LEBOMBO
A border is a strange thing. Over centuries, people created them to protect the interests of the group inside, and to keep others out. Africa has its fair share of weird borders: long, straight lines drawn by European leaders in the 1880s without taking people, languages or landscapes into account.
Thankfully, it's sometimes possible to correct the mistakes of the past, which is how transfrontier parks and conservation areas came to be. Where wilderness areas have been cut up by borders, countries join forces to manage them as a single entity, to the benefit of nature and the people who live there.
In South Africa, the Kgalagadi and |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld transfrontier parks are the superstars of this initiative, but there are another 10 similar conservation areas in sub-Saharan Africa, from the Mayombe Forest Transfrontier Protected Area on the coast between Gabon and Angola, to the Niassa-Selous Transfrontier Conservation Area between Mozambique and Tanzania.
The Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area (10029km², about half the size of the Kruger Park) is pure dynamite when it comes to scenery, biodiversity, accommodation options and activities. Not to mention wildlife – on land, in the air and in the water. The border posts are also relatively small and hassle-free.
Here's your seven-day travel plan so you can explore the region like the animals that once migrated freely.
DAY 1 Mbombela to Phophonyane
I'm travelling with Nicholas Tucker from Boundless Southern Africa, a SADC initiative that promotes tourism and investment in the transfrontier conservation areas of southern Africa. Nick wants to see how some of the community projects he's involved with are faring after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Emile van den Heetkamp, a guide from Underberg in KwaZulu-Natal, is also with us. Emile is a fixer, one of those people with a broad knowledge of nature and a contact list the length of a giraffe's neck.
From Mbombela, we travel south on the R40 to Barberton. Just outside town, the R40 crosses the Kaapmuiden roadthe start of the well-known Barberton Makhonjwa Geo Trail. For about 40km you crawl up the steep Saddleback Pass – a journey that takes you 3,5 billion years into the past.
