South Africa Kalahari (Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park)

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 | No Comments

Upington Airport

SA Blog’s handy guide to Upington Airport.

Vital information:
Airport code: UTNStreet Map: Click here (then zoom out)Floor plan: None available, nor neededGeneral info: +27 (0) 54 337 7900Flight info via telephone: +27 (0) 86 727 7888Flight info via SMS/text: Send flight number to 35007.Hired/Rented cars: By arrivalsWifi? NoAltnernate name: Lughawe (Afrikaans for “Airport”).Free carts? YesPorters? Available (wearing dark green pants and blue shirts).Porter tip? R5 per bag.Curbside drop-off/pick-up allowed? YesParking? R4/hour (open), R6/hour (shaded). Long-term parking available.Disabled-friendly? Yes

Upington Airport is Your Correspondent’s favourite in South Africa, for three reasons: first, it has Africa’s longest runway, at 5kms (NASA’s space shuttle could land on it); second, it hosts only a single carrier, South African Airlink (see below), which flies mosquito-sized planes; and third, the landings of said mosquito-size planes on said gigantic runway are social occasions in Upington, drawing crowds. If ever you seek the simple life, consider a move to Upington’s peace and quiet.

The city, located in what is known as the “Green Kalahari” (because of the Gariep/Orange River’s irrigation of the area), is close to two major nature reserves, both highly recommended: Augrabies Falls and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (a.k.a. the Kalahari Desert).

Uppington Airport is as simple as it gets: you walk in a straight line from the plane to the baggage collection area to the parking lot outside.

Date: February 12th, 2006 | No Comments