Hello, first of all thank you for the extensive trip report. A report that we use as input for our visit to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at the end of this year. The accommodations in the park are reserved, as is the Border hotel on the way there and back. What we still have questions about is the route and which roads we should or should not use. Could you tell us something about that?Robert & Bianca
Between the Border Hotel and Upington stick to the main N roads and avoid the R roads which look shorter but are often gravel and will take longer. Within the park there are only four roads so you will be travelling up and down them a lot. From Twee Rivieren the Aoub road which heads roughly west to Mata Mata and the Nossob road which heads north. Two dune roads connect these, the Short Dune road and the Long Dune road. The dune roads are great fun to drive but the wildlife is more scarce on them apart from Steinbok which are plentiful. North of Nossob you should go up to Polentswa but any further north is more of an adventure rather than wildlife spotting. We drove up to Union’s End and beyond Polentswa we saw virtually nothing, not even Oryx! There are no roads to avoid although you probably won’t want to do the dune roads more than once. Almost all the wildlife is along the Aoub and Nossob roads. If you are at the camps don’t forget to check out the waterholes at Twee Rivieren, Nossob and Mata Mata in the evenings. Waterholes in the park are hit and miss but always worth visiting. Some are dry so not worth it but you’ll discover which ones to avoid once you get there. Pleased you have booked the Border Hotel!
Hi, just found you, greetings from South Devon UK. Loved your first video that we've watched. We have a 4 week road trip in November, postponed for 2 yrs. It'll be our 2nd trip to SA but our first to Kruger. We'll cover Panorama Route, Kruger, Eswatini, St Lucia, Drakensberg back to Johannesburg. Cannot wait! Looking forward to watching more from you.
Greetings from the Outer Hebrides, probably as far from you as it is from Johannesburg to the Kgalagadi! We've been to the Kruger four times now but never been elsewhere other than the drive to and from Johannesburg. It would be interesting to see what the places you mention are like, maybe we could tack some on to our next Kruger trip. Our Kruger videos should appear towards the end of September so hopefully you might pick up some tips and ideas before you go. We found May/June to be very quiet as far as sightings (but also less traffic) and September/October to be our best time so November should be good. Be warned you might get hooked on the Kruger!
@@oldcodgerwithacamera Wonderful, will certainly look out for those Kruger videos. We only have 10 days there, split between Skukuza Satara and Lower Sabie which I'm hoping will give us a good introduction to the park.
Brilliant stuff, loved it! Do you live in RSA or have you lived there before, your pronunciation of typically difficult South African name places would suggest so? Great content, keep 'em coming.
Thanks for your kind words. No, I've never lived in SA. We moved to the Outer Hebrides of the north-west coast of Scotland about 10 years ago where a lot of the place names are in Gaelic. Not wanting to embarrass myself I learned to pronounce them correctly which, I guess, has made me a bit OCD with pronunciations! Having said that I definitely get Lijersdraii wrong in later episodes!
Hi Codger, I should image your home getting ready for a re-run to hit the parks in S.A. I've committed bookings for TR, M.M and Kalarhari tented camp May 2023. My dilemma is vehicle choice. AWD, 2WD or 4x4. In your opinion being familiar with road conditions. Will I access KT camp and M.M with a 2WD? In your previous message 2WD was good to access M.M. Cheers. george.
There's one sandy stretch of a few hundred yards on the way to Mata Mata but we had no problems with the 2WD Fortuner. Everywhere else on that road is fine for almost any 2WD. Of course the Fortuner has big tyres and they were deflated to 1.6 bar (I think the park say 1.8 is okay). Having said that we came across a guy driving a Suzuki Swift on several occasions and he never seemed to get stuck. It was dry when we were there but on the MM road there are no big ruts like you get on the road north of Nossob so, if it does flood it doesn't look like it's bad. I'd have no hesitation in hiring a 2WD again. We are going back in February and have hired a Hyundai Tuscon as the Fortuner has doubled in price since last May.
Forgot to say the turnoff to KT camp is absolutely solid and climbs to a small ridge before dropping to the camp so it won't flood. You'll get up there with absolutely anything.
@@oldcodgerwithacamera Thank you for the quick and courteous reply. My first choice was a 2WD, however, after reading some reports it was recommended 4x4. AWD reports suggested they don't perform well off road. It became confusing for choice as well as cost consideration using a 4x4. You have decided for me to select a 2WD. Thank you and a happy new year. Enjoy your up and coming trip to S.A Cheers. george.
@@georgevesely1314 The Tuscon is all around inferior to the Fortuner but the Fortuner was coming in at £3,500 and the Tuscon was under £1,000. For that difference we'll take a chance! Ground clearance difference is less than 2 inches. If you can get a RAV4 at a reasonable price it's a good alternative to the Fortuner.
@@oldcodgerwithacamera How wonderful. May I ask, can you name the car hire company you used? I should imagine their pricing policy was favourable. Cheers.
Great video! Looking forward to finding time to watch the rest of them.
Many thanks, I hope you ennjoy the others.
Fantastic! Good mix between music & natural sounds. Loved it.
Many thanks! I tried to maximise the sounds of nature and minimise the sound of car engines!
great to watch
only one note.
it is not a southern fiscal but a white-browed sparrow-weaver
Many thanks. I am not a birder and I can see now that I got this one wrong. Sadly there is no easy way of updating the video but thanks for the note.
Hello, first of all thank you for the extensive trip report. A report that we use as input for our visit to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at the end of this year. The accommodations in the park are reserved, as is the Border hotel on the way there and back. What we still have questions about is the route and which roads we should or should not use. Could you tell us something about that?Robert & Bianca
Between the Border Hotel and Upington stick to the main N roads and avoid the R roads which look shorter but are often gravel and will take longer. Within the park there are only four roads so you will be travelling up and down them a lot. From Twee Rivieren the Aoub road which heads roughly west to Mata Mata and the Nossob road which heads north. Two dune roads connect these, the Short Dune road and the Long Dune road. The dune roads are great fun to drive but the wildlife is more scarce on them apart from Steinbok which are plentiful. North of Nossob you should go up to Polentswa but any further north is more of an adventure rather than wildlife spotting. We drove up to Union’s End and beyond Polentswa we saw virtually nothing, not even Oryx!
There are no roads to avoid although you probably won’t want to do the dune roads more than once. Almost all the wildlife is along the Aoub and Nossob roads. If you are at the camps don’t forget to check out the waterholes at Twee Rivieren, Nossob and Mata Mata in the evenings. Waterholes in the park are hit and miss but always worth visiting. Some are dry so not worth it but you’ll discover which ones to avoid once you get there.
Pleased you have booked the Border Hotel!
Thank you very much 🙏🏻 for your good advice. We definitely can use this when traveling to Kgalagadi.
Hi, just found you, greetings from South Devon UK. Loved your first video that we've watched. We have a 4 week road trip in November, postponed for 2 yrs. It'll be our 2nd trip to SA but our first to Kruger. We'll cover Panorama Route, Kruger, Eswatini, St Lucia, Drakensberg back to Johannesburg. Cannot wait! Looking forward to watching more from you.
Greetings from the Outer Hebrides, probably as far from you as it is from Johannesburg to the Kgalagadi! We've been to the Kruger four times now but never been elsewhere other than the drive to and from Johannesburg. It would be interesting to see what the places you mention are like, maybe we could tack some on to our next Kruger trip. Our Kruger videos should appear towards the end of September so hopefully you might pick up some tips and ideas before you go. We found May/June to be very quiet as far as sightings (but also less traffic) and September/October to be our best time so November should be good. Be warned you might get hooked on the Kruger!
@@oldcodgerwithacamera Wonderful, will certainly look out for those Kruger videos. We only have 10 days there, split between Skukuza Satara and Lower Sabie which I'm hoping will give us a good introduction to the park.
Brilliant stuff, loved it!
Do you live in RSA or have you lived there before, your pronunciation of typically difficult South African name places would suggest so?
Great content, keep 'em coming.
Thanks for your kind words. No, I've never lived in SA. We moved to the Outer Hebrides of the north-west coast of Scotland about 10 years ago where a lot of the place names are in Gaelic. Not wanting to embarrass myself I learned to pronounce them correctly which, I guess, has made me a bit OCD with pronunciations! Having said that I definitely get Lijersdraii wrong in later episodes!
@@oldcodgerwithacamera Well then I commend you, fine sir!
Hi Codger,
I should image your home getting ready for a re-run to hit the parks in S.A. I've committed bookings for TR, M.M and Kalarhari tented camp May 2023. My dilemma is vehicle choice. AWD, 2WD or 4x4. In your opinion being familiar with road conditions. Will I access KT camp and M.M with a 2WD? In your previous message 2WD was good to access M.M.
Cheers. george.
There's one sandy stretch of a few hundred yards on the way to Mata Mata but we had no problems with the 2WD Fortuner. Everywhere else on that road is fine for almost any 2WD. Of course the Fortuner has big tyres and they were deflated to 1.6 bar (I think the park say 1.8 is okay). Having said that we came across a guy driving a Suzuki Swift on several occasions and he never seemed to get stuck. It was dry when we were there but on the MM road there are no big ruts like you get on the road north of Nossob so, if it does flood it doesn't look like it's bad. I'd have no hesitation in hiring a 2WD again. We are going back in February and have hired a Hyundai Tuscon as the Fortuner has doubled in price since last May.
Forgot to say the turnoff to KT camp is absolutely solid and climbs to a small ridge before dropping to the camp so it won't flood. You'll get up there with absolutely anything.
@@oldcodgerwithacamera
Thank you for the quick and courteous reply. My first choice was a 2WD, however, after reading some reports it was recommended 4x4. AWD reports suggested they don't perform well off road. It became confusing for choice as well as cost consideration using a 4x4. You have decided for me to select a 2WD. Thank you and a happy new year. Enjoy your up and coming trip to S.A
Cheers. george.
@@oldcodgerwithacamera
Has the Tuscon have a high ground clearance? Are you hiring from Tempest again or do you have another preference?
@@georgevesely1314 The Tuscon is all around inferior to the Fortuner but the Fortuner was coming in at £3,500 and the Tuscon was under £1,000. For that difference we'll take a chance! Ground clearance difference is less than 2 inches. If you can get a RAV4 at a reasonable price it's a good alternative to the Fortuner.
What time of year was this? Enjoyed watching and looking forward to the next episode 😀
First two weeks in May. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Hi,
Did you hire a RAV4 ( 2WD ) for your adventure?
No, it was a 2WD Fortuner. We've had a RAV4 in Namibia before, it's not vastly different and would be fine in the Kgalagadi.
@@oldcodgerwithacamera Thanks for the quick response and recommendation.
cheers.
@@oldcodgerwithacamera As a matter of interest.....how many times have you visited Kruger?
@@georgevesely1314 Been four times now with our fifth visit coming next February. It's a bit addictive!
@@oldcodgerwithacamera How wonderful. May I ask, can you name the car hire company you used? I should imagine their pricing policy was favourable. Cheers.
long time no see
Some kind of pandemic got in the way. Basically just stuck at home doing nothing for two years!