December 2020

Dear Friends and Supporters,

The Eden to Addo Board Members would like to thank all the generous supporters of the Corridor Initiative in 2020 - whether in kind or by donation. We could not hike the 360km Great Corridor Hike this year due to Covid-19 and as a result we are relying on your donations.  Fortunately Clyde Berning and Damien Schumann came up with the challenging fundraising idea to run the entire corridor - they called it "The Flow of Life" and ran the full 360km corridor from Addo to Eden in just 8 days, thats a marathon a day. Read all about the experience in an interview with Clyde here.  If this appeals to you, look out for the Tusker in 2021. - a tough, fundraising, unsupported ultra trail run from Addo to Eden which you can either run or donate towards.  There are entries from all over the world on this back a buddy site already.

Covid-19 did not, however,  stop the continuing expansion work in the corridors connecting the three mega parks. The following are just some of the highlights. Most exciting is the Langkloof Corridor connecting Baviaanskloof to the Garden Route National Park ( GRNP) which is being broadened by  three substantial properties (to be declared Nature Reserves),  where the buffalo, eland, kudu, leopard and plenty more are already utilising their new found freedom to move. 

 As exciting is that the vlei behind Robberg Beach in Plettenberg Bay, Otter Haven, will be included in the Robberg Coastal Corridor (RCC) .  This was dream of the late E2A chairman, Dr Robbie Robinson,  founder of the famous Otter Trail.  He also had the opportunity to advise on the new trail, the Robberg Coastal Corridor Trail, being developed by the RCC. The trail is not complete as yet but now that the beaches are closed in Plettenberg Bay it is a golden opportunity to try parts of it - have a look on FB here. 

We were lucky enough to get permission to continue our field work in the Springbokvlakte in preparation for the establishment of the corridor connecting Addo to Baviaans, which revealed some super exciting rare succulents.  We have started loading the succulents on the E2A  iNaturalist site. Please email admin@edentoaddo.co.za if you would like to visit the site.  

 We would love you to be involved in some way or other with E2A, by hiking, running, buying something from our online shop,  simply making a small monthly donation or even buying a property for conservation in the corridor, with its concomitant tax benefits once we have it declared a nature reserve . The fact sheet here on the tax benefits shows just how many landowners are already utilising the benefits.

Wishing you all a healthy 2021 and the time to savour nature,