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Talking the walk in Whaleworld
Writer Elaine Davie
It’s difficult to imagine anyone prouder and more stoked than two young men from Hermanus on the evening of Reconciliation Day last week. At a function at The Marine, Dylan Beukes and Ashley Booysen were introduced as Hermanus Varsity’s first two fully-qualified Whaleworld eco-guides. Smartly kitted out in their brand new uniforms they were hardly able to contain their excitement at being able to give locals and visitors alike a unique insight into our very special marine and fynbos environment.
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Having completed an exhaustive five-week training course presented by Grant Hine of Zen Guiding at De Kelders, and after successfully passing through a tough examination and monitoring process, they were presented with a guiding certificate from the Marine Dynamics Academy and are now registered eco-guides with the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa (FGASA). Three other students are still undergoing training and hope to be registered by March next year.
Grant, who was with FGASA for 17 years, comments that most people sleepwalk through life and even when surrounded by nature, are barely conscious of what they are seeing, hearing or smelling. It is the task of the field guide to draw their attention to the environment and to interpret it – to awaken all their senses, so that they can begin to rediscover their connection to nature.
To start off with, there will be three Whaleworld trails for visitors to choose from, varying in length and eco-environments. The two young guides are keen to emphasize that although they will want to keep group sizes down to a maximum of six to eight people, they would be very happy to include children. It’s important to feed their curiosity when they’re young, they say, it will last them a lifetime.
This project fits snugly into what Hermanus Varsity Trust (HVT) refers to as its ‘Blue-Green Programme’, encompassing the gradient from blue ocean through to green fynbos, which seeks to promote economic growth, social inclusion and preservation or improvement of livelihoods, while at the same time ensuring environmental sustainability.
Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 16)
