Unique walking trail at Berg-en-Dal upgraded

BERG-EN-DAL – The unique Rhino Trail winding around the rest camp close to the Malelane Gate was recently upgraded and now also features 26 new braille boards.

It is the only one of its kind in the Kruger National Park. The improvements have added to the camp’s appeal and ease of access for guests with various disabilities like visual impairment.

The Lowveld Honorary Rangers officially unveiled the revamped trail on April 6, after adopting and working on it last year under leadership of Pieter de Bruyn.

The trail is about 3,2 kilometres long and runs mostly next to the perimeter fence. The first 800 metres are accessible to the visually impaired thanks to a cable that they can walk along.

According to David Malloch-Brown, the chairman for the Lowveld Region’s Honorary Rangers, the cable on the first section of the trail needed to be replaced, as some stretches were gone or had deteriorated.

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A team of dedicated Honorary Rangers started the project off by sanding and painting the poles for the cable, spending many hours in the scorching sun.

After the cable had been replaced, they decided to redo the braille boards, which had sun damage, and make them more interactive for people with visual impairments.

There are 26 braille boards on the first section of the trail, containing descriptions on the Big 5, the Small 5 (babies of the Big 5), Smallest 5, the Big 6 birds, the Big 5 trees and interesting facts on other fauna and flora.

A total of 25 trees will also soon be marked with braille tree tags.

The boards are designed to be easy and interesting reads for children and adults. More information boards will be installed on the rest of the trail at a later stage.

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Since many people take a breather and sit next to the perimeter fence to admire the view, new benches are being erected along the trail.

New signs indicating the start and end of the trail, as well as welcome signs at the entrance to the rest camp, were erected. Guests will also be directed along the trail with black rhino resin castings, rhino spoor tiles and rhino spoor painted on the road.

Malloch-Brown also mentioned that there are many other exciting plans for the trail, such as a child education section called The Riddle Corner.

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They hope to also pave the first 800 metres to make it wheelchair-friendly, thereby making it the only trail in the KNP accessible to the disabled.

Guests who have visited Berg-en-Dal will know that the camp also has a museum with interesting educational displays and is regularly visited by school groups eager to learn about conservation.

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The SANParks Honorary Rangers are a volunteer organisation that rely solely on donations and sponsorships and are extremely thankful for the sponsors that helped make the project a reality.

They would like to thank Frank Webb of the Lowveld Botanical Society, Lou-Nita le Roux of SANBI, Green Plastic’s Adele de Waal, Michael Canadas of Bronze Art Africa, Albie Pretorius of Extreme Signs, the Lions Club Nelspruit, Brenda Rocher of Tree Tags, DB Training Solutions and Gerrit Pieterse of Pick n Pay White River.

Bronze Art Africa is currently involved in a fund-raiser to erect a life-sized, bronze black rhino bust at the camp. Canadas, a bronze artist, will be making five limited-edition bronze rhino busts that will be sold at a once-in-a-lifetime price. The proceeds will go towards the rhino statue.

For more information on the fund-raiser, contact Bronze Art Africa on 013-750-0568 or 083-677- 6954 and to learn more about the trail project, contact De Bruyn on 082-558-4369.