Yearly Archives: 2024

Walking in the shoes of the Planetwalker.

Sunk deeply in a chair at Amazing Grace Guesthouse in De Kelders, I met the 77-year-old United Nations Environment Program’s Goodwill Ambassador, as well as National Geographic Society’s first Education Fellow, Dr. John Francis. It’s the 23rd of January, a scorching hot and windy day in the Overstrand, and Dr. Francis has just walked 22 kilometers from Stanford Hills to De [...]

World Environmental Education Day

World Environmental Education Day, which falls on January 26, is observed all over the world in the hopes of improving the relationship between our fellow humans and nature itself. It seeks to identify and find solutions to certain environmental issues, both globally and locally. It’s beneficial to us human beings to protect the environment because this entails our survival and well-being. We [...]

Spending time with our special European visitors.

From the month of August, there is a special group of European visitors in Gansbaai in the Overstrand. These lightweight travelers weigh only about 28 grams, and they have no problem covering the 11,500 kilometers to the South African coast within a month. Hydrobates pelagicus, the European storm petrel, bears a name that literally means 'water little walker on the open [...]