Rakops is a small town that makes a very useful staging post on the way to the CKGR. It has telephones, cellphone coverage and a range of shops selling most necessities. The fuel station here is generally reliable and has marvellous old hand-cranked fuel pumps. (Marvellous, that is, provided there's someone there to help you physically pump the fuel!) Within 2003 it's likely to be linked by tar to both the north and the east.