Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is a product of South Africa and Botswana working together. It was founded on 12 May 2000 when presidents Thabo Mbeki and Festus Mogae formed Southern Africa’s first peace park. Kalahari Gemsbok National Park of South Africa and Gemsbok National Park of Botswana formed this international reserve. The park’s history dates back to the 31st of July 1931, when the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park was established on the South African side to protect migrating game. Eventually, in 1948, a verbal agreement was made with Botswana (then known as the Bechuanaland Protectorate), to conserve the whole area as one unit.

The park was named after the Kgalagadi people, their language being related to Tswana.  They were some of first people to move into this area and stayed alongside Khoe-speaking people relatively peacefully. The Kgalagadi people named the area 'Kgalagadi"', which means 'place of thirst'' and from there the word Kalahari was derived. The Kgalagadi saw some wartime action. Firstly, German troops set up a lookout post on a huge camel thorn tree to transmit massages to South West Africa in the British territory, but many of the Germans were killed in a daybreak raid. Later, with the outbreak of World War I, South Africa drilled a series of boreholes along the Auob River to provide a corridor to invade South West Africa, but this corridor was never used.

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is an ideal place to view gemsbok (also known as oryx) as the parks' previous names suggest. One of the reasons the conservation area was started was to stop poachers from hunting the gemsbok, as it is also known to have some of the best tasting meat known to man.  The large size of the park allows for the migration of wild ungulates and also gives the predators that hunt these ungulates big enough territories to survive in. The migratory ungulates are the red hartebeest, blue wildebeest, springbok and eland. The most common predators in the park would be cheetah, hyena and the famous black-maned Kalahari lion.

Occasionally one might also come across a leopard, and there are even rare sightings of African wild dog. The park's most prominent species are the ground squirrel and meerkat, which will definitively entertain you with their antics. These ground-dwelling species live in burrows in large groups and work together to spot predators and hunt prey. Low density species include honey badger, pangolin and bat-eared fox. To spot these, one must have extreme patience and perspicacity or just a good helping of dumb luck. More than 200 bird species have been documented, including vultures, eagles, buzzards, secretary birds and ostriches.

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is situated in the southern reaches of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa. The unblemished terrain comprises the renowned red sand dunes of the Kalahari, sparse vegetation in the form of grasslands, scrub bush, desert woodlands occupied by occasional trees, the dry riverbeds of the Nossob and Auob Rivers and superb salt pans. Although it is believed that the rivers only run once every hundred years after a severe storm, underground rivers provide the necessary sustenance for the fauna and flora, as well as the wildlife that call this desert home. Additionally, the salt pans fill-up during the wet seasons, providing much-needed nutrients to the animals.

Apart from the fact that the pans attract a multitude of animals, they are also usually bordered by dunes. These outcrops make for unobstructed views of the area, and campsites and lodges are strategically placed on the ridges ensuring maximum game viewing pleasure for the guests. The pans are like fingerprints, each unique, each with a story to tell. Some, for example, are linked to fossil valleys like the Monamodi. Others are small but extremely rich in nutrients, whilst most in the area are unbelievably large. The nutrient-rich soils mean that various fruits such as the kiwano (horned melon) and tsamma (melon creeper) occur endemically.