Green is the new Black ...

Green is the new black. No, really; we’re recyc­ling, driv­ing hybrid cars and gen­er­ally try­ing to be intel­li­gent enough not to melt the polar ice caps or widen the hole in the ozone layer. So why not travel green as well?

Eco-tourism is low impact travel, usu­ally to pro­tec­ted areas in which flora, fauna and cul­tural her­it­age are the main attrac­tions. Its focus is on edu­cat­ing the eco­lo­gic­ally con­scious trav­el­ler and min­im­ising the neg­at­ive aspects of con­ven­tional tour­ism, while provid­ing fund­ing for con­ser­va­tion ini­ti­at­ives and eco­nomic oppor­tun­it­ies for local communities.

Of course, it’s not all ser­i­ous… mostly eco-tourism is about hav­ing a good old bush­whack­ing fun time in nature. And with South Africa’s picture-perfect land­scapes and status as the third most bio-diverse coun­try in the world, it’s fast becom­ing one hot des­tin­a­tion for eco-tourists. And with good reason …

If it’s wild­life you’re after, you can’t go wrong with the Kruger National Park, which has been lur­ing vis­it­ors through its gates since they opened to the pub­lic in 1927. The park, which spans nearly 19 000 square kilo­metres across the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, boasts almost ridicu­lously fre­quent spot­tings of our fam­ous Big Five - Rhino, Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard and, of course, Lion - as well as a host of other bush crit­ters and birds. But please take note: the only shoot­ing you’ll be doing is with your cam­era. Accommodation in the Kruger Park ranges from lux­ury safari lodges to self-catering rest camps. Alternatively, a day pass into the Park will only set you back R120 per per­son. Feel free to chauf­feur your­self around (a 4x4 comes in handy but is not strictly neces­sary), or take advant­age of a tour by an expert guide. Whichever way you decide to go about it, there are few things more exhil­ar­at­ing than see­ing these anim­als in their nat­ural habitat.

Fancy a hike? Table Mountain’s man­i­fold attrac­tions extend bey­ond the Cableway – the Hoerikwaggo Trail is an incred­ible six-day,100km trail from Cape Town to Cape Point through the Table Mountain National Park, con­struc­ted by 400 pre­vi­ously unem­ployed path-builders, who are now employed as moun­tain guides, tour­ism staff and rangers. Hikers can book one, two or three-night hikes, start­ing at R220 per per­son (the full five-day trail will only be open in June 2010). The lux­uri­ously rus­tic ten­ted camps, built only on pre­vi­ously dam­aged sites, have hot water, fully equipped kit­chens and open fires to restore you after the day’s exer­tions wan­der­ing through a reserve steeped in the rich cul­tural his­tory of the first people and sur­roun­ded by indi­gen­ous fyn­bos and wildlife.

If it’s a more leis­urely meander you want, book your­self onto a Tsitsikamma Canopy Tour, a breath­tak­ing form of eco-tourism which allows you to enter and exper­i­ence the Tsitsikamma indi­gen­ous rain­forest on the Western Cape’s Garden Route, a pre­vi­ously inac­cess­ible nat­ural envir­on­ment (R395 per per­son). A series of plat­forms and ‘fufi’ slides built high up in the giant Outeniqua Yellowwoods allows you to tra­verse the forest’s 116 vari­et­ies of tree while keep­ing an eye out for anim­als on the forest floor (any­thing from bush pigs to leo­pards) and an estim­ated 250 spe­cies of birds. The entire sys­tem was built and func­tions in the most envir­on­ment­ally eth­ical way pos­sible and the state-of-the-art equip­ment is rated first in the world.

South Africa has really put itself on the map in terms of its myriad eco-tourism des­tin­a­tions.  Kloofing in the Magaliesberg, whale-watching in Hermanus, shark diving in Gansbaai, scuba tours, hik­ing trails, game reserves … the list is seem­ingly end­less. So go on, get out there!

Useful Links:
Urban Sprout at http://www.urbansprout.co.za/
Cape Town Green Map: http://www.capetowngreenmap.co.za/
SA Parks board: http://www.sanparks.org/