Fosbrooke, Henry: Ngorongoro: The Eighth Wonder

Reviews

'This is the classic book on Ngorongoro, written by its first Conservator. Sadly, it has not yet been reprinted and there are no other up-to-date books on the Conservation Area.'

David Bygott.

[Henry Fosbrooke] starts first tour in Tanganyika.

[in Aug 1932 Jane was new to Tanganyika, and Henry had a two-and-a-half year tour of Tanganyika behind him]

It was impossible to take cars into the Crater until the early 1940's and as late as 1955 the guide books were recommending visits not to the Crater, but to the Crater rim to see the game in the Crater 2,000 feet below.

There is only one rather narrow, rocky track down into the crater, and another one up. Both were hand built by prisoners in the 1950's. ... The descent to the crater floor takes about 30 minutes because of the steepness and condition of the road. The vegetation on the way down is dense and lush, but there are undesignated viewpoints.

In fact traffic into the Crater was not regular or significant till 1959 when the Lerai road was completed.

[Molloy, Colonel Peter] of the Game Division - 'indefatigable in their efforts to cope with this [rhino tusk] trade.

[Johnson, Martin] Spent three months in the Serengeti making a lion film, Simba.

In the past the spelling of Masai place names has caused some confusion and controversy. Even the spelling of the name Masai is in doubt, some preferring Maasai. This is not a problem confined to this one area - it is a world-wide one which cartographers and geographers have as yet failed to solve. Frenchmen will continue to call London Londres, and Englishmen will refer to Wien as Vienna. Luckily, however, the present Conservator Mr Saibull is a Masai-speaker by birth, who has paid considerable attention to this problem. He has drawn up a list of spellings for place names throughout the area which I hope will become standard and eventually find their way into all publications and maps.

The early cartographers very frequently recorded the Masai name in full, for example Ol doinyo l'ol Kisale, Meaning 'the hill of the Kisale', five words in Masai (for the Masai language has an article, not a prefix, as has Swahili) and five words in English. But why laboriously spell this out at length every time? Mr Saibull has dropped the article in many cases, but retained it in some: as he sensibly says: 'For some words the article seems to enhance the Meaning and is indispensable: one has simply to try to decide which is correct.' Thus we have

Oldeani for Ol doinyo l'ol tiani (the hill of the bamboos) but

Sirua, not Esuria or Losirua for Ol doinyo l'ol Sirua (the hill of the Eland).

[ole Saibull, Mr. Solomon] Succeeded Henry Fosbrooke as Conservator of Ngorongoro

Leakey, Louis

of the East African Institute of Paleontology

I am writing this book about Ngorongoro at my house at Duluti in Northern Tanzania. Volconoes are basic to our theme, and here, 200 feet below the narrow rim on which the house is perched, lies a small volcanic crater, half a mile across, and now full of water. This is Lake Duluti, a subsidiary vent to the massive extinct volcano Mount Meru, the peak of which towers nearly 11,00 feet above us (14,978 feet above sea level) and only ten miles distant. The fertile, well watered slopes are inhabited by the Meru people, allied to the Chagga of Kilimanjaro, and by the Arusha, an agricultural offshoot of the Masai.

Oldoiny'oibor - the White Mountain

Maasai, Oldoiny'orok, the black mountain

See also

• Bagshawe
• Custodian of Enemy Property
• Iraqw
• Karatu
• Mbulu
• Mto-wa-Mbu
• Ngorongoro
• Oldeani

Ngorongoro was of course well known to the Germans prior to World War I, and to British officials, farmers and hunters in the early twenties. But the land through which the road runs from the top of the rift to the Crater was then uninhabited. In the mid-twenties German nationals were permitted to return to their previous colony, then a Mandate, but the previously German farms had been sold by the Custodian of Enemy Property, so that the returning Germans had to find somewhere new to live. Who the originator of the idea was will never be known, but a number of these people settled on the lower slopes of Oldeani and started carving out coffee farms for themselves.

One effect of this move was to encourage the Iraqw people to move up from their overcrowded country to the south, first as labourers on the farms, and then as settlers in their own right on the neighbouring uninhabited land. A specially appointed Land Commissioner, Mr Bageshaw, recommended - and the recommendation was accepted - that all the land lying to the south of the boundary of the Northern Highlands Forest Reserve, already demarcated by the German Government, should with the exception of the alienated farms, be developed as an expansion area for the Iraqw tribe. There were however three major deterrents to settlement; firstly the tsetse fly which prevented the keeping of cattle, then the lack of water, and finally the fear of Masai raids from Ngorongoro. But the tribal authorities, with the aid and advice of British officers, organised extensive self-help schemes whereby the empty lands were settled, slowly at first, but with increased impetus in the period following World War II.

When I first travelled along that road in 1934 there was not a sign of habitation from Mto-wa-Mbu to Karatu, whilst the big triangle of superb land lying between the rift and the forest edge, called Mbulumbulu, was entirely empty. With Government aid and encouragement the Iraqw folk were just beginning to trickle north, when World War II broke out. This involved the removal of German settlers to camps, but at the same time increased the need for self-sufficiency. The Oldeani-Karatu-Mbulumbulu area had proved itself particularly suitable for the production of wheat, and attracted the attention of the Custodian of Enemy Property (who was running the vacated farms in the interests of the Government), the non-German farmers in the area, and a specially organised official Wheat Scheme. In addition to encouraging production within the boundaries of the existing farms, the Government of the day permitted all these agencies to clear and plough on the land allocated by the Bageshawe Commission to the Iraqw people, on short term lease, the agreement being that the land should be handed back at the end of the war.

In spite of the pleas of those in occupation to retain the land, the Government honoured its pledge to the Iraqw people and put the land at their disposal. The result was that one had a number of wheat growers, with know-how and machinery at their disposal, but no land and a large number of Iraqw folk with a large area of ready cleared wheat land awaiting cultivation, but lacking machinery and know-how. Common interests brought the two parties together, the wheat growers working the land for the Iraqw and sharing the profits.

map published by Royal Geographical Society, based on accounts of early Christian missionaries (mainly working on the coast, and with reports based on hearsay). Ngorongoro described as a thickly populated Masai district with many villages in a country full of big game.

[Baumann, Dr. Oscar] first overseas traveller to leave a record of his journey through the area in 1892. He arrived in the Crater on 18 March, and subsequently travelled across the Serengeti. His account has been translated in Ngorongoro's First Visitor, No. 1 in the booklet series issued by the Conservation Unit.

Prof. F Jaeger revisited the Crater. Dr Grzimek quotes him as observing considerable recession of the forest.

[Reck, Professor Hans] Visited Adolph Siedentopf and published a record of his impressions in his book 'Oldoway' in 1933.

[Holmes, F. Radcliffe] Visits the Crater after the Ross expedition, but before Livermore.

Published his account ~1929 'Interviewing Wild Animals'.

See also

• Captain G.H.R. Hurst M.C.
• Sir Charles Ross
• Adolph Siedentopf
• Friedrich Wilhelm Siedentopf

Captain G.H.R. Hurst M.C. lived in the ruins of W.F.Seidentopf's farm at Lerai. Killed by an elephant near Dar es Salaam by 1923. Squatting at Ngorongoro in the hopes of buying Adolph Siedentopf's farm from the Custodian of Enemy Property, but outbid by Ross.

Norman B Livermore, American businessman, visited the Crater with Andrew Newbury, with J.A.Hunter as their professional Hunter, assisted by A.P.de K.Fourie.

Hunter, professional Hunter to the Livermore expedition. published his recollections in 1954.

After serving in the Boer War [Fourie], came up to East Africa (after the original voortrekkers) and established himself near Arusha. Took trips to Babati and Kondoa. Stayed in East Africa through World War I, working for the Tanganyika Government in the Veterinary Department.

those who sailed up to Tanga, under the auspices of the German Government and thereafter trekked up to Arusha. On this trek all their cattle died from tsetse and the German Government provided them with teams of Africans to pull the wagons.

[Fourie, A.P.de K.] wrote his recollections (100,000 words), never published, but seen by Fosbrooke through his son, Paul.

[Fourie, A.P.de K.] died, and is buried in Arusha

[Fosbrooke, Henry] First passed through Ngorongoro on route for Loliondo to take up posting as Assistant District Officer in charge of Loliondo sub-division of the Masai District, which, as now (1972) included Ngorongoro and the surrounding highland

What a trip a circular tour round Empakaai would be. For this is another of the Big Six which has remained intact, a complete caldera, five miles across, the rim ranging from about 8,200 feet to 10,700 feet. Its floor, at over 7,350 feet, is half covered by a lake two miles across, which is kept filled by small streams coming off the forest-clad inner slopes. As is natural with drainless basins, the lake is brackish: it is about 200 feet deep - this I know as I was the first person to take a boat there and plumb its depths to expose the legend that it was 'bottomless'. ...

There is enough flatland at the bottom to attract cultivators, and it has been a constant fight to keep this gem unsullied for the delectation of future generations. I have always held the view that, like Ngurduto near Arusha, this crater should be preserved inviolate from motor roads, but that unlike Ngurdoto a cabin should be established in the crater which the more adventurous visitors could visit on foot. What a place for youth groups tired of the town environment which will inevitably characterise the lives of many future Tanzanians.

Mountain of Gourds (Fosbrooke) - refering either to the Giant Lobelia, or to the sound of the milking gourds of the spirit Masai who live in the depth of the mountain.

I recall that in the case of the 1940 eruption the ash was so heavy on the Salei plains, and the mountains to the west, that the grazing became inedible and the Masai of that part had to migrate. The fallout, which is carried westward by the prevailing wind, extended as far west as Banagai, and affected wildlife as well as domestic stock.

A.G. Fisher reported that Lengai was liable to eruption

[Richard Despard Estes] studied Wildebeest

[Klingel, Dr. Hans] studied Zebra

[Fosbrooke, Henry] five year absence from Tanzania

[Peter Doole] of the Provincial Administration

... I have rejected some of the wilder statements concerning the killing of Rhino in and around Ngorongoro, particularly one by Elspeth Huxley in Forks and Hopes, published 1963,:

'The Olduvai Gorge used to be full of Rhino. And then, in 1961, in the space of six months, the Leakeys counted over fifty rotting carcases in the Gorge, all speared by Masai. Whether or not their motive was political, they had taken the profit; every horn had been removed.

Since then the Leakeys have not seen a single Rhino at Olduvai.'

This demonstrably false account is unfortunately typical of the wildlife 'crusaders' and illustrates how a good case can be discredited by exaggeration. John Goddard's work has shown that the gorge was inhabited (1966) by over 70 Rhino. With an animal of such static habits it is clearly impossible that the population built up from nil to 70 between 1963, when Elspeth Huxley was writing, and 1966.

Fosbrooke, quoting from The Last Stronghold of the Big Game

... during the 1930's two pioneers rendered great service to wildlife by encouraging the swing from shooting to photography. The first was the late R.R. (Ray) Ulyate, proprietor of the New Arusha Hotel who organised trips on a commercial basis from Arusha to the Serengeti for the purposes of lion photography.

.. .. the late F.J. (Frank) Anderson, an enterprising Australian who developed a first class farm producing coffee, seed beans and flower seeds at Monduli and was for many years active in politics as a Member of the Legislative Council. Whilst the farm was being built up, Frank Anderson, ably assisted by his daughter Patsy (now Mrs. Wright - still living on the farm at Monduli) took up wildlife - and particularly lion - photography as an interesting and profitable sideline. I remember sending a striking portrait of a lion to my parents in 1934 as a Christmas present.

[Ulyate, R.R. (Ray)] proprietor during the 1930's of the New Arusha Hotel, was the first to organise trips by road to Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. He established a tented camp at Ngorongoro on the site of the Dulen road turn-off.

The opening up of Oldeani also permitted the D.C. Masailand, named Murrels, to put the very first road up to the crater rim from Kampi Nyoka, on an alignment very close to the present. This was around 1932, but of course only gave access to the rim.

Contrary to a widely held belief, the Oldeani coffee plantations, although largely German in origin, were not opened up in German times. They started about 1926, and led to the construction of the road from Mtu-wa-Mbu, and a subsequent branch road to Mbulu which was previously approached from Mbugwe, or from the South via Dabil.

[Prince Bernhard] Visits Ngorongoro with Henry Fosbrooke

..the Sanjan gorge, where Michael Grzimek met his death on 10 January 1959, when his plane collided with a vulture and crashed

Olduvai gorge was discovered in 1911 by Professor Kattwinkel who was searching for butterflies and who accidentally stumbled upon fossils of prehistoric animals.

The Striped Mountain - named for black streaks of blue-green algae that have formed on the granite face. (Also spelt Naisera)

Named in early textbooks as Apis Rock

derived from the Maasai root Meaning to mark or write; this originated in the streaks of weathering down the side of the rock.

[Sassoon, Hamo Mr] Tanzania's Conservator of Antiquities - excavations in Ngorongoro, including the Siedentopf farms

See also

• T.A. Barns
• Dr. Oscar Baumann
• Major A Radcliffe Dugmore
• A.P.de K. Fourie
• F. Radcliffe Holmes
• Captain G.H.R. Hurst M.C.
• Norman B Livermore
• Ngorongoro
• Ngorongoro: Lodges
• Ngorongoro: Roads
• Professer Hans Reek
• Sir Charles Ross
• Adolph Siedentopf
• Adolph Siedentopf

1892 Baumann visits Crater (March)

1899c. Siedentopf establishes himself in Crater

1908 Fourie visits Siedentopf

1913 Professor Reek's first visit

1916 Siedentopf departs (March)

1920 British mandate over Tanganyika

1921 Sir Charles Ross, Barns and Dugmore visit Crater: first Game Laws introduced

1922 Holmes' photographic expedition: Hurst living in Crater

1923 The Livermore safari

1926c Veterinary camp established at Lerai

1928 Crater declared Complete Reserve

1930 All Ngorongoro and Serengeti declared Closed Reserve

1932 First motor road to crater rim

1934 Author's first visit to Ngorongoro

1935 Building of first Lodge commenced

1940 East rim road to northern highlands: first National Parks legislation: unimplemented

1948 First National Parks Ordinance receives assent

1951 National Parks Ordinance comes into operation: boundaries of Serengeti gazetted (1 June)

1952 Park administration moves in (August)

1954 D-O. posted to Ngorongoro: cultivation prohibited by law: 'squatters' evicted

1956 Sessional Paper No. i publishes Government's proposals re Ngorongoro and the Serengeti

1957 Committee of Enquiry Report (October)

1958 Government Paper No. 5 announces Government's decision

1959 Conservation Area inaugurated (i July)

1961 Arusha Conference and Arusha Manifesto: author takes over as Chairman of Authority (September)

1963 Authority disbanded and Conservator appointed

1963 Catering first started at Lodge

1965 First Tanzanian Conservator appointed (September)

Brother to Adolph. Farm at Lerai was never legally alienated.

Siedentopf's Munge farm was purchased after the War (WWI) from the Custodian of Enemy Property by Sir Charles Ross, who undertook no development, and did not enforce his rights.

First record of British presence in Ngorongoro is visit of military cattle buying party.

Mr. H.C. Allison, of Mumbwa Copper Mine in Zambia tells me [Fosbrooke] that he visited the crater with Lieutenant Middleton in 1917 to purchase cattle for the British troops.

John Hamman took over farm at Lerai, originally established by F.W. Siedentopf and later occupied by Captain Hurst. Succeeded by Eric Howe

[Read, Neil] Veterinary Official. assigned to control the cattle diseases, particularly rinderpest. Identified rinderpest in wildebeest. Became Director of Veterinary Services, and eventually Animal Health Officer in the Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome.

[Howe, Eric] Stock Inspector (Veterinary Department). took over Lerai farm from John Hamman. Host to Henry Fosbrooke and his wife on their first visit in 1934

Ngorongoro could only be reached by foot until the first road was constructed from Oldeani (Kampi Nyoka) to the Crater rim, and thence to Balbal and the Serengeti in about 1932.

East rim road to northern highlands. [in 1934] there was no road along the east rim - I only constructed it in 1940, though, ... I was looking for an alignment to take a road to the northern highlands as early as 1934,'

Later, Jane Fosbrooke records the return trip from a cattle auction in the north of the crater, to Lerai.

'.. the men arrived from their long tramp. They had walked over twenty miles along the western rim, scrambling up and down gullies. It was very rough, and they decided it would be too difficult to make a road along this side, it would be better to try the eastern side first. Henry's feet were a shocking sight, raw with blisters. We gave them liquid in every possible form - tea, water, whisky and fruit juice, and they lapped it all up, and asked for more'.

Ngorongoro Crater, bounded by the rim, declared Complete Reserve in which all hunting was prohibited. As about one third of the Crater floor was in private ownership - that of Sir Charles Ross - that area had to be excluded from the order, but there is no evidence that Sir Charles, or any of his friends ever took advantage of this position of privilege: on the contrary he was one of the earliest to regard the crater as a game sanctuary.

First Game Laws introduced. Game Preservation Ordinance demanded that hunting should be on a licence for which fees were laid down: certain methods of hunting were prohibited, but no special regulations were applied to the Serengeti or Ngorongoro, which could be hunted over just as anywhere else. As lion were at that time classified as vermin, they could be shot without restriction.

In was more than a year later [after the National Parks ordinance was brought into effect] that the park authorities moved in. Major Hewlett, the first park warden built the house which was later converted into the Forest Resort (Dhillon's Lodge).

It is not generally realised that in 1954 there were about 50 cultivating households in the Crater, comprising 67 adult males, 57 females and 119 children.

In addition to the village clustered round the old Siedentopf farm at Lerai - where the remains of the sisal hedges surrounding their fields can still be seen - settlements had sprung up at Koitoktok and the Lonyuki stream. Homes for these people were found outside the area and they were assisted by the Government in their move.

Likewise Empakaai crater was inhabited by 50 families, who were similarly moved, but infiltrated back again and in the period 1961 to 1965 presented a difficult problem to the Conservator, eventually solved by my successor.

[an]

Assistant District Office posted to Ngorongoro: his house is now the Kimba Lodge.

[Sinclair, Sir Ronald] Colonial Judge. First chairman of Committee of Enquiry into future of Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Unable to take up his post.

Judge, and second chairman of Committee of Enquiry into future of Serengeti and Ngorongoro.

Second Secretary, Medical Council (Privy Council) and President of the Zoological Society.. Member of Committee of Enquiry into future of Serengeti and Ngorongoro.

Sessional Paper No. 1 publishes Governments proposals re Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. This recommended the breakup of the Serengeti National Park into three smaller parks: Western Serengeti, Ngorongoro National Park, and Empakaai Crater Park.

[Fosbrooke, Henry] in Lusaka as Director of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute.

See also

• F.J. Musthill
• Ngorongoro
• Sir Barclay K.B.E., M.C. Nihill
• Professor W.H. Pearsall D.Sc. F.R.S.
• Sir Ronald Sinclair
• Sir Landsborough Thomson
• Chief Humbi M.B.E Ziota

three man Committee of Enquiry set up. Sir Ronald Sinclair (Chairman), Sir Landsborough Thomson, and Chief Humbi Ziota. In the event the Chairman was not available and replaced by Sir Barclay Nihill. Mr. F.J. Musthill also joined. Evidence from many people, including Prof Pearsall, commissioned by the Fauna Preservation Society to represent the British case. His report, based an a two month visit to the area in Nov-Dec 1956 in effect formed the scientific basis of the recommendations of the Committee.

[Ziota, Chief Humbi M.B.E] a senior chief of the Nzega District and a Director of the Tanganyika Agricultural Corporation. Member of Committee of Enquiry into future of Serengeti and Ngorongoro.

[Musthill O.B.E., F.J.] late Conservator of Forests, Burma. Member of Committee of Enquiry into future of Serengeti and Ngorongoro.

[Fosbrooke, Henry] Invited by Tanganyika Government to revisit the area and tender advice on the Sociological aspects of the impasse with the Ngorongoro Authority. Spent four months based in Arusha, with visits to Ngorongoro and Dar es Salaam. Wrote report on voyage back to England in April (Daughter as honorary typist).

... the grant of "182,000 had been made to Tanganyika to enable the country to put into effect the recommendations of the Serengeti Committee. ... Where the money was to come from beyond June 1964, when the grant expired, no one knew. ... In retrospect it was fortunate that my idea of a self-accounting Authority was turned down, [because the Park could not generate enough revenues for itself - much if the benefit is indirect, e.g. to hotels and tour operators] although at the time no alternative was proposed. We just drifted along, drawing our funds from Colonial [sic] Development and Welfare: but this scheme was due to close on 30 June 1994. When the deadline drew near, the Government of Tanzania (as it had then become) manfully accepted its responsibilities and agreed to carry the costs of the Conservation Unit.

Authority ground to a halt - meetings suspended. Chairman (a young DO) was in no position to persuade either his technical colleagues to display more patience, or the Maasai to accept some small measure of change.

Huxley, Sir Julian prepares a report to UNESCO entitled The Conservation of Wildlife and Natural Habitats in Central and East Africa. Suggested establishment of an advisory board.

Report to UNESCO entitled The Conservation of Wildlife and Natural Habitats in Central and East Africa. Suggested establishment of an advisory board.

[Mace, Clive] Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Lands, Forests and Wildlife, presided over the discussions at the Arusha Conference. There emerged the idea of a Conservator, responsible through the Permanent Scecretary, to the Minister for the 'conservation and deployment' of the natural resources in the Conservation Area.

[Fosbrooke, Henry] For the next three years I was resident at Ngorongoro

By historical accident the residences of the senior officers were scattered over a distance of 17 miles along the rim:

The Assistant Conservator (Game) living in what is now Forest Resort (Dhillon's Lodge), and

The Assistant Conservator (Forests) having his dwelling and his nurseries at the Old Boma, now Kimba Lodge.

I had 'inherited' two permanent houses and a permanent office built for the Authority by the P.W.D. on the present headquarters site. ... Appreciating the fact that permanent building were undesirable near the road, I permitted no more in that vicinity, concentrating on timber structures which could be salvaged when replaced by other buildings on a new site

Colonel Hallier, then Provincial Commissioner in Arusha, quickly realised the tourist potential of Ngorongoro and obtained funds - a meagre "400 - to build the first Lodge.

Construction began in 1935 under the supervision of Gordon Russell, and Assistant District Officer. The idea of building in logs was suggested by an ex-naval man called Marks who was employed on the job, as also a farmer Prinsloo, who brought up a team of oxen from Karatu to haul the logs from the forest. The timber used is Pillarwood, Cassipourea elliotii, of which many fine specimens are to be seen from the road

The Lodge was opened on a do-it-yourself basis, and remained so for 27 years till the present concessionaire took over in July, 1963. Everything was on the basis of strict economy: thatched roof- so pleasing to the eye and cheaper than corrugated iron or shingles. Lighting was by kerosene lamp, and water hand-pumped from the adjacent valley; water heating was by firewood under 44 gallon drums and sanitation by pit latrine.

The [Lodge] mess hut was built at that time [1936] - later reception and office before it was burnt down in 1968 and replaced with the present larger office and shop - and two lines of huts, one along the Crater rim and the other up the valley.

the war put paid to tourist development, but the Lodge was used by service men on leave from Kenya, Abyssinia and Aden. After the war development did not recommence till the park authorities took over on 1952

For the first time a European manager was installed [at the Lodge], a shop opened where visitors could purchase their food, to be cooked by the camp attendants: some new huts were built, but again funds were a limited factor and clapboard and corrugated iron roofing made their ugly appearance on the scene.

In 1952 administrative camp and Masai dispensary which I had built in 1935-6 were taken over [by Ngorongoro Lodge]: I never found out whether the Masai Treasury was compensated for the money they had put into the office and dispensary there.

Until mid 1959, access to the crater floor had been by the circuitous route along the eastern rim which I had pioneered in 1940. ... Traffic was controlled on a 'one-hour-down-and-one-hour-up' basis.

This problem was solved by utilising and improving the prehistoric tracks leading down from Malanja to the Semoto corner of the Crater. This was completed in a remarkably short time, for very little money, thanks to the efforts of the Assistant Conservator (Works), the late Gert Fourie, the Headman Isa Lonyoki and his labour gang. This was still a one way track, with gradients of up to 1 in 4, but we avoided waiting and permitted a constant flow of vehicles into and out of the Crater by making one road the descent road, and the other the exit.

A double track descent into the Crater was surveyed in 1965, but work was not started because of the rupture of diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom led to the cessation of the British aid from which this scheme was to be financed.

'A.B.' Fletcher from the United States provided the drive and energy to get the new buildings up, whilst 'Ben' Benbow, an experienced British hotelier, brought in the know-how which got the catering off to such a good start. Though this team failed to survive, they laid such good foundations that by 1967 the 105 bed Lodge provided 20,724 bed nights accommodation in a single year.

Further accommodation added ... was the Forest Lodge or Dhillon's Lodge, so named after the energetic and charming Sikh couple who were the first concessionaires, and the Youth Hostel to accommodate educational parties, with an annex to cater for hitch-hikers.

A memorable day, concluding with dinner in the new Wildlife Lodge, which is to me a dream come true. The last occasion on which I visited the site we had been choosing the exact location of the proposed lodge: now it is there, with all modern amenities, yet blending in with the landscape in a most unobstrusive manner.