Best ever visit to this wonderful place of red dunes and its wonderful denizens!
Wildlife - saw nearly everything including a cheetah chase/kill and nearly every day cheetahs for the 1st 8 days. Brown Hyena and Honey Badget accommodating for good images.Birding was great with good in flight photography opportunities. Had a bit of rain - bagged Lanner Falcon and Gabar Goshawk bathing in the road. Cheetahs drank in the road after the kill. Magical photography opportunities. I love the scenery, the landscape, the place - but then I am born in Africa and was raised in this type of dry, hot, beautiful country.
The accommodation in the three main camps are great to adequate - Twee Rivieren, Nossob and MataMata. The best is Twee Rivieren. Some of the Nossob accommodation is hot and cramped but it is still better than camping. There are also the wilderness camps, quite a few and some really remote that have a bit more luxury and is normally small but well kept and maintained. Be warned, it is hot and the gas fridges cannot always cope fresh food may go off quickly.
Summer can get >45ºC in the afternoons and winder is below zero at night. But the place makes up for this with its wonderful wildlife and photographic opportunities. There is an adequate shop at Twee Rivieren selling the basics. Be aware the park is 250 km form Uppington, the largest town in the area and one should come prepared and stocked-up with what you need. Take your own water as the water in the camp tastes funny to horrible, depending on your palate. It is clean and potable, it just does not tastes nice. Roads needs to be taken with patience as it is very corrugated. They pull a tyre grader behind a tractor on a regular basis but rather come in a 2X4 and not a normal sedan vehicle. Long stretches of the road, especially between Melkvlei and Nossob, runs in a deep rut which makes it nearly impossible to see anything adjacent to the road. We never make use of guides because we are citizens and do our own driving. Please note the following about open vehicle driving - it is charming, but it is dusty and can get quite cold. You cannot necessarily stop as long as you want at what you want to, especially if you do photography. The dust is a real problem - do not try to changes lenses!
Al this said, we always have a great time. This is the place to see the Cape Fox, the Bat-eared fox, honey badger and brown hyena. Cheetah and lion is nearly a guarantee and this is one of THE places where you may see a cheetah kill. We have seen two cheetah chases ending in a kill and numerous cheetahs at a kill. Then Kalahari lions are THE king of the lions with their black manes and large feet. There are also resident raptors and other birds that are more readily approachable if you do photography than what you will encounter elsewhere in SA. Overall. as we say : I f once the red sand of the Kalahari got into your socks, your will always want to come back. This is one of the best safari destinations in the world!