3 November 2003
The Kruger National Park has introduced four additional adventure trails for offroad vehicle enthusiasts who wish to explore some of the famous game reserve’s more inaccessible areas.
The four trails, which take between four and five hours to complete, take guests as close as possible to the different wilderness areas in the park, but are not intended to be-off road “tests” for 4×4 vehicles; rather, these vehicles are used exclusively due to river crossings and dongas on the routes.
The park’s five-day Lebombo Adventure Trail along the Mozambican border has proved to be extremely popular since its establishment two years ago.
The new routes are the Northern Plains Adventure Trail (north of Shingwedzi), the Nonokani Adventure Trail (between Phalaborwa and Letaba), the Mananga Adventure Trail (east of Satara), and the Madlabantu Adventure Trail (near Pretoriuskop).
“In all cases, the routes were carefully chosen from the existing range of firebreak and other management roads, and comply with the Kruger National Park recreation opportunity zoning (ROZ) plan,” said park spokesman Raymond Travers.
The ROZ plan is a systematic mapping of people’s activities in the park, designed to keep wilderness areas intact but to identify and develop opportunities for tourism in footprints already exploited by park operations.
“The development of the routes required a comprehensive environmental operational and management study, to ensure that the activity was managed within the framework of environmental best practice guidelines,” Travers said.
Only six vehicles will be allowed on each trail daily in order to minimise environmental damage, Travers said, adding that guests would be urged to use ablution facilities at nearby camps before the start of the trail.
Management at the park has also introduced mountain bike trails operating from the Olifants Tourist Camp, in the central region.
Source: BuaNews
