I leave Johannesburg at 06:30, heading west to Groot-Marico in North West, 210km away. Near Broederstroom I cross the provincial border, and then it’s Hartbeespoort and the dam wall, before the landscape along the N4 starts being dominated by mining infrastructure. Near Rustenburg, it changes to dry bushveld and fresh air.
I’m on my way to meet Daan and Beatrice van der Merwe at Wilde-Als, the Marico Biosphere Reserve’s visitor centre. Daan used to be in the army and Beatrice is a social worker. Nowadays this biosphere project keeps them busy.
“The area was declared a protected environment in 2016,” Daan tells me. “That made it possible for us to apply to Unesco in 2017 to have it declared the 10th biosphere reserve in South Africa. It spans 447268ha, of which only the 5000ha Molemane Eye Nature Reserve is state-owned. The rest is private land – it’s one of the things that make these biospheres unique.
“Water is the main reason we managed to have it declared a biosphere reserve. The Limpopo, Vaal and Orange rivers share a watershed here, the only place it does so, which is important from a conservation point of view – if you can control it, you can control the quality and quantity of the water.”
Daan and Beatrice take us to the Rietspruit Nature Reserve, where the Rietspruit, Bokkraal se Loop and Ribbokfontein se Loop join Kaaloog se Loop, which originates at the Marico Eye. The biosphere spans a vast aquifer with a number of springs. “Divers have gone down as deep as 45m in the Marico Eye, and at times it pumps out 700000litres of water per hour. With that, you can fill a standard public swimming pool in 26 seconds,” Daan says.
Another Daan, Daan Buys from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, has joined us on our outing to set camera traps in the reserve. He monitors large mammals that occur in the area, among them kudu, bushbuck, klipspringer, aardwolf, brown hyena, caracal and serval.
At the Wilde-Als Visitor Centre on the main street, you can hear the chip-chirrrrrrr of woodland kingfishers. Livingstone, the Van der Merwes’ ridgeback, angles for a head scratch. “Livingstone is coming along too,” Daan says. “If we come across a leopard in the reserve, he has to negotiate on our behalf.”
“The area is largely unspoilt,” Beatrice says, “despite the
