Page 29 - African Safaris eBrochure by Bushtracks
P. 29
For 13 years David Bristow nibbled. When all else is parched and seemingly lifeless,
edited Africa’s leading travel the rhinos survive by nibbling the growth tips of a
magazine Getaway, and his highly noxious desert succulent milkweed, or Euphorbia
colleagues dubbed him “the damarana. Only they and a few antelope can survive its
walking enviropedia.” Now a poisonous milky sap.
freelance writer, he continues
to share this knowledge, Desert Rhino Camp, run by Wilderness Safaris on the
primarily through storytelling. Palmwag Concession, offers the best shot at seeing black
He is an environmental rhinos while there still are any to see. The rhinos are
scientist and has written protected by Save the Rhino Trust, an organization that
some 20 books that focus on the natural environment, culture was started some two decades ago by ordinary Namibian
and history of the region. His specific focus is the history of citizens to guard what was then among the most
the Cape, its peoples, cultures, politics and how the natural vulnerable rhino populations in southern Africa.
environment has influenced human development there. The
geological (including paleontological) and archeological Poaching of the species elsewhere has taken such a toll
record are among his interests. that the desert rhinos are now the most stable group.
Among the trust’s smarter strategies was appointing
It is something of an irony former poachers as trackers and rangers, and who better.
The best conservators have typically been former hunters.
that the desert-adapted black rhinos (Diceros bicornis spp.
bicornis) of Namibia’s harsh Damaraland region, surviving The camp is run entirely by locals – Himba, Damara,
as they are at the virtual limits of their environmental and Nama and Ovambo people who, were it not for the safari
evolutionary limits, should represent the best survival industry, would be living much like the wildlife here: at the
chances for the species. edge of survival, some of them undoubtedly poachers.
Damaraland is one of those alien landscapes where
humans living in a positively pre-industrial state, scratch
out livings where life permits. It looks like the place
exploded at some time in the geological past, and that
is not entirely wrong. The entire surface is the result
of successive volcanic episodes in the building up and
breaking down of the Earth’s crust.
Rainfall in this semi-desert region comes sporadically,
sometimes not for years at a time. And yet there are
creatures out there in a rude abundance and variety.
Beetles and lizards at the bottom of the food chain,
then larger reptiles, birds in many shaped and colored
splendor, mammals small and great. From gerbils to
elephants that dig wells in sandy dry river beds for their
daily drink.
But the stars of the desert show are undoubtedly the The joy and lightness they bring to running the camp
black rhinos, beleaguered as they are. For centuries the are more honest and inclusive than anything I have
Chinese have had a yen for rhino horn as an aphrodisiac experienced in three decades as a travel writer. The wine
and hokey folky medicine. It will do nothing for you, but tastings and menu announcements, conducted in English
now the Vietnamese and Thais have jumped on that and “click language” will have you intoxicated before your
illusionary wagon and rhino numbers everywhere are first sip.
plummeting.
Getting to Desert Rhino Camp is not an easy journey, the
Perhaps most amazing of all is that such an antediluvian best places seldom are. It epitomizes an old Namibian
looking creature exists at all. Black rhinos are browsers, saying, that you cry twice: once when you get there, and
leaving a telltale angled branch tip where they have then again when you have to leave.
1.800.995.8689 | WWW.BUSHTRACKS.COM 27
edited Africa’s leading travel the rhinos survive by nibbling the growth tips of a
magazine Getaway, and his highly noxious desert succulent milkweed, or Euphorbia
colleagues dubbed him “the damarana. Only they and a few antelope can survive its
walking enviropedia.” Now a poisonous milky sap.
freelance writer, he continues
to share this knowledge, Desert Rhino Camp, run by Wilderness Safaris on the
primarily through storytelling. Palmwag Concession, offers the best shot at seeing black
He is an environmental rhinos while there still are any to see. The rhinos are
scientist and has written protected by Save the Rhino Trust, an organization that
some 20 books that focus on the natural environment, culture was started some two decades ago by ordinary Namibian
and history of the region. His specific focus is the history of citizens to guard what was then among the most
the Cape, its peoples, cultures, politics and how the natural vulnerable rhino populations in southern Africa.
environment has influenced human development there. The
geological (including paleontological) and archeological Poaching of the species elsewhere has taken such a toll
record are among his interests. that the desert rhinos are now the most stable group.
Among the trust’s smarter strategies was appointing
It is something of an irony former poachers as trackers and rangers, and who better.
The best conservators have typically been former hunters.
that the desert-adapted black rhinos (Diceros bicornis spp.
bicornis) of Namibia’s harsh Damaraland region, surviving The camp is run entirely by locals – Himba, Damara,
as they are at the virtual limits of their environmental and Nama and Ovambo people who, were it not for the safari
evolutionary limits, should represent the best survival industry, would be living much like the wildlife here: at the
chances for the species. edge of survival, some of them undoubtedly poachers.
Damaraland is one of those alien landscapes where
humans living in a positively pre-industrial state, scratch
out livings where life permits. It looks like the place
exploded at some time in the geological past, and that
is not entirely wrong. The entire surface is the result
of successive volcanic episodes in the building up and
breaking down of the Earth’s crust.
Rainfall in this semi-desert region comes sporadically,
sometimes not for years at a time. And yet there are
creatures out there in a rude abundance and variety.
Beetles and lizards at the bottom of the food chain,
then larger reptiles, birds in many shaped and colored
splendor, mammals small and great. From gerbils to
elephants that dig wells in sandy dry river beds for their
daily drink.
But the stars of the desert show are undoubtedly the The joy and lightness they bring to running the camp
black rhinos, beleaguered as they are. For centuries the are more honest and inclusive than anything I have
Chinese have had a yen for rhino horn as an aphrodisiac experienced in three decades as a travel writer. The wine
and hokey folky medicine. It will do nothing for you, but tastings and menu announcements, conducted in English
now the Vietnamese and Thais have jumped on that and “click language” will have you intoxicated before your
illusionary wagon and rhino numbers everywhere are first sip.
plummeting.
Getting to Desert Rhino Camp is not an easy journey, the
Perhaps most amazing of all is that such an antediluvian best places seldom are. It epitomizes an old Namibian
looking creature exists at all. Black rhinos are browsers, saying, that you cry twice: once when you get there, and
leaving a telltale angled branch tip where they have then again when you have to leave.
1.800.995.8689 | WWW.BUSHTRACKS.COM 27
