Kalahari 5-Day MTB Traverse
Kalahari 5-Day MTB Traverse
COST: Sharing R15 900 | Single R19 900
DATES AVAILABLE
(Register Below by clicking on the date)
You will experience saltpans, black rock koppies, red sand dunes, dry riverbeds, wide open skies and flat-topped acacia trees that symbolise the Kalahari Red Dune Route. You will experience the Kalahari Meerkat, Vulture Restaurants and lots of birdlife and see various Game.
Kalahari 5-Day MTB Traverse
You will experience saltpans, black rock koppies, red sand dunes, dry riverbeds, wide open skies and flat-topped acacia trees that symbolise the Kalahari Red Dune Route. You will experience the Kalahari Meerkat, Vulture Restaurants and lots of birdlife and see various Game.
You will cycle to the Kalahari Lost City and over a big salt pan. Each day you will cycle to the next Game lodge, experiencing the sunset over the salt pans after a Game drive, while you are enjoying a sundowner.
Each day you will cycle to a new destination where we will spend the rest of the day, see the best of that area, have lunch, dinner and breakfast there and experience the best of the Kalahari.
Highlights of the Tour
- Experience the best of the Red Dunes of the Kalahari while you are cycling,
- Experience with the Kalahari Meerkats
- Cycle over big flat salt pans of the Kalahari;
- Experience the milking of the Camels;
- See the black rock formation of the Lost City of the Kalahari;
- Stay on Game Reserves and go on Game Drives each day;
- Enjoy the sundowners on a Red Dune or over a Saltpan each night
- Experience the Vulture Restaurant
- Experience the hospitality of the Kalahari people;
- Swim/drift on the 107% salt water on the saltpan
- Stay in the middle of the Red Sand Dunes;
- Cycle close to the Botswana border; and
- Stay on the Namibia / RSA border
Information
It is said that no two visits to the Kalahari are the same. This ancient and beautiful land is not only amazingly rich in diversity; it also reflects an endless variety of moods, making each new encounter refreshingly different from the previous.
This ancient and beautiful land is not only amazingly rich in diversity it also reflects an endless variety of moods, making each new encounter refreshingly different from the previous ones. The Kalahari extends north of Upington into the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park that forms the shares its borders with Namibia and Botswana and is one of the largest conservation areas in the world.
The colour of the dunes in the southern Kalahari can be attributed to the high iron oxide content of the sand. In areas of higher rainfall and in shallow areas where water collects, the iron oxide is leached out, causing the sand ultimately to turn white. The gradual effect of the leaching transforms the desert into a wonderful variety of colours.
Besides the red dunes, some of the most obvious features of the Kalahari landscape are the nests of the sociable weaver birds. The colonies have up to 50 chambers housing as many as 300 birds.
Since the Kalahari is a desert, daytime temperatures can be extremely high and in winter, night-time temperatures can drop below zero, though the days are usually warm and pleasant. Thunderstorms are common during the rainy season between November and April.
5 Day/6 Night MTB Tour Information
You will NOT cycle in between the dunes or on sand, only on gravel roads. For 5 days cycling and for 6 nights you will experience the beauty of the Red Dune area. You will cycle on the Namibian and Botswana border, staying at Game Reserves and beautiful lodges and 1 night in luxury tents.
Each venue has its own character, and the routes are planned so that you will experience the best of the Kalahari (without having to cycle in soft sand).
Venue
Start Venue: Molopo Lodge, close to Askham, Kalahari
Overnight Venues:
Molopo Lodge, en suite aircon Chalets
Zoutpans Game Lodge, sharing bathroom between 2 rooms, aircon
Loch Maree Game Lodge, sharing bathroom between 2 rooms, aircon
Dreghorn Game Reserve, sharing bathroom between 2 rooms, with a fan per room
Kalahari Tented camp, Rietfontein, tented camp with beds and tables with a fan per tent OR an aircon en-suite chalets
Kgalagadi lodge, en suite aircon Chalets
Distances
Day 1: 73km of a very quite tar road: elevation: 100 meter. Although this is a long day, the elevation is very little.
Day 2: 43km, elevation 120m
Day 3: 36km: elevation 190m
Day 4: 44km: elevation 100m
Day 5: 17km elevation 50m
Entries Available
Limited to 16 entries
Entry Fee and Highlights Includes
- 6 Nights accommodation (5 nights in lodges and 1 night in a chalets/tented camp);
- 5 Days of MTB Riding;
- All meals from dinner day 1 to lunch day 6.
- Transport of your gear;
- Cycle through the Lost City of the Kalahari.
- Cycle over Saltpans
- Camel milking.
- Experience the beautiful sunsets over the saltpans
- All the Game drives
- The Vulture Restaurant
- All the Guides
- Drifting on the Salt pan
- Game drive and guides into Kgalagadi Game Reserve
- All permissions of private Game owners.
Entry Fee Excludes
- Flights
- Getting to and from Molopo lodge, the starting venue
- Renting of E Bikes or MTB
- Alcoholic and other drinks at the lodges or during the Sundowners
- Dinner on the last night at Kgalagadi Lodge and breakfast on day of departure from Kgalagadi Lodge
- Upgrade to an aircon en-suite chalets at the Kalahar Tented camp
- Tips.
Schedule
Day 1
14:00 Arrival at Molopo Lodge
18:00 Welcome and drinks at the Bar
19:00 Dinner
Day 2:
6:00 Breakfast.
7.30 Cycle to Rietfontein, cycle over the famous Haksteen pan where the Bloodhound speed record was set.
13:00 Check in.
17:00 Sundowners overlooking the Namibia border.
18: Dinner.
Day 3
6:30 Breakfast.
7:30 Cycle to Koppieskraal.
Experience the Lost City, cycle on jeep tracks, and gravel roads.
13:00 Lunch at Koppieskraal.
14:00 Transfer to Loch Maree and Zoutpans, Check in.
17:00 Game drive and sundowners over the Red Sand dunes.
18:00 Dinner.
Day 4
6:30 Breakfast.
7:00 Transferred back to Koppieskraal.
8:00 Cycle from Koppieskraal to Zoutpans. Cycle over a 10km saltpan.
13:00 Lunch at Zoutpans.
16:00 Visit a salt mining project and have the opportunity to drift on the 107% salt water in .the pan, like in the Dead Sea, but the Dead sea only 47%.
17H00 Sundowners and sunset on a Red Dune.
18:30 Dinner
Day 5
7:00 Breakfast
9:00 Cycle to Dreghorn Game Reserve.
12:00 Lunch at Dreghorn.
16: 00 Game drive, visit the Vulture Restaurant, Sundowners on a Red Dune overlooking the Game and Botswana.
18:30 Dinner.
Day 6:
7:00 Breakfast:
8:00 Last morning, cycle to Molopo lodge, back to your car.
10:00 Shower at Molopo lodge, drive in a convoy to Kalahari Trails, the Meerkat Sanctuary.
10:30 Meerkat interaction and short hike (2km) to see the tracks of the animals on the sand dunes or what the guides called the “reading the newspaper”.
12:00 Drive to Kgalagadi Lodge, check in.
16:00 Sunset Game Drive (3 hours) inside the Kgalagadi lodge with the National Park’s guides.
19:30 Dinner (own account).
Day 7
8:00 Breakfast (own account).
9:00 Good Byes.
This ancient and beautiful land is not only amazingly rich in diversity it also reflects an endless variety of moods, making each new encounter refreshingly different from the previous ones. The Kalahari Red Dune Route extends north of Upington into the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park that forms the shares its borders with Namibia and Botswana and is one of the largest conservation areas in the world.
The colour of the dunes in the southern Kalahari can be attributed to the high iron oxide content of the sand. In areas of higher rainfall and in shallow areas where water collects, the iron oxide is leached out, causing the sand ultimately to turn white. The gradual effect of the leaching transforms the desert into a wonderful variety of colours.
Besides the red dunes, some of the most obvious features of the Kalahari landscape are the nests of the sociable weaver birds. The colonies have up to 50 chambers housing as many as 300 birds.
Since the Kalahari is a desert, daytime temperatures can be extremely high and in winter, night-time temperatures can drop below zero, though the days are usually warm and pleasant. Thunderstorms are common during the rainy season between November and April.
