The Richtersveld National Park is tucked away in the north-western corner of South Africa and to get there you have to pass through Port Nolloth.

On 1 August 2003 South Africa and Namibia signed a treaty joining the |Ai-|Ais Hot Springs Game Park in Namibia and the Richtersveld National Park in South Africa into the |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park. The area encompassed by the Transfrontier Park holds the highest concentration of succulent species in the world.

North of Port Nolloth, just beyond the Orange River in Namibia one finds one of the world’s true wildernesses - the Sperrgebiet. The Sperrgebiet contains an exceptional high number of rare and endemic lichens, plants and reptiles and has remained sealed-off for more than 100 years due to diamond mining activities along the coast. This area is now known as the Sperrgebiet National Park.

South of Port Nolloth lies the Namaqua National Park and to the east - the Augrabies National Park and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

Sanpark’s new Arid Parks Route links the Kgalagadi, Augrabies, Namaqua and |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld National and Transfrontier Parks.

It is the intention of Sanparks, the Namibian National Parks Authority and the Peace Parks Foundation to establish a circle route of Desert or Arid Parks consisting of:

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Augrabies National Park
Namaqua National Park
|Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park
Sperrgebiet National Park

For this plan to become a reality, border posts between South Africa and Namibia have been established at Sendelingsdrift north of Port Nolloth and at Mata Mata in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

These border posts were officially opened on 15 and 16 October 2007.