How it all began

From the moment that Dale Parker looked out over the Palala River valley in May 1981, his love affair with Lapalala Wilderness began. His friend Clive Walker, the renowned conservationist, had brought him to see a game ranch being sold by one of the last of the ‘great white hunters’ of East Africa, Eric Rundgren, who had turned protector of the wildlife he had hunted with such dedication in the past.

As a conservationist himself, as well as a farmer and businessman, Dale immediately recognised the value of the unpolluted river with its abundant, swift-flowing waters. Spectacular steep gorges with sandstone cliffs towered above the pools and rapids of the river, cutting through the vast bushveld landscape which stretched away to the horizon.

Fired by the desire to conserve and protect this unique and unspoilt area, and particularly the catchment of the Palala River, Dale began a process of buying up the surrounding farms (17 in all) which continued for twenty years and resulted in the creation of Lapalala Wilderness as a 36 000 hectare (89 000 acre) game reserve, one of the largest private reserves in southern Africa.

Along the way Lapalala became the first reserve in South Africa to acquire black rhino. A group of five of these highly- endangered animals was bought from the Natal Parks Board at a historic game auction held in 1990, and more were added subsequently. The association with rhino, white as well as black, has continued and today Lapalala is one of the country’s leading private rhino sanctuaries.

From the beginning it was recognised that conserving wildlife depends on preserving the habitat, and the larger the area, the more species can be conserved. The enormous size of Lapalala, and its rich biodiversity, made it ideal as a key component of the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, the first region in the northern part of South Africa to be declared as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterberg_massif). This groundbreaking initiative was spearheaded to a large extent by Clive Walker at the time when he was the managing director of Lapalala Wilderness.

Lapalala was always about people as well as the environment. When the first farm was purchased there was already a small tourism enterprise on it, a string of simple, self-catered bushveld camps along the riverbanks which provided a certain amount of employment for local people as well as a place where visitors could come and enjoy wild nature in an inexpensive but relaxed and private setting.

Later on an environmental school was established, using a complex of thatched farm buildings on newly-acquired land in a bush setting near the Palala River. Under the leadership of Clive Walker this became the Lapalala Wilderness School, well known for offering environmental education to learners from private schools (mainly in Gauteng), as well as from less privileged schools in the local community.

The hope was to awaken an interest in conservation in these young people by giving them a chance to experience nature at close quarters – a first for many of them. It has worked so well that there are many examples of people in the wildlife and ecotourism industries today who gained their first inspiration at Lapalala. To date more than 50 000 youngsters have passed through programmes at Lapalala, with teacher training also becoming an important part of what we offer.

However in 2001 the untimely death of Dale Parker necessitated a rethink at Lapalala. It became essential to put the reserve on a financially sustainable footing, which meant closing the loss-making bush camps and developing a plan to bring in more income, as well as provide more jobs. It was decided that lion and elephant would be introduced, which involved undertaking large-scale bush clearing in order to improve game viewing, and this was well under way when in 2005 the news came that a substantial portion of the reserve had been gazetted as a land claim.

After the first shock, contact was made with the claimants and under the leadership of Dale’s son Duncan, a cordial and cooperative relationship has developed between the two parties. Together they have formulated exciting plans for the future, but cannot make any progress with these as the government has to date not been able to finalise the claims. So the future of Lapalala at this stage is uncertain, but the commitment to the ideals of caring for the environment and the community remain as strong as ever.