Home » South Africa » Southern Africa 2000 - Part 4: Kalahari-Gemsbok National Park

We spent one night in Augrabies Falls National Park, seeing the impressive waterfall as well as some very special scenery. Then we moved on to the Kalahari-Gemsbok park where we stayed at two different camp sites. The scenery is usually semi desert, but due to lots of rainfall this year it had turned into dry savannah. It looks quite similar everywhere but it is really pretty in its own way. Temperatures do get very extreme and it is very impressive that animals can survive under conditions like these. Although we didn't see as many animals as in the Kruger, we saw quite a lot, including lions and cheetahs very close to car. The Kalahari desert definitely shows another side of South African scenery and wildlife that is not to be missed.

Southern Africa 2000 - Part 4: Kalahari-Gemsbok National Park

Jan Arild Teland
2006-05-08 23:57:02

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November 20, Monday

The bus arrived in Upington at 05.00 and we were met by a woman from Yebo Backpackers. The two other people on the bus that were going on the tour were Vanessa and Matthew (Mash) from London. We were driven to Yebo where we could "rent" a bed until the Livingstone group came to pick us up. This only cost us R20 per person. Jan Arild and I tried to get some sleep while the others just stayed in the kitchen.

Around 07.00, Petro, our guide for the Kalahari arrived and we got ready to leave. The funny thing was that Petro was the guide who had been in charge of the group we had to change cars with in the Kruger Park. It's a small world! Also coming on the tour was Kylie from Australia (who also had been in Petro's group in the Kruger), so in total we were only 5 people and a guide.

We then more or less drive drove straight to Augrabies Falls National Park, where we were camping for the first night. It took a few hours to get there, but the scenery was very interesting and it was exciting to see how it changed. The scenery was at first glance brown and dull but when you looked again there were actually many colours to see.

It was a relief to finally pay for the trip so we didn't have the responsibility of the money any longer. We put up our tents and had brunch (sausages with bread and salad). All of us did the dishes together before setting off to explore the area. It was very hot outside the shade, so we didn't go further than to the nearby waterfall. It was quite impressive, but not the nicest I've seen.

There were some really strange multicoloured lizards running around the area, though, and I tried to get a good picture of one. In the camp there were also lots of animals that looked like a mix of bears and hamsters running around. They were called dassies and were allegedly a close relative of the elephant, which one would never have guessed. I had trouble ...