Words by Camilla Howard
We were based in Cape Town for 2 weeks which had it’s pro’s and con’s. It was quite nice not to have to pack and unpack every morning and evening. It was a bit of a juggling act, though, trying to fit in people wanting to join us, media and personal commitments as well as clock the daily mileage. In fact we were exhausted by the end of it and couldn’t wait to get back into our routine on the road. We were also without a support driver so we had to drive ahead and drop one vehicle at the end point and then drive back to the start each time. Logistically challenging to say the least!
We began at Nampak’s R&D division in Epping with a presentation of our initiative to their marketing team and clients. From there we headed straight to Hout Bay and thanked our lucky stars the intense wind from the previous day had dropped. We walked from Chapmans Peak Hotel to Kommetjie. It was a breathtaking section. I’ve driven and cycled Chappies numerous times but on foot you have much more time to absorb the sights, sounds and smells. The road was almost entirely litter-free and shortly after we passed the Shark Spotter we took a path down to Noordehoek Beach which was also almost spotless (save for the two horse shoes we found and kept for good luck!)
At 6:30 on Thursday morning we set off to Kommetjie Primary School and were met with a hive of activity as the kids swarmed around carrying ice cream containers of organic waste, dumping them their grade’s respective blue crates. The grade that collects the most wins ice creams. It is the brilliant brainchild of their eco-club who got Nestle on board. We then interviewed Akim Riemer from Green Geurrillas who facilitates the project. What an impressive little school! While I am certainly not a full blown hippy, I loved their ethos. They encourage the kids to come to school barefoot which I think is just superb.
After our little presentation to the kids in assembly we started walking around towards Cape Point. There was a lovely path and boardwalk to follow from Kommetjie towards the lighthouse and when we passed by Soetwater we were met by a handful of people clapping and cheering us on! It was Wally Petersen and his team from KEAG who I had been conversing with over email for weeks. What a wonderful surprise! He took us on a tour of his compound and introduced us to the team who create incredible art from recycled waste. He has also created a website called “wildspots” where you can add your geo-tagged animal sightings to his online map. We really didn’t want to leave but alas we had to make it to Olifantsbos by sunset. We missioned on through Misty Cliffs and Scarborough and then dodged the waves to climb around a fence (which went right down over the rocks into the sea) onto the Cape Point nature reserve.
The walk from the boundary to Olifantsbos has to be one of my favourites of the whole coastline so far. The pure white beach littered only with broken seashells and dried-up kelp, crystal clear blue water on the right and the freshwater Krom Rver the colour of iced tea on the left. Edging closer, a herd of bontebok materialised. They gazed at us and then continued grazing, not at all fazed by our presence. For the first time in a few weeks the absence of anything manmade was really quite magical. We reached our vehicle much later than we’d planned but had another lekka surprise waiting for us in Scarborough. Locals Inky, Piet and Rita had prepared their famous mussel soup for us which they served on their sun-drenched deck with ice-cold white wine! Bliss.
We spent the whole of the next day in studio filming the live kids TV programme ” Hectic 99″ so our legs got a little break and we had a lot of fun with the crew and the exceptional PR team from Reputation Matters, Lisa and Regine. Over the weekend we held our second Beach Clean Up at Muizenberg. It was a great success. Over 200 people came down to help us collect 350kg’s of litter in 2 hours. Rodney Leak (Lead Consultant: Sustainable Schools’ Education and Recycling, City of Cape Town) assisted us in teaching 60 learners from Lwazi Primary, 50 learners from Mseke Primary and 36 youngsters from the New Apostolic Church about the importance of a clean environment. Our amazing sponsor CAN DO! came along and launched their CANvironment week initiative. Somehow we managed to fit in 2 TV interviews, 2 newspaper and a magazine interview during the chaos and as soon as we’d packed everything up we rushed down to Chez Gourmet in Claremont to film our Home Channel segment.
On Monday we picked up at Olifantsbos and walked the whole of the Cape Point peninsula. Anyone can enjoy the trail of this beautiful stretch of coastline and I HIGHLY recommend it. We started on a winding path dotted with jewel and star-shaped flowers. Pretty vygies, gazanias, oxailis and many other wild beauties lay before us, inviting us to admire them. The next attraction along the beach was the wreck of the Thomas T Tucker, an American ‘Liberty Ship’ that struck the rocks while avoiding torpedoes in a night attack in 1942. Everybody on board survived fortunately. Today you can see the wreck and imagine what it must have looked like. Seagulls and African black oystercatchers now make use of the ship as a place to perch. Just then we had one of our best sightings to date. A pair of Elephant seals. A HUGE mum and her cub. She seemed distressed and there was blood in the sand surrounding her. Unsure whether she’d just given birth or if she was injured, we found the owner of a cottage nearby and he radio’d the rangers to report it. It was probably another 30km from there to round the point and get back to the main gate. It was a tough walk and the first time we had encountered such steep inclines on the coast. We were pooped by the end of it and got caught in a spectacular thunder storm. When we reached the car waiting for us at the main gate I realised I had left the key for it in the other vehicle which was sitting at the Olifantsbos start point. I’m not sure how Mike managed to resist the urge to inflict serious bodily harm on me. Luckily I persuaded a security guard to drive me to the other car saving me a 15km run after a 35km hike!
The next two days were fairly easy-going as we walked along the road from Cape Point to Muizenberg. About 2km from Smithwinkel a friendly citizen, Craig, from CT waste management pulled over in his garbage truck and offered to empty our laden backpack. He then returned a few minutes later and offered us cooldrinks! Cape Town really does live up to her slogan “This city works for you”! We stopped briefly at Boulders Beach to wave to some penguins and hopped onto the train tracks at Simonstown, following them all the way along to Muizenberg. We were joined by friends Andy and Steve for a section towards Sunrise Beach and finally by Anton Louw from Zigzag magazine who walked the last stretch to Strandfontein with us and wrote this article after our meeting: http://www.zigzag.co.za/featured/can-do-trekking-for-trash/ . This was far and away the most densely littered beach we’d encountered. We walked past at least 30 fishermen of all races and ages who were stood there, fishing poles in hand, surrounded by filth and seemed not to even notice it. It was extremely depressing.
