Kruger National Park Google Earth layer May 25, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Conservation, News, Safari, Tourism, ecotourism , 5comments
ecoAfrica has launched a Google Earth layer for the Kruger National Park (2MB .kmz file; requires Google Earth), in the context of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Our layer includes:
- Lodges, camps, restcamps and trails camps (book online)
- Transport: roads, distances, routes, gates, airstrips (plan a trip)
- Ecology: rainfall, biomes, wildlife census - all graphically represented
- History: how Kruger evolved and its borders expanded since 1884
- National park, transfrontier park and game reserve boundaries
So there’s something there for the traveller and visitor, as well as the scholar. (more…)
Powerdown in South Africa January 22, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Climate Change, Conservation, Sustainability , 4comments
This post is only tangentially related to travel, but it has a lot to do with sustainability, so I thought I would vent here on this blog anyway. As I sit here writing this, South Africa has entered a period of rolling blackouts. The cause is uncontested: the government failed to allow the national power utility, Eskom, to create generation capacity way back in the ’90s. After an unprecedented period of economic growth the chickens have come home to roost and the reserve margin is down to 8% so that the grid has no resilience when capacity is temporarily reduced by an outage or when demand spikes. Meanwhile the demand trendline shows unabated growth. The crisis is expected to last for another seven years, by when additional generating capacity should come online.
But what interests me are the reactions to the crisis from my fellow citizens, which only serve to show how difficult it is to change behaviour and how invested in our energy-intensive consumer-age paradigm we are. (more…)
Man-eaters of Eden December 20, 2007
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : Animals, Books , 1 comment so far
When I first learned of Robert R. Frump’s book called the “Man-eaters of Eden” I have to confess I groaned inwardly. Thinking of the Hollywood version of the man-eaters of Tsavo (Michael Douglas in the Ghosts of Darkness) I didn’t want to hear more demonizing of a perfectly natural phenomenon – predators eating prey.
I was pleasantly surprised. Robert Frump not only tackles the issue without hysteria but does so in good journalistic fashion – attempting to get all sides of the story.
Meeting the Meerkats December 19, 2007
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : Animals, ecotourism , add a comment
Meerkats (or suricates) are one of those species that deserve Walt Disney full-feature attention. They are cute-looking, live in communes and are jam-packed with character. All kinds of “wickedness” (in the form of raptors and poisonous snakes) lurk at every turn. I should think they are manna- from- heaven for Hollywood directors.
Jack’s Camp, on the Makgadikgadi Pans in Botswana has started interactive safaris with these endearing little creatures.
For a complete photo-journey through the lives of meerkats we recommend Alain Degre & Sylvie Robert’s coffee table book “Meerkat Valley”. The Degres are also known as the parents of Tippi whose adventures are well documented in “Tippi of Africa”.
The thing about African wilderness trails November 10, 2007
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Safari, ecotourism , 5comments
Walking on a wilderness trail is the only way to feel the pulse of the African “bush”. That is what I believe anyway. I have experienced my fair share of the African safari concept: vehicle-based photographic safaris, 
game drives and stays in high-end and exotic game lodges, and even canoe safaris down the wild Lower Zambezi. But none of this compares to following a game trail on foot: listening for a warning call, watching the reactions of the tracker, sniffing the breeze, or simply existing in your immediate sphere. Nothing compares - except perhaps for the canoe safari. (more…)
Why community-based tourism is so important October 23, 2007
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : Community, ecotourism , add a comment
The concept of the Peace Parks is gaining recognition for the vision that it is. I have written about it many times before as a model that shows the way forward for people and the planet. The embracing symbolism of transfrontier conservation areas cannot be overstated because it will only be by a process of inclusion and integration that humans will continue to exist as a species. If we fail to acknowledge and sanction the right-to-life of all of creation we will be left with a denuded and over-used earth unable to support humans.
We have a choice and the time for making that choice is now. We cannot afford to put it off.
One idea that is gaining ground in Africa is that of community-based tourism. (more…)
Circles in the Bush October 21, 2007
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Safari, ecotourism , add a comment
(With apologies to Dalene Matthee…)
Machampane Wilderness Camp in Limpopo National Park, Mozambique, shares the western bank of the Machampane River with tall fever trees at a pool called Xisivene - which apparently means “deep pool”.
The wilderness trail experience that runs out of the camp is similarly structured to the iconic trails that operate in the Kruger National Park across the border. Machampane’s accommodation is a tad more luxurious though - large walk-in tents on stilts with en suite bathrooms.
Download the Google Earth track of Machampane wilderness trails.
Book the Machampane wilderness trail.
Awareness through Wilderness August 15, 2007
Posted by Lizanne in : Conservation , 2comments
“Simplicity in all things, is the secret of the wilderness.” – Sigmund Olsen
I recently read Zululand Wilderness: Shadow and Soul by Dr. Ian Player. This book had such a profound impact on me that I decided to look into the Wilderness Leadership School which he founded. It turns out that the school is one of the finest long term solutions for the conservation of our Earth.
In the Company of Man Eaters July 16, 2007
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : News, Safari , 1 comment so far
Conjure up a marriage between “Out of Africa” style camping and hunter-gatherer game tracking and you get the Great Walk. Taking place in Kenya’s largest national park, Tsavo, the walk covers a comfortable 153 kms in 12 days.
Situated in south eastern Kenya Tsavo is approximately 12,000 km2 and was designated in 1948 by the colonial government. Divided into East and West the boundary between the two sections of the park is formed by the Mombasa-Nairobi highway and the railway line that connects hinterland to the coast.
