Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park-Dennis's Trip Report
Oct 12th, 2008, 08:20 AM
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<b>To Kieliekrankie:</b> It was cold this morning, so we jumped in the truck, turned on the heater and went on a short game drive before moving on to the next camp. Didn’t see much of anything, including no giraffes. From Kalahari Tented Camp to Kieliekranie is 66 km and since we had plenty of time we drove into Twee Rivieren to get some meat and cheese for dinner. On the way there was a car stopped, so we stopped, asked them what they were looking at. “Cheetah and two cubs.” Once again if you squinted, closed one eye and used some imagination, I guess there were three cheetah out there but it was hard to tell for sure. Other than that there was NOTHING, not even a lone wildebeest.
Kieliekrankie is 7 km off the main road and up a hill and on top of a dune. Rounding a corner you see 4 rust colored blocks on top of the dune, the tents-quite stunning. This was probably the nicest of the wilderness camps, seemed more luxurious than the rest with a wall of glass windows looking out into the Kalahari as far as the eye could see. Beautiful scenery with a small waterhole at the bottom of the dune. Two beds, shower, toilet, kitchen with table, fully equipped kitchen and a nice sized deck over the dune. This was the most peaceful place I think I’ve ever been to-other than the laughing geckos there wasn’t a sound to be heard. At night, with the drapes open it seemed you could reach out and touch the stars, I’ve never seen so many stars in my life and the sunsets were fantastic from here. If you ever want to just get away and be surrounded by nothing but awesome desert, this is the place. Really, a place to contemplate life and realize how small we really are. Of all the camps, this is one I would return to if I ever wanted to escape life.
Since we were only here one night, and it was the last night in Kgalagadi, we went on an early sundowner game drive and stayed out until the posted time of 6:30 return. Drove over some new territory but only saw two gemsbok and a dik-dik in three hours. Both of the waterholes on this road were broken so there was no reason for any animal to be in this area of the park. I felt sorry for the gemsbok and dik-dik but they seemed to like it there. Went to the museum outlook, sat at the picnic tables and had our last sundowner g & t’s of the trip-this time without salami and crackers. Made a bar-b-q dinner, went to bed and watched the stars through the window.
My opinion on Kieliekrankie: Incredibly beautiful place, tranquil stark setting. I wish we had more nights at this camp, even without seeing any animals, just being in that place made up for it. If I ever were to return to Kgalagadi, I’d spend many more nights here and do drives from this camp. No matter what words I try to use to describe it, I’m not doing justice to Kieliekrankie camp.
<b>Back to Upington:</b> Checked out of Kieliekrankie and drove the 44 km to Twee Rivieren slowly, at first seeing nothing then Tom yelled out “Meerkats!” Out in the field were 7 of them, all standing up soaking up the morning sun. I was happy to see them as they were on my wish list, only wanting them to be closer. Farther on we saw a dik-dik and that was about it for the rest of the drive. Had breakfast at the restaurant here, checked out of the park and drove the 265 km to Upington.
Upington is a nice city-one of the fastest growing cities in South Africa. It’s situated next to the Orange River. We checked into our hotel, the Protea Upington Hotel. We were given a two bedroom suite which was nice. The hotel is next to one of my favorite restaurants “the Spur” so we had dinner there. The next day we returned the truck, checked in for our flight to JNB and after an hour and a half, the SAA agent at the airport managed to get us the boarding passes for our flight from JNB-Washington D.C.-San Francisco. She apologized profusely and said not many people check in at Upington for the U.S. Since we had to have the rental truck back by 8 and our flight wasn’t until 11:25, we had nothing to do but wait for her to work her magic with the boading passes.
Everything went well, got to JNB, shopped at Out of Africa and our SAA flight was on time. Slept most of the way home, customs in D.C. was smooth and arrived in San Francisco where we spent three nights visiting family.
My overall opinion on Kgalagadi: Kgalagadi is a beautiful place with awesome scenery and comfortable, well thought out camps. According to the map/pamphlet I bought at Tweee Rivieren, there are 450 lions, 150 leopard, 200 cheetah, 600 brown hyena and 375 spotted hyena but we hardly saw any of the above animals. I know from past safaris that nothing is guaranteed but it was very disappointing, especially the last six nights without seeing much of anything. I don’t think I’d go back, but if I did I’d only stay at Grootkolk and Kieliekrankie. There just aren’t enough roads in the southern part to justify staying at three different camps or to spend that much time in that area. I know that putting in more roads would destroy the delicate desert ecosystem, but for spending the amount of time we did in the park, I wish there were more options for game drives. I would recommend Kgalagadi if you want stunning scenery, peace and quiet and hopefully better cat viewing then we had, but if you get bored easily with scenery, peace and quiet and possible cat viewing, I wouldn’t recommend it. It all depends on what you’re looking for. The wilderness camps were great, not as exciting as I’d hoped, still too tame for what I thought they‘d be like-even with lions roaring in Grootkolk, hyena break-in at Kalahari Tented Camp and toe licking jackals at Nossob.
Mahalo for reading this somewhat boring trip report…wish I had more exciting adventures to write about, but for this trip it wasn’t meant to be. There’s always next time!
Aloha,
Dennis
Kieliekrankie is 7 km off the main road and up a hill and on top of a dune. Rounding a corner you see 4 rust colored blocks on top of the dune, the tents-quite stunning. This was probably the nicest of the wilderness camps, seemed more luxurious than the rest with a wall of glass windows looking out into the Kalahari as far as the eye could see. Beautiful scenery with a small waterhole at the bottom of the dune. Two beds, shower, toilet, kitchen with table, fully equipped kitchen and a nice sized deck over the dune. This was the most peaceful place I think I’ve ever been to-other than the laughing geckos there wasn’t a sound to be heard. At night, with the drapes open it seemed you could reach out and touch the stars, I’ve never seen so many stars in my life and the sunsets were fantastic from here. If you ever want to just get away and be surrounded by nothing but awesome desert, this is the place. Really, a place to contemplate life and realize how small we really are. Of all the camps, this is one I would return to if I ever wanted to escape life.
Since we were only here one night, and it was the last night in Kgalagadi, we went on an early sundowner game drive and stayed out until the posted time of 6:30 return. Drove over some new territory but only saw two gemsbok and a dik-dik in three hours. Both of the waterholes on this road were broken so there was no reason for any animal to be in this area of the park. I felt sorry for the gemsbok and dik-dik but they seemed to like it there. Went to the museum outlook, sat at the picnic tables and had our last sundowner g & t’s of the trip-this time without salami and crackers. Made a bar-b-q dinner, went to bed and watched the stars through the window.
My opinion on Kieliekrankie: Incredibly beautiful place, tranquil stark setting. I wish we had more nights at this camp, even without seeing any animals, just being in that place made up for it. If I ever were to return to Kgalagadi, I’d spend many more nights here and do drives from this camp. No matter what words I try to use to describe it, I’m not doing justice to Kieliekrankie camp.
<b>Back to Upington:</b> Checked out of Kieliekrankie and drove the 44 km to Twee Rivieren slowly, at first seeing nothing then Tom yelled out “Meerkats!” Out in the field were 7 of them, all standing up soaking up the morning sun. I was happy to see them as they were on my wish list, only wanting them to be closer. Farther on we saw a dik-dik and that was about it for the rest of the drive. Had breakfast at the restaurant here, checked out of the park and drove the 265 km to Upington.
Upington is a nice city-one of the fastest growing cities in South Africa. It’s situated next to the Orange River. We checked into our hotel, the Protea Upington Hotel. We were given a two bedroom suite which was nice. The hotel is next to one of my favorite restaurants “the Spur” so we had dinner there. The next day we returned the truck, checked in for our flight to JNB and after an hour and a half, the SAA agent at the airport managed to get us the boarding passes for our flight from JNB-Washington D.C.-San Francisco. She apologized profusely and said not many people check in at Upington for the U.S. Since we had to have the rental truck back by 8 and our flight wasn’t until 11:25, we had nothing to do but wait for her to work her magic with the boading passes.
Everything went well, got to JNB, shopped at Out of Africa and our SAA flight was on time. Slept most of the way home, customs in D.C. was smooth and arrived in San Francisco where we spent three nights visiting family.
My overall opinion on Kgalagadi: Kgalagadi is a beautiful place with awesome scenery and comfortable, well thought out camps. According to the map/pamphlet I bought at Tweee Rivieren, there are 450 lions, 150 leopard, 200 cheetah, 600 brown hyena and 375 spotted hyena but we hardly saw any of the above animals. I know from past safaris that nothing is guaranteed but it was very disappointing, especially the last six nights without seeing much of anything. I don’t think I’d go back, but if I did I’d only stay at Grootkolk and Kieliekrankie. There just aren’t enough roads in the southern part to justify staying at three different camps or to spend that much time in that area. I know that putting in more roads would destroy the delicate desert ecosystem, but for spending the amount of time we did in the park, I wish there were more options for game drives. I would recommend Kgalagadi if you want stunning scenery, peace and quiet and hopefully better cat viewing then we had, but if you get bored easily with scenery, peace and quiet and possible cat viewing, I wouldn’t recommend it. It all depends on what you’re looking for. The wilderness camps were great, not as exciting as I’d hoped, still too tame for what I thought they‘d be like-even with lions roaring in Grootkolk, hyena break-in at Kalahari Tented Camp and toe licking jackals at Nossob.
Mahalo for reading this somewhat boring trip report…wish I had more exciting adventures to write about, but for this trip it wasn’t meant to be. There’s always next time!
Aloha,
Dennis
Oct 12th, 2008, 04:51 PM
#26
Enjoyed your report, Dennis, and I'm sorry you didn't see more. (Were you near Angola?) But you did see cheetah! They are amazing animals. And you had a close encounter with a hyena 
And you didn't run out of G&T. All is good in Africa.
And you didn't run out of G&T. All is good in Africa.
Oct 12th, 2008, 09:35 PM
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Dennis, thank you!! You always seem to be about a year ahead of me in trip locales (it must be the time difference between HI and CA-lol). I just began planning a budget trip for next year, and wanted to go to the Kalahari area for meerkats(in addition to Mana/Matusadona and either Hwange, Gonarezhou or Chispite). Your report will be of great help!! I am sorry that the cats again were hiding in Angola, but really happy about your cheetah time and adventurous escapades!!
Suzi
Suzi
. Too hasty reading.
Oct 15th, 2008, 10:46 PM
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Thanks Dennis for a very interesting report. Have been looking at Kgalagadi a few times, but the step to self-drive seems to be to big. But perhaps I should give it a go. Your descriptions of the camps are very helpful!
Glad you got to see the Cheetah!
regards,
Tom
Glad you got to see the Cheetah!
regards,
Tom
Oct 16th, 2008, 06:30 AM
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Great to hear about your trip, brings back happy memories, especially tented camp, though they seem to have upgraded with that fence around the car – when we were there our neighbour’s tyres got nibbled by the hyaenas but they didn’t get ours. We were not lucky with game viewing, we’d seen such great reviews on the SanParks forum, lions & cheetahs round every corner, but we only saw a leopard up on a cliff which you couldn’t have spotted without binoculars. We did thoroughly enjoy it though, saw some of the smaller animals; wild cat, bat eared foxes, meerkats & ostriches and the scenery is marvellous.
Basto/Tom, I think it’s a good place for a novice self-driver. Like Dennis, it was our second self-drive after Kruger (there was a good discussion about the merits of self drive in Kruger a while ago if you want to consider that as an option: ’Divided opinion on Kruger’ http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...amp;dirtyBit=1 )
I personally think the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is great if you’re not desperate to see the ‘big’ game, and want more of a ‘controlled’ wilderness experience, and can still use a sedan car if you prefer, though some tracks are off-limits, and maybe that’s where all the cats were! By that I mean that you are checked in and out of camp and have to tell them which route you are taking (at least we were when we were there, Dennis may say things have changed). The rangers are out and about so if you have a car problem they are more likely to find you (we got stuck in a hole and had to wait about 2 hours for a car to pass who gave a message to the next rangers they saw to come and help us out, they were actually mortified we’d found such a big hole – if there’s a hole we’ll find it – and it was repaired next day.) Also it was our first experience of an unfenced camp, and we thought we were so daring! We didn’t want to go to bed and sat up much of the night sweeping the torch round to keep an eye on all those pairs of eyes looking back at us – a curious bat eared fox came right up to us and hyaenas were prowling round. Even when we did go to bed we couldn’t sleep for the sound of paws padding round the tent and grunts and squeals through the night – next morning it was fun trying to identify the paw prints.
Leely, it's a good question about food for the trip, and that's another good point about this park, if you haven't done this kind of thing before you're bound to forget something like matches (we did!) so if you run out of food or supplies, or need extra fuel, you can always get it.
We definitely want to go back, this time with a 4x4 so that we can see more and stay in the wilderness camps and maybe go through into Namibia through the new Mata Mata border crossing or into Botswana – has anyone done that?
Any photos Dennis?
Basto/Tom, I think it’s a good place for a novice self-driver. Like Dennis, it was our second self-drive after Kruger (there was a good discussion about the merits of self drive in Kruger a while ago if you want to consider that as an option: ’Divided opinion on Kruger’ http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...amp;dirtyBit=1 )
I personally think the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is great if you’re not desperate to see the ‘big’ game, and want more of a ‘controlled’ wilderness experience, and can still use a sedan car if you prefer, though some tracks are off-limits, and maybe that’s where all the cats were! By that I mean that you are checked in and out of camp and have to tell them which route you are taking (at least we were when we were there, Dennis may say things have changed). The rangers are out and about so if you have a car problem they are more likely to find you (we got stuck in a hole and had to wait about 2 hours for a car to pass who gave a message to the next rangers they saw to come and help us out, they were actually mortified we’d found such a big hole – if there’s a hole we’ll find it – and it was repaired next day.) Also it was our first experience of an unfenced camp, and we thought we were so daring! We didn’t want to go to bed and sat up much of the night sweeping the torch round to keep an eye on all those pairs of eyes looking back at us – a curious bat eared fox came right up to us and hyaenas were prowling round. Even when we did go to bed we couldn’t sleep for the sound of paws padding round the tent and grunts and squeals through the night – next morning it was fun trying to identify the paw prints.
Leely, it's a good question about food for the trip, and that's another good point about this park, if you haven't done this kind of thing before you're bound to forget something like matches (we did!) so if you run out of food or supplies, or need extra fuel, you can always get it.
We definitely want to go back, this time with a 4x4 so that we can see more and stay in the wilderness camps and maybe go through into Namibia through the new Mata Mata border crossing or into Botswana – has anyone done that?
Any photos Dennis?
Oct 16th, 2008, 07:30 AM
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tock - your link is not to the thread you mentioned.
No divide opinion about self driving Kruger in my mind. It is great, we have done it twice. In Sep 2006 and 2007 staying at rest camps Mopani, Letaba and Satara. Will likely go again in 2009. After flying in from USA we think doing Kruger for a few days is a great way to recover from the flights and time change before going on to private camps. We see cats rarely there but the abundance of other game, especially eles, makes up for that. Plus a comfortable hut for two at Kruger now is about $50 per night. With car rental, gas and meals you might budget $125 per day per person at todays nice exchange rate. Kruger is about a six hour drive from Joburg.
regards - tom
No divide opinion about self driving Kruger in my mind. It is great, we have done it twice. In Sep 2006 and 2007 staying at rest camps Mopani, Letaba and Satara. Will likely go again in 2009. After flying in from USA we think doing Kruger for a few days is a great way to recover from the flights and time change before going on to private camps. We see cats rarely there but the abundance of other game, especially eles, makes up for that. Plus a comfortable hut for two at Kruger now is about $50 per night. With car rental, gas and meals you might budget $125 per day per person at todays nice exchange rate. Kruger is about a six hour drive from Joburg.
regards - tom
Oct 16th, 2008, 12:23 PM
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Thanks everyone!
rhk~glad you liked Hilo and especially Cafe Pesto since I recommended it. Next time you're here maybe we can meet for a meal.
basto~the self-drive was easy, no problems at Kruger or Kgalagadi. Though I do enjoy them and am thinking of a self-drive through Bots or Zambia for more of an adventure-nothing beats staying at a camp with a guide where off-roading is allowed-if it's a game rich area (unlike my Caprivi Strip safari)
tokol~there were hyena prints around the car at Urikaruus but they didn't chew my tires. They are a big problem at Kalahari Tented Camp so that is why the gated car park. I don't know how the regulars on the sanparks forum get all the luck with the animals in Kgalagadi! We never did see a ranger, but did have to check in and out of all camps except Grootkolk. I wish we would have had more visitors at night other than the thieving hyena-didn't hear or see anything other than that. If you do go back, take my advice and spread out your stay in both parts of the park-don't stay at all three wilderness camps so close to each other. I would have liked to have gone into Namibia through MataMata and probably should have...
If there had been elephants in Kgalagadi it would have made it 100% better-I could watch them all day long, but knew going in that they weren't around.
rhk~glad you liked Hilo and especially Cafe Pesto since I recommended it. Next time you're here maybe we can meet for a meal.
basto~the self-drive was easy, no problems at Kruger or Kgalagadi. Though I do enjoy them and am thinking of a self-drive through Bots or Zambia for more of an adventure-nothing beats staying at a camp with a guide where off-roading is allowed-if it's a game rich area (unlike my Caprivi Strip safari)
tokol~there were hyena prints around the car at Urikaruus but they didn't chew my tires. They are a big problem at Kalahari Tented Camp so that is why the gated car park. I don't know how the regulars on the sanparks forum get all the luck with the animals in Kgalagadi! We never did see a ranger, but did have to check in and out of all camps except Grootkolk. I wish we would have had more visitors at night other than the thieving hyena-didn't hear or see anything other than that. If you do go back, take my advice and spread out your stay in both parts of the park-don't stay at all three wilderness camps so close to each other. I would have liked to have gone into Namibia through MataMata and probably should have...
If there had been elephants in Kgalagadi it would have made it 100% better-I could watch them all day long, but knew going in that they weren't around.
Oct 17th, 2008, 08:22 AM
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tokol~my photos are at www.kodakgallery.com/dennisinzambia
Kgalagadi album
Kgalagadi album
Oct 27th, 2008, 02:30 PM
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Dennis, at last I’ve read your not at all boring report. Though maybe the g & t’s were a bit repetitive and starting even before you got to Africa. Congratulations on the cheetah sighting! The 143 flat bat eared foxes were 143 too many, but I’m glad you saw quite a few live ones as well. Your interaction with jackals and hyenas sounds more than interesting. Self-driving makes me so jealous, as it’s not anything I’ll be brave enough to do in the foreseeable future, but thanks anyway for a very entertaining and informative report!
Oct 28th, 2008, 10:21 AM
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Nyamera~you walk the streets of Nairobi and stroll through villages and the countryside of Kenya unescorted and you're afraid of a self-drive?
You'd do fine on a self-drive and if you saw a PM with an official license plate, you could ram his vehicle and force him to marry you!...just a thought.
You'd do fine on a self-drive and if you saw a PM with an official license plate, you could ram his vehicle and force him to marry you!...just a thought.
