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…)
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…)
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.
