Page 34 - INTRA MUROS November 2020
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NATURE






































                      Kruger Park recovering from



                                          the lockdown


                                    By James Clarke, Photos by Mary Broadley




               he COVID-19 pandemic  and the   years, millions of people were able to   We entered through the Phabeni Gate
               collapse of tourism deeply affected   witness, some for the first time, a clear   near Hazyview and immediately noticed
           Tour most famous tourist attraction –   horizon every day.           the accumulation of droppings on the
           the Kruger National Park.                                            roads. Under normal circumstances, even
                                              Driving to Kruger, as we did once we had   the conspicuous scattered droppings after
           After several weeks of lockdown, we sought   all the necessary papers (including police   a herd of hundreds of buffalo has crossed,
           special permission to visit the Kruger   clearance to cross into Mpumalanga), we   would soon be flattened and carried
           National Park to see what the effects had   noticed how clean and fresh the air was   away on the tyres of tourists’ vehicles;
           been.  All of South Africa’s national parks   as we passed through the country’s most   effectively the droppings would disappear
           had barred visitors from March 25 and, for   polluted region.  We still habitually call   within hours.
           months, the Kruger Park’s rest camps were   it  Witbank. The name  Witbank (its name
           empty. Some remained out-of-bounds   means ‘white ridge’) was long ago changed   On the S3 - the sand road that runs along
           even into October.                 to  something  less  complimentary:  the  Sabie  River  from  near  the  Phabeni
                                              eMalahleni, which means ‘place of coal’.  Gate to the Kruger Gate and Skukuza - we
           The limits placed on movement between                                saw not one vehicle in the three hours we
           provinces literally brought tourism to   But the price we are paying for cleaner   dawdled along it. On this road, we soon
           a halt. Only after three months were   skies has been traumatic, especially for   came across a ‘tower of giraffe’ - a number
           people in private vehicles allowed into   our most widespread and labour-intensive   of  them were standing close together
           the southern region of the Kruger Park,   industry - tourism.        blocking  the road.  They showed little
           but as day visitors only. No buses or safari
           vehicles were allowed.             Only  game  rangers  and  anti-poaching
                                              personnel were allowed to move around
           Worldwide,  the  consequences  of  the   inside Kruger Park after the start of the
           COVID-19 lockdown have been fascinating.   lockdown.
           Its major effect was to cleanse the air of a
           considerable bulk of its poisonous burden   We  were  there  to  see  whether  Covid-19
           of chemicals and industrial fumes.  regulations and the absence of visitors
                                              were having any effect on the park’s most
           Even in notoriously polluted China, where   important inhabitants – its wild animals.
           wearing masks has been the norm for






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