Our 2027 African safari will be our 28th trip to Africa, and believe it or not, these adventures just keep getting better! Over the years, our safaris have taken us to nine different African countries and numerous parks within them. We're always looking for the next great wildlife destination, and in 2015, we discovered the Kalahari.
We spent just seven days in the Kalahari on that first visit, but we were hooked! The Kalahari region stretches across several southern African countries, and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park itself spans South Africa and Botswana. Unfortunately, the park is extremely popular, and accommodations that don't require camping are limited.
Over the years, we've gradually learned a few tricks for securing reservations. On our 2026 safari, we managed to spend more than seven weeks in the Kalahari, resulting in some fantastic wildlife sightings. For 2027, we're planning our 12th Kalahari safari, hoping for even more memorable encounters!
We didn't discover Safari Car Rental until 2020. After years of renting from another company, we had no idea how much better the experience could be. We're now repeat customers for the seventh time, and they have consistently been wonderful to work with. Whenever we arrive at the airport, a representative meets us and takes us on the short drive to their rental location, just a few miles closer to Windhoek.
So, how did we find them? In 2020, after our ninth rental with another company, we decided it was time for a change. We figured that being repeat customers might earn us a newer truck. Believe it or not, the bumper fell off the truck we were assigned! We actually had to buy rope to tie it back on. That was the last straw, and our first experience with Safari Car Rental was so good that we've returned again and again. Seven rentals later, we're still happy customers!
Day 1=>We depart San Francisco on British Airways for an overnight red-eye flight to London's Heathrow Airport.
Over the years, we've flown several airlines to and from Africa, including United, KLM, Qatar, South African Airways, and British Airways (BA). Our favorite is BA, largely because of the way its staff treat their passengers. The other airlines haven't been bad, but BA has been the most consistently good in our experience.
The BA staff are friendly and genuinely seem to want passengers to enjoy their flights. They do what they can to make that happen. And here's another little detail we appreciate: they don't have noisy parties at the back of the plane while we're trying to sleep!
Unfortunately, COVID-related complications kept us from flying BA for several years. When we were finally able to return, we were delighted to find that its quality of service hadn't changed.
Day 2=>We arrive at Heathrow on the morning of Day 2 and have a multi-hour layover before boarding another overnight, nonstop flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.
Heathrow has been a comfortable airport for us when a long layover is unavoidable. We've also learned that some aircraft offer better seating and storage space than others. For example, we particularly like the upstairs cabin on the Airbus A380. Whenever we have a choice of flights on different aircraft, we'll often adjust our plans to fly on an A380-even if it means a longer layover.
When you're facing your second overnight flight in two days, comfort becomes priority number one!
Day 3=>We arrive in Johannesburg early on Day 3. After a short layover, we board our third and final flight, this time with Airlink, to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.
After traveling for the better part of three days, our plan is simple: relax for the rest of the day at Etango Ranch Guest Farm. This popular, owner-managed, three-star guesthouse is just five minutes from Windhoek's Hosea Kutako International Airport (WDH), making it a convenient first-night stop for self-drive safari travelers.
The rooms are spacious and air-conditioned, and the guest farm offers highly rated home-cooked breakfasts and dinners. They also provide airport shuttle service, which is perfect for us after all those flights. Tonight, we'll settle in, enjoy a good meal, and try to get our body clocks back on African time!
Day 4=>Our African safaris usually fall into three segments: the days before the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, our time inside the park, and the days after we leave the park.
The route map to the right shows the first portion of our journey, including the lodges we'll visit before entering the park. The red dot and dotted line identify the lodges in the middle segment of our trip, inside the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
After breakfast, a Safari Car Rental representative will pick us up and take us to collect our truck. Once the rental paperwork is complete, we'll head south on the C23, a shortcut along gravel roads to Jansen Kalahari Guest Farm, marked on our route map.
The chalets are spacious, with air conditioning and a large refrigerator. We've stayed here before, and the meals have always been excellent. We deliberately keep this first driving day short because jet lag can take more than a week to shake off. There's no point in starting a long safari exhausted!
Day 5=>We need to leave Jensen's shortly after breakfast because today's drive is longer than yesterday's. As you can see on our route map, our next stop, Kitchen-51, is considerably farther away. But we have an important shopping stop along the way!
Mariental, marked by the two dots on the route map just south of Jensen's, is home to one of our favorite butcher shops, Ry & Kry Butchery. We learned years ago that their meat simply can't be beat! Before we arrive, we email them our order, and they have everything prepared in advance, neatly packaged in vacuum-sealed plastic bags and frozen. They accept credit cards, so picking up our order is quick and easy. By this point in the trip, our truck's freezer should be cold enough to keep everything frozen.
At Kitchen-51, we like to request a chalet overlooking the citrus orchard. It's a fabulous place to stop, relax, and recharge before continuing south.
Days 6-9=>Once again, we'll leave shortly after breakfast, this time for another long driving day. Our route map shows us turning east not long after leaving Kitchen-51.
One uncertainty is how long our border crossing into South Africa will take. During COVID, the delays were so bad that crossing could take hours. We're hoping for a much smoother experience this time!
From the border, it's less than 90 minutes to Upington, a town of roughly 67,000 people with a surprisingly modern shopping mall. And that mall is important to us! We need to stock up on provisions for our upcoming 37 days in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, where we'll be preparing all our own meals.
Our home base in Upington is always River Place Manor, marked on our route map and less than a mile from the Kalahari Mall. The lodge sits right on the Orange River, in a region also known for its wine. The local winery formerly known as Orange River Winery is now called Hedgehog Winery.
One of our favorite dinner options is to pick up food at the mall and enjoy it on our deck overlooking the Orange River. After a long day on the road, that's a pretty nice way to end the day!
In previous years, we've allowed ourselves three nights at River Place Manor to buy and organize everything we'll need for our extended stay in the park. However, in 2027, our first two days in Upington fall on a weekend-not ideal when you're trying to buy provisions for 37 days! So we've added a fourth night. That's hardly a hardship, though. River Place Manor is a lovely place to spend a little extra time.
Days 10-46=>The next 37 days will be spent exploring the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. On our route map, the park entrance is marked by the last large white dot on the blue line, and our route continues to the red marker.Most of the park's accommodations are operated by South African National Parks. Don't expect fancy resorts: the facilities are generally basic, but they provide the essentials, including a bathroom and shower. In the Kgalagadi, location is everything-and the camps are so popular that securing reservations is one of the biggest challenges of planning our entire trip.
The reward? The Kgalagadi is a spectacular place to look for predators, including cheetahs, leopards, and the park's magnificent black-maned lions. Of course, wildlife sightings are never guaranteed, which is part of what makes every drive exciting.
One thing that makes the experience especially memorable is that many of the camps are unfenced. Wildlife can move freely through the park, so accommodations are designed with that in mind, often using raised structures or fencing around individual units.
During our 37 days in the park, we'll stay at several camps, each offering its own setting and opportunities to enjoy the wildlife. We'll describe those stops in more detail below. We can't wait to see what the Kgalagadi has in store for us this time!
Days 10-14=>Our first stop inside the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is Twee Rivieren Rest Camp, the park's largest camp, located at the southern entrance. Twee Rivieren also serves as the park's administrative headquarters and offers amenities you won't find at any of the smaller camps, including a store, restaurant, swimming pool, and fuel station.
The camp is located where the dry Nossob and Auob riverbeds meet. It's an excellent starting point for our 37-day adventure, with plenty of game-driving options in both directions. We also use our first few days here to get our bearings and find out where the wildlife action is taking place. In the Kgalagadi, knowing where the animals have been seen recently can make a big difference in deciding which direction to drive!
Days 15-20=>Next up is another of our favorite camps, Urikaruus Wilderness Camp. This year, we managed to reserve the honeymoon chalet. No, we're not celebrating another honeymoon-we just thought it would be fun to try it!
Urikaruus is situated in the central Auob River basin and has only five chalets, giving it a wonderfully intimate feel. One of its biggest attractions is the waterhole, which is reserved for the enjoyment of Urikaruus guests. That means we can watch for passing wildlife right at camp without having to jump into the truck every time something interesting appears.
The camp is also in a productive wildlife area, making it a great base for our daily game drives. We're looking forward to seeing what turns up at the waterhole this time!
Days 21-26=>Now we're heading to our favorite camp in the park: Kieliekrankie Wilderness Camp. If you could see the views from these cabins, you'd understand why we keep coming back!
Kieliekrankie is a small, self-catering wilderness camp perched on top of the red sand dunes, with sweeping views across the Kgalagadi landscape. There are just five dune cabins, so it's a wonderfully peaceful place to spend several days.
Each cabin has two single beds, a bathroom, and a kitchen equipped with a gas refrigerator and freezer. Solar power provides lighting, gas heats the water, and the deck has barbecue facilities. The accommodations are comfortable but uncomplicated-just the way we like them when we're surrounded by the African wilderness.
And those views! We can enjoy the changing colors of the red dunes, keep an eye out for wildlife, and relax on our deck after a day of game driving. Six days here sounds pretty good to us!
Days 27-28=>It's time to move north into the Nossob River basin and one of the hardest camps to book: Grootkolk Wilderness Camp. With only four desert cabins, reservations are in high demand.
The cabins are built from canvas and sandbags, and this camp is neither fenced nor raised. In other words, the wildlife can wander right through the camp! Lions are known to visit, and the claw marks in the sandbags are a rather memorable reminder that we're sharing their territory.
This is one of those places where you need to remain aware of your surroundings and follow the camp's safety rules. It certainly adds a little extra excitement to the experience! We're delighted to have secured two nights here, and we'll be keeping our eyes open-not just while we're out game driving, but around camp as well.
Days 29-30=>Our next stop, still in the Nossob River basin, is Nossob Rest Camp. We enjoy returning here because the River Chalets are particularly comfortable, with air conditioning, a well-equipped kitchen, and a deck that's perfect for watching for animals.
After our stay at Grootkolk, this will be a welcome opportunity to relax and recharge before heading back south into the Auob River basin. The game drives can involve long hours of searching, so a comfortable place to rest between outings is always appreciated.
Of course, we'll still be watching for wildlife from our deck. In the Kgalagadi, you never really know when something interesting might wander by!
Days 31-36=>We're returning to our favorite, Kieliekrankie Wilderness Camp, for another six nights in the Auob River basin.
We were here only a few days ago, so we'll have a head start on deciding where to drive. We'll know which waterholes have been productive and where the latest sightings have been reported. But the Kgalagadi has a way of keeping you guessing. The animals move around, conditions change, and yesterday's hot spot may be quiet today.
That's part of the fun. We can revisit promising locations, explore other routes, and enjoy those wonderful dune views from our deck. And because this is our favorite camp, we're certainly not complaining about getting another six nights here!
Days 37-42=>Next, we're returning to Urikaruus Wilderness Camp. By now, several days will have passed since our previous visit, giving the wildlife plenty of time to change its routine and move to different areas.
We'll keep an eye on the Urikaruus waterhole, but we'll also explore farther north if recent sightings make that worthwhile. Perhaps we'll find something exciting right at camp; perhaps the best action will be out on the road.
That's one of the reasons we enjoy spending so much time in the Kgalagadi. Every visit is different, and even familiar places can deliver unexpected surprises. We never know what the next drive-or even the next hour-will bring!
Days 43-46=>Our 37-day stay in the Kgalagadi is coming to an end, and we're returning to where it all began: Twee Rivieren Rest Camp, at the park's southern entrance.
After so many days of preparing our own meals, it will be nice to have the option of eating at the camp restaurant. We may decide to take a break from self-catering for a meal or two and let someone else do the cooking!
These final days also give us another chance to explore the southern part of the park before we head back into Namibia. We'll make the most of our remaining game drives, hoping for a few more memorable sightings before saying goodbye to the Kgalagadi-for now, at least!
Days 47-48=>After 37 days in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, we'll exit through the Mata-Mata gate and cross back into Namibia.
This route map shows the final stretch of our safari. The blue line begins inside the park, in the bottom-right corner of the map, and continues to point "A," our next lodge.
As you can see, our next stop is just a short distance beyond the border. That gives us some flexibility on our final day in the park. If we come across some fantastic wildlife sightings, we won't have to rush past them just to reach our next destination!
Our destination is Kalahari Game Lodge. We first stayed here in 2026 and enjoyed it so much that we've decided to return for two nights in 2027. After nearly six weeks in the Kgalagadi, it will be interesting to see how this lodge compares with the camps we've just left. We're looking forward to a change of scenery, a little relaxation, and, of course, more opportunities to enjoy the wildlife!
Day 49=>Our next stop is Flying Ostrich Guesthouse, marked "B" on the map. This is a longer driving day and marks the end of our northly route. This will be a new lodge for us. A highly rated farm-style lodge with rooms featuring a/c, patios, WiFi, pool, frig and more. This lodge like the last offers meals so not a self-cartering destination.
A couple of our remaining lodges are self-catering, so we'll need to stock up on groceries. Fortunately, Mariental (M on map) is just a short distance from this lodge, making it a convenient place to shop before our self-catering lodges.
Days 50-52=>Our next stop, marked "C" on the map, is a place we love so much that this will be our fourth consecutive year staying here!
The villas at Kronenhof Lodge are fabulous. The villa compound is about a mile from the main lodge, fully fenced, and offers wonderful views. There's even a garage for our truck, along with four chalets like the one pictured here.
The shared common room is equally impressive, with a huge, fully equipped kitchen, a round dining table that seats ten, and eight leather recliners. Outside, a covered entertainment area features a splash pool, a braai (barbecue), and a full-size pizza oven.
With all those amenities, we may have to remind ourselves that we're supposed to be out exploring Namibia!
Day 53-54=>Our next stop, marked "D" on the map, is We Kebi Safari Lodge, a favorite we visited on our 2022 and 2023 trips.
Each freestanding, luxury chalet has an en-suite bathroom, its own pavilion, and a spectacular 180-degree view of the surrounding landscape. The lodge is in the NamibRand region, a remarkable area of Namibia known for its vast desert landscapes and varied ecosystems.
We also have a memorable reason for returning. In 2023, we were relaxing in the chairs outside our chalet when Timothy, one of the resident rhinos, decided he rather liked the bright colors of our chairs. Unfortunately, he was a little too interested for our comfort!
We promptly retreated inside our chalet and watched until Timothy lost interest and moved along with the rest of the rhino herd. It was certainly an encounter we won't forget-and one we're happy to enjoy from a slightly safer distance next time!
Day 55=>Our next destination, marked "E" on the map, is the Elegant Desert Camp, new stop for us.
Located in a secluded part of the southern Namib Desert, the camp is surrounded by the Tsaris Mountains and the vast gravel plains of the world's oldest desert.
The camp features ten freestanding, comfortably furnished safari tents, each with its own en-suite bathroom. Carefully positioned among natural rock formations, the tents offer privacy and uninterrupted views of the surrounding mountains and desert plains. Each also has a private wooden deck-just the spot to sit back and enjoy the ever-changing colors and light of the desert.
Sounds like a pretty good place to slow down and soak up the scenery!
Day 56=>Our next stop, marked "F" on the map, is a return visit of sorts: Rostock Ritz Lodge.
We stayed here in 2024 and loved the food and pool area, but the rooms were little hot boxes! Without cross-ventilation, they seemed to get hotter and hotter throughout the day. The decks were so small that squeezing two chairs onto them was a challenge.
As a result, we spent quite a bit of time at the pool-which is one of the best in Namibia-and enjoyed a fabulous lunch delivered right to us poolside. So, despite the room situation, it wasn't exactly a hardship!
The exciting news is that the chalets pictured here are all new! The new accommodations feature air conditioning, Wi-Fi, a safe, a custom minibar, and a fully stocked coffee and tea station.
After our experience last time, we're especially looking forward to seeing these improvements for ourselves. This return visit should be a whole lot more comfortable!
Days 57-58=>Our final stop before Windhoek, marked "G" on the map, is Barkhan Rustic Cabins.
You'll notice that we backtrack a little on the map, but this puts us on a shorter route toward Windhoek.
These unique, self-catering cabins are nestled among large boulders, blending into the surrounding rocky landscape. Built into the rocks, they offer spacious interiors and wonderful mountain views while combining a rustic setting with comfort, privacy, and a chance to enjoy nature up close.
After so many weeks on the road, this looks like a lovely place to relax and enjoy the scenery before heading back to civilization!
Day 59=>Our final lodge is Trans Kalahari Inn, located just outside Windhoek to the east, marked "H" on the map.
Its location on the B6, east of Windhoek, is especially convenient: it's only about 2 km from the Safari Car Rental return lot. Even better, the inn serves a great rib dinner!
After nearly two months of travel, we'll appreciate an easy final evening, a good meal, and a convenient location for returning the truck the next morning.
Day 60=>After breakfast and checkout, we'll make the short drive to Safari Car Rental, where they'll shuttle us to the airport for our flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.We'll have a few hours in Johannesburg before boarding our overnight flight to London. The safari may be over, but we still have a little more traveling ahead of us!
Day 61=>We'll arrive at London Heathrow early in the morning, with a few hours to spare before boarding our final flight back to San Francisco.We expect to arrive in San Francisco later that same day, bringing what we hope will be another GREAT Namibian safari to a close-and our 17th Namibian holiday!
Sixty-one days, nine African countries, countless miles, and hopefully lots of wonderful wildlife memories. We can't wait to get started!