On Monday 10 March 2014, 16 waddlers set off on another awareness campaign in support of the endangered African penguin. While 100 years ago there were more than 1.5-million African penguins swimming around, today there are only 18 000 breeding pairs left to sustain the whole population.

Day 4 already, and the Waddlers are in high spirits. Most still have aches and pains, but regardless of that, today was pretty amazing. Old Mutual Finance really are the best, as without their sponsorship we could not have done this year’s Waddle for a Week.

We stayed at Grail Cottages in Kleinmond this time around and, like last year, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and thank you for the comfortable accommodation.

We start off each day with a song. A different Waddler chooses a song for each morning, which will inspire us for the rest of the day. Above, Gabby Harris with the speaker on her head, for better acoustics.

Sonia Peck, who takes care of our Rockhopper Penguins, Harry the snake and the amphibians at the Two Oceans Aquarium, chose Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror for today. Sonia has been with us for almost a year now. With a larger-than-life personality, she keeps the team entertained.

We were very happy to see Cape Nature and the municipality turn up with reinforcements. They added about 16 people to our numbers, making us a very visible crowd on the road. Thank you for the support and walking the whole 30km with us.

The team got to Kleinmond in no time and were greeted by Samantha the Penguin. Samantha had taken a back seat for the past few days. She does not like the rain much; very peculiar for a penguin.

Here is Samantha with Ricardo, who is one of our Waddlers and works for Gansbaai Tourism. He was a last-minute addition to the group, but boy, are we glad he joined us. He is part of a team at Gansbaai Tourism that walk along the beaches and rescue injured animals, such as seals and seabirds.

We love Kleinmond, mainly because we get to say hello to all of the children on our way through. Kleinmond Primary did not disappoint and we were greeted with many eager faces at the gate.

After chatting to them about Penguin Promises and what the Waddle for a Week campaign is all about, we marched on through the town.

Sonia Peck speaking to a Kleinmond Primary child.

Kleinmond Tourism is equally awesome when it comes to organising a great reception, and this one just melted our hearts. Twelve pre-schoolers from Pikkewyntjies Pre-School (pikkewyntjie means penguin in Afrikaans) waited for us at the Kleinmond Tourism offices, and sang us a song about penguins. Moments like these make this Waddle worth it for us.

Thank you to Alichia from Kleinmond Tourism, for organising everything and giving each Waddler a gift.

What is even greater is that staff from Harold Porter Botanical Gardens also joined our walk from the Kleinmond Tourism office, adding even more to our numbers. At this point we were a total of 40 people or so.

The stretch to Betty’s Bay is pretty long, a reminder of Day 3’s long, straight roads. And today was pretty hot as well, so our Waddlers were really just determined to get to the finish and complete the longest day of the Waddle.

Pringle House School children and parents met us in Betty’s Bay, and off we went towards Stony Point. Stony Point is a colony of around 2 000 breeding pairs of African Penguins. They recently had a bit of a scare when an oil spill occurred close by, but luckily no major problems arose.

The Waddlers and Samantha finally arrived at Stony Point, with all of our supporters for the day still with us, from Cape Nature, the municipality as well as the Harold Porter Botanical Gardens staff. Thank you to Chrysler Jeep Dodge Newlands for your sponsorship. We could not do this without our support vehicles.

We are lucky to still see these wild penguins so close to home, and Samantha was enjoying being with her own kind.

Tomorrow we will be waddling from Gordon’s Bay’s Bikini Beach to the edge of Strand’s Beach Road. It is a leisurely 10km, a complete walk in the park for our Waddlers, who have now covered 94km in total. Come and join us if you can; if not, please hoot!

Thank you to our main sponsors:

 

 

 

 

Chrysler Jeep Dodge Newlands
Thank you also to:
Better Earth
Born in Africa
Badges Unlimited
Pepito Designs

Read about Day 1 of this year’s Waddle here.
Read about Day 2 of this year’s Waddle here.
Read about Day 3 of this year’s Waddle here.

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