The Walkers Of The Waterberg

Author and artist Clive Walker has been a well-known name in South African conservation circles since he founded the Endangered Wildlife Trust in 1973. He and his wife Conita live near Vaalwater in the Waterberg, where their son Anton and his wife René run the Waterberg Living Museum.

- Toast Coetzer

You probably have a small guidebook called Signs of the Wild on your bookshelf, right? First published in 1981, this legendary book by Clive Walker has been reprinted 17 times and has opened many a South African’s eyes to the wonderful wildlife within our borders.

Clive (85), his son Anton (52), and Anton’s wife René (52) are sitting in the restaurant area of the Waterberg Living Museum, 25km east of Vaalwater, Limpopo. The museum consists of six different exhibits housed in separate buildings. To get to each building, you have to walk through the veld. Our conversation is interrupted by some horses that come to look at us, and later I’ll be introduced to the small herd of roan antelope on the property.

This is still the Waterberg, and it’s full of life. The idea behind the museum is exactly that: Everything around you forms part of the exhibit, just open your eyes and look.

Clive has been fascinated by museums and zoos since he was a child. “My life, I think, started when I was 14 years old and I went to the old library in Johannesburg, which is also where the Geology and Transport Museum used to be. I spent hours in that building looking at the old Zeederberg stagecoaches that used the transport route from Johannesburg through the Waterberg to the Limpopo River. I just had this passion about things that were old and should be preserved. Anton always had a great fascination, too.”