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We leave 2 weeks today Dogbert, so we will also take a keen interest in the situation.

We will be arriving at Keomoes in the early hours of Monday morning and will have to see how the land lies There is a road - R359 - south of the river from there to Upington, where the bridge is higher.
Anyone know the road or travelled on it?

Thanks Scouter, we will check before we go. I hope the water has subsided by then.
We prefer the route via Calvinia.

@ Caracal, I hope to see you in the park.

@ BB, please post a reply re the roads when you return.

Hello,

we plan to drive from Cap Town to Upington. To save time I consider taking the over-night bus (Intercap) from Cap Town. It departs at 18:00pm and arrive Upington at 7:00am. In Upington we rent a car and drive to Twee Rivieren.
Did somebody travelled by this company? Any experience? Is there a better way to get to Upington?

Many thank's in advance.


Best regards,

Sigi

Morning,

I have used the company on several occasions from Upington to Pretoria without any hassles. They do have a limit on their language (you should just make sure with them). I would suggest that you buy all your goodies from Upington once you have received the hired vehicle.

You should ask the hire company if they could pick you up from where InterCape drops you off since it is a distance from the airport.

Hope it helps

Thanks, it helps a lot.

To ask the hire company if they could pick us up is a great idea. I will do that. But if it's not possible, are there taxis available in Upington (we arrive at 7:00am, Lutz Street)? I would prefere a car hire company which is located in the town (that we don't have to drive to the airport and pick up their the car).

Many thanks!

Like the forum KG?

Should that be luggage?

Which way would they take I wonder, now that Keimoes bridge is under water. Thanks for the idea, I will contact them.

Sorry for that BB, if you can see what my table looks like and try to type while people talk to you then you would understand that I have made such a mistake.

Sigi

Don't know what your budget is but you can also fly to Upington from Cape Town (check www.flysaa.com) and then you can just pick your hire car up at the airport where you land

You are right. You can fly from Cape Town to Upington and back for about R 3000. But if we drive by bus we don't lose a day. It's a sleepliner and drives over night.

There are town offices as well (Hertz, Europecar, ...) - it should be easy to book a car to pick up in the town office.

After my recent 6001km trip around the country just the following comment on road conditions for those travelling from Gauteng to Augrabies and Kgalagadi.

On my way to Onseepkans / Pofadder I travelled on the N14 via Upington which I assume might be the route people will travel to the mentioned Parks. My comments is based on my travel on this road on 14 February 2011

Not to far past Krugersdorp the N14 cross the R500. At this junction the N14 is closed and I do assume it is because of flood damage further down. There is no indication as to where the N14 opens again and on the road map the more obvious detour seems to be taking the R500 to Magaliesburg then R509 to Koster then R52 to Lichtenburg and then on to join the N14.

I have to warn all that the R52 between Koster and Lichtenburg is the worst piece of road I travelled on during my 6001km journey with potholes, road works, stop-go sections were it seems there is no communication between the points as cars enter from both sides and traffic travelling towards Lichtenburg is then forced to drive on the dirt fringe of the road which at the time of my travel was more like a mud pit. I think this stretch of road added nearly 60 minutes to my travelling time and took 5 years off my life. The situation was also magnified by the fact that I was travelling this section (most of it) in the dark (left Pretoria at 02:40)

Once on the N14 the section between Vryburg and Kakamas has a lot of road construction going on with at least 12 stop-go sections with an average waiting time of about 10 minutes although I waited longer at some which added another 2 hours to my travelling time.

I advice all to plan their trip to these parks taking the road situation in mind and allow at least 2.5 hours extra travelling time.

For those travelling from Cape Town via the N7 things are looking better except for crossing the Piekenaarskloof between Piketberg and Citrusdal. There is heavy road construction in the pass with only one lane open. Because of blasting the pass is also closed during the week between 14:00-15:00 but when I travelled through it only opened at 15:13. I arrived at the Citrusdal side of the pass at 14:40 and due to all the backed up traffic that had to get through only cleared the pass at about 16:00. Fortunately they let the traffic on our side (Citrusdal) through first, I don’t know how long it took for the traffic at the Cape Town side to clear the pass.

I think outside blasting times one should allow at least 60 minutes to clear the pass or find a route around the pass

Nice precise report 'cois

But isn't it Piekenierskloof, and you left off the tenths of a kilometre in your 6001

Even when the Keimoes - Kenhardt stretch is reopened, if you are travelling overnight, I would recommend the dirt road 11 km north of Kenhardt to Louisvale, (then to Upington) the sightings were amazing.

BB I also thought it was Piekenierskloof but consulted the Mapstudio Road Atlas South Africa 2nd Edition for my post and it list it as Piekenaarskloof.

As to the mileage: When filling up a couple of km's from Mapungubwe the odometer read 2300.2, I accidentally reset the wrong reading and the final reading at home was 3700.8 which gives me the 6001km

Hi Francoisd, nice to see you back here Gosh yes, those N7 roadworks really do test ones patience. We came through them on Monday from the Citrusdal side and you are correct in saying it took us at least 1 and half to two hours longer.
Not complaining because when the road is finished it should be a pleasure to drive.

Hey BB, don't be so 'picky'

We were quite lucky on Piekeniers, sorry Piekenaars, what the heck, THAT pass, and only stopped for a few minutes during the early evening.

Just checking with 'cois Dreamer, he is a person you can usually deal with. Like me, he is precise, not vague.