Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
!Xaus, meaning ‘heart’ in the Nama language, was established in May 2002 after an agreement was reached with the South African government. The agreement restored a large tract of land to the people who once roamed or farmed the area. Named the !Ae!Hai Kalahari Heritage Park Agreement, it resulted in the transfer of ownership of 50 000 hectares of land within the boundaries of Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park to the Khomani San and Mier communities, helping them to improve the quality of their lives in the process.
The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is an immense desert with grass-covered sand dunes. At over 3.5 million hectares, it’s almost twice the size of the Kruger National Park and about the same size as the Netherlands, and is jointly managed by the South African and Botswana wildlife authorities. A constant high-pressure cell forms a ‘lid’ over the interior, and as a consequence the long-term annual rainfall average is just 213mm, classifying the Kgalagadi as a true desert. Unusually, there is an abundance of desert grasses, giving the landscape an appearance of a semidesert. The park is home to an abundance of wildlife, including the large black-maned Kalahari lions, cheetah, brown and spotted hyena, leopard, and large numbers of gemsbok, springbok and wildebeest. The park is well-known for its huge population of eland, probably the largest herds in the world.
While at !Xaus, your activities include game and after-dinner drives, guided dune walks, a visit to a bushman craft village and star gazing, made possible by clean air and zero light pollution.