Africa Wild

And finally the practitioners recommendation regarding the proposed development:

Don't like the last thing one bit...

What does a luxury camp site have, that a normal camp site does not have?

“Luxury camp site means a camping site for campers with tents, trailer or caravan with private ablution”

And:

Each site has their own private ablution facility (toilet and shower), washbasin, a braai stand, a water and an electricity point. Each site will be wooden pole screened.

KTP is facing increasing problems with road conditions, water, sanitation and camp maintenance, how will the park cope with more tourist facilities and more visitors?

The way bookings is currently handled with more than 6 people per campsite when adding the kids, 2 cars and 2 trailers/caravans or even 3 cars per site the park can not handled it. In the end the quality of your visit will determine if you will return next year.

The problem is that there are so many people that want to experience the park, that those not going next year, already replaced by eagerly new visitor who will be disappoint and so it will continue most likely for another 10 or more years. Nossob and MataMata already fully booked for June July. I am sure that those that booked did not know about the fact that you might not have water at Nossob and only 6 showers for 120 people (or is it 150) with the sewerage system not lasting for 24 hours at Mata Mata.

Sorry to say that, SANParks will make their money and if we do not see anything remember to bring along enough wood, and harde hout (brandy) so that you can enjoy the outdoors untill 3 am in the morning around your campfire and 20 other friends on 3 sites. SANParks do not enforce quiet time anymore and worry if you camping right on top of your neighbour. Plenty of space.

As I've said before in another forum, I'm not opposed to development at any cost in the KTP. My concerns are rather about the environmental impact on the already limited road infrastructure, water, sanitation, rubbish, etc, that will result from all these extra people and vehicles in the KTP. If we imagine 2 cars and 6 people per campsite, the worst-case scenario arising from the proposed developments is 56 extra cars and 158 extra people per day in the park, all competing for resources that are not even coping with current demand.

On our latest trip in May 2012, for instance, Nossob ran short of water and the toilets at Mata Mata were out of order for 3-4 days. And that was long before the June/July school holidays, when I hear things didn't go well either.

And yet, the Draft Basic Assessment report recently issued for comment by 14 August (contact person: pieter@delron.co.za) says water for the new luxury campsite and new chalets at Nossob, for instance, "will be obtained from Nossob’s existing boreholes'. Can they really mean the existing boreholes that aren't even coping with existing requirements?

This isn't the only problem. If you don’t want to say later that you didn’t know about what is planned for this wilderness area, please read this update of what's said in the draft report, and why I think it doesn't really tackle the issues satisfactorily: http://roxannereid.weebly.com/1/post/20 ... pdate.html

Welcome Annie, great post and well said. I agree with all you are saying, the powers that be seem to forget that we are talking about a very sensitive arid region here, where water is not in abundance. It almost seems that the lure of increased income/revenue addles the practical mind

Parliamentary update: Response to question on whether SANParks is investigating the possibility of expanding tourist facilities

Wilderness camp at Jan se draai? Extra units at GK, Uri and KK?
4x4 camping at Stoffelsdraai? And all on top of the existings plans
that are mentioned in the above as well? Hand me a bucket...