Kgalagadi Park is one of the largest SANParks (South African National Parks) and the only one comprising two National Parks across border, a smaller part in South Africa and the bigger rest in Botswana. The name Kgalagadi means “place of thirst” in the local language because it is located within the Kalahari desert. We were so eager to get here that we forgot our camera bag at the Molopo Lodge where we stopped for lunch on the way. Only when we arrived in the Park did we realise it was missing. PANIC! Luckily, the lodge owner was so nice and kept it safe for us so the only thing we lost was the two-hour round trip. Phew! A pretty small price to pay.
As it turned out, that wasn’t the only mistake we made for this part of the trip. Firstly, we were pretty late with our planning so all the wilderness camps further north in the park were already fully booked by the time we enquired. We were forced to stay in Twee Rivieren Camp for all the three nights we were there, which was really unfortunate. The best way to explore a Safari, for us, is to stay one night a each camp and move on the next day so that you don’t have to drive the same road twice. Besides, the wilderness camps are much more adventurous and interesting because they lie deep in the park with lots of opportunities for game watching at sunset and during the night. The second mistake was our choice of transportation. You really need an SUV for a park like Kgalagadi to be able to go off-road deep into the Park to look for the most interesting animals. Our sedan shamefully failed as we tried to cross a small sand dune. Our third mistake, luckily our last, was the shortage of time of our schedule. We could have easily spent the whole week in this park because we both liked it so much. The pleasant weather in the desert during Spring time, the excitement when spotting a new specie we hadn’t yet known, the enormity of the Park, its color, its smell. We loved absolutely everything we saw and enjoyed every minute of the trip. When we left we already knew it wasn’t our last time there.
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