Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the Kalahari regions

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The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, is located in the Kalahari regions of both Botswana and South Africa and came into being as the official merger of the Gemsbok National Park in Botswana and the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in South Africa.

The park offers a majestic and infinite desert landscape with migrating herds of wildebeest, gemsbok, springbok and eland, cunning predators like lion, cheetah and leopard and unending red dunes with unique flora and a diversity of epic proportions is what draws the visitor to this ancient land of the Kalahari Desert.

The Kgalagadi tribes-people with the local Khoe-inhabitants of the desert were the first humans to inhabit this desolate desert habitat. Although they were nomadic, the name stayed. The name Kalahari was derived from the Kgalagadi word Makgadikgadi, meaning great thirstland or saltpans.

The first Afrikaans/Dutch speaking settlers in the area came to trade with the people living in the Kalahari. The Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in South Africa was established in 1931 and the Gemsbok National Park in Botswana was established in 1938. These parks shared a common border.

The total land area of the park is in the order of 38 000 square km, with 28 400 square km of the park located in Botswana and the rest in South Africa. The Kalahari is a semi-arid wilderness with bright red sand dunes and covers most of Botswana and reaches into Namibia, South Africa and other African countries as well. The landscape typically consists of saltpans, open plains to flat bushveld which becomes more dense towards the south. It is a huge area of unspoilt desert and bushveld with small vegetation-covered red dunes, grasslands, scrub bush and woodlands. The Kgalagadi's pans and rivers are bordered by high dunes. The pans fill up with water during the rainy season and contain nutrient-rich soils, and salts. The name Kgalagadi means the great thirst in Tswana.

Photographs on the official Michel Piccaya website:
http://watchtheworld.net

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