Officials from Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism and SANParks met recently for a fence-cutting ceremony recently which will see the area of Addo National Elephant Park in the Eastern Cape extended by 12 000ha to 24 000ha.
The removal of the fence will merge the two areas stretching from the Addo Main Camp down to the park's Camp Matyholweni rest camp near Colchester on the Algoa Bay coastline. Elephants, lion, hyena and other species will now have more space to roam across to the Colchester area of the Park. Buffalo, zebra and antelope species have already been introduced to the area.
"Addo is one of Nelson Mandela Bay's biggest tourism draw-cards, we are ecstatic that they are making headway on their expansion plans, and that their elephant population wins in the process by getting a little more breathing space," said NMBT Marketing Manager Titus Chuene.
In preparation for the extension to the park, the Colchester area has been developed to the tune of R45m which includes roads, fencing, wildlife introduction, construction of the rest camp and removing old fence lines and invasive alien vegetation. The development of the area formed part of a joint collaboration with SANParks, the Department of Environmental Affairs' Poverty Relief programme and Infrastructure Development Programme as well as the World Bank.
- Pat Dewil and Call of Africa Safaris
- Professional wildlife guide, conservationist, student of Africa politics and observer of human foibles. My stamping grounds are the wilds of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Botswana, Madagascar and Cameroon and the Central Africa Republic. "Walking on the Wildside" is an attempt to share the stories of the adventures and anecdotes about the interesting people and animals I've collected along the way. www.callofafrica.co.za