From Golden Gate to Kgalagadi Park On our latest trek we've travelled from Howick to the Kalahari desert (Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park) via an extremely wet Golden Gate National Park, a very wet Kimberley, and a very dry Upington, South Africa's hottest (temp only) town. Golden Gate was notable for seeing the rare bald ibis, having a soaking wet roof top tent and mattress and having our spare tent recreate the moment from Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and that mangy dog get sucked up into a tornado. Fortunately Angela's weight ensured we remained on the ground. Kimberley was probably not at it's best in the rain, especially when the main tourist attraction "The Big Hole," was closed. The big hole is big and is a hole, (we saw a poster of it) created by over a century of diamond mining. The claim that it is the biggest man made hole on the planet is presumptuous; they've clearly never seen Terry Miles talking. Upington is frontier town stuff; it has a buzz about it that we both like. Built and growing fast on the bank of the Orange River, it is an oasis surrounded by hundreds of kilometres of semi arid scrub and desert. It is also the last place you can stock up on food essentials like brie and salad leaves with herbs, and the last place before the Park to buy wine that tastes like wine. If you ever find yourself in Upington don't be tempted by the Orange River wines that are promoted here, an average summer temp of over 40 C means that the resultant wines are so sweet your teeth would fall out if you had the constitution to drink any of it. The drive from Upington to Twee Rivirien, our first camp in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, was interesting to say the least. The road is described as "bad" even by South African National Parks, and they were not kidding. The last 65 kilometres was so badly rutted (corrugated is the term here) that we couldn't talk to each other (so I drove up and down it twice). We had everything crossed in hope that the Discovery would reach the park with everything we started out with. Fortunately the Landrover didn't live up to it's legendary reputation in Southern Africa for having bits fall off and we checked in at the gate shaken but not stirred. Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is huge, twice the size of Kruger, which makes it (those paying attention in a previous update will know this) twice the size of Wales. Still no sign of the Welsh, though judging by the names of various waterholes (Monro, Dalkeith and Craig Lockhardt) there was clearly a Scot here in the past propping up a bar. The park encompasses a large proportion of the Kalahari Desert and is typified by vegetated red sand dunes and Camel Thorn tree cover. Beside Twee Rivirien we stayed at Nossob (nearly 4 hours north on a sand road) and Mata Mata (another 4 hours drive from Nossob) and spent a total of 16 days camping under perfect night skies. The beauty of the place can't be captured on film by amateurs like us but the remoteness, the colour contrasts and the temperature fluctuations (40 C down to minus 3 C in less than 12 hours) make this one of our favourite places. Due to the desert climate, the wildlife viewing requires more patience and luck than Kruger. We were obviously lucky as the following highlights testify: a cheetah with 3 cubs catching a springbok calf a lioness and 3 cubs gorging themselves on a wildebeest carcase 2 Black Shouldered Kites sharing a mouse Barn Owls hunting moths attracted by the spotlight at Nossob camp a Lanner Falcon taking a dove in the air above a waterhole a huge black maned lion with a lioness walking past our flimsy 5ft wire perimeter fence at Nossob 4 lions hunting near Mata Mata a Martial Eagle taking a ground squirrel a Wild Cat (marginally larger than a domestic tabby) asleep in a tree a Hyaena sleeping 50 metres from our tent at Mata Mata (we'll forgive him the noise he made arriving) The most common sighting was of the elegant Gemsbok antelope, so efficient at extracting moisture from it's food that it rarely needs to drink, a skill we could do with as we'd save at least £5 a day on wine costs! In this Park the majority of vehicles were 4x4s, with extra fuel tanks, gas, water, sand ramps, high lift jacks and other essential items for coping in a far more rugged environment than Kruger. The campfire chat (sound travels in the desert at night, we wouldn't ever eavesdrop!) was of past 4x4 routes, with male egos talking up epic tales of vertical ascents, repairing broken axles by lashing the children to it with duct tape and bungee cords, and using the left testicle as an inflation device when the 4x4 is stuck in sand (ok, so a slight exaggeration on the last one there!) Despite the remoteness of the place my favourite species, children, put in a sporadic appearance in the campsites and shattered the peace with tantrums, ball games and animal feeding sessions. If I only had time to train the ground squirrels to bite out stretched hands. In case some of you may be thinking I don't like children, that's very unfair. I love children, though I probably couldn't eat a whole one on the braai.