Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Got a trip planned in two weeks to Kgalagadi

2 nights at twee, mata and nossob then one at twee again. Any must see places / routes to do? Most my trips have to be planned 1 to 2 weeks notice.

From there we will be staying at Witsand for 3 nights.

2 vehicles one trailer. As we plan on leaving a tuesday night at 22h00. Drive through night so kids can sleep. We come back following Saturday.

Is it safe for above camps to have toddlers and ground tent?

Safe for toddlers? on their own ?? NO WAYS !!!

Serious: Keep them within arms reach at all times . Evenings - INSIDE a closed tent. Haeina / Leopard / Lion & Baboon are opportunistic
IF they must be with you then sit them with back against the vehicle - facing the light and the night beyound.

Also -- it is pufadder country - and they camo very well. Their safety will depend on your alertness -- again NEVER leave them alone - and keep your tents CLOSED at all times ..[at least the gauze section] slange hou van skaduwee.

this is NOT a mole snake -- Bushman call it "Spitsneus" - but he is very poisenous [on par with Boomslang]

Thanks oom, I was under the impression that the camps above were fenced in?

Hi Roy

Those two camps are fenced, but not snake free.
At Nossob, during the Spring, I was told it is a daily activity for the camp staff to remove the poffies from around the chalets.
But in the coming months, until August, it is much less likely to come across these.
We have only been there in Autumn and Winter.
I would still not make them walk around unattended though.

With regard to the big and hairy creatures, if not at the fenced camps, these are still a risk at the picnic sites.

The SA public campsites are all fenced. The picnic sites, and all the Botswana campsites are un-fenced. Some of the "bush camps" are unfenced, but children are not allowed there. The camps you mention are all fenced camps.

In my opinion, the biggest risk are not lions or snakes, but scorpions.

But following a few simple rules, I firmly believe it is safer taking them there than staying at home. Keep your eyes peeled, never let them out of your sight and never let them go barefoot. Ideally get them into closed tents before dark, particularly if you are in an unfenced camp.

One more piece of advice: take your longest lens. If that lens is not at least 400mm long, then hire one...

" I was told it is a daily activity for the camp staff to remove the poffies from around the chalets."...... Is that the "poffies from the campers seeing wild things in the dark.... or from the wild things delivering a message that this is what will become of you if you aren't careful.........

Thanks for the responses! The other party joining are NOT used to big 5, wild camping or critters ;). We're are hoping they'll be hooked, mainly my bros wife as she's been the main um obstacle / decider .

What type of consumption can I expect. I'll be towing our offroad trailer @ 110 based on this weekend consumption where I got 6.8km/l over 500km round trip - without trailer though.

With regards to snakes, just came from my BIL's lodge (they manage it). Removed 3 snakes in one day from guest rooms. Cobra and 2 puffs. Then maid was in personal shower and drain grill was removed...a bliksem cobra came up while she was starkers!!! but that was without said BRO coming with to Kgala.

Any comments on leaving at 10pm the night before? I remember last time travelling through NC I almost hit a duiker. But I suspect it will be light by then...?

We plan to have prepared meals for the kids as when we get back it could be late and dark. Using my BIL's experience at their lodge I don't trust the fence after dark. They've had many issues with Lions and Leopards after dark despite an electric fence installed after the lions tried to get at my sisters newborn the one night, ripping the doors and heavy breathing the windows.

The most recent one my sister said they had all the other rangers kids playing in the "front" yard meters away from the parents having a braai. It was around 8, they called the kids in and not a minute later a lioness walked by. So yea fence is a false sense of security.

We went for my nieces birthday party and had to call the kids in when the roosting monkeys gave warning calls. We jumped in the cruiser to check, my BIL said if we can't find the reason it's a leopard otherwise we'll find Lions. We saw nothing.

Man I LOVE Africa. I SO can't wait for Kgalagadi just so much last minute prepping.

The camp gates have set opening and closing times that correspond approximately to sunup and sundown, thus you can't really be out late. Also, it takes a lot longer than we Gauties are used to to get dark. Still not a bad idea though.

We drove over Van Zylsrus, and I would recommend that. It's 180km of dirt road, but the road is good and we easily cruised at 80-100km/h, and it cuts around 180km of the journey. There is some roadworks the first 30-40km out of Kuruman though.

We were there in December for 10 days, and saw not one single snake. IMO, snakes are less prevalent than in the waterberg.

We left Roodepoort at 04h00, and arrived in time despite a very long (3 hour) stop in Kuruman. Some years ago I had a bad prang in which I broke both my legs and a buddy passed away due to driving quitish roads at night, and nowadays I prefer to avoid that risk.