does not freeze at -4 C. At -4C meat that is vacuum-packed and frozen will stay frozen in the lower part of the fridge, and moving it to the top will slowly defrost it but still preserve it for up to 7 days.
I placed my order, got my meat a few days before the trip and placed it in the basket of the camping fridge inside my Deep freeze, this way when we leave, I can just pack the empty freezer in the car, it weighs a lot less without the food, and then drop the baskets in the morning when we leave for our trip.
Since we were driving from Cape Town, we decide to sleep over the night before getting to Kgalagadi, and our plan was to do this in Keimoes, 770km from Cape Town, we booked at De Werf Lodge, nice accommodation that allows you to relax, have some food at the restaurant if you don’t feel like making food, or you can have a braai, and they supply you with a braai drum and even free fire wood (this I felt was a very nice touch!). You can contact De Werf here: https://dewerflodge.com/
The best of all the next morning its only 40km to Upington where you can fill up your fuel tank and push through to Kgalagadi at Twee Revieren camp at the main gate in about 3 hours. We filled our vehicles at Keimoes at the LKL pump station and they gave us friendly service and the fuel price was still quite reasonable. (remember that the fuel price in the Camp is inflated) We were able to fill up at Keimoes because of our extended tanks allowing for a much longer range.
When leaving Upington we drove on the Red Dunes road towards Askam, this road is long, about 220km depending on where you measure it from, but be advised that there is very little cellphone reception and a large part of this road is isolated with no reception at all, so having a breakdown here could cause some trouble. This happened to me one year when my fuel tank was over filled in Upington and this caused my fuel to be pushed to the charcoal canaster in the engine bay, confusing my ECU and causing my vehicle to behave erratic. After consulting with an extremely helpful Services manager in Upington Toyota, it was not something too serious and would dissipate when the fuel evaporated. (If you have an aux fuel tank, make sure this does not happen to you)
First Day in the Park
We leave Keimoes at around 7am, and got some breakfast in Upington and set out for Kgalagadi, we arrived there about 3 hours later, so we could enter the camp at 10am and take our first drive while we wait for our check in time at Twee Revieren at 2pm.
Remember that at Kgalagdi you work on a Permit basis for taking a drive, because of the dangerous nature of the long distances between camps incase your vehicle breaks down. The permit is with you when you are driving in the park, but once you return to the camp, you must hand back the permit to show that you have returned. If the permit is not returned at the time when the gates close, then they know they need to come look for you.
The permits are simple, you hand them in at reception and when you want to drive you fetch the permit and they make a note of where you plan to drive to, the direction and general area. If you plan on doing both sides of a camp you can do this all-in-one update as long as you say where you intend to go first and second/last.
Wildlife Encounters
Our first day in the park was exciting, we managed to have a drive and see a few Oryx (Gems bokke) and Wildebeeste. We came back to camp early and manage to get some shopping done at the Twee Revieren shop and headed to reception to try and get our Keys. We were a bit early, since check in is only at 2pm, but we ended up getting the keys around 1pm, they were very friendly and helpful.
We unpacked everything and relaxed, looking out over the camp sites and having an ice-cold beer to enjoy the rest of the day and evening after a long hot road/drive.
We had purchased some Swart Hak wood from the Shop in the camp and although it was a noticeably light weight dooring wood, it still made exceptionally good coals and a bag was enough to cover a good-sized braai each evening for 5 people with braai broodjies. The prices were affordable, around R40 per bag.
That night we slept well, tired from the long road trip to get there, just over 1070km.
We were planning on doing the Leeudrill 4×4 route close to Twee Revieren on day two, but this needs to be booked and paid for on the day, so you need to go early and get your booking in and make the R180 payment per vehicle.
We took a chance and asked the reception if we could do it the afternoon before and they were extremely helpful and issued us with our permit.
The next morning, we went down to the reception, took our permits out and informed the ranger that we were heading out to the Leeudrill 4×4 trail and then up to Auchterlorie Picnic site for lunch and then back on the Mata Mata Road to Twee Revieren. They captured it as such and we fell in the road, its about 24 km from Twee Revieren to the turn off for the Leeudrill 4×4 trial.
Exploring the Park
The entire Kgalagaid road network is based on two ancient, fossilised rover beds, the Auob and Nossob. Thy form the two main routes in the camp, with the Nossob and Auob rivers meeting at Twee Revieren as indicated by the name of the camp, this is also the main gate from the park into South Africa. The Auob river runs west towards Namibia, and at the Namibian border you can find the Mata Mata camp, it is possible to enter Namibia from there. The Nossob riverbed forms the second road leading north to the higher parts of the park, and access to Botswana via Mabuasehube, where you can also enter Botswana with the appropriate paperwork. It forms a large V shaped road network where the roads run in the ancient riverbed. One interesting fact is that where there is heavy rain these road flood temporarily and these old riverbeds become rivers again until the water subsides in a shot while.
We arrived around 8am, it was a beautiful day, and the trail was breathtaking, I would recommend it to everyone with a 4×4 that has low range. The trail needs to be driven in 4×4 low, not because of the level of challenge it offers, but to protect the route and the environment. The route was not difficult at tall, a 14 km long dirt road made up of hard dune sand with some bad corrugations on the sections leading up the dunes. There are about four sections that were a bit of a hill climb, that almost saw us get stuck, since you really cannot carry any momentum to get up the hill, so make sure you have some sand dune driving experience, but we got through quite easily. The two-track route does not allow you to go off the trail, so you much go through all the cross-axel holes just like everyone else.
The route was uniquely beautiful. We only saw a few ostriches and Oryx, but the early morning was maybe not the best time to do this route, keep in mind you can only do it one way, from Nossob road towards the Mata Mata road, in a Western direction, so once you are done, there is no turning around and doing it again.
We ended up having a nice braai at Auchterlorie picnic site and had a look at the museum that was setup to show how they use to live at these locations back in the day. There are public toilets that are clean and well maintained, they look newly refurbished as well.
Once we were done enjoying the rest we started the long drive back to Twee Revieren on the Mata Mata Road, we saw some interesting bird life and a Giraffe that was taken down at the on waterhole almost a year ago, still looking like the day it was killed.
The road is beautiful and easy to drive to at the end closest to the camp, the road leaves the fossilized riverbed and meanders through the dunes to end up at the Nossob road back to Twee Revieren. When we arrived, it was late afternoon and we lit the fire and enjoyed a good old South African braai, Lamb chops, Boere wors and Braai broodjies.
On day three we had to get up early and make our way to Nossob for the next 3 nights, the road is long and slow, it’s a 162km but takes about 4 hours to drive it you don’t stop, at an easy pace you will take 5 hours and if you have some good sightings even longer. There are 2 picknick sites on the Nossob road from Twee Revieren camp to Nossob camp, and we normally stop at both. They are about 1/3 and 2/3 of the way between the two camps. So it helps to relax and stretch the legs a bit. Remember to take something with to drink, braai or eat, normally the leftover of the night before is exactly what the doctor ordered. These picnic sites have braai facilities and ablution facilities, but please take care when exiting the vehicle, make sure there are not lions or other animals around, they do like to frequent the picnic sites. On the way to Melkvlei, around KijKij, we found a pair of Black back Jackals fighting a Greater kestrel while they were eating what was left of an Oryx kill earlier, but the Kestrel wanted a piece. He kept on swooping down, trying to chase them away, but they stood their ground. A Few other birds helped attack the Kestrel to get it away from their nests in the area.
We arrived at the first picnic spot, Melkvlei, at around 10am, and took a break from driving and had some light snacks and some coffee. Just before Melkvlei is a ridge that always spots some Oryx that are looking down on the road, make sure to look for them on the Western side. After a 30min stop we continued to Dikbraadskolk picnic site for the next stop, this was about 60km and took about 2 hours. At this picnic spot we were lucky and there were no animals apart from some Springboks close by. We checked the site and got out of our vehicles for a short stop, having some more snacks and a cool refreshing drink from the fridge in the back of the FJ Cruiser. This is a lovely place to stop and has exceptionally clean toilets and tables to sit at and enjoy your lunch, as did Melkvlei picnic spot.
After we were done with our lunch, we set of for Nossob, taking it easy on the road put, the last section has quite a lot of softer sand on the road surface, and one would think that sand makes for a softer ride, but you would be wrong, it quickly becomes corrugated with very little traffic.
We arrived at Nossob at around 2:30pm, being able to hand in our permits and check in since it was after 2pm. We did so and found that we were staying in unit 8, the only family chalet in the park, you will see if you come around the reception right in the middle of the camp.
We quickly unpacked, since at this point were already figured out our loading of the vehicles and knew what we needed to take out and what we could leave. We rushed off to the shop and ordered some Freshly baked Bread and Vetkoek for 6pm, that you need cash for at the shop, since it is baked fresh in the afternoon, and it is not part of the park staff, so they only take cash. The vetkoek was amazing, and so was the bread, we made some good toasted samies with the bread, butter, and cheese vetkoek for breakfast the next morning. We took a walk down to the Hide in the camp and sat there quietly looking at the birds and a few springboks drinking some life-giving water.
The next morning (day 2 of 3 at Nossob) we decided to drive up towards the north, we handed in our permits, as we left the camp the road north was in good condition, I could not say the same the next day. The Nosson camp has two gates, a northern exit gate, to go towards the top of the camp, and a southern gate that allows access to the southern route, both these gates are accessed inside the camp. We drove up to the waterhole with the name Lanklaas. We stopped at the viewpoint on the western side of the road of about 10 km out of Nossob. The climb up the hill might be a bit difficult and rough, but there are two other entry points that look easier on both sides of the hill. It offers a beautiful view of the area.
We did find more animals on this side of the park, compared with the Twee Revieren area, with some areas having so many Springboks that one could not count them yourself. It looked like thousands, with the occasional Ostridge and Blou Wildebeest.
Some of the bird life we saw was amazing, even a pair of Goshawks that target the doves that come in for water, taking them out one by one. Sitting in a close by tree waiting for the perfect moment to swoop in and grab some lunch.
We headed back to the Nossob camp and came into the camp early afternoon; we decided to take another drive and went back to update our permits to inform them that we were heading down to Marie’s Loop for a drive. They updated the permits and off we went, its not far, about 8km out of Nossob in a southern direction. The loop is about 11km long and a genuinely nice drive for a late afternoon trip. In the morning it is advised to take the route clockwise as you can then spot all the tracks in the road because of the sun that is behind you on the return route, and the opposite counts for the afternoon.
There is a waterhole called Maries Gat on this loop and on an earlier visit to the park we spotted a Lioness with a few cubs at this waterhole, the Lion picked up her cubs one by one and hid them under the tree that is opposite to the waterhole at the road. It was an amazing experience.
We headed back to camp and decided to take the rest of the afternoon off and relax since we had another day at the camp. We lit our fire and prepared some dinner, Sosaties with boerewors and noodle salad that my wife made. After dinner and a few sunset drinks, we decided to visit the hide and spotted a pair of Black back Jackals coming in to drink water. Their heads on a swivel, as they look out for something that could eat them. This was funny to see, and you realize just how wild it is outside of the camp fences.
We went to bed early having had a long restful but exciting day. The next day we decided to get our permits and head out for a early drive of Marie’s Loop again, and found amazing foot prints of what I think were two leopards with a cub, unfortunately the only thing we could find was the foot prints and not any leopards, but even that was exciting. We headed up excited that there are Cats around and went through the Nossob camp and out the north gate, to head out again towards Bedinkt waterhole. This time the soft sand road out of Nossob had changed a lot, and was badly corrugated, making for a very shaky drive northwards, picking up speed to the max of 50km/h was the only relief we could find. We ate up the miles to the waterhole and settled in for a relaxing view as we found heards of Springbok and Blou Wildebeest roaming the flats, it was a beautiful site. We saw many birds on the route and while at the waterholes, the two goshawks from yesterday were MIA today, but the other birds made up for it. We headed back to the camp to go and settle in for the evening and dropped off our Permits as we arrived back in camp.
We got out a few cold ones and sat back preparing a feast for dinner. After dinner it was dark and a full moon has stuck its head out while we were eating, so we decide to head back to the Hide in the camp and look out for some night life. Unfortunately, it was quiet, we sat there for a good while and decided to return to our chalet and call it a night.
We also came across an Oryx nursery, where the youngsters are dropped off by moms to be looked after while they get time to graze a bit, an interesting habit not seen in many animals. The youngster Oryx is one of the animals that don’t look like adults at all, they resemble a brown cow than the majestic Oryx you see everywhere.
We stopped at the two picnic spots, Dikbaardskolk and Melkvlei. This time the roads were a bit busier, and we saw more herds of springbok and Oryx than on the way up to Nosson. We also found the Oryx looking down from the ridge at Melkvlei as we did before, so this is place they congregate. We also heard that the day before a Lioness and her cub was seen at the Melkvlei picnic spot, just reminding us of how dangerous it can be.
After heading down from Melkvlei on our way to Twee Revieren, after a bit, closer to KijKij, we found a Spotted Hyena relaxing under a tree, this was a nice change to what we have been seeing all day, it was a sneaky one, lifting its head up just high enough to spot the rounded ears above the shrubs, lying in the shade of a dooring tree. Every time we tried to take a photo the head would drop down, losing the opportunity. After a good 45 minutes we decided to move on since it was not going to give us that perfect shot, which was clear.
We headed down a bit further and to our surprise we found a pair of Honey Badgers digging in the red ground, while a Kestrel was waiting close by for a score.
We ended up coming into Twee Revieren at midday, too early to get our keys and check in by 30 minutes, this time they weren’t as friendly as the first day, we were ordered to wait 30 minutes and come back for our keys. all but fair, I guess. We ended up doing a bit of shopping to get some needed reserves like drinking water, and then picked up our two keys, this night we did not share accommodation but had chalets next to each other. We unpacked in record time, since by now we were aces in getting the vehicle packed and unpacked, we have been doing it so many times anyway.
We drummed up dinner and had a feast, it’s lovely when great friends and great locations come together to create memories we share for ever.
This was our last night in the park, we decided to get everything ready so we could leave early morning and head for our last stop off, Augrabies National Park. We got up early, got the vehicles packed and headed down to the gate at Twee Revieren, handed in out Keys and got our exit permits stamped on our permits, handed them in at the gate and off we went to the Rooi Duine road on our way to Upington.
Augrabies and Home
We had enjoyable time as we left the Kgalagadi and passed Askam, the road was quiet, and we got into Upington by about 9:30 am. We got some breakfast and headed for Keimoes only 40km away. On the road we pass the big Solar power station, this time illuminated by the morning sun. We pass through Keimoes on to Kakamas and off to Augrabies. We arrive at Augrabies at 12:30pm and take a chance, we try and check in. Lucky for us the Family Chalet is ready, and they are happy to give us the key and allow an early check in. We also arrange an early Exit permit for the next morning since we plan to leave around 5:30am, and you need to have this arranged at reception beforehand.
The chalet is amazing, so comfortable and homey, we unpack and head off to the waterfall to see this wonder of the world. As we approach, we can see the water levels are low, the lowest I have ever seen it. But its still jaw dropping, beautiful. The last section of walkways is blocked off since the last floods must have damaged them, we could still see the branches stuck to the walkways from the force. It’s a shame this has not been repaired since the last floods were a while ago. We took a few photos and decided to take a drive on the routes in the park and head down to viewpoints 5 and 6.
We jump in the vehicles and go for a drive; we only find water on one of the five low water bridges but it’s still fun! We drive the routes and enjoy the viewpoints, what and amazing piece of the South African northern cape and the Orange river, which started 2,000 km away in the mountains of Lesotho, only the end up in the ocean 500km later.
We head back to the chalet and by now its late afternoon, we have a full day of driving home, a total of 850km, so we decide to grab an early dinner at the restaurant, I have a Springbok venison pie with chips and a Monkey Gland sauce, it was delicious, and I would recommend it. The others settled for less adventurous meals like chicken schnitzel or burgers. After an early dinner we headed back to the chalet, grabbed a cold one and relaxed by watching a rugby game on TV for the first time this entire trip, it was nice to switch off and rest a bit.
Early the next morning we are up, 4:30am and its still dark outside, we get up, shower and get dressed, we pack the vehicles and head for the gate, it’s around 5:30am and we are on the road a few minutes later, we head back to Kakamas and get on the N17 and head for Springbok.
We try and cover as much road while it still dark and the roads are quiet, we get to Aggeneys before the sun raises it’s red head, a few kilometers later we come into Pofadder as the sun finally greets us, what a lovely sight with the red horizon. All thanks to the orange dust of the Kalahari.
The landscape changes to the early Richtersveld, and the mountains start rising around us. As we drive through them you can see the landscape had changed drastically, with mines all over the area. The mountains all made up of red rock that matches the red dunes of Kgalagdi and the Kalahari.
We get into Springbok at 8:30am, looking for a nice Wimpy breakfast, the only issue is that its Sunday morning and the Wimpy, like every other shop, only opens at 9am. So, we made the decision to hit the road, and get a brunch closer to home. We start the long journey home, 550km on the N7, we get to Klaver around 11am, and grab a cheeseburger and chip with a strawberry milkshake, the Wimpy staple.
At this point we are longing for home and decide to pick thing up, we head home, keeping just below the speed limit (apart from one place where we had to pass a slow moving truck and for that I was rewarded with a speed camera, lets see how bad it is when it arrives).
We head through Citrusdal, Piketburg, Moorreesburg, Malmesbury and back home. Home sweet home at 1:45pm, not bad for a trip this long.
After reflecting on this trip for a few days, I can confirm that I am planning my next trip but let’s see where that takes us, maybe the Richtersveld and Namibia, I guess we will need to see. Thanks for reading everyone, I hope you enjoyed the story as much as we enjoyed telling it!
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