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the best entrance from mapungubwe is to enter KNP at Pafuri gate.

Go to Messina , then Tshipise , then to Pafuri gate . Just over 200 km but the roads are very low traffic .

Leaving Mapungubwe at 13:30 I would suggest entering at Punda Maria gate as Punda Maria camp is only 8km from the gate. I do not have a road map with me but think you'll have to travel down to Louis Trichardt and from there take the road to Punda gate (the turn off is sign posted if I remember correctly) From Musina you will still have 223km to Punda gate

Let's rather talk times for the 2 routes.
Mapungubwe - Mussina 1 Hour
Mussina - Pafuri gate 1.5 "
Pafuri gate - Punda Maria 2 "
5 " practical time

Mapungubwe - Mussina 1 Hour
Mussina - Punda maria gate 3.5 hours (hold ups etc.)
5 hours practical time

Leaving Mapungubwe at 13h30 is well nigh impossible for both routes (winter season gates close at 17h30)
You will have to overnight outside or leave about midday.

Pafuri gate will remain the easier (less stressfull ) route of the two IMHO .

Salva, if you are 100% sure you can't take your rental car through Swaziland, then the route to follow on S.A. roads will have to be:
Vryheid, Ermelo, Breyten , Carolina and from there you can either go straight up onto the N4 at Machadorp or as we did once, stay on the R38, which is a very scenic route, and go past Badplaas and turn off at Barberton, finally reaching the N4 at Kaapmuiden which is not far from the Malelane Gate.
If you take this option make sure you leave Ithala fairly early and it should be easily done.
If you choose to go the Machadadorp route then it might be better to go via Nelspruit and enter at Numbi Gate.
Hope this helps.

We travel from EL to Kruger fairly often and after trying many different routes we now always stick to the N1 onto the N12 through Joburg. The traffic is a bit daunting but it is just a far easier and nicer road to travel.

This might sound like a strange question, but does anyone know if there is a route from Phalaborwa to Punda Maria gate OUTSIDE the park without having to go all the way back towards Tzaneen and then up through Giyani? This is about a 300km route and I'm wondering if there's a shorter route on reasonably good roads. To go through the park is only 200km, but would take too long to get to Punda before gate closing.

Also, is there a route outside the park which connects Pafuri and Punda Maria gates? Can't see any on the maps I have, but these are not detailed maps with all secondary roads.

No , not really .
There are roads , but they are all secondary , and mostly dirt roads , as far as phalborwa to punda .

From punda to pafuri doesnt have any road if im not mistaken , due to the soutpansberg mountains running along there .

Hi Christel,
The drive from Augrabies to KNP is by all accounts a very long drive and as far as I know if you want to follow a more or less direct route will have to go through a few big cities.
The only other suggestion would be to either fly from Upington to Jhb and then either drive to the park or fly into KMIA.
Otherwise fly to Cape Town and fly direct to KMIA, not sure which option would be more cost effective.
La Lionne has just done a fairly similar trip, maybe PM her and ask for advice.
Hope this helps.

Hoping that one of the Eastern Cape experts can help. I am planning a trip to the KNP in December 2007 (Croc Bridge), but I will be driving from Kenton-on-Sea (about an hour North of PE). I was wondering if someone could tell me which is the best route to take and approximate timing.
Thanks as always

Hi Readles, we drive up from EL and have done the routes via Bethlehem and through Jhb each a few times. We prefer the Jhb way - one just has to be on the ball to get onto all the correct off ramps/on ramps but the roads are good and wide most of the way. And it is a bit more costly because of all the toll gates. The other way is fairly scenic but disjointed and the roads when we last drove it had sections that were bad pothole wise.

So if you choose to go through Gauteng - make sure you have a good map of the Jhb area.

Oops timing - from EL to Croc Bridge is just short of 1500kms. We tow a caravan and it takes us a full day and 2/3's to do the trip. I'd say not towing, one can get pretty far the first day and to the Park before lunch on the second day.

Readles we used to live in Grahamstown just up the road so this is the route Grahamstown.... Bedford.... Cradock .... Hofmeyr... Steynsburg.... Venterstad.... Gariepdam.... Springfontein.... Bloemfontein..... Kroonstad...... JHB .... Pretoria.... Witbank.... Belfast (we normally go north from there to Phalaborwa) but you go to Nelspruit.... Komatipoort and in... Hope that helps

Restio,
Travel from CT to Beaufort-West the first day, and stay over at the Karoo National Park. Then do a long day's travel the second day (dunno about missing JHB, tried that a couple of times but did not work out that well... )

We are doing Stellenbosch-Karoo National Park-Pretoria-Berg-en Dal in July this year.

(Copied from here)

So call it an hour...