Garden Route Gallivanting
The senior Conservation Leadership Programme leaders headed off to the Garden Route for their year-end camp. They spent the 5 days exploring Natures Valley and Tsitsikama, being exposed to new organisations, habitats and a range of career opportunities in the environmental field.
They were hosted by the Natures Valley Trust who took them through a mini-SASS assessment of the river, a canoe trip and ringing of newly-hatched plovers. The Brackenburn Crew presented a morning of ‘Forest Forensics’ – teaching the learners about all aspects of forest biodiversity. They toured MonkeyLand and Birds of Eden and they mastered a challenging hike to the waterfall at Storms River Mouth.
The learners stayed on a working dairy farm in The Crags, near Natures Valley where they even helped with the early morning milking shift!
After the day with the Natures Valley Trust, one of the leaders said “we had an amazing walk with a really informative botanist and the canoeing was really fun. Doing the mini-SASS was a great experience and gave me a taste of the work of a researcher.”
