Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
with rich hardwood furniture. Alternatively, you can choose from a handful of more se-
cluded chalets perched high on a rock terrace deeper in the concession, or save a bit of
money and pitch your own tent in the high-lying plateau campsite. To reach Waterberg
Wilderness Lodge, take the D2512 gravel road 8km northeast of the park entrance.
Wabi Lodge $$$
( 067-306500;
www.wabi.ch
;
per person sharing from N$650)
Wabi is a private luxury
set-up almost 30km from Waterberg Plateau on the D2512. The Swiss owners have impar-
ted their heritage on the design and furnishing of the eight bungalows and in the well-pre-
pared food. It runs its own wildlife drives including night drives where you've a chance to
see honey badgers, caracals, genets, brown hyenas, and even cheetahs and leopards.
LODGE
THE RED LINE
Between Grootfontein and Rundu, and Tsumeb and Ondangwa, the B8 and B1 cross the 'Red Line', the Animal
Disease Control Checkpoint veterinary control fence separating the commercial cattle ranches of the south from
the communal subsistence lands to the north. Since the 1960s this fence has barred the north-south movement of
animals as a precaution against foot-and-mouth disease and rinderpest. Animals bred north of this line have not
been allowed to be sold to the south or exported to overseas markets.
As a result, the Red Line has effectively marked the boundary between the developed and developing world.
The landscape south of the line is characterised by a dry, scrubby bushveld (open grassland) of vast ranches,
which are home only to cattle and a few scattered ranchers. North of the Animal Disease Control Checkpoint,
travellers enter a landscape of dense bush, baobab trees, mopane scrub and small
kraals
(hut villages), where the
majority of individuals struggle to maintain subsistence lifestyles.
This impasse may soon be resolved, however. In late 2012, the Namibian government stepped up its efforts to
have much of the existing 'protected' area internationally recognised as being free of livestock disease. This could
see the Red Line shifted up as far as the western boundary of Bwabwata National Park (the Caprivi Strip is still
regarded as a high-risk zone for foot-and-mouth disease). And perhaps, one day, the line will be erased.
Information
Waterberg Plateau Park is accessible by private vehicle, though visitors must explore the
plateau either on foot or as part of an official wildlife drive conducted by NWR.
With the exception of walking trails around the Waterberg Resort, both unguided and
guided hiking routes in Waterberg must be booked well in advance through Namibia
Wildlife Resorts (
Click here
)
in Windhoek.
