Probus Club of Meltham

Today’s speaker was Paul White who presented photographs showing his visit to the
Kalahari and Kruger National Parks in South Africa. At least, he had intended to do so, but
had found that he had so many pictures that today’s presentation was centred only on the
Kalahari; the Kruger Park will have to wait for another day!
The park is situated in the east of South Africa, in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, and
comprises a huge area, significantly larger than the whole of western Europe. The park was
initially founded to protect the then endangered Gemsbok antelope, and is an area almost
untouched by humankind, except for a very few overnight accommodation sites and fuel
stations. Indeed, so large is the area, that visitors are not allowed to enter unless they have
previously booked accommodation in the few sites available.Whilst described as desert, seasonal rainfall does bring vegetation and a varied colour palette, but all the animals depend heavily on available water supplies, which were
provided, strangely enough, by the British Army, who dug trenches to protect themselves
during the war with German East Africa. These abandoned trenches now form the bulk of
water pools upon which the animals depend.
Whilst the animals are extremely nervous of predators, they are totally unmoved by human
presence. Even lions will, or would, given the chance, approach to within feet of humans!
Elephants have yet to be found in the park, but, over the last 3 or 4 years, giraffe have now
returned from Namibia.
Unfortunately, getting to the park is an arduous task. There is a local airport, Uppington
International Airport, so called because NASA identified it as a possible emergency landing
site during the Shuttle program, but as it only sees 2 or 3 daily landings, and closes after
each one, then it cannot truly be called international. Paul admitted that his wife found the
whole expedition tedious, and is very, very unlikely to repeat the visit.