By Roxanne Reid
The Richtersveld Transfrontier Park, tucked into the far northwest of South Africa’s Northern Cape, must be SANParks’ strangest park. Yes, even stranger than the Golden Gate Highlands (which has a public road running through it) or Addo (which comprises disconnected parcels of land – at least for now).
The Richtersveld Transfrontier Park, tucked into the far northwest of South Africa’s Northern Cape, must be SANParks’ strangest park. Yes, even stranger than the Golden Gate Highlands (which has a public road running through it) or Addo (which comprises disconnected parcels of land – at least for now).
What, then, is so weird about the Richtersveld?
Well, inside the boundaries of this conservation area you’ll find both Nama herders grazing their flocks and highly visible diamond mining operations. Both seem odd bed-mates for conservation.
Well, inside the boundaries of this conservation area you’ll find both Nama herders grazing their flocks and highly visible diamond mining operations. Both seem odd bed-mates for conservation.
The route to the park via Alexander Bay is none too attractive, with huge tracts of land that have been carved up and spat out again by the diamond mines. Once you enter the park, things don’t get much better.
The land is scarred by mining along the 20km route from the entrance gate to Sendelingsdrif camp, and at least another 10km into the park itself. Not till the turnoff to the Hand of God – a 2m-high imprint of a hand on the rock – and the Oena Mine do the dumped mounds of earth, the electricity pylons and the trucks finally come to an end.
The 'Hand of God'
Diamond mining started here in 1970 and it was only in 1991 that the ‘contractual’ park was formed (it joined with the Ai-Ais National Park in Namibia to become a transfrontier park in 2000). [Update: the mine here was closed in 2015 but the wrecked environment remains. It’s not clear whether it will reopen or the promised rehabilitation will happen.]
Nama herdsman Matthew Jospeh
As for the Nama herders, well, they’ve been practising their semi-nomadic lifestyle here for 2000 years and they own the land, leasing it to SANParks on a 30-year contract that’s due for renegotiation in about 2019. They’ve agreed to allow a maximum of 6 600 goats, sheep or cows in the park and there’s a census every two years to maintain this level. This is because in this arid mountain desert, overgrazing and erosion are very real challenges. In their defence, the herds’ droppings probably do help to fertilise the soil.
All three parties – the conservationists, the mines and the Nama community – jointly manage the area. I should imagine it’s a difficult balancing act.
But although the area around Sendelingsdrif isn’t a promising start to an excursion into one of the last true wilderness areas in South Africa, once you get beyond that point, it all becomes worthwhile. (Read Why you have to visit the Richtersveld wilderness to find out why.)
All three parties – the conservationists, the mines and the Nama community – jointly manage the area. I should imagine it’s a difficult balancing act.
But although the area around Sendelingsdrif isn’t a promising start to an excursion into one of the last true wilderness areas in South Africa, once you get beyond that point, it all becomes worthwhile. (Read Why you have to visit the Richtersveld wilderness to find out why.)
At first glance these rocky hills and sun-baked sand may
seem devoid of life, but a staggering hotchpotch of plants scratch out a living here. It’s a place of stark scenery, bizarre rock formations, rugged ravines and dramatic panoramas; a mountain desert where water is scarce, but the life-giving fog from the Atlantic Ocean supports a surprising diversity of small reptiles, birds and mammals, such as Hartmann’s mountain zebra, leopard, brown hyena, black-backed jackal, bat-eared fox, klipspringer, bats, shrews and mice.
No wonder it was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2007.
More about the Richtersveld
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
seem devoid of life, but a staggering hotchpotch of plants scratch out a living here. It’s a place of stark scenery, bizarre rock formations, rugged ravines and dramatic panoramas; a mountain desert where water is scarce, but the life-giving fog from the Atlantic Ocean supports a surprising diversity of small reptiles, birds and mammals, such as Hartmann’s mountain zebra, leopard, brown hyena, black-backed jackal, bat-eared fox, klipspringer, bats, shrews and mice.
No wonder it was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2007.
More about the Richtersveld
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
