Displaying items by tag: education

The Cape Leopard Trust’s Holiday Program, sponsored by The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF), went ahead despite freezing, stormy weather. Clearly everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly despite the adverse conditions. Our young participants, children from varying backgrounds and locations in Cape Town explored corners of their environment that they had never seen before.

Some of the highlights included a fortunate glimpse of the newly hatched Black Eagle chick on Noordhoek Peak, observing the only well behaved troop of baboons on the peninsula, seeing bontebok, a stick insect, a blister beetle, orange breasted sunbirds, golden orb spiders, otter tracks and scats, tiny mushrooms, ostriches, eland, deep damp caves, king proteas, oystercatchers, shipwrecks, old military lookouts, ericas and ancient trees. This led to an entirely different view of our beautiful home in the Peninsula. Despite the cold and the uphill, all who attended went home feeling a little happier to be part of this amazing ecosystem.

Tracking the Cape Clawless Otter at Olifantsbos.The group managed to follow the tracks of what seemed like a family of otters along the beach for about a km before they went back into the ocean. They also found one of their holts at the mouth of a stream that was littered with crayfish leftovers

These excursions form part of the Cape Leopard Trust’s Education and Outreach initiative and are largely funded through a grant from the NLDTF. Those who can afford it are encouraged to support us by paying a nominal fee for the hikes, or by making a donation to the Trust.

If you would like more information on our Environmental Education Programme please contact Matthew on 0828115934 or [email protected].

Donation request: The CLT education programme is in need of a good quality water and shock proof point and shoot digital camera to capture images of our field excursions, something like the Nikon Coolpix AW100 for R3750 at Orms Pro Photo Lab. Please contact Matthew if you are able to assist with this.

The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) has provided exceptional support to the Cape Leopard Trust's Environmental Education Programme in the form of a grant of R1.3Million over three-years. This sponsorship has been vital in developing and ensuring a future for this initiative. The primary aim of the programme is to get children and adults into nature, providing experiences that connect them with the environment. Learning though personal experience is emphasised, as that way people can develop a real interest in the natural environment and care about what happens to it.

One of the most important items sponsored by the NLDTF is a 21-seater Mercedes Sprinter bus. This makes a huge difference, as transport has been one of the main problems groups have faced when wanting to participate in the programme. The vehicle will be used for taking groups on camps to the Cederberg as well as educational day trips in the Cape Peninsula and Boland mountains, where a Cape Leopard Trust research project is underway.

Last week the peace and quiet of the Cederberg was temporarily disturbed by the arrival of Class 6 from Stellenbosch Waldorf School. Our camp was run by Elizabeth Martins (better known to us as Liz Bond), who was our school’s Class 7 teacher last year. She led us up mountains, through tunnels, under and over boulders; and back in time as we examined ancient San sites and searched for even more ancient fossils.

We learned to read animal tracks, and were rather worried to discover a puff adder track leading right through our campsite one evening! We were challenged and awed; sometimes hot and sweating; sometimes chilly and shivering; but at all times up for the adventure. The children helped and entertained each other, and no-one was left behind! We even managed a good few minutes of total silence in Wolfberg Cracks – bliss!

Many thanks go from Class 6 to Liz and Quinton and the Cape Leopard Trust; it was great to see you and be introduced to your beautiful wilderness home.

Here is some of what the children had to say:

After a hot, sticky and irritating car journey (are we there yet?) we finally arrived in camp and after setting up, learning rules and stretching our legs, we were taken to see a rock painting in a cave and it was amazing. We also searched for evidence that Bushmen lived there and we found a few ostrich egg pieces, a half made bead, a bone, pieces of flint and ochre, a rock they used for making red. On the way back we were entertained by a troupe of baboons and watched their antics for a while. - Erin Sinclair

The next morning we woke up at 6:00 and teacher Liz arrived at 6:45. We hiked up to the Wolfberg Cracks, the hike was a bit tiring, but when we got up the cracks all the worries and tiredness were gone. I had a very good feeling when I made it to the top. Then we went to swim; it was sooo refreshing. We also went animal tracking that very same day. That day was the best day for me. - Nkhensani Josias

The rocks were very beautiful and all the cracks. When we nearly reached the top the adventure began. We went through a little crack where you can’t see where you are walking. In the middle of one we saw a bat; he was about half a meter away. I could have touched it if I wanted. After that crack we came into a stunning room full of rocks. There were two rock arches and a shelf. Everyone was climbing everywhere. It was beautiful. To get out of the room of rocks we had to squeeze through a little postbox and up a chimney. That was fun. We walked along an  edge that was sooo narrow. It was scary, it went straight down on one side… The one day we tracked a caracal. We nearly saw it but it was hiding by a river where there were thick bushes. What a pity!! But the camp was very nice! - Lijan van Niekerk

After a swim we went back to the camp site and had a rest. Then we looked for animal tracks. For dinner Liz and Quinton came and we ate then went to bed. Next morning it was freezing so Lestát and I woke up very early, woke up Fiona and we made fire under a mini cave. The following afternoon we went for a fossil hunt. We found lots of fossils. We slept outside under the stars. The next morning we packed our stuff and went back home. - Sun-Mok Kim

On the second day we woke up at 6 o’clock and left at 7 o’clock for Wolfberg Cracks (the view was exceptional at the top). All the different colours and rocks, well they were both beautiful. After some fossil hunting we went to our last sleeping place and got smoked out like bees in a hive (the fire), but in the end we went to sleep, and woke up the next morning. Then we got ready to leave and then we said good bye to the beautiful Cederberg hoping that we will see it again some day! - Raquel Theron

I was the first to go through the hole, it was really cramped so I had to move fast. When I reached the other side it was so cool; not that heat pounding down on you. We carried on and had to go through more holes and tunnels, until we came to this wonderful place; everywhere you look you see rocks of so many sizes. … We went back to camp and I knew that the next day would be just as fun. - Lestát Steyn

The following article appeared in the Stellenbosch Waldorf School’s weekly Update (13 November 2009)