Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park - Road conditions - Arnoud Quanjer Wildlifephotography

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park - Road conditions

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 21:01 |

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Askham to Twee Rivieren road

Most people will enter the Kgalagadi Transfrontier park through the gate at Twee Rivieren restcamp. This means using the road from Askham to Twee Rivieren. This stretch of road used to be called the worst road in South Africa on some websites, but as of 2009 the entire road has been tarred.

Roads in the park

All the roads in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park are either sand or gravel roads. The condition of these roads varies between excellent and abysmal. Due to speeding, back wheels of 2x4 cars skidding and too high tyre pressure the roads can become very corrugated. When the road gets too corrugated it is graded making it a smooth flat surface again. Due to the grading the roads can become very 'U' shaped. The Nossob road from Twee Rivieren to Nossob in some places is extremely 'U' shaped making game viewing from a normal sedan car impossible. The road running to Mata Mata from Twee Rivieren does not suffer from this phenomenon but it can be very corrugated. The roads through the dunes linking the Nossob and Aoab riverbeds can also be very corrugated and in some points they suffer from damage done by whistling rats so be careful when you drive that road.

All the roads in the park are gravel roads and they can be tricky if you drive too fast. It's remarkebly easy to roll your vehicle on one of these roads so please don't speed. The maximum speed in the Kgalagadi is 50km/h for tourists and 70km/h for staff.

It seems that since mid-2008 SANP is taking the complaints about the road conditions in the park serious. On the SANP website the following message appeared in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park section:

"Kindly note that the roads in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park are not sedan friendly, although the roads are maintained on a monthly basis, sedan vehicles find it difficult to cope with the conditions. Should sedan users wish to use their vehicles, they are welcome to do so, as park management endeavors to maintain the roads as effectively as conditions allow, in order to make your stay a memorable one!"

On the provisional booking forms (you get one after you make a booking) the following comment is now included:

"INTERNAL ROADS ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR SEDAN VEHICLES."

Most roads in the park are frequently badly corrugated, going to the park in a 2x4 is not advisable. I drove around in a Toyota Corolla Verso in 2008 and lost two hubcabs, my handbrake stopped functioning and a screw fell out of my dashboard due to the violent vibrations caused bij the corrugation. The Verso suspension does not really work very well on badly corrugated roads making the drive a hard one. This was even so with the tires deflated to 1.4 bar. I found an abandoned Chevrolet at Dikbaardskolk with a broken rear suspension, I guess that the suspension broke because of the extreme corrugation. 4x4 drivers were also complaining about the corrugation and many people had experienced damage to vehicles due to the bad roads. Losing license plates due to the vibrations caused by the corrugation was a fairly common problem, I took off my plates as a precaution.

Arnoud Quanjer Wildlife Photography