Route planning from Kgalagadi / Kaaa Gate to CKGR Passarge Campsite

[Southerndreams]

I'm busy planning a trip to CKGR in March.
We come out of the Kgalagadi after a 40 nights stay, so we need to stock up for another 2 weeks at CKGR.

This is the timeline:

5.3. - Urikaruus - Kaa Gate
6.3. - Kaa Gate - Zutshwa Community CS
7.3. - Zutshwa -
8.3. - - Xade Gate
9.3. - Passarge Valley

Alternatively:

5.3. - Urikaruus - Kaa Gate
6.3. - Kaa Gate - Zutshwa Community CS
7.3. - Zutshwa - Ghanzi
8.3. - Ghanzi - Tsau Gate
9.3. - Passarge Valley

Because of Covid, we missed the Zutshwa campsite in March.
Also, it's a long drive from Uri to Kaa Gate, plus, there will be border procedures.
Taking this into consideration, I would rather stay 1 night at the Kaa gate campsite
and then 1 night at Zutshwa.

Now, that's the big question, where to stock up with food and diesel?
Where to stay (safely) overnight?
What Vet-fences to take into consideration?

Third option, probably the only feasible thanks to CoVID will be leaving the park at TR and use the nearest border where a Covid test is available.

TiA

[Mike N]

Only place you can do border procedures is at Twee Rivieren/Two Rivers.

[Southerndreams]

Only place you can do border procedures is at Twee Rivieren/Two Rivers.

I know. Been there many times.

But still, crossing into Botswana will take time, it's Africa 🤪

Weve got 4 nights at Urikaruus. Well drive to TR at one of these days.

[RossJ]

The only place for shopping is

Hukuntsi - Actually has a nice looking shopping centre with garage as you leave town going to kang

Never shopped there before but its "new" - a couple of years old at most - and looks nice

Hukuntsi is quite a "big" town as appears to be a town that supplies the surrounding farmers etc

Also never shopped in Kang but it would seem to have everything

Zutshwa to Hukuntsi is nice graded dirt road then to kang is good tar

Kaa to Zutshwa is a photographers dream with the flat brown grass and the thorn trees all eaten to a nice round flat bottom

Didnt know there was a campsite in Zutshwa but plenty opportunities before Zutshwa and you just pay your fees as you come into the village - well marked little hut with table outside to fill your forms in

[RobH]

Uri to Kaa is going to be an extremely long day. It’s at least 5-6 hours from Nossob (not towing). You can’t book at Kaa gate, but should not be an issue.

For shopping you should rather head to Ghanzi and come in via the Tsau gate. You’ll miss Piper Pans but it doesn’t look like you’re staying there first up, so again, not the end of the world.

[Southerndreams]

Uri to Kaa is going to be an extremely long day. It’s at least 5-6 hours from Nossob (not towing). You can’t book at Kaa gate, but should not be an issue.

For shopping you should rather head to Ghanzi and come in via the Tsau gate. You’ll miss Piper Pans but it doesn’t look like you’re staying there first up, so again, not the end of the world.

Thank yes we know, but we've done the route to KAA before and it's an easy going route. Thus t
He day at Zutshwa, to relax.

[Southerndreams]

The only place for shopping is

Hukuntsi - Actually has a nice looking shopping centre with garage as you leave town going to kang

Never shopped there before but its "new" - a couple of years old at most - and looks nice

Hukuntsi is quite a "big" town as appears to be a town that supplies the surrounding farmers etc

Also never shopped in Kang but it would seem to have everything

Zutshwa to Hukuntsi is nice graded dirt road then to kang is good tar

Kaa to Zutshwa is a photographers dream with the flat brown grass and the thorn trees all eaten to a nice round flat bottom

Didnt know there was a campsite in Zutshwa but plenty opportunities before Zutshwa and you just pay your fees as you come into the village - well marked little hut with table outside to fill your forms in

Thanks a lot for the info about Hukuntsi.
Yes there a community campsite at Zutshwa.
Was on our itinerary in March, but the pandemic stopped us.
But we went up to the KAA gate. Really lovely. The "nice" green grass almost ruined our engine and we decided not to drive to Swartpan. The sticky seeds glued our seed net to a complete 0 permeability in 30 minutes. You can't get rid of that stuff.

Needless to say, we've got a snorkel right now.

I just hope we'll be able to use the KAA borderpost .....

[ed rouillard]

We drove from Mabua to CKGR via Kang and using the cutline past Swartpan. Drive was great but remote but we had 2 vehicles and satelite phones. Did not see other folk at all.

Shopping at Kang was ok as well, but we did not need a full restock.

We understood that the West East route from Ghanzi, with deep sand, was awful and saw a few travellers in CKGR that had used it, all reporting same. The short link from the cutline and Xade was rugged and sandy in part and indicated a heavily used route the whole way, supporting the opinions.

The route we used was good, remote, had wild camp opportunities, game etc, and got us from Lesho in Mabua to Xade in one day as we had booking restraints. Did it in 2019, around April.

[Nambots]

I'm busy planning a trip to CKGR in March.
We come out of the Kgalagadi after a 40 nights stay, so we need to stock up for another 2 weeks at CKGR.

This is the timeline:

5.3. - Urikaruus - Kaa Gate
6.3. - Kaa Gate - Zutshwa Community CS
7.3. - Zutshwa -
8.3. - - Xade Gate
9.3. - Passarge Valley

Alternatively:

5.3. - Urikaruus - Kaa Gate
6.3. - Kaa Gate - Zutshwa Community CS
7.3. - Zutshwa - Ghanzi
8.3. - Ghanzi - Tsau Gate
9.3. - Passarge Valley

Because of Covid, we missed the Zutshwa campsite in March.
Also, it's a long drive from Uri to Kaa Gate, plus, there will be border procedures.
Taking this into consideration, I would rather stay 1 night at the Kaa gate campsite
and then 1 night at Zutshwa.

Now, that's the big question, where to stock up with food and diesel?
Where to stay (safely) overnight?
What Vet-fences to take into consideration?

Third option, probably the only feasible thanks to CoVID will be leaving the park at TR and use the nearest border where a Covid test is available.

TiA

I'm at early stage of planning something similar but instead of leaving KTP from Kaa I will leave from Mabua. I give credit to those saying that Hukuntsi and Kang are ok to stock up, but since I won't rush it before entering CKGR, on a first leg I'll leave the Mabua area and stop at the kalahari rest (couple of km after Kang), then a chilled drive in Ghanzi (overnight and stock up with plenty of time) and then enter Tsau gate and get CK-PAS03.
I've decided for the Tsau gate over the Xade gate becasue of road conditions reported and because I didn't want to waste a night in CKGR in Xade over the northern area (will get to pipers from passarge anywas and then move to deception (Kori).
No vetfences are on the way, the only one being right after the turn for Tsau gate so you won't have any issues. If you leave CKGR from the matswere gate you will have a vet fence some 50Km before Maun (assuming you are going to Maun), but driving northwards you are not checked for meat (at least I think so, I've been checked in the opposite direction going from Maun to Boteti river where no red meat was allowed but chicken).

[PAT n WOLF]

Your entrance options for CKGR will depends which area of the CKGR you are going. You only stated PASSAGE. And if you are visiting Passage, the is no need for using the Kang-Xade cutline. Just drive straight Zutswa-Ghanzi, an easy half day trip. Stock up in Ghanzi and use Tsau Entrance. Maybe if we could have your 2 week CKGR itinerary , maybe we could advise accordingly.

[RossJ]

Some thoughts and experience of your route / question

As you come out of KAA gate - 2 or 3 kilo's you get a 4 way stop

obviously no actual stop signs

straight means going to Zutshwa and I will deal with that now now

turn left and you have a much faster route to Zutshwa but with about 60 kilo's of the softest sand to be found in bots
then you get to a main dirt road to Zutshwa , after turning right , and this will be fast , like 60 kph easy - 4 hrs max

For some reason about 20 kilo's from Zutshwa some or other animal eats the road away - so it looks flat and the one half of the road is missing ?

then you come in from the northern side of the village

By going straight at the above mentioned 4 way

A) The stripes you WILL pick up from the bushes is to be taken into account

B) March is rainy month and the only pan that you cross thru the centre can be under water - albeitN only for a couple of hours from local rainfall - the actual track is below the surrounding pan and isnt a straight line

C)Near this pan is a "hill" that you can see the curvature of the earth looking westwards - amazing

D) i have seen herds of springbok and gnu's 150 plus -they seem to eat the earth for minerals ?

E) The bad soil in the area seems to make all the grass grow at the same rate - so late march it will be golden brown and looks like a carpet for as far as the eye can see

F) Please over pay the fees as per the schedule at Zutshwa - they do nothing nor provide anything to warrant these fees but that area is so fantastic that paying someone just for their views is enough for me

I gather you can see that this area means a lot to me - and it does

[Southerndreams]

Thanks everybody.
I just heard that the KAA and Mabua gates and the TR border post might be reopened in January.

I would REALLY love to do the KAA to CKGR route, Although it will require a lot of driving, we surely will need to drive to Upington for a Covid test, but let's see what happens in January.

♥️����

[Southerndreams]

Some thoughts and experience of your route / question

As you come out of KAA gate - 2 or 3 kilo's you get a 4 way stop

obviously no actual stop signs

straight means going to Zutshwa and I will deal with that now now

turn left and you have a much faster route to Zutshwa but with about 60 kilo's of the softest sand to be found in bots
then you get to a main dirt road to Zutshwa , after turning right , and this will be fast , like 60 kph easy - 4 hrs max

For some reason about 20 kilo's from Zutshwa some or other animal eats the road away - so it looks flat and the one half of the road is missing ?

then you come in from the northern side of the village

By going straight at the above mentioned 4 way

A) The stripes you WILL pick up from the bushes is to be taken into account

B) March is rainy month and the only pan that you cross thru the centre can be under water - albeitN only for a couple of hours from local rainfall - the actual track is below the surrounding pan and isnt a straight line

C)Near this pan is a "hill" that you can see the curvature of the earth looking westwards - amazing

D) i have seen herds of springbok and gnu's 150 plus -they seem to eat the earth for minerals ?

E) The bad soil in the area seems to make all the grass grow at the same rate - so late march it will be golden brown and looks like a carpet for as far as the eye can see

F) Please overpay the fees as per the schedule at Zutshwa - they do nothing nor provide anything to warrant these fees but that area is so fantastic that paying someone just for their views is enough for me

I gather you can see that this area means a lot to me - and it does

Thank you for your detailed description,
rethinking the trouble we had last March with the fresh high sticky grass that almost ruined our vehicle
and the only pan to cross possibly being underwater, we decided to give the KAA exit again a miss.
But we still didn't make our way to Swartpan and I am sure we'll do that and Zutshwa at another time.

Our itinerary is
9, 10 + 11 March 2021 Passarge Valley Campsite
12, 13, 14, 15 + 16 March 2021 Sunday Pan Campsite
17, 18, 19 + 20 March 2021 Deception Valley Campsite

T4A suggests Bokspits border post (for now, I am guessing that the Covid Test done in Askham will be sufficient to enter Botswana).

We have this dates:
6.3. Urikaruus
7.3.
8.3.
9.3. Passarge

Where to stay overnight between Bokspits and Passarge?

Where is the last fuel stop before entering Tsau Gate?

Any vet checks in between?

TiA

[Nambots]

We have this dates:
6.3. Urikaruus
7.3.
8.3.
9.3. Passarge

Where to stay overnight between Bokspits and Passarge?

Where is the last fuel stop before entering Tsau Gate?

Any vet checks in between?

TiA[/QUOTE]


Having two nights I'd say Ghanzi the 8.3. As for the 7.3 I guess somewhre in between like Sekoma? But to be honest it's not an area I know so can't really advice.

Allow yourself enough time in Ghanzi to re-supply so rather make the 7.3 leg longer than that on the 8.3 to Ghanzi, try to get in Ghanzi at early noon if not even before.

The vet fence is right a 100m after the turn right to Tsau gate so you won't be checked. Last fuel station would be Ghanzi. Make sure to have plenty of fuel and water.

[Kalahari Safari]

The border at Twee Rivieren and access to Mabua are open as from 15 Dec.
So are the borders East to Tshabong.
So this part should not pose an issue anymore.

[trooper]

The border at Twee Rivieren and access to Mabua are open as from 15 Dec.
So are the borders East to Tshabong.
So this part should not pose an issue anymore.

Thanks Walter.
If you only stay in the KTP (e.g. Rooiputs Polentswa and Sanparks camps - with no border crossing reqirement to Botswana) Is there a COVID test requirement? And what are the check-in procedures at Twee Rivieren?
Any one done this recently?