indwe magazine – April 2005

Nicky Oppenheimer
Text: Sam Weber
Images: © Tswalu Kalahari Reserve
“We are very opposed to lodges. We believe a lodge is something that happens in Canada.” – Nicky Oppenheimer
If you are weary of being ‘Game Vehicle Number 6’ in line to see one of the Big Five, if you yearn for solitude amidst the bustle of the global village, if you long to connect with the true essence of Africa and maybe, just maybe catch a glimpse of your own soul under an expansive southern sky, there is a haven for you in Tswalu Kalahari Reserve. Indwe met with Nicky Oppenheimer, the man at the helm of this vision of a singularly different African experience.
The Oppenheimer family certainly has a long and illustrious history in South Africa. Over the years, their track record as a family who succeeds on a grand scale has inspired speculation, admiration and a few less commendable human emotions besides. However, a few minutes in the company of Nicky Oppenheimer dispels any preconceptions. He is a gracious host and a marvellous storyteller, he doesn’t take his position for granted nor himself too seriously, and he quite clearly has a very deep and sincere love for his country. Meeting with Nicky Oppenheimer to discuss Tswalu, the family’s latest conservation project, proved to be an utterly enjoyable experience.
A Setswana word meaning ‘new beginning’, Tswalu aims ‘to restore the Kalahari to itself’ in all its unrestrained glory. The reserve is situated in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, at the foot of the Korannaberg Mountains, some 300 kilometres northwest of Kimberley.
Where did it all start? “Well, let me be like Alice in Wonderland and start at the beginning,” says Nicky with a hearty laugh. “Tswalu was put together by an Englishman called Steven Boler. He was a very keen hunter and had been to the Northern Cape / Kalahari region to hunt on part of what is now Tswalu. Steven thought it was a splendid place and when he decided to spend time outside the UK, he decided to put the reserve together.”
At the time the area looked different from what it does today. “It is interesting... if you look at pictures from the time when he bought it, there was really no grass or anything. It was a genuine desert. He was obviously a man of passion and ideas and determination to bring those ideas to fruition. He owned the reserve for four years before he died. As often with people of vision, he was very lucky and within those four years the weather was kind and it rained and the grass grew and the brown Kalahari sand was masked. I believe that if you have a vision and you do something extraordinary, you deserve luck. The good Lord does not always answer that plea, but in this case He did.”
Boler bought quite a large number of animals from the De Beers game farm, Rooipoort, just outside of Kimberley in order to restock Tswalu. He invited Nicky to come and see the animals’ new home. “I went down there for one night in June ‘99 or ’98. Boler was a very rough diamond but he was absolutely splendid and he had this extraordinary vision,” remembers Nicky.
At the end of that year, Steven Boler passed away from a heart attack and Nicky read the news in the paper. “I can remember saying to my father that I’d seen in the newspaper that Steven Boler died of a heart attack, which didn’t surprise me as he lived life to the full. I thought it was sad and I wondered what would happen to this fabulous place.”
As it turned out, Boler had left instruction that, in the event of his death, Nicky was to be contacted about Tswalu. An executor of the estate contacted Nicky: “If you get a call like that your hair stands on end and you think ‘this is fate’. I wasn’t hard to persuade that this was a fate I had to respond to quickly. And so we were privileged to buy this extraordinary place and run it since.”
His first impression of Tswalu has had a lasting impact on Nicky: “It was the extraordinary hugeness of it all... That one night I remember we went and sat on one of the sand dunes and watched the sun go down behind a horizon over an expanse that you just cannot imagine. You have the Korannaberg Mountains, which sit on Tswalu, and I always say of them that it looks like they are drawn out of the sky with a pin. The stars came out and the stars are brighter there. Everything is bigger and... cleaner... There is absolutely no pollution in that part of the world. The stars appear closer and the horizon is huge. And it is a tough environment, you know, it is not a sort of softie place! All this made a big impression on me that this was a part of the world that was good for one’s soul. It really is almost as philosophical as that.”
The decision was made to continue Boler’s vision of Tswalu. “We want people to come and experience that there is more to Africa than chasing the Big Five,” says Nicky. “All too often people feel that that is the extent of the African experience and that once they have seen the Big Five they can go to the Antarctic or something. You can’t do that at Tswalu. To start with, we don’t have elephant and the property is vast (100 000 hectares) but besides that, we offer something different. We offer something where you do sit and look at the sunset and you feel good about it. You’ve got to look at the hugeness of it all, and then you’ve got to look at your feet and the grass seeds and the thorn bushes and at the insects... We show people a different side of the African environment. It’s a bit slower. The day goes on a bit longer at Tswalu.”
Tswalu Kalahari Reserve boasts 70 species of mammal including lion, cheetah, desert black rhino, sable and roan antelope. More than 200 species of bird can also be found. Tswalu is the historical home of the San, whose storytelling and dream imagery can be seen at the many archaeological sites found in this unique private game reserve.
At Tswalu there is no queue to view the lions or other game: “If you have never been into the wild, you might not like Tswalu all that much on your first visit. I am not sure that it will meet your mindset. I tell people, when I see them at Tswalu, ‘Look if you’re driving, walking or riding around Tswalu and you see somebody else, you should complain to the management!’ Not only is the environment huge, it is yours. You are the only two-legged beast there,” says Nicky. “You know, the Northern Cape is somewhere very, very special. It is unspoilt and you do feel very much in touch with what is going on.“
It is clear that Tswalu is managed from the heart just as much as along clear-cut managerial logic. “What we want is that, when you have this experience in this vast area, it must not be manufactured in any way. It has to be the genuine experience. I must say, we failed an early test on this. When we took over the project, around the Motse there lived about twenty Nyala. In our first board meeting we resolved to relocate them since they are not indigenous to the area. Then we looked at them and we became so charmed by them that we have decided to keep them and call them the Kalahari sub species!” Again, the easy laugh rings out.
Tswalu does not as yet have any elephant. “We agonised over that,” says Nicky. “Obviously they are an attraction. If we were to have them we would have to get them from Namibia so they would be desert elephant. We went quite a long way towards getting a small group of them but the Kalahari is fragile and at the end of the day we lost our nerve and decided that we couldn’t take the risk of introducing them. You will only know that it has not worked when it is too late.”
And sometimes, fate intervenes in population management at Tswalu. “Our latest addition is a pack of wild dogs. We had a lot of trouble getting them established because the wild dog people maintained that this is not wild dog country, that wild dogs cannot run in the sand and that they would have a terrible time. Their argument was rather destroyed when, amidst all these discussions, four wild dogs pitched up under their own steam and clearly were surviving okay! We now have seven wild dogs and we are hoping that they will produce puppies for the first time during this winter. All we can say is that they run the reserve and, if they can’t run fast in the sand, they can run faster than their prey. They are having no trouble at all, which is great!”
The family has long been involved in conservation. Nicky is quick to credit his wife as being the current driving force for conservation: “She is a very green person. She is absolutely determined that, wherever you can, it is incumbent on you to look after nature. For example, the Brenthurst Gardens under her guidance has gone completely green. You won’t see a pesticide anywhere. It is amazing what that has done even to the animals there. Suddenly we have hawks that are nesting and meerkats that run through the garden.”
Would that more people shared this sentiment. Would that more people could strike such a sound balance between astute business sense and a caring heart. “We have always had a great feeling for nature and, I think, a feeling of obligation about it. If you are in a privileged position in a country as wonderful as South Africa, you are obliged to do your bit and to give back,” says Nicky thoughtfully.
When, like me, you are a magazine writer, life is often filled with deadlines and drudgery. One often has to deal with fragile egos and brittle attitudes. But now and again, one has the privilege of standing in the presence of greatness that has nothing to do with money or position. Now and again one meets someone who is just a thoroughly likeable and decent human being. Such a man is Nicky Oppenheimer.
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