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. Their six-day journey ended on Saturday 16 March. Here’s the story of their final day.

It is always a day of mixed emotions, the last day of the Waddle for a Week campaign. Friendships have been formed and one just gets so used to being around each other that any other alternative just feels weird. It has been an amazing week of Waddling, meeting new people and spreading awareness of the African Penguin.

Our team woke up in Muizenberg, all ready to go and excited to walk the last 15km. A big thank-you to Surfer’s Corner Accommodation for hosting half of our team, as well as Stoked Backpackers for having the other half. We appreciate our sponsors so much and this whole week has just been wonderful, with all of the different places we were allowed to stay.

Before setting off, Fritz wanted to interview each Waddler about their experiences throughout the week and how they felt it went. Watch out for his documentary, which we will hopefully be able to share with everyone once it is complete.

The crowds started arriving at Surfer’s Corner, something we always become excited about as these are people from many walks of life joining us for a good cause. Old Mutual Finance staff (the ones in the green shirts) also joined us, some of whom were experts already at walking long distances. Thank you very much!

Our very own Fikile Sizwenya, who works at the Visitor Services department at the Two Oceans Aquarium, and his son joined us on Saturday.

Once everyone had been given their badges and a short briefing by Gabby Harris, we were off. It is a beautiful walk from Muizenberg to Simon’s Town, and we were aiming at getting as many hoots as possible today, so that we could beat last year’s hoot score by as much as we can.

The group made great headway from Muizenberg to Kalk Bay, attracting a lot of attention with Sammy the Penguin leading the way.

Thank you to Chrysler Jeep Dodge for your generosity of lending us two vehicles for the week. We really could not have done it without you and are very grateful.

Our Waddlers were in very high spirits and dressed for the part. Below Ricardo, Tracy and Zac.

Sonia Peck and Alexis Olds walking into Fish Hoek. Alexis had been dubbed the Penguin Promises Princess, as she proudly wore the Penguin Promises sash for the whole week. She joined us for one day last year, but decided to be a full-time Waddler this year. Alexis works at Cape Nature as a project manager, and has been a non-stop source of jokes and entertainment.

In no time, the Waddlers had passed through Fish Hoek and were heading for Glencairn.

This year’s last day of the Waddle happened to coincide with the Navy Festival in Simon’s Town. This gave the Waddlers a lot of exposure, as Simon’s Town was full of people not expecting to see a mass of people with bright yellow “Hoot for Penguins” signs.

Sammy took a short break after Fish Hoek, but met up with the Waddlers again for their final 500m before their last stop at Boulders Beach Lodge. Even though she might have taken a bit of an easy way out, driving the last 500m, the Waddlers were very grateful to see her welcome them.

And just like that, six days, 123km and 7 023 hoots later, our Waddlers arrived at their final destination, tired but happy. Thank you to Boulders Beach Lodge for organising our welcome drinks, and for accommodating our Durban Waddlers on their last night in Cape Town.

And since we are all about PENGUINS, all Waddlers were allowed to visit Boulders Beach and see these beautiful little birds in their element.

The Waddle for a Week campaign is over for this year, but Penguin Promises definitely is not. If you have not visited the website yet, please do. Go and make your own Penguin Promise and help us improve our environment and that of the African Penguin, one promise at a time.

You can also like Penguin Promises on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. All of the Waddlers have made a promise, so waddle you promise for the African Penguin?

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.
Read about Day 4 of this year’s Waddle here.
Read about Day 5 of this year’s Waddle here.

Stay in touch: for daily Aquarium updates, follow us on Twitter (@2OceansAquarium) and become a fan on Facebook.