Kgalagadi TransFrontier Park
Kgalagadi TransFrontier Park
Mabuasehube Gemsbok National Park covers 12,800 sq.km and lies in Botswana’s remote south west corner. The national park was created in 1995 by amalgamating the former Gemsbok National Park and Mabuasehube Game Reserve. In west it abuts South Africa’s Kalahari Gemsbok National Park.
Previously known as the Gemsbok National Park, this 28 000 sq kilometre reserve is located in the south-western region of Botswana. As with most areas of the Kalahari there is little infrastructure and the adventurous travelers will enjoy a true safari experience into vast unexplored expanses with herds of desert game, predators and scavengers. Although the southern part of the park falls within South Africa’s boundaries the reserve is now managed as a single ecological unit with the active co-operation of both countries. This remote reserve is difficult to reach from the Botswana side -with the only accessible sector being the former Mabuasehube National Park situated on the far eastern boundary.
Best time to visit Kgalagadi TransFrontier Park
The best season is during the rainy season from November to March, when the sandy roads become compacted and more negotiable. The vegetation is much more beautiful, the animals are attracted by the newly sprouted grass and the birdlife is abundant.
Central Kalahari Game Reserve
During the rainy season when everything is green and thousands of springbok and gemsbok are attracted to the north, but a visit at any time of the year is most re-warding in this incredibly beautiful reserve. December and April is best time because animals tend to congregate in the pans and valley. Visitors may walk in pan areas where visibilty is good but walking in park areas of tall grass or thick bush is potentially dangerous and not encouraged and it is always good to stay within easy reach of the vehicle.
History of the park
The Gemsbok National Park was the first national park to be established in Botswana back in 1937. It’s purpose, in conjunction with the smaller Kalahari Gemsbok National Park on the South African side of the Nossob riverbed, was to protect the area and the herds of wildlife within it from the pressure of cattle and the overgrazing that they caused. Over a period of time the size of the park was added to, but it remained inaccessible to visitors with no development or access roads into it at all, forming one vast unfenced wildlife area in which the game could migrate unimpeded.
On the South Africa side access roads and campsites were built, but in Botswana the closest that tourists could get to the Gemsbok National Park was in the small adjoining park of Mabuasehube. This small game reserve was very difficult to reach via tracks submerged in deep sand, but did provide the self-sufficient traveler with a rare view into the ‘lost world of the Kalahari’, where the legendary Kalahari black-maned lions ruled over their undisturbed kingdom. Peppered with pans this Mabuasehube area offered visitors a choice of very basic, though well-positioned campsites where the main attraction after the game was the remarkable solitude and silence.
The concept of a Tran Frontier Park came to the fore in 1989 after the Botswana Government published the results of a fact finding study on tourism development in Southern Africa, and in 1992 a Tran frontier Management Committee was formed made up of officials from both Botswana and South Africa. In the same year Mabuasehube Game Reserve was officially incorporated in the Gemsbok National Park pushing the park’s total area up to 28 400 km’. After several years of intensive cooperative planning, Botswana and South Africa signed the final historic bilateral agreement to merge their adjacent parks into a single ecological unit now called the Kgalagadi Tran frontier Park in 1999. This Tran frontier park now covers a total area of just under 38 000 km2, making it the second largest park in Botswana and one of the largest in the world.
Previously known as the Gemsbok National Park, this 28 000 sq kilometre reserve is located in the south-western region of Botswana. As with most areas of the Kalahari there is little infrastructure and the adventurous travelers will enjoy a true safari experience into vast unexplored expanses with herds of desert game, predators and scavengers. Although the southern part of the park falls within South Africa’s boundaries the reserve is now managed as a single ecological unit with the active co-operation of both countries. This remote reserve is difficult to reach from the Botswana side -with the only accessible sector being the former Mabuasehube National Park situated on the far eastern boundary.
Wildlife
This park conserves a wide variety of desert game such as the hartebeest, eland, springbok, wildebeest and gemsbok. There is also a growing population of predators -lion, cheetah, brown hyena and leopard along with many smaller but equally interesting species. A variety of desert bird species live in this part of the Kalahari, which is noted for its raptor population -over 50 different species have been recorded.
Birdlife
A variety of desert bird species live in this part of the Kalahari, which is noted for its raptor population -over 50 different species have been recorded. Abundance of bird life ranges from flashy lilac-breasted rollers and white-fronted bee-eaters to Kori, bustards, korhaans, Secretary birds, vultures and marabou .
Accommodation
In Gemsbok section there are two big rest camps on the South Africa side of the Nossob River. The game scout camp, on the Botswana side opposite Twee Rivieren. There are also three undeveloped sites on the Botswana bank, Rooiputs, 30 km north - east of Tween Rivieren polentswe Pan, 60 km north of the Nossob, and Swart Pan 30 km south east of Unions End.
In Mabuasehube section there are rudimentary campsites for up to two groups each at Leshohago Pan, Mpaathut Pan and Khiding Pan as well as two sites at Mabuasehube Pan and Bosobogolo Pan.
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