African Wildlife And Environment Issue 73

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

Old and new BUSH CHARIOTS

One of the most important tools needed to manage and secure protected areas in Africa and elsewhere, is a reliable all-terrain vehicle. Before motor vehicles were invented the older rangers used to do all their patrols on horseback and camps were set up with pack donkeys carrying all the required equipment.

Article and photos: Bryan Havemann

T he transport route that ran through the southern end of the Kruger National Park is a stark reminder that ox-wagons would collect supplies from Delagoa Bay in Mozambique and deliver them to towns in the interior where supplies were needed. The heavily laden ox-wagons would cross through

wild country where dangerous predators abounded, crocodile-infestedwaters had tobe crossed andwhere the Tsetse fly, ticks and malaria mosquitos just added to the misery. It was along this transport route that Sir Percy FitzPatrick wrote the wonderful book called Jock of the Bushveld about the male Staffordshire bull

The handover of the brand new Toyota Hilux Double Cab 4 x 4 by the Dealer Principle of Lydenburg Toyota Fanie Erasmus (in jeans), to the Warden of the Umbabat Private Nature Reserve, Bryan Havemann. Mark Griffiths (green shirt), the manager of Ntsiri Game Reserve in the Umbabat where the handover took place, joins in the champagne celebration

26 |