Southern Africa - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 172

in the parks means that once the day-visitors
clear away (and it's not like the parks ever feel
crowded) it's just you, the click of fruit bats or
whoop of hyenas, and the crackle of burning
coals under starry skies.

elephants, rhinos, cheetahs, caracals or leopards.
These projects have raised local awareness
of game conservation and recently led to an
amendment to South Africa's hunting laws,
thereby saving the lives of many animals.

Need to know The San Parks website ( W www.
sanparks.org) has accommodation and booking
facilities, information on conservation initiatives,
and even webcams showing what's going on at
your favourite waterhole. T [phone].

Need to know Phinda is six hours' drive from
Johannesburg or three from Durban. For details
of lodges, rates, activities and local attractions
see W www.phinda.com; T [phone]
4314. For volunteer programmes see W www.
conservationafrica.net; T [phone].

(Clockwise from top left) Giraffe
and young; The pool at Phinda's
Mountain Lodge; There are
more than enough bugs and
beasties to excite most kids

221 CONSErvATION IN ACTION AT
pHINDA, SOuTH AfrICA

At the seven different lodges in Kwazulu-
Natal's Phinda Resource Reserve, no attention
to detail is missed - from the private infinity
pools to personal butlers. These hideaways of
opulence are not ecolodges in the strict sense:
towels are changed daily and the lightbulbs
aren't even low energy. Yet their environmental
benefits are nevertheless impressive, since
profits from the lodges have been used to create
one of the most successful nature reserves in
South Africa.
It's hard to believe that twenty years ago
Phinda was degraded farmland with just a
handful of people scratching a living from
it. Today the 160-square-kilometre park is a
potent symbol of regeneration: it's an excellent
place to spot cheetah (the reserve was the first
to successfully reintroduce the cat and now
supplies young animals born here to other
parks); the critically endangered black rhino
has also been reintroduced; and some 4500 local
people benefit from the new clinic, schools and
employment the lodges have created.
Phinda's accommodation may be as exclusive
as it gets, but the reserve runs several
research projects in partnership with African
Conservation Experience, which enables
volunteers to stay in a simple farmhouse and
enjoy the reserve at less expense. Twice a day,
volunteers head out in safari vehicles to monitor