Saving rhinos: the African ultramarathon welcoming Chinese runners to help stop the slaughter
- South Africa’s Entabeni Safari Conservancy is establishing an ultramarathon to support rhino conservation as poaching for horn continues
- Chinese participants are especially welcome, as conservationists hope to change the misconception that rhino horn has medicinal properties
When you trek through African bush on foot, your senses sharpen, movements take on extra urgency and you start talking in whispers.
Solly, the ranger, is constantly scanning the ground for animal tracks. We do not have guns, only running backpacks, but, according to Solly, there is no danger – lions do not come up this high on the plateau, so it’s perfectly safe to hold an ultramarathon.
I have worked on ultras around the world – once, in Sri Lanka, rogue wild elephants on the racecourse led to a revolt by local staff who refused to enter the forest. The ultramarathon we are inspecting the racecourse for is to be held in the Entabeni Safari Conservancy, a private game reserve in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province.
Entabeni’s symbol, a small flat-topped mountain, rises like a colossal tree trunk in the middle of the plain and rhinos, giraffes, wildebeest and zebras wander lazily around it. Continue north and you will realise that you are on a plateau – suddenly a rocky precipice drops you into the lowland part of the park, where crocodiles and hippos splash about in the lush wetlands. Dirt tracks, used by commuting cheetahs, warthogs and zebras, as well as by visitors’ jeeps, connect the reserve’s lodges.
The smiling staff and the idyllic proximity of humans and wildlife belie the war that exists across Africa – a war between rangers and poachers, a conflict of escalating sophistication and brutality, fuelled largely by the soaring demand for rhino horn in China and Vietnam.
