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Experience one of South Africa's wildest and most unique wilderness areas on the Deep Kgalagadi Fly-In Safari.
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Once you’ve arrived in Johannesburg and have cleared customs and immigration, you’ll find a representative from African Sky waiting for you as you enter the arrivals hall. First, we’ll take care of a few formalities. You’ll be handed a complete tour folder containing all necessary documentation for your upcoming holiday, including e-tickets, accommodation and transfer vouchers, a detailed itinerary and our emergency contact details. Our representative, as an experienced guide, will also gladly answer any questions you may have. Once formalities are completed you’ll then be escorted to the appropriate departure terminal where you’ll be assisted in boarding a local flight to Upington in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. There you’ll be met and transferred to the remote !Xaus Lodge in a private concession of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park . On arrival at the lodge, you’ll be warmly welcomed and, after orientation, assisted with settling in. The purpose of visiting !Xaus is to escape the world, to place yourself in a location so remote that nothing of the outside world remains or impacts your day-to-day activities.
Later in the day, you’ll enjoy your first exciting activity into the Kgalagadi wilderness. The activity starts in the late afternoon, pauses at a remote location for sundowners, and then continues into the evening, lasting for three to four hours in order to maximize your experience.
!Xaus, meaning ‘heart’ in the Nama language, was established in May 2002 after an agreement was reached with the South African government. The agreement restored a large tract of land to the people who once roamed or farmed the area. Named the !Ae!Hai Kalahari Heritage Park Agreement, it resulted in the transfer of ownership of 50 000 hectares of land within the boundaries of Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park to the Khomani San and Mier communities, helping them to improve the quality of their lives in the process.
The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is an immense desert with grass-covered sand dunes. At over 3.5 million hectares, it’s almost twice the size of the Kruger National Park and about the same size as the Netherlands, and is jointly managed by the South African and Botswana wildlife authorities. A constant high-pressure cell forms a ‘lid’ over the interior, and as a consequence the long-term annual rainfall average is just 213mm, classifying the Kgalagadi as a true desert. Unusually, there is an abundance of desert grasses, giving the landscape an appearance of a semi-desert. The park is home to an abundance of wildlife, including the large black-maned Kalahari lions, cheetah, brown and spotted hyena, leopard, and large numbers of gemsbok, springbok and wildebeest. The park is well-known for its huge population of eland, probably the largest herds in the world.
While at !Xaus, your activities include game and after-dinner drives, guided dune walks, a visit to a bushman craft village and star gazing, made possible by clean air and zero light pollution.
After breakfast, you’ll say goodbye to your hosts as you’re met and returned to Upington, from where you’ll fly return to Johannesburg and the end of your deep-desert African safari .
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