SANParks.org Forums

BB,

The road on the Bots side was bad (when was the last time you drove it?). Passing caused serious damage to the vegetation on the sides of the road and so many people still made roads to the closed road.

January. DId it deteriorate a lot since then? If so I take it back.

Anyway I like the 'new' road. Skiddy corner is no more!

Hi there BB,

Due to the heavy traffic the road was carrying it surely did deteriorate, the new road is an absolute pleasure to drive. Unfortunately skiddy corner just had to go

What is the official policy and programme now for the South African side of the Kalagadi TFC park as far as road improvement and maintenance goes? With the tar road now all the way to Tweerivieren there are it seems as of last week when my wife and I were in the park for an all too short visit, that a lot more "soft skin" vehicles ( with plastic bumpers for lions to play with) as well as the more traditional vehicles one associates with this park that will tax I think the authorities in keeping a road grading programme in place? Considerable expenditure has been undertaken on the Nossob Road but the Mata Mata route was more corrugated than ever last week? People with old small and low clearance cars ( or those with too much computer control via delicate engine management systems) should, I suggest, still think twice about going to this park as it is a hell of a long way to have a broken vehicle recovered all the way to Upington for repairs!

One does not want even a good 4x4 to be shaken to pieces even with softer partially deflated tyres so I hope there is still to be a regular gentle grade-off in winter when its very dry and in the wet season ( when it has rained) a heavier grade-on to the Mata Mata road? The interconnecting 4x4 tracks probably need very little maintenance but the wide major roads are taking a hammering these days!
Still one of Africa's most unusual and exciting parks... we were only in the park for a day yet we saw much plus Lions and three cheetah not far from each other in the vicinity Kij Kij and so many Kori Bustards last week! Fantastic! Back this coming September for a slightly longer visit!

To me, the dirt roads are part of the experience! Was in the park 2 weeks ago, roads was fine. KTP is doing a great job in maintenance of the roads. Deflate your tyres to 1.4 and it will be fine.

SJ

What's the state of the Nossob-Bitterpan-Mata Mata road? Going there in two weeks.

Hi Jannie

I haven't been following this and last time we were in KTP in October 2010 the TR Nossob road was still closed and it seemed never to be re-opened.

Does this mean the TR Nosssob road is now open? We are doing that trip next Friday

Correct the road is now open from Twee Rivieren all the way to Kij Kij

Must have been one of the first to try it. Went up to Nossob and the road still closed, when I came down again it was open, and what a pleasure to drive. Well done, guys!

Agreed! If the roads in Kgalagadi are tarred, it will spoil the experience totally. The corrugations are caused by lazy people who do not deflate their tyres. A lot of work is put into maintaining the roads in Kgalagadi. Be considerate by deflating tyres as soon as you enter the park.

Morning all,

The roads in the KTP might not be as smooth as the tar roads on the outside. We can assure you that KTP management is doing everything possible to keep the roads within the park as smooth as possible.

There are long term plans to resurface all the roads in the park, about 560Km of it. The financial implications for the whole park to re-surface the roads would be around R 65 million.

Currently the short term solution is that the roads (560Km) is graded once a month and the roads dragged every two weeks, depending on the state of the roads otherwise it will be once a week.

Once again we encourage the visitors to the park to please deflate their tyres and not to speed as these are all causes of the corrugation on the roads


Thanks

KG

Hi all. Its been a while since we've been to Kgalagadi and I have sort of lost track with this topic and the status of the roads.

Last time around, we still had to leave the Nossob at Samevloeiing already and then travel via the Auob to Nossob (using the upper dune road to get back to the Nossob side). Is my understanding of the previous posts correct that the entire Nossob road from Twee Rivieren all the way to Kij Kij is now finished? And then, once you get to Kij Kij, is the Nossob road further north still work in progress so that you must then get back to the Auob via the lower dune road, and then get back to the Nossob side via the upper dune road? Or can you go straight north from Kij Kij all the way to Nossob, staying on the Nossob side all the time?

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi Obelix

The whole Nossob road is open for traffic.........so you can drive straight from TR to Nossob......staying on the Nossob side all the time..........

The quick responses on the Forum always seems to amaze me.

Thanks a million lion queen.

thanks for the update JanWesOosBes
I loved the small road