South Africa Guide
The Northern Cape
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
The result of the formalization of a long-standing joint management arrangement between South Africa's Kalahari-Gemsbok National Park and Botswana's neighbouring Gemsbok National Park was the creation, in 1999, of Africa's first official transfrontier park, named KGALAGADI TRANSFRONTIER PARK after the ancient San name for the Kalahari (it's pronounced "kha-la-khadi", the kh as in the Scottish "loch"). The park is run as a single ecological unit and gate receipts are shared, although the tourist facilities in the two areas are still run autonomously. Almost all visitors to the park will, however, encounter only the South African section, where all the established tourist facilities are found.
The park covers an area of over 37,000 square kilometres – nearly twice the size of Kruger National Park – and although the South African side is by far the smaller section, it still covers a vast 9500 square kilometres, bounded on its western side by the Namibian border, and to the south by the dry Auob River and a strip of land running parallel to this. The national boundary with Botswana is along the dry Nossob river bed, along which one of the few roads in the park runs, but no fences exist along this line, allowing game to move freely along the ancient migration routes that are so necessary for survival in the desert.
The best time to visit the park is between March and May, when there is still some greenery left from the summer rain and the sun is not so intense. Winter can be very cold at nights, while spring, though dry, is a pleasant time before the searing heat of summer.