Why you don’t need luxuries to have an incredible time in the Kgalagadi

A friend of ours always said that he wants to spend his 30^th birthday somewhere deep in the African bush with a few close friends. When he started planning the trip, we were the first to commit to joining them for a 10 day vacation camping in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park covering 38 000 km² across the border between South Africa and Botswana.

There is much more admin going into a camping vacation than say an all-inclusive island breakaway. A lot of planning, comparing notes and even a trial camping weekend were necessary to prepare four couples and one toddler for a hard core camping trip. On the trial camping weekend we visited the Pilanesberg National Park located in the North West province of South Africa. Here we tested all our camping equipment, made sure we had all we needed between the four couples and got a bit of a temperature scare. While the temperature is usually quite warm in this area, the Kgalagadi is a dessert, known for extreme temperature fluctuations. Coincidentally, the weekend spent camping in Pilanesberg was significantly cold and we quickly realised that we needed to be better prepared to face the cold dessert temperatures a month later.

Finally the day arrived and we travelled 999km in 12 hours and spent the night at the Molopo Lodge a few kilometres outside the park. We eased into the camping expedition, staying at the Kalahari Tented Camp the first night. Thereafter we spent 3 nights camping at Rooiputs, a campsite on the Botswana side of the park, with absolutely no fences, no electricity, warm water or ablution facilities. In spite of this, we had the best time! We then took a break from the intense camping and camped at Nossob for two nights, a rest camp with some more luxuries including electricity and a small shop. After that, we roughed it again at Polentswa, which not only has no warm water, it has no water whatsoever! Here we had such a fun time figuring out how much water is needed for a shower and wondering if we would have enough for the three night stay! The group then split up and the two of us visited the Augrabies Falls National Park for two nights where we stayed at the incredible gorge cottage, followed by a night at Mokala National Park in Mosu Lodge, Sanparks camp of the year.

In spite of what some people would call inconveniences, this humble camping trip turned out to be one of the best trips of our lives! We will not hesitate to do this again with friends as there is no better way to relax completely and have an awesome time together than being so close to nature.