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Hi Pala and welcome!!

Your drive from Upington to the park will be at least 2 hours but rather bargain on 2 and a half.

So that is total of 5 hours driving time. So you MUST leave Upington at 13H00 to be on time. And you'll need some time to check in at TR........so then you should rather leave town by 12H30.

That gives you an Hour and a half to pick up the car and do the shopping.

I'll pm you PNP email address, then you could ask them to get the most of the groceries for you before hand and you could then do only the fresh produce and the stuff you want to pick out yourself. That might save you some time. You could ask them to vacuum pack and freeze your meat before you collect it.

It might all be doable with nothing going wrong............

Hi Pala - the short answer is probably no . We did a similar thing on our last trip - We arrived in Upington at about 9am (we drove from Augrabies) and swopped hire cars (no trolley dash as we had already filled up in Springbok). We got to TR at 1pm (check in and tyre pressure adjusting took a little time) which meant we arrived at Kalahari Tented at 17:10 (yes we did stop for some sightings but not for long).

If you don't have any flight delays, pick up the car directly from the airport, and have a smooth trolley dash you might just make it but in my opinion it will be cutting it really fine. It might be better to either stay the night in Upington or at a lodge closer to KTP. That way you can enjoy your first day in the park without worrying about just getting there in time

Maybe others have had a better experience and can give you some more positive feedback

Hi Pala, the drive from Upington to TR is between about 2hour and 30minutes, to 3hours.
Check in, stop at the garage(deflate the tires) about 30minutes.
Drive to KTente camp maybe 3hours. (With the corrugated road you will at least stop once at the loo)
You will need maybe 6hours and 30minutes(Or 7hours) to be save.
Maybe sleep the first night in TR.

Enjoy.

If you can, stay the first night at 2R. Otherwise the whole day may feel like a race against time.

If the rental company was service orientated, you can perhaps pre-order your groceries (and pay ) from PnP (fresh produce??), ask rental company to pick up and deliver with your vehicle to airport. Then only might you make it (IMHO)

I agree, rather book 2R for first night.....

Thanks for your comments everyone! Much appreciated. Must say I agree it is a long shot trying to make it and probably too stressful! Think we'll try for Kieliekrankie instead and steal a night from the Augrabies part of the holiday!

Thanks again
Pala

Pala. Maybe you will see the leopard at KK.

That will be good!

Pala,

You did not mention when in July. If its during the school holiday (1 - 14 July) you might find reception very busy and the road to KTC. You might not need to fill up at Twee rivieren, but then you need to pass Mata-Mata first thing the next morning to fill up and waste time on your first morning drive.

Getting the right tyre pressure will be a problem, because one can easily deflate too much on a hot tyre.

We usually start off at Twee Rivieren or just before the park.

Thanks for your reply Son godin. We will be travelling at the end of July/beginning Aug so hopefully not too much traffic. We will spend our first night at Kieliekrankie - that way we'll know we're fine time wise. Our last night will be at TR so don't want to start there if we can help it!

KK is much wiser.

Also go with Lion Queen & Tobieo's advice.

What is the best route from Cape Town to Twee Rivieren, Kgalagadi and approximately how long will it take to drive?

Morning seandi and a very warm welcome to the Forum and to KTP

We live in Hout Bay and its 1150km to TR .... normally takes us about 11 1/2 to 12 hours, depending on if you keep to the speed limit - obviously a bit quicker if you drive like most people at 20 or 30 km over the limit ....

We always go N1 - then N7 to Vanrhynsdorp then through VR to the R27 - through Nieuwoudville then Calvinia - about 18k's outside of Calvinia the road branches to the left - still the R27 - through Brandvlei, Kenhardt, Keimoes, Upington - then the R360 to Askham and then RIGHT for 60km to the park gates at Twee Rivieren

Hope it helps

Thanks for the "Getting There" info. We're hoping to stop over somewhere for 1 night on the way up and again on the return trip. Any advice on where would be a good place?

I would say it will take you about 2 days. Maybe have to sleep over somewhere.(no late entry at Twee Rivieren ) Or you will have to drive most of the time at night.

Scouter is right with the route.