Back to the wild in South Africa, thanks to ecotourism

KA'INGO GAME RESERVE, South Africa — Nick Callichy wheels the open Land Cruiser around the edge of the pond, and there, suddenly, are two female lions, maybe 50 feet away, lying in the shade.

"Don't move," Callichy warns. "Stay still, and enjoy it."

Five years ago, the 21,500 acres of the Ka'ingo reserve were divided among nine farms raising peanuts and tobacco. There were no lions, rhinos, Cape buffalo or elephants. But all these animals were re-introduced to the Waterberg Mountains region as landowners turned from farming to tourism, and the results can be spectacular.

There are dozens of safari packages offered across South Africa. Some are for hunting, some for photography, some just for watching the animals.

Ka'ingo and other sites of the Waterberg region differ because they're bringing back the wild to an area that spent generations under the plow or the hooves of cattle. From Marakele National Park in the southwest to the Lapalala Wilderness in the northeast, the region covers about 5,600 square miles of sandstone buttresses, broad plateaus and brush and acacia trees.

Cheetahs are the latest species brought to Ka'ingo under Callichy's supervision. South Africa offers ranchers a bounty of about $2,100 not to shoot cheetahs and instead allow animal wardens to come on their land to capture the animals. Ka'ingo got three identical cheetah brothers through the program and is adding a female as well.

The animals have to be acclimated to the reserve and to each other, and are meanwhile kept in a large pen where visitors can go inside for a close look as the fleet cats feed on freshly-killed impala.

"They're not lethal, but don't turn your back on them," Callichy said.

Callichy is a tall, sunburned game warden who speaks with a broad South African accent. His love of the bush is evident in sayings like "elephant dung, that's the true smell of Africa!" He offers box lunches, drinks and plates of hors d'oeuvres to day visitors as he wheels the Land Cruiser over Ka'ingo's sandy roads. He keeps an elephant gun in a case on the dashboard for emergencies.

He hasn't had to use it. The bigger risk for tour rangers is bumper-crunching a Land Cruiser at the beautiful Ka'ingo lodge.

"Each time a ranger bumps another vehicle, he has to carry an ostrich egg for 24 hours," Callichy said. "The humiliation has stopped our vehicle crunches completely."

White settlers pushed into the Waterberg area in the late 19th century and struggled with malaria and sleeping sickness. The region developed a reputation as a retreat for big-game hunters, outlaws and contrarians who wanted to escape civilization.

Farms averaging about 5,000 acres emerged, and tobacco became the staple of the region. Land ownership was whites-only. Blacks worked as tenant farmers.

The turn to ecotourism began in the 1990s. Naturalists like Clive Walker helped establish the Lapalala Wilderness to help bring animals like rhinos back from the brink of extermination.

Walker and his wife, Conita, run a Rhino Museum north of Mabatlane (formerly Vaalwater) that for several years has featured young rhinos the Walkers are restoring to health. They have a 4-year-old female black rhino on 250 penned acres named Moeng (Visitor) that was gored repeatedly as a newborn, probably by a bull rhino pursuing her mother.

Moeng coos and whines like a whale when Conita Walker approaches. "We've counted 14 different calls, where the pitch goes from high to low," she said. "The low pitch is a call of demand," a call Moeng makes repeatedly until she's given handfuls of game feed pellets.

The Walkers hope they can find a mate for Moeng and eventually release the pair into the wild.

Some game farms in the Waterberg specialize in crocodiles, elephants and even white lions. Many are open for day visitors, and larger ones like Ka'ingo offer luxurious accommodations at outback lodges with pools, gourmet meals and zebras grazing in the yard.

"We're trying to manage the property back to untouched bushveld. That's our aim," said Ross Howat, Ka'ingo's manager. "Being a part of the animals, and what happens to them every day and looking after them, it's an awesome experience.

"This is how South Africa used to be 300 years ago."