In the giraffe's back yard

By Villiers Steyn
Published 09 June 2010

Mata-Mata, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Make sure you have extra memory cards for your camera when you approach Mata-Mata. The veld opens up beautifully, there are huge red dunes, and the camel thorn trees look like they belong in a coffee-table book.

The three short loop roads south of the camp, past the Dalkeith Waterhole, Fourteenth Borehole and Thirteenth Borehole, wind through some of the Kgalagadi’s best game-viewing veld. Lions, cheetahs, bat-eared foxes and Cape foxes are regularly seen.

Giraffe are abundant in this area, which wasn’t always the case. Many years ago, they were hunted to extinction in the Kalahari. Then, in 1990, eight giraffe from Etosha were moved into a game camp near Mata-Mata. They were set free after eight years and now there are more than 40 in the park.
Mata-Mata camp itself is tiny, although there is a small shop, a filling station, an information centre and a swimming pool.

There’s also a hide with views of a waterhole in the Auob River, but few animals come to drink here because the camp is near the park border.
The camp is powered by a generator that runs between 5 am and 11 pm. It’s not, however, the source of the constant drone that you hear throughout the day – that’s from another generator on the Namibian side of the border, outside the park.

You can cross the border into Namibia at Mata-Mata, but you have to visit the customs office at Twee Rivieren and you have to spend a minimum of two nights in the park.

Read the full story in the June 2010 (#69) issue of go!