South Africa Game Reserves & National Parks
Pigs, Warthog, Monkeys and Elephant
Not You Again!
Some things change, and some things don’t. Robert Mugabe, after almost five weeks of political hiatus, remains in power, while galloping inflation – touted now at about 355 000% – necessitated the issue of another new banknote, the third issue in a year. This time it was a Z$500 million bill, up 400 million from the last. Currently the rate of exchange is Z$52 million to £1 sterling. A letter I recently received from a friend in Harare told me that a brief trip to the supermarket to purchase 2 onions, 4 bread rolls, 1 packet of coffee, 2 litres of milk and a cucumber came to a total of Z$1.25 billion, which would have been Z$1.25 trillion had the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe not recently removed several zeros from the local currency. You may ask me how does a man who presides over such unimaginable economic lunacy survive in power, and the truth is I haven’t got a clue.
Warthog’s Revenge
While on the subject of swine species, warthogs have been creating a bit of a stir in the industry recently, contributing their share to the regular, but admittedly infrequent incidences of bitings, maulings, stingings and occasional deaths. These often result from the too-close commerce encouraged by wilderness guides between soft skinned urban tourists and wild animals. In this case it was a Canadian tourist, Brunhilde Galke, 69, visiting Huntershill private game park in the Eastern Cape, who ran foul of a ‘tame’ warthog in the dining room of the lodge. It was probably neither her fault nor the warthog’s, but a waiter who should have known better than kick the animal after it upset a dustbin in the bar area. The warthog rushed the waiter, but then vented it’s spleen more effectively against Brunhilde as she left the dining room and was making her way across the yard to her accommodations.
Date: May 15th, 2008 |
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Swaziland
An African Oddity
Swaziland certainly is an oddity. It is a tiny landlocked country that is viable as an independent nation only in the loosest sense of the word. It is also one of the few remaining absolute monarchies in the world. Statistically notable for both its extreme rates of poverty and having one of the single largest concentrations of aids sufferers globally, Swaziland is ruled by a fickle, anachronistic, self serving, preening and pampered multiple polygamist who goes by the name of King Mswati III. Bordered to the west by fiercely republican South Africa, and to the east by thoroughly revolutionary Mozambique, it is hard sometimes to determined exactly where Swaziland fits in.
Controversy
In the interests of getting the ugly bits over first, the myths surrounding King Mswati’s personal indulgence read somewhat like the habits of a feted dauphin of an oil saturated Middle East principality. Inasmuch as Swaziland is indeed an absolute monarchy, Mswati has cultivated an almost medieval approach to governance, characterised by his prevailing attitude of I am very much alright, and be damned to the rest of you.
Date: May 1st, 2008 |
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Dunes, Delta & Falls, Boots n’all in the Bush
Dunes, Delta and Falls Discoverer
Boots n’all Adventure Travel Shop has launched its Dunes Delta and Falls Discoverer, which, as the name implies, is a journey through the western quadrant of Southern Africa, combining the best of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Victoria Falls.
The trip kicks off in Cape Town, which at your leisure you can explore before jumping on the truck. From there it is north to the first stop of Lamberts Bay on South Africa’s Atlantic coast, which is a charismatic and often quite rustic appendage to the better known South and East Coasts. Here the focus tends to be less on sun and surf and more on whale watching, seafood, perusing the seasonal Namaqualand wild flower displays, and likewise the seasonal spectacle of some 30 000 Blue-eyed Gannets concentrated on Bird Island.
Namibia
From here it is north into the arid regions of the Namib Desert fringe with an overnight stop on the frontier between Namibia and South Africa along the Orange, or Gariep River. Activities are centered on the river, but also the surrounding scenery with it’s focus on a diversity of succulent plants for those interested in such things. The trip really gets cranked up, however, upon arrival at Fish River Canyon, the largest of it’s kind in Africa, and one of the most interesting and rewarding hiking destinations in the region.
The next day the journey into unique desert landscapes continues with a visit to Sossusvlei, which is a largish salt pan situated within the central Namib Desert, and protected by the Namib-Naukluft National Park. It is predominantly a red dune landscape with the haunting silence of a dead zone, but only deceptively dead, as a walk through the dunes with a local guide will soon reveal. Stunted trees, however, are fair testimony to an extremely harsh landscape, some as much as 900 years old.
Date: April 23rd, 2008 |
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The Peace Parks Foundation: The Next Great Step in African Conservation
The Global Crisis
When I was a child, picking up a National Geographic magazine at the school library was a journey into a larger than life, multi-chromatic kaleidoscope of mankind and nature. It was a glimpse into the future of what an inquisitive mind could expect from a limitless world. These days, no less splendid in its presentation, when that signature yellow banded periodical drops into my mailbox I feel the sort of reluctance to break the seal as I might if I was looking at an angry red final demand for an overdue car payment.
Currently the feature stories tend to dwell almost exclusively on the global environmental crisis, with florid warnings of catastrophe in picture and print, be it a matter of diminishing ice masses, the waterless southwest of the USA, the slaughter of Congolese mountain gorillas, bush-meat, bushfires, e-waste, imploding biodiversity, diminishing rainforests, poisoned rivers etc, etc, etc.
As the great eco terrorist himself, Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil, once wrote in a stark and despairing lyric: The river runs red, black rain falls, dust in my hand…..! In this age the entire global environmental issue is indeed such a multi-faceted tragedy that it prompted one similarly Malthusian commentator to remark that the only may to mentally survive our common and downward trajectory is to strangle the last giant panda with guts of the last blue whale. If it is all inevitably doomed, then why not just let it all crumble, and afterwards work to rebuild with what is left.
Date: April 6th, 2008 |
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Drakensberg - Cathedral Peak
As with the Royal Natal National Park, the area of Cathedral Peak is dominated by the Drakensberg escarpment, and similarly offers the two distinct walking zones of hill country above, and ridges and gullies below. Cathedral Peak is also the first realistic point of descent from the escarpment after Mont aux Sources, for although there are some 6 or 7 passes that leak off the face in between, none will deposit you anywhere near a hotel or KNZ Wildlife facility. Thanks also to the fact that the Cathedral Peak Reserve and its surrounds are well serviced by accommodation options and other general facilities it is one of the most popular hiking destinations in the Berg. However, although there are a variety of easy and pleasant trail options available to service the regular flow of day trippers, there are also some very cheeky and little used byways that might take you by surprise, and will severely challenge your leg muscles while leading you into some of the most majestic and beautiful scenery in the entire range.
Trail Options
The area of Cathedral Peak (32 000 hectares) is essentially three separate conservation areas: Mlambonja Wilderness Area to the north, Mdedelelo Wilderness Area to the south, and Cathedral Peak State Forest in between. Notable here is the potential for those without the physical means or inclination to walk, to gain close vehicular access to the escarpment. Some 10,5 km long, and climbing some 500m in altitude, Mike’s Pass was named after Mike de Villiers, forestry research officer circa 1949, who is credited with the establishment of the local Cathedral Peak Research Station, and the eventual construction of this road. The road itself begins at the main KNZ wildlife office, and at its conclusion is found the trail head for a series of peaks known as the Organ Pipes, and to the escarpment itself. Also accessible from this point is the renowned Didima Gorge with its extraordinary proliferation of some 3900 individual examples of San rock and cave art.
Date: March 10th, 2008 |
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Vulture Restaurants: Dining with Vultures
An Empty Place At The Table
At one time the vulture was one of the most ubiquitous species of the African plains, the harbinger of death, the clean up man of the veld, but most visible these days, it seems, only when it is not there.
There is nothing that quite captures the morbid quintessence of survival on the African plains quite like the image of a congregation of vultures tearing to shreds the rotting carcase of a wildebeest. From this it is easy to imagine various vulture species surviving mankind long into the post-nuclear era, but in truth vultures are just another of the many species falling behind in the race to survive the adaptation of Africa, and the world, to the needs of mankind.
Vultures, of which there are nine species listed in the SASOL Birds of Southern Africa, are one of those peculiar indicators that scientists look at to establish the general health of an environment. If vultures are visible in numbers, then all is well on the ground, if not, then grounds for concern exist. In recent years vulture populations have been falling dramatically, and not only in Africa. Countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal and Cambodia are all currently documenting dangerous declines in their vulture populations.
Date: May 6th, 2008 |
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Canyons, Cheetahs & Kruger
Canyons, Cheetah & Kruger
Canyons, Cheetahs & Kruger is somewhat cheaper in value as Boots n’all trips go. It is certainly not as good value as the Dunes, Delta & Falls option. In truth adventure travel through Mpumalanga, unless you happen to have to stop and change a flat tyre in a hijack hotspot, or one of those long freeway shoulders where livid red signs warn you for your own safety not to stop, is likely to be minimal.
The main features of the trip: Blyde River Canyon, Kruger National Park, Edeni Private Game Reserve and an endangered species reintroduction program are all worthwhile, but they come across a little as short hop trips of the kind one might take from a backpackers lodge while waiting to jump on an overland truck or to fly out.
Date: April 24th, 2008 |
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Drakensberg: Giant’s Castle Game Reserve
Giant’s Castle Game Reserve
Continuing on with the theme of gracious accommodation and civilized pursuits, I am returning to the Drakensberg, and this time to Giants Castle Game Reserve. As with the Royal Natal National Park, and Cathedral Peak, the dominant themes here are walking, climbing and horse riding, with the usual emphasis on bird-watching and gorgeous seasonal floral displays. Also, of course, there is the celebrated vista, which differs within the Giant’s Castle Game Reserve only inasmuch as it is characterised this time by a grassy plateau among deep river valleys pressed up against the sheer cliffs of the escarpment.
Again the walking trails allow for the participation of just about anyone from the very occasional stroller to the maniac death marcher. For the sake of the latter there is a magnificent contoured trail that runs from south to north, pressed tight up against the escarpment, and continuing up almost the entire length of the reserve. On a clear day, and sometimes even on a cloudy day, this trail offers sweeping views of the diminishing perspective of foothills that run, it seems at times, into the deepest blue infinity.
For the rest of us there are about 285kms of varied footpaths that traverse the reserve with the two main focus’ tending to be in the south and the north. Scattered around the reserve there are four mountain huts as well as a handful of caves that are suitable for overnight camping. The huts are equipped with bunks, a gas stove, cooking oddments and a flush toilet. Reservations for both caves and huts should be made with the Officer-in-Charge of the reserve.
How To Get There
There are two main routes into the reserve, north and south, the first being to the Injisuthi Camp to the north via the 331 from Loskop (a dorp with the lovely name, translating from the Afrikaans as Loose Head, or Space Cadet in contemporary parlance) which is reached via either Winterton or Ennersdale, both off the N3 near Estcourt. The second route in is through the Witteberg Gate via the 391 from Mooiriver/Nottingham Road, also off the N3. Here you will find the main KNZ Wildlife Office, and the Giant’s Castle Main Camp.
Date: April 9th, 2008 |
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Ecotourism Africa Style
Ecotourism
The concept of ecotourism in Africa has many facets and interpretations, but at its most fundamental it is an effort to ensure the long-term viability of vulnerable and threatened ecosystems through the medium of the tourist dollar. The term applied is high yield, low impact tourism, which is obviously bad news for the low yielders amongst us, however in recent years potent lessons have been learned in this regard throughout Africa. In particular this is true in east Africa where budget tours sold on the street corners of Nairobi have tended to fill the key wild life preserves with hordes of mini buses, often obliterating any authenticity in the experience of wildlife Africa.
A secondary factor that has often preceded irredeemable environmental destruction is the fact the local communities living on the fringes of established national parks and wildlife areas are isolated from the ebb and flow of tourism, and rarely see any material benefits. Competition for grazing and hunting rights also tend to negate any goodwill towards the conservation movement, which is in many ways a battle lost for the hearts and minds of the common people.
Community Involvement
A combination, therefore, of selective, high return land use with a discernible return to local communities is a no-brainer if poverty is to be defeated and the environment preserved. It is an idea that has gained much currency over the last 20 years or so, with a variety of project types such as the Zimbabwean CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources) movement. At its core this includes local communities in projects related to commercial hunting or ecotourisim in their areas, but tends on the whole to be donor supported, which is an inherent defeat of the concept of sustainability.
Date: April 2nd, 2008 |
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Drakensberg: The Royal Natal National Park
The Drakensberg Mountains, or uKhahlamba (Barrier or Spears) in Zulu, is a place of profound practical and symbolic importance to South Africa. It is the central watershed that gives rise to the three iconic rivers of the Vaal, the Tugela and the Orange; it is the physical landmark that split the Bantu Migration into the Nguni and Basuto subgroups; and it was the parameter of settlement between Briton an Boer during the tense years leading up to the great Anglo/Boer War. Besides that it was the last fortress of the San, or Bushman people in the central region, who were ultimately pushed to the fringes of viable existence both by white and black expansion, and who left in their wake a sweeping legacy of cave art, not just in the Drakensberg, but throughout the region. Currently the highlands make up most of the independent state of Lesotho, with just the leading approaches of the escarpment falling into the territory of the South African provinces of Mpumalanga and Kwazulu/Natal.
From a travelers point of view the Drakensberg provide something of a break from the routine of lowland game parks and wildlife preserves that tend to define and make up so much of an average southern African journey. Those parts of the escarpment that permit public access are defined largely by the escarpment, and are subdivided into a series of national parks and areas of forestry or state land. Above the escarpment lies the high and open hill country of Lesotho that is public land only inasmuch as it is communal to the pastoralists and herdsmen who husband their animals there. Technically, broaching the escarpment and walking in this area represents and illegal boundary crossing, and although the national parks personnel will let this fact be known, the provision is rarely enforced, and free movement within a reasonable distance from the escarpment is permitted.
Date: February 28th, 2008 |
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