Park

Naute is one of Namibia’s largest man-made lakes. Its shoreline, abutting long stretches of rocky plains and intricate sections of small bays, is very attractive The dam location on the Löwen River was already identified by German engineers over a century ago, yet construction of the reservoir only took place 70 years later. The dam was created as a reliable source of water for the nearby town of Keetmanshoop, and to enable an agricultural scheme adjacent to the reservoir.

The lake creates an ideal focal point for a game park, although this was only proclaimed just prior to independence. Thirty years on, its tourism potential remains untapped, overlooked in the vastness of the ‘forgotten South’. Discussions around a tourism concession with the neighbouring !Gawachab Conservancy may gain momentum in the future. For now, Naute is still worth a brief stop-over visit while travelling between Keetmanshoop and the Fish River Canyon.

Travel Tips

WHEN TO BE THERE:

Visitor access is restricted to the recreation area; this is open all year
Day temperatures can be very hot during summer
Fishing competitions are held intermittently & the recreation area is a weekend retreat for locals
The game park is currently not open to visitors

WHAT TO DO:

Stop at the lake for a refreshing break on your travels
Enjoy a short walk & some good birding
Do a spot fishing along the shore
Visit the nearby agricultural scheme

WHAT TO REMEMBER:

Access is restricted to the small recreation area
A permit is required for fishing, obtainable at the Karas Regional Council in Keetmanshoop
There are no amenities at the dam
Do not litter, take all rubbish with you

African Comb Duck

African Pygmy-Goose

Fulvous Whistling-Duck

Hottentot Teal

Southern Pochard

History

The hunters follow game paths and their intuition through the bushland. They’re proud to be out here. Their heritage is being recognised. I’m photographing them in traditional attire as part of a profile of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy. After a wide arc through the veld, we arrive back at the village at dusk. A fire is burning. All the older men, the women and children, are huddled around it. I’m transported back, to another time. I’m one of the hunters returning to share the joy of a successful hunt with our families. To ignite wonder in our children’s eyes.

Limited archaeological work has been done in northern and northeastern Namibia. Stone-age tools found near Rundu, and along the higher reaches of the Okavango in Angola, indicate that people have lived along the river for tens of thousands of years. Pottery used to store grain was found west of Rundu and dates back to the year 850 of the Current Era, providing some of the earliest evidence of crops in Namibia. Younger finds from east of Rundu, dated to 1630, include smoking pipes and glass beads and reveal extensive early trade.

Due mostly to the lack of permanent surface water, people would have used the woodlands and omiramba south of the river more intermittently. The Ju/’hoansi (also referred to as !Kung) were the first modern inhabitants of the northern Kalahari. They are believed to have roamed here for at least 2,000 years.

Bantu speakers such as the, Kwangali, Gciriku and Mbukushu only arrived over the past 500 years. According to oral tradition, they originate from the upper Zambezi and settled along the Okavango, planting crops and herding livestock. They traded sporadically with the hunter-gatherers from the waterless woodlands to the south.

The first Europeans penetrated these reaches less than 150 years ago. Karl Johan Andersson, on his trip to Lake Ngami from Walvis Bay in 1853, travelled far to the south of Khaudum; on his way to reach the Okavango River in 1859, he passed to the northwest. Livingstone, who discovered Lake Ngami in 1849 and skirted the fringes of the Okavango Delta, never came this far west.

Migrant Boers are the first people of European origin known to have reached Khaudum. After conflicts with the British, the Voortrekkers had left the Cape to establish the independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and Transvaal. Later, some decided to seek their fortunes in the unsettled northwestern interior. They left the Transvaal in 1874 and reached Khaudum in ‘78, guided by Ju/’hoansi hunters. The Trekboere inscribed their names in the Dorsland Boom, a huge baobab still standing south of the park. They stayed for some time at Leeupan before moving on to settle in southwestern Angola. Their journey became known as the Dorsland Trek (Thirstland Trek) due to the hardships they endured in the Kalahari.

The elephant hunter van Zyl, based at Gam in 1879, is likely to have been the first White man to exploit the ivory riches of the area, hunting up to the Okavango. In 1910, a police station was established on the river at Nkurenkuru and became the first official colonial presence in the region.

During the South African administration of the territory after World War I, a broad stretch along the river was declared as the Okavangoland tribal area in 1937. A vast tract to the south remained unallocated. The Odendaal Commission designated all ethnic homelands in the territory in 1968. The renamed Kavango was extended southwards to border the newly defined Bushmanland. This placed what became Khaudum in Kavango and significantly reduced the lands of the Ju/’hoansi.

When the struggle for independence became an armed conflict, the South African Defence Force established military bases throughout Bushmanland in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. These had an enormous effect on the Ju/’hoansi, and on wildlife and the environment.

By 1982, a police station had been established at Soncana. The nearby settlement apparently became known as Sikereti after Chief Inspector Sikereti, who reputedly continued to serve in the Namibian police force after independence. Police officer Pineas Moremi kept a large herd of cattle at Sikereti and shot dozens of lions to protect it. The police station was moved to Tsumkwe after the arrival of the military, while Pineas Moremi and his cattle shifted a hundred kilometres west to Karakuwisa during the negotiations for the establishment of the park.

Today, Khaudum falls within the boundaries of the Kavango East Region and is under the jurisdiction of the Gciriku Traditional Authority.

The name Khaudum comes from the Kaudom Omuramba. It’s interpreted as ‘hollow of the buffalo’. Buffalo were common throughout the park until the late 1980s. The last buffalo of the Khaudum-Nyae Nyae area were captured in 2006 and transferred to a securely-fenced area in the Nyae Nyae conservancy.

Various spelling exists for Khaudum. The omuramba was originally spelt Kaudum, which evolved into Kaudom. The park was gazetted as Khaudum. The new lodge in the park has adopted Xaudum as its spelling.

Negotiations to declare Khaudum as a state park began in 1982 between the Department of Nature Conservation and the Administration for Kavango. A Memorandum of Agreement, outlining the scope of the proposed park, was signed in December that year. This also included consensus on the formal protection of Mahango (now part of Bwabwata National Park) and Popa Falls. All three areas were proclaimed as game reserves at the start of 1989.
As part of the consultations around Khaudum, people living at Sikereti agreed to move to Karakuwisa with their cattle, where water and other infrastructure was provided for them. At this time, there were no longer any Ju/‘hoansi living in the area of the proposed park. They had resettled in the vicinity of Tsumkwe, largely due to the South African military presence and wide-scale enlistment in the army.

The border between Namibia and Botswana had been fenced by 1966, but in all other directions, the limits of the park were lines on a map. Khaudum remained part of a much larger open system. Simple cutlines were cleared of bush to mark the borders and allow park staff to patrol them, but wildlife was unhindered in its movements.
After the proclamation, simple park stations and adjoining camping sites were built along the Kaudom Omuramba in the north and at Sikereti in the south of the park. The biggest development in the newly protected area was the creation of about a dozen waterholes in the early 1990s. The waterholes are set along the omiramba of the park and maintain a natural ambience. No permanent water had previously been available and the artificial provision of perennial drinking places significantly changed the natural wildlife dynamics of the area. Game viewing hides were built at many of the water points during late 1990s.

In 1993, ‘West of Khaudum’ was opened as a conservation hunting concession by the MET to generate income from a managed buffer zone between the park and the Omuramba Omatako. In the mid-nineties, this land was partitioned into private farms by the Ministry of Lands. Despite extensive consultations, the new owners and residents of the farms showed no interest in forming a conservancy or taking part in other landscape-level conservation initiatives. Due to the remoteness of the area and a lack of surface water, development was initially slow. Over the last two decades, numerous boreholes have been drilled and much of the area is now fenced.

The Nyae Nyae Conservancy was one of the first four communal conservancies to be registered in 1998. This set the foundations for collaborative conservation between all national parks and neighbouring communities, which has become a vital component of wildlife management in Namibia. In 2005, two adjoining conservancies were registered north of the park and the Khaudum North Complex was subsequently formed to facilitate joint management between the park and these conservancies.

In 1998, a vision for all parks in Kavango and Caprivi (now the Zambezi Region) was developed, partly based on the recommendations of a socio-ecological survey undertaken in the early nineties. The document created a joint conservation vision amongst stakeholders, and included tourism development and community involvement in, and benefits from, all the parks. Cabinet approved the vision in 1999, paving the way for its implementation. A central aspect of tourism development were tourism concessions in the parks for neighbouring communities. In 2008, a concession agreement was signed between the northern conservancies and MET to establish tourism facilities in Khaudum. Unfortunately, the lodge built in 2015 was still not operational at the beginning of 2018. New entrance gates and park management station were recently built in the north and south of the park and opened in 2017.
The Kavango Zambezi Trans Frontier Conservation Area was ratified by the governments of the participating countries in 2011 and includes Khaudum, Nyae Nyae and surrounding lands. KAZA promotes natural wildlife movements and balanced land use.

Activities

Conservations

Ben Beytell was passionate about this region. He worked here for over a decade. He witnessed
Ju/’hoansi hunters taking ‘their share’ of meat from a giraffe killed by lions, while the cats glared from nearby bushes. He had to hunt livestock-killing lions around Tsumkwe. He was chased by thirsty elephants while repairing Khaudum water points. He negotiated agreements with communities, and with hunting and tourism operators. As Director of Parks and Wildlife, he oversaw the management of all parks in Namibia. Khaudum was always close to his heart.

Negotiations to declare Khaudum a state park began in 1982 between the Department of Nature Conservation and the Administration for Kavango. A memorandum of agreement, outlining the scope of the proposed park, was signed in December of that year. This also included consensus on the formal protection of Mahango (now part of Bwabwata National Park) and Popa Falls. All three areas were proclaimed as game reserves at the start of 1989.

During the consultations around Khaudum, people living at Sikereti agreed to move to Karakuwisa with their cattle, where water and other infrastructure was provided for them. At this time, Ju/’hoansi were no longer living in the area of the proposed park. They had resettled in the vicinity of Tsumkwe, largely due to the South African military presence and wide-scale enlistment in the army.

The border between Namibia and Botswana had been fenced since 1966, but in all other directions, the limits of the park were lines on a map. Khaudum remained part of a much larger open system. Simple cutlines were cleared of bush to mark the boundaries and allow park staff to patrol them, but wildlife was unhindered in its movements.

After the proclamation, simple park stations and adjoining camping sites were built along the Kaudom Omuramba in the north and at Sikereti in the south of the park. The biggest development in the newly protected area was the creation of about a dozen waterholes in the early 1990s. The waterholes are set along the omiramba of the park and maintain a natural ambience. No permanent water had previously been available and the artificial provision of perennial drinking places significantly changed the natural wildlife dynamics of the area. Game-viewing hides were built at many of the water points during late 1990s.

In 1993, ‘West of Khaudum’ was opened as a conservation-hunting concession by the MET to generate income from a managed buffer zone between the park and the Omuramba Omatako. In the mid-90s, this land was partitioned into private farms by the Ministry of Lands. Despite extensive consultations, the new owners and residents of the farms showed no interest in forming a conservancy or taking part in other landscape-level conservation initiatives. Due to the remoteness of the area and a lack of surface water, development was initially slow. Over the last two decades, numerous boreholes have been drilled by government to supply water to the farmers, and much of the area is now fenced.

To the south, the Nyae Nyae Conservancy was one of the first four communal conservancies to be registered in 1998. This set the foundations for collaborative conservation between all national parks and neighbouring communities, which has become a vital component of wildlife management in Namibia. In 2005, two adjoining conservancies were registered north of the park and the Khaudum North Complex was subsequently formed to facilitate joint management between the park and these conservancies.

In 1998, a vision for all parks in the Caprivi (now Zambezi) and Kavango regions was developed. The vision was based partly on the recommendations of a socio-ecological survey undertaken in the early nineties. The document created a joint conservation vision amongst stakeholders, and included tourism development and community involvement in, and benefits from, all the parks. Cabinet approved the vision in 1999, paving the way for its realisation. A central aspect of tourism development is tourism concessions in the parks for neighbouring communities. In 2008, a concession agreement was signed between the northern conservancies and MET to establish tourism facilities in Khaudum. Unfortunately, the lodge built in 2015 was still not operational at the beginning of 2018. New entrance gates and park management stations were recently built in the north and south of the park and opened in 2017.

The Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area was ratified by the governments of the participating countries in 2011 and includes Khaudum, Nyae Nyae and surrounding lands. KAZA promotes natural wildlife movements and balanced land use.

Map

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Naute Game Park

In a way itâ€™s refreshing when a wonderful little sanctuary remains beyond our hunger for leisure destinations. While Nauteâ€™s tourism potential remains unrealised, the game park does fulfil its conservation function.