The sun rises and a herd of placid impala drink to the new day and the start of a new month. A herd of zebra graze and drink alongside while some guinea fowl fool around, warming their feathers in the sun...
Life at the Orpen waterhole goes on while we sit in offices across the world, thousands of kilometers from the Kruger National Park (KNP). Thanks to the efforts of the SANParks e-commerce manager, Nedret Saidova, along with support from Danie Pretorius and various SANParks colleagues, we have a window into this world-the newly installed Orpen Webcam.
“We had our very first webcam in the KNP based at Orpen”, Saidova explains, “but for a number of technical and logistical reasons, the camera had been down for over a year, much to our frustration. We acted fast to get the Satara Camera up and running to fill the gap-and that proved equally popular".
‘Cammers' have had to rely on the Satara Webcam for their KNP fix in the interim. The new Orpen cam has been back for a few hours but already pages of highlights have been submitted as ‘cammers’ chat on our forum about past sightings on the camera, and expectations of more to come. As one 'cammer' put it, it's evident that although the cam was down, the animals weren't!
The camera runs 24 hours a day-although being a camera in the Africa bush, the connection cannot always be guaranteed. Highlights on the webcams include sightings of elephant, lion, hyaena, hippo, buffalo and much more.
“This kind of exercise is an interesting challenge as it falls outside the scope of normal IT operations,” explains Pretorius, “however, the pleasure that the webcam gives to viewers all over the world in their different contexts is worth all of the effort, and we enjoy the camera and our virtual visits to the park as much as the public do!"
SANParks forums members have also raised enough money for a webcam in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KPT). As visitors to the KTP know, it’s a remote park and SANParks is experimenting with ways to get the pictures from the camera there onto the server.
In the meantime, happy camming with Orpen and Satara!
