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Hi Winky and welcome to the Forum! This argument interests me too as we are your age and are going to do the same thing next year

Hi Winky & Micetta

We have used that road about 6 times over the years in sedans and bakkies. The condition varies from trip to trip depending on when it was last graded. We broke 2 tyres on one trip

Although it is shorter than going via Upington you don't save much time because of having to drive much slower than on the tarred road. On balance imho via Upington is a lot less stressful on both you and your car.

You have convinced me! we are going via Upington, actually we will probably fly to Upington as we have to rent a car anyway

Nice to see I am not the only 'grey hair' on the forum.

I still camp, and age in in the mind. We took my dad, then 80 camping to Bontebok and he loved it. He also paddled 4 hours on the Orange river that year.

Go for it! just don't forget your zimmer frame

Hi winky

We have only ever used the Upington tar road but I believe you can phone the Van Zyl's Rus hotel and enquire about the status of the dirt road.

PS my folks are also 60-somethings-heading-for-70-somethings and will be hitting KTP again in Sept and thinking of doing the Van Zylsrus road too

We did it once in January 2 years ago, so I don't know if the road is in the same state now!
We did it with a Nissan X-trail but crossed many "normal" cars. To me you can do it without major problems, except maybe if it rains a lot. It's a very beautiful road, but I find the landscape along the road via Upington more beautiful (Witsand area with the mountains )... I also love the kind of 'through desert all straight" road between Upington and the park, even though it's a bit boring after some time...

Also try contacting the police station…we normally phone them.
This is our preferred route …lovely scenery…never had damage to our vehicle.
When will you be travelling? We are going to make use of the road end of October….will report back on the road condition when we return in November.

Hey everyone,

only 4 weeks to our first trip to KTP.

our only concern is the long drive from Jo'burg airport.
We are landing early in the morning and planning on staying the first night in upington.
Is it possible to drive all the way in 1 day to upington? How much travel time should we include in our plans?
Or should we include another overnight stop in between?

Thank you for your help

Hello bradyxx,

It is possible to drive to Upington from JHB airport in a day. It is about 900km. We drive all the way from Pretoria to Twee Rivieren (1100km) in a day. It is really upto you on how much driving you want to do in a day.

To Upington will take about 10 hours including 2 stops to refresh and stretch legs.

Hi bradyxx,

We drove to Upington from Jhb the other day in 9 hours which included MANY stops, so for sure you'll be able to make it in one day.

which route did you go from Jhb and conditions of roads( silly question)?

We went all the way on the N14: Jhb - Ventersdorp - Coligny - Sannieshof - Delareyville - Vryburg - Kuruman - Upington. Not the best of roads, but no issues to worry about with any vehicle. All good tar roads.

Hi brady xx and Welcome!

Why not FLY to Upington? If you are coming into Joburg from Europe or the USA, you will be very tired and jetlagged after that long flight and to undertake a lengthy drive on top of that is IMO unwise. Rather look into booking the SAA Airlink flight to Upington, rent your car from there and have a good night's sleep in Upington before heading to KTP.

has anyone done the JHB to Van Zylsrus route lately? I would like to go via Van Zylsrus so I can see the meerkats from Meerkat Manor but because the roads are gravel it sounds like a longer route (according to Google Maps).

I've also toyed with the idea of flying to Upington from JHB and then driving to Van Zylsrus "on the way" to the KTP

Not the answer you're looking for, but have you checked with the Meerkat place if you can visit? I asked them a couple of months ago if it was possible to visit them specifically for photography and this was the reply I received:

I'm not sure of this applies to visitors who don't want to take pictures though.