During a holiday in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park during August this year, Verity Kriegler was fortunate enough to watch three cheetahs, a mom and two sub adults, stalk springbok and eventually pounce on a newborn. It was also amazing to witness a gemsbok chasing the cheetahs, as if defending the baby springbok.

In Travels in the Kalahari, Roxanne Reid recounts her many adventures in this thirstland. She's been going to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park for over 25 years and has slept under the stars, tracked cheetah and even seen lions mate! Read this extract from the e-book, where Roxanne writes about the elusive Kalahari truffle.

Roxanne Reid has visited the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park more than 20 times over the years, returning again and again to get her soul fix. In this book she recalls the encounters and moments that captured her heart.

Writer Roxanne Reid has been visiting the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park for the past 25 years. She has been at all times of the year and has experienced epic thunderstorms, fields of wildflowers, scorching heat and bone-chilling cold. She has walked with a Bushman, explored the dunes with a meerkat and tracked cheetah with researchers. Her new book, Travels in the Kalahari, paints a vivid picture of a park that should be on everyone’s bucket list.


 

On a visit to the Kgalagadi you hope to see lions. Annette and Jörn Drogi were lucky enough to see a pride of youngsters on a kill.

In recent months over 3000 eland have moved from the Botswana side of the park to the South African side, and these chaps are thirsty! This explains the empty waterholes and troughs that have upset tourists. By Micho Ferreira, Section Ranger: Twee Rivieren, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, 24th October 2012.

Although raptors are the trademark of Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, there’s little fowl aplenty. From your base at Urikaruus, you’re perfectly placed for twitching at 13th Borehole. By Carin Malan

When a lioness encountered a stray donkey in the Kalahari Gemsbok Park [now the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park], it got a lot more than it bargained for. This article by Clem Haagner originally appeared in Custos magazine vol 11 no 7 (October 1982) as "Never turn your back on a lion". The full set of Custos magazines has been collected onto DVD by the Honorary Rangers.

Clem Haagner witnessed an encounter between a stray donkey and a lioness in the Kalahari. When the donkey caught scent of the big cat, it whirled around to face the predator. Clem describes what happened next. This article originally appeared in Custos magazine.

Ken and Jen Munro from Port Elizabeth recently returned from their sixth visit to the beautiful Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. They say that this was by far their best ever visit…

On his first night in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Rob Dickie from Cape Town nearly had to share his braai with a lion and two lionesses.

The trip began some months ago when I was offered the opportunity to visit the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, one of South Africa and Botswana’s gorgeous national parks.

Anton Vogt visited the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in early March. He saw  a lot more than he had bargained for, including a cheetah and springbok chase…

Valmai le Grange watched this jackal as it scavenged for insects on the road ahead of her. "He then suddenly hastened toward what we thought was a centipede but turned out to be an exhausted puff adder!"
 

Elaine Kruer was able to watch a mother carefully move her cubs to their den. The process was very special and a reminder of how gentle nature can be. "When her grip began to slip, rather than tighten her grasp, she would lay them down and use her paws to reposition them ever so carefully," says Elaine.

The coals from our braai fire glowed red in the darkening evening light and there was not a sound to be heard except the sizzle of meat grilling over the coals and the occasional crack and hiss as another can of beer was opened. By Mike Dalton

Karin Schermbrucker has visited the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Agulhas National Park, Tankwa Karoo National Park and more recently the Kruger National Park were she captured the magnificent photos that make up the feature on women rangers in the Winter 2010 issue of WILD. Kate Collins chats to Karin about her photography and work for WILD. Watch their video below.

After locating the mother leopard and her two cubs in the Kgalagadi between Twee Rivieren and Rooiputs the previous day, we arrived just in time the next morning to witness this playful and loving encounter between mother and kids. After their banter, they decided to move in the direction of Houmoed not to be seen again during our fourteen-day stay. To us this was a precious and rare moment, a gift of nature and a reminder of our shared habits! 

We’re not the sort who have eyes for nothing but the Big Five; in fact, we take more pleasure in tiny agamas, whistling rats and unobtrusive owls. But it’s hard to resist the allure of lions when they lay on a smorgasbord of brilliant sightings like we’ve had in the Kgalagadi over the past few days.

We’ve been coming to the Kalahari since I was in my twenties and we’ve fallen in love with it over and over again. The locals say that once you get Kalahari sand in your shoes you’re destined to come back, and that’s been true for us.

In April 2009 I noticed that there were smart new drinking water taps at the sinks of all the chalets in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park’s tourist camps. But at that point they were just for show. Well, things move slowly in a desert where a few thousand years isn’t really a long time, so I wasn’t expecting too much too quickly.

Rebecca Axcell is 29 years old, has a business degree and a string of work experience under her belt, not least a five-year stint in a high-pressure marketing agency in Bath, England. So what is she doing in a desert in the middle of the back of beyond?

With happy memories of our previous journeys to the wilderness camp at Bitterpan in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, we set out again across the Kalahari dunes on the 4x4 track from Nossob camp.

You expect a bit of violence and mayhem in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

It's been two absolutely killer days in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

The 4x4 trails in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park will put your wild side to the test…