Dispatch 26 - Parque Nacional do Limpopo
It's a huge piece of wilderness tagged on to the Kruger National Park. We're met by Senhor Baldau, the tall colourful park director who'd previously been in charge of the remote Niassa Reserve on the Rovuma River that marks the border between Mozambique and Tanzania. With him is well-respected conservationist and old friend Derek Potter, previously with KZN Wildlife and now project manager for the new Parque Nacional do Limpopo. We're all guests at Machampane - a small community tented camp not far from the Giriyondo Gate border post supported and managed by Glynn O'Leary, Johan Kriek and their team - good blokes who also run 4x4 trails through the area. With us is also a new group of expedition volunteers who'd once again been sent in by Nando's who've linked their Help Nando's Fight Malaria campaign to the expedition. Soon a fire is lit and the talking stick passed around. Senhor Baldau sings a ditty about the importance of conserving wildlife and Derek Potter gives us a fascinating introduction into the park - one of the biggest challenges of which is to involve the many Shangaan communities that are living within the area. Once again it's all about the importance of linking nature, culture and community and that's what's our humble expedition is here to help with. Sponsor banners fly in the wind, the team from 4x4MegaWorld have put up goal posts and nets and white marked the soccer field at Massangir, there's a gazebo and chairs, park officials and media, a sound system is connected to the Grindrod sponsored Land Rover, there's a local commentator, a Man-of-the-Match certificate and a floating trophy for the winning Boundless Soccer Challenge winning team. There's traditional entertainment and speeches, and a school kids' art competition with the theme of nature, culture and community. Some of the Mozambican Land Rover Club has come all the way from Maputo. It's all great fun - a beast had been slaughtered and it's dark by the time we pitch our tents on the banks of Massangir Dam.
Next day it's a long trek, community work and traveling. Grindrod have sponsored life boards - blue plastic kidney shaped desks for kids that have even got a built-in container for drinking water. Each little kid at the village of Machamba gets one, which is great because the little bush school has no regular desks. Pregnant mums get mosquito nets and malaria education and there's soccer balls for the kids. We camp near the Limpopo - Jeez can some of those Nando's blokes snore! There's not much game but a wonderful feeling of unfenced real Africa. Glynn O'Leary from the camp at Machampane, a wonderful supporter of Transfrontier conservation and community tourism, asks me to scribble something about Parque Nacional de Limpopo. It's a fledgling park, I write, the habitat beautifully intact, the wild animals slowly returning - it's a park for our grandchildren's grandchildren and beyond, keeping alive the Transfrontier Peace Parks' vision of great men like Dr Anton Rupert, Prince Bernard of the Netherlands and Madiba himself.
We say cheers to the Nando's expedition volunteers. Boet Zaayman, a South African who's stationed at Kuala Lampur in Malaysia writes: It's been life changing - a trip of a lifetime. Craig "Mangomongomo" (we've given them all Shangaan names) Bingham, from Perth in Australia writes: Thanks for a wonderful adventure and the privilege of being able to make a difference in people's lives. Avoiding the light drizzle Glynn O'Leary sits on a canvas camp chair with his back against the trunk of a big mopani tree and with an umbrella to keep the rain off the pages of the Boundless Southern Africa Scroll dedicated to nature, culture and community that we're carrying across Africa, he scribbles these words:
Dream of an Africa like this, where the elephant roams and the roar of the lion shatters the night. Dream like us of Africa where its people and wildlife can share its wide open spaces and prosper. Together Kruger National Park, Gonarezhou and Parque Nacional do Limpopo for the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park and provide 3.8 million hectares of wilderness in fulfillment of this dream. Parque Nacional do Limpopo, the Mozambique sector of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park provides 1.1 million of this magnificent wilderness. Bounded by the north and east by the mighty Limpopo and the spectacular vistas of the Lebombo to the west. The raging Shingwedzi flows through its heart until it reaches the Rio Elefantes, the southern boundary of the great park that is home to a wide variety of bird and wildlife. Explore this undiscovered corner of Southenr Africa and fulfil your dream.
