Original von Jan
Sorry Kipper - I am not familiar with any of his work. What is it about?

Carsten: Just taking pictures and writing down information doesn\\\'t work. A friend of mine did that recently and sent the information to KWS. Unfortunately someone sent her entire email with her email address to the offender and she got very threatening emails stating the only reason she had reported him was because he was Muslim and other very bad things.

Thus if one could convince KWS that a volunteer group helping KWS with traffic patrol and raising money for them might work, it would at least have some official connotation and perhaps poor drivers wouldn\\\'t take it personally and would be unable to threaten anyone.

Tom Sharpe is very much an English author, being a member & regular poster with the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America I know that this type of English humour does not travel well!! ( Possibly Nico may enjoy it!)

In Indecent Exposure a South African town is blown up by the police, well sort off!
Worried by terrorism the police set 12 undercover agents to infiltrate the terrorists group the problem is there are no terrorists! So each undercover agent thinks the other 11 are terrorists & each one to prove that he is a good terrorist & not an agent, volunteers to blow some thing up even bigger than the last thing they blew up.
His books make a mockery of life & the two books I mention prove the stupidity of racism & racists & are both set in SA.

I just have this mental picture of all these wrinklies in green overalls hobbling round Amboseli with walking sticks arguing who saw the infringement first or directing the traffic up different tracks to each other. Fighting & arguing, hitting each other with their walking sticks, with Landy's & Toyota's forming a circle round them for the tourists to watch & the guides playing cards or taking bets on the fight.... While lions, elephants & other animals jostle for a better view of the action!

In other Continents (You know where!) Each vehicle is given a route / area that he can drive in. This prevents the harassment of the animals by large groups of vehicles. It also means that some routes are more favourable then others thus it pays to book your trip well in advance. So that your tour company has chance of booking the better routes in the forest. I now believe passport numbers & names are required when booking to prevent safari companies block booking routes.
It does mean though that 2 day trips from the city hotels end up with the less productive routes, the guides though have tricks up their sleeves, they make alarm calls so another jeep hears it & can tell his guests that a tiger must be near! They also know where there will be monkeys, owls that sort of thing to offer client satisfaction & there is always a very slim chance that a tiger will pass through the area.
Time for me to shut up! Before I bore everyone to sleep!

kipper

hahaha, sounds great, kipper.

I am with you

Jan,
The idea has a lot of merit but a number of problems.
I think to allow the volunteer to roam free giving out tickets is asking for trouble.
There is the cost & time of training to be considered & how many "Wardens" would be required for 365 days a year cover?
I've tried to pass a group of mini buses in a huddle, not easy, to get alongside to issue a ticket I would say impossible!
I believe there may be a better way.

Set up as a safari ranger experience type holiday where the volunteer pays for the privilege to help out & is given a few extras & privileges above what a normal park visitor is allowed, let's say take part in a lion count or such like activity as well.
They could accompany a ranger doing the policing & pay for the vehicle thus more trained rangers would be available, payed for by the scheme. The problems of full training for the volunteer is gone & income for the KWS is generated.

The original idea still brings great mental pictures of arguments & posse type chases after striped mini buses to hand out tickets. Are the stripes individual to each minibus?
Would the stripes on mini buses evolve to confuse the wardens as they give chase?
Wonderful! Wonderful! I'll shut up, if a mini bus painted as a Grant's zebra hid amongst Grevy's....He'd stand out, but ! Boy! Are those tourist's in for a shock if the stallion takes a shine.....

Out of little acorns great oaks grow!

Jan - love your friends thinking!
I consider myself a 'bush-cop' anyway - if I see rubbish been thrown out in a park (or city suburb) for that matter, I make sure they get it back! Pretty recently I found and entire family of Japanese people out of their cars - Dad taking pics while a couple of woman posed , holding babies I might add with the nice setting of a small herd of elepants 20-30 metres away! I don't hesitate to take photographs of offenders with their licence plate numbers and send it to the park officials or have it published as 'mug of the month' in Getaway.
In SA most parks have an Honory Ranger program which maybe your friend institute at other parks...these people do some valuable things, organising funds for special things like monkey-proof bins, bird hides and over peak seasons some would volunteer to generally be at campsites to just monitor things. So her idea could have some legs with a little thought and proposals who knows!

Kipper: The only problem with your idea is that THERE ARE NO RANGERS that one could volunteer to assist. They are non-existent in most parks today! That is the problem. A year ago I was at park headquarters in Amboseli and there are many duplex houses which could house many rangers (probably close to 100) - but where are they? You never see one. The only place you seem them is taking money at the gates.

Jaded - we are similar. I too stop and pick up water bottles, caps, plastic bags, etc. I have also forwarded licence numbers to KWS (am not sure whether they do anything about it or not). I love the idea of Honorary Rangers in your parks. Would love to hear more about it. Keep your ideas flowing please!

Hello Jan
My thoughts were the scheme could pay for the extra rangers that accompany the volunteers.

I think that it would be dangerous to have untrained people of various attitudes & abilities policing the visitors.

In Botswana we met rangers on a regular basis in the bush.