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Will the proposed Groen Spoeg National Park on the west coast be administered by SANParks?

I hope they change the name

For the non Afrikaans/Dutch speakers: Groen Spoeg translates to Green Spit.

I.E. booger.

Whatta name!!!

not for real...the name I mean.

where exactly will this new NP be along the west coast?

Proposed Groen Spoeg Park


Try this website
http://www.hondeklipbay.co.za/About.htm

Can find the site I really wanted with a map, but is between HondelipBay and Kleinsee from what I can see

http://www.south-north.co.za

The area will apparently be managed by Sanparks yes.

Fortunately this will not be called Groen Spoeg. It will be part of the nAmaqua National Park which has now climbed up the charts to be the third largest National Park. I was fortunate to be there in January birding desert, mountain and seaside in one park!

Howzit Bookman & welcome to the forum. Would you like to share your experience with us in the form of a trip report. It might enthuse others of us to go.

As Bookman has said, this area will be part of the Namaqua National Park. It is called Groen-Spoeg because it is the area between the Groen and Spoeg rivers south of Hondeklipbaai.

We love this area. Decided to do a long weekend camping there again from 16 December 2010. Again confirmed that we can not make a reservation for camping in this section. Arrived about 11:00 from some 450 km away. Disturbed to find all the campsites (those with built braai areas, some with composting toilets) occupied by big tented camps. Nobody around though. Presume these are tour operater's camps - for their customers to sleep over. Eventually found a small, less protected space to camp. Not even sure camping is allowed there. Anyhow, this seems like an unfair situation. Is it not time for SANParks to at least have a reservation system for this area - how difficult can that be? And generate some income at the same time.

I sent the above post to SANParks via their webquery facility and promptly received the 5 star reply below. Thank you Bernard van Lente, Namaqua Park Manager, for a comprehensive, logical and courteous response. Much appreciated. SANParks gets my vote!

"Thank you for your query and concerns.

The area in question was only recently taken over by SANParks and we are still in the process of rehabilitation and establishment of basic infrastructure (compare to the terrible state of the area outside the park- south of the Groen River- for instance). Because the park section is not yet up to standard we do not charge camping fees for now. Work is being done according to a strict business plan and there is still quite a bit to do, however we do not want to deprive visitors of the opportunity to camp here while we are working and hence we allow free camping on a first come, first serve basis for the short term. The tented camps are mostly just local private persons and none of them are tour operators. This problem should go away once there is a reservation system and payment involved.

Our planning is shortly as follows: we are in the process of advertising for the appointment of gate guards. We will start in February 2011 to construct a tourist office at Groen River. Only then can we install the required satellite equipment to manage a reservation system- the existing land lines (farm lines) are completely inadequate for our reservation systems. The system has to be at the coast to allow the relevant staff to check on arrivals, allocations etc. it will probably take up to 6-8 months to get everything in place (completion of offices, gate control etc) and hopefully by December 2011 we will be up and running. There are also some administrative issues which need finalization.

We realize the current situation can be frustrating- it is for us as well. Please keep in mind that this 60 000ha section has been barely more than a year under SANParks control, and that there were no offices, infrastructure, staff or anything else in place when we took over what was previously farmland and a severely abused coastline.

We would in the short term recommend camping out-of-season, then you will probably find you have a whole camp to yourself!

Kind regards".

This is great news as the Namaqua National Park and adjacent areas are very special and unique places. I hope it will have some benefit for Hondeklipbaai, the Fisherman’s Cottage is a great place to visit. Maybe of interest will be the further conservation efforts of the “Ludwig se Pou” (Ludwig’s Bustard). Their numbers are said to be getting less and they are on the red list of threatened species. Some of them crash into electric power lines which add to their numbers declining. I am so glad that SANPARKS are involved in this area and I do hope that these birds will be protected and saved from possible extinction. Best of luck with this important conservation project Bernard van Lente from SANPARKS, we will definitely visit in the future.

Definitely not fair to the Namaqualand and their inhabitants to even try and do direct translations to explain place names. The unique character of Namaqualand and its inhabitants gave us a rich culture that should be preserved.

Extract form Wikipedia:

Intercourse, Pennsylvania (pop. roughly 1,558) is an unincorporated village in Leacock Township, Lancaster County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, ten miles east of Lancaster on PA 340. As with the nearby towns of Bird-in-Hand, Blue Ball, and Paradise, Intercourse is a popular site for tourists because of its location in "Amish country".

I would like the Namaqua people to do some direct translations for these town in Amish country.