issue 4 digital FINAL

Heritage Travel
western corner of South Africa’s Northern Cape Province, on the
southern side of the Orange River. (Also see our feature elsewhere
in this edition.)
The Richtersveld was listed by UNESCO on the basis of its cultural
values, but it is also a much favoured destination for nature lovers.
This mountainous desert is communally owned and managed
and has sustained the semi-nomadic pastoral livelihood of the
indigenous Nama people with their seasonal migrations for two
millennia. The Nama people lent their name to Namibia (just
across the Orange River), Namaqualand and the Namib Desert.
Although a visit here will inevitably cover the entire area, it actually
consists of two distinct areas, the Richtersveld National Park, and
the southern Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape. It
is the latter that in 2007 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage
Site, and it is here where the area derives its cultural value, while
the park to the north is known more for its rugged natural scenic
Ancient fish traps at Kosi Bay, Isimangiliso Wetland Park / Mitchell Krog - Shutterstock.com
iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Along the northernmost stretch of South Africa’s east coast lies a
wetland system of exquisite beauty and unparalleled biodiversity, a
place legend has it was named Miracle Waters after the legendary
Zulu warrior King Shaka had sent one of his subjects to the area
who returned awed by what he found there. This is the iSimangaliso
Wetland Park, previously known as the Greater St. Lucia Wetland
Park.
In December 1999 it was listed as South Africa’s first UNESCO World
Heritage Site in recognition of its unsurpassed natural beauty and
its very unique global values. (We featured iSimangaliso Wetland
Park in our previous edition.)
1. Evidence of ancient volcanic eruption, Richtersveld Heritage Site / Victoria Martin
2. Indigenous people of the region / urosr - Shutterstock.com
attractions, although the two areas do overlap in both respects.
The Richtersveld National Park and the neighbouring Richtersveld
Community Conservancy is one of the Earth’s richest reservoirs
of plant and animal life, regarded as the only Arid Biodiversity
Hotspot on Earth. It has an astonishing variety of plant, bird and
animal life, much of it endemic.
Of this wetland park Nelson Mandela once said, “iSimangaliso must
be the only place on the globe where the oldest land mammal
(the rhinoceros) and the world’s biggest terrestrial mammal (the
elephant) share an ecosystem with the world’s oldest fish (the
coelacanth) and the world’s biggest marine mammal (the whale)”.
The park offers everything from camping to staying in luxury
accommodation, kayaking, scuba diving, horse riding, game
viewing, magnificent beaches, forests, rivers, lakes, engaging
with local culture and much more. Covering 332,000 hectare,
Perched on the edge of the National Park within the Conservancy,
is the tiny town of Eksteenfontein. Living in and around the little
town are many of the Nama people for whom the Richtersveld
Community Conservancy is the last refuge for their transhumance
lifestyle of migrating seasonally with their livestock from mountains
to river and back. It is also the last place on Earth where the
traditional way of life of the Khoikhoi, of whom the Nama are the
largest surviving clan, has been preserved.
iSimangaliso Wetland Park / Villiers Steyn - Shutterstock.com
iSimangaliso is South Africa’s third-largest protected area and is
made up of three major lake systems, eight interlinking ecosystems
spanning 3,280 km2, 700 year-old fishing traditions, most of South
Africa’s remaining swamp forests, Africa’s largest estuarine system,
526 bird species and 25,000 year-old vegetated coastal dunes –
among the highest in the world. Game is in abundance and lion
have been reintroduced into the park.
For more than 1,000 years this area has been the home of Tsonga
people who lived here in peaceful isolation until about 1895 when
the British interrupted it. Today they share the region with the Zulu