Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Kgalagadi was formed in 2000 by merging South Africa's Kalahari Gemsbok park with Botswana's Gemsbok park, making it the first formally declared transfrontier conservation area in Africa - about 38,000 square kilometres with no fence on the international boundary and animals moving freely across. The landscape is red dunes and thornveld, cut by the dry beds of the Nossob and Auob rivers, which flow perhaps once a generation but hold underground water that supports boreholes; the game roads follow those beds and the animals concentrate along them. Black-maned Kalahari lions are the signature, along with cheetah on the open pans, leopard, brown hyena and raptors in numbers - this is one of the best raptor destinations in Africa. Distances are large, camps are far apart, and unfenced wilderness camps put you in the desert with nothing but a windbreak.

History

The Kalahari Gemsbok National Park was set up on 31 July 1931, mainly to protect migrating gemsbok from poaching, and in 1948 the Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Union of South Africa agreed informally on a shared conservation area. The park covers 38,000 square kilometres, about three quarters of it in Botswana, and its name means place of thirst (Wikipedia, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park).

What you'll find

• The black-maned lions - the Kalahari's distinctive lions along the dry riverbeds.
• The two dry rivers - Nossob and Auob beds where boreholes concentrate the game.
• The transfrontier design - no fence with Botswana, the first such park in Africa.
• The raptors - one of the strongest birds-of-prey destinations on the continent.

When to go

March to May and September to October. Four to five days - it is too far for less.

Good to know

It is remote: about 250 kilometres of road from Upington, much of it gravel, with no fuel between. Summer temperatures pass forty-five degrees and winter nights drop below zero. Roads are corrugated and hard on tyres. Camps book out a year ahead for peak periods.

Nearby

Upington and the Orange River are south-east; the Botswana side shares the park.

Key facts