It is a difficult equation that faces the hotel and Africa now. The increasing number of safari operations brings thousands of tourists and income into the wilderness every year. In Namibia’s Etosha, Africa’s largest Wildlife Reserve, there is now a tarmac road linking the major waterholes, where small grandstands have been created to cater to the visitors wanting to view the wildlife. In other African Parks, dozens of Landrovers daily crisscross the wilderness with their camera-toting occupants ticking off the boxes marked giraffe, elephant or lion. Lodges proliferate, raising the population of the wilderness by thousands of per cent whilst bringing income and employment. Numbers grow by double digit percentages annually.
Bushmans Kloof epitomises this dilemma. Catering for wedding parties, sons bringing mothers, daughters or grandmothers to experience the wonder of the wilderness, creates expectations and places demands on the property and its operation. Sitting high on a Landrover to see game is wonderful, but wind chill to an 83 year old is a different matter to wind chill for a 38 year old. ‘Predator free’ appears in the brochure for those seeking reassurance but there are also 18 different variety of snake, many of them deadly, to worry those who want a sanitised Disney experience. Even an ostrich can kill a man, and wilderness means nature 'red in tooth and claw'. Wilderness is wild, and the balance between tourism, profitable hotel operation, the needs of communities and the wildlife the tourist wants to see is a delicate one.
We all change – change is one of the constants of life. My fears that refurbishment would in some way change Bushmans for the worse were not realised. This place is still a little piece of heaven on red sandstone earth. However, change is constant and I am not sure how much civilisation can be brought to the wilderness. To my mind, the charm of Bushmans is the near perfect balance between the best that hospitality has to offer and the experience of the wilderness orchestrated by an able operator. The balance is still there, perfection a little closer – but the TVs may just be a weight on the wrong side of the balance, a step away from ‘retreat’ and ‘wilderness’ towards the indulgence of urban demands for domesticity.
In a microcosm, Bushmans represents this larger dilemma. Worldwide, tourism development provides incomes and homes for those in desperate need of both. Wilderness and hospitality are uneasy partners in this process.
Patrick Goff
Editor
