Abutting South Africa’s Kalahari Gemsbok National park and having recently been linked to it to create a 3,2 million ha wilderness sanctuary, this park is typical sandy Kalahari, with seas of apricot- coloured dunes, fossil riverbeds and vast herds of springbok, zebra, gemsbok, and wildebeest. There’s no formal accommodation here, and travelers wishing to visit it will have to use South Africa’s Kalahari Gemsbok National park as their base.
To get to the Gemsbok National park there are two options. There is an airstrip in Tshabong where small chartered flights land or by road. Using a 4X4, visitors would drive past Tshabong following the signposts to the Park.
One of the greatest attractions of the south-western Kalahari is its stunning variety of mammals. Large herds of springbok are found along the riverbeds and pans as they prefer the short grass that grows there. Gemsbok are generally attracted to the mature grasses in the riverbeds at the end of the rainy season, and it becomes drier they move into the dunes in search of food. Red Hartebeest are found in small herds on the flat open plains of the Nossob and are more common in the wooded areas further north. As conditions become drier they also disperse in to the dunes. Eland prefer to roam the dunes and are seldom spotted. Kudu can be seen in the Botswana section of the park as well as wildebeest, grey duiker, and steenbok. Predators, such as lion, cheetah and leopard are commonly seen. Brown hyena are prevalent between Nossob and Union’s End and may be spotted on early morning game drives. Cape and bat-eared fox are abundant, as are suricate in the Nossob River, whereas yellow and slender mongoose prefer the dune grasses in the south.
There are over 264 bird species that have been recorded in the park. Social weavers are common with as many as 300 birds using one nest, each pair living in an individual chamber. Some weaver’s nests are the size of small rooms and probably weigh more than a ton. They last as long as the tree that they are built in, and get added to and repaired each year. This is one of the most favoured places in southern Africa for raptors where 52 species have been observed in the Gemsbok National Park.
Vegetation is scant and many dunes have been badly denuded by over-grazing in the past. Camelthorn acacias occur in the riverbeds, often covered by sociable weaver’s nests. One the dune slopes grow shepherd’s trees, umbrella thorns, Kalahari sand acacia with its purplish-red pods and velvet raisin bushes. The dune crests are often covered in grey camelthorn bushes and Kalahari couch grass. In the north-eastern parts of the park, the untidy looking bushes, worm-cure albizia and silver terminalia are quite common. In summer, an attractive yellow flower covers the ground, which has as its fruit a nasty three-sided thorn, with one of its prongs always facing upwards. It is known as devil’s thorn which is one of the first plants to appear after an area has been denuded and as such, is a sign of the previous over-utilization of the area. During the long dry season in this extremely arid region, much of the moisture need by the animals for survival, comes from two wild vines – the tsamma melon and the gemsbok cucumber.
There are no lodges and permanent camps in the vicinity. However, there are three camps – Twee Rivieren, Mata Mata and Nossob – with fully equipped, air-conditioned chalets on the South African side of the border. To get there, cross the border post at Bokspits which is open between 08h00 and 16h00. There are three campsites in the park; one at the game scout’s camp at the Twee Rivieren entrance, with ablution facilities (cold showers and toilet), the other sites some 300 km further at Swartpan but with no facilities available. |
