1 + 1 = 1 Dinner at GOLD Restaurant in celebration of the first leg of the project!

Special guest, the executive Mayor of Cape Town, Alderman Dan Plato seen here receiving the "Citizens of Cape Town" scroll. This scroll depicts a united commitment towards one future. A more environmentally and socially stable future for all!

It was an evening of drum beat and colour. Of gorgeous entertainers and huge dancing puppets. Of well known South Africans bringing smiles and tears!. Of dish after dish of scrumptious fare, paired with Rickety Bridge wine and pure GOLD service!


Braam Malherbe gave an inspirational talk entitled - NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!

Braam and David Grier walked/ ran / climbed the Great Wall of China for "Miles of Smiles" an organisation that gives the gift of a SMILE to children born with cleft palettes. Indeed NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!

An unforgettable evening, celebrating a meaningful and significant project!

Jonathan Rixon and Sarah Bergs reached
14 090 children, handed out 20 000 seeds, planted / donated a tree at every school they visited. They travelled over 10 000 kms over 8 weeks with a message of social and environmental tolerance.

Soli Philander accepted the "Schools of SA" scroll on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme. Soli not only reduced us all to fits of giggles, but made it clear to the guests that he was very touched by Wilderness Vision and reiterated that living a life of tolerance with ones environment is the only way to live!!

The Wilderness Vision team took this opportunity to thank the sponsors and supporters of the 1 + 1 = 1 Pledge Drive SA. Gifts of walking sticks were given as a token of our appreciation for the "Walk with Vision" that these individuals and companies have committed to.


United Nations Environment Programme, Billion Tree Campaign, Sun International, Protea Hotels, Trophy Toyota, Element Skateboards SA, Passage to Africa, Chef Bruce Robertson, Aurora, Tanda Tula, Alan McSmith Safaris, GOLD Restaurant, Rickety Bridge wine, Smart Staging Solutions, 14 090 children and all those who took the pledge, signed the scroll and paid their rand, we thank you all.

On the Countdown - In Cape Town...

Cape Town - our final destination ...an end to a journey but a start to a future ...of this project, of awareness, and towards a GREENER Planet!!

Our start in the "Mother City" found us orientating ourselves by the famous Table Mountain...and driving to Chapel Street School early this morning. Wow - is Cape town traffic something to contend with!!

Chapel Street School were great in allowing us to speak to about 560 - 600 of their primary school students. After morning prayers, which the students did in three languages ( something that impressed us no end! ) we did our short presentation on the 1+1=1 Pledge Drive. The message was well received and we left a scroll for the students to add their signatures and pledges to! Thank you to the Principal, Mr Alexander for allowing us the time to speak to the students and bring across our message - and of course to the kids...for braving the chilly wind this morning in assembly to listen to us!

Our next stop was Sea Point Primary School - a school of 365 students. This school seems to already have the vision, as they have already established a school vegetable garden and earthworm farm. The proceeds of the garden has even once been donated to a local soup kitchen! Having said this - the students and teachers were still eager to hear about our project and what it involved!

We would like to thank Sea Point Primary School for their support!!

The rest of our afternoon was spent enjoying the view at the V & A Waterfront and ducking the crazy seagulls...not a bad way to spend a day.

And of course...its GREAT to be back together with Sa & Al, who have now joined us in CT for the finale!! Lots of fun catching up...!

More tomorrow!

Cape Agulhas - or in Portuguese Cabo das Agulhas ( Cape of the Needle) ...so-called because early sailors found no declination between true north and magnetic north on their compasses at this spot.

It is the geographic southern tip of the African continent and the official point where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.

The seas around Cape Agulhas are very treacherous and have caused many ship wrecks. This led to a lighthouse being built in 1848, this being only the second one to be built in the country after the Green Point Lighthouse in Cape Town. It is still a working lighthouse - as well as a national monument, and our climb to the top of the lighthouse gave us a bird's eye view of the Tip, and the breathtaking landscape around us.

If is picture is worth a thousand words ...then surely this picture will tell you everything you need to know!! A beautiful Friday morning found us driving from our cosy little Robertson backpackers past picturesque vineyards through to McGregor to pay a visit to McGregor Waldorf School.

This school was such fun for us to give a presentation to - the students being super enthusiastic! It was such a pleasure for us to see students exhibit real interest - one student even coming up to us after the presentation to ask HOW trees gave us oxygen. A valid question - and definitely one that means we got those minds ticking!!

We would like to say thank you to Ken and the students and teachers of Waldorf School in McGregor for signing the scroll and committing to "Live their Most Significant Lives."

It was then back on the road to Robertson...and onwards. Towards the Southern Most Tip of Africa!!

We made a stop in Bredasdorp, where the Cape Agulhas Municipality is located. There we had the pleasure of a lunch-time meeting with the Executive Mayor, Councillor Robert Mitchell as well as the Deputy Mayor and 2 other Councillors.

They were very eager to hear about our project and also keen to share with us their own visions for the Cape Agulhas Municipality - so much so that they took us out to one of their current projects...which involves paving the side streets for the kids to walk on, the planting of trees along the streets, as well as the urban greening through creating a safe park for kids to play in as well as an area for relaxation in the location. Their vision and passion for their project and their town was clearly brought forth as they drove us through the streets and pointed out how each step would be a clear improvement.

We would like to thank the Cape Agulhas Municipality for their support in our Project, as well as their time. We would like to commend them on their efforts so far, and wish them well in their "greening expeditions".

and then nose to the wind and south...south...south...!!

A late start to the day, had us on our way to Heidelberg Christian School... after a much awaited lie-in and a lovely breakfast in the sun at the local nursery, where we also picked up a tree for the school.

The beautiful scenery of wine vineyards gracing the sides of the Swartberg mountains and the sheer size of them (both the vineyards and the mountains) made our trip pass quickly!!

Heidelberg School was an intimate school of about 45 students, and we hope that our message of environmental and social tolerance and the value of trees strikes a chord in each and every student. Thank you for your time and attention. We wish you well with the trees that you have already planted and in greening your school!

Robertson - famous for it's winery's, is a beautiful town set in on the heart of route 62. Of course no trip here would be complete without the taste of good wine! So naturally as is the custom when stopping by in this quaint little town - we tasted some good wine...and some not so good.

A few wine facts:

• One barrel of wine equals to 1800 glasses of wine.
• One ton of grapes makes about 720 bottles of wine.
• One vine produces between 24 - 36 glasses of wine.

And a Robertson fact:

• Robertson wine valley has 15 % of the total land under vines in South Africa.

Excited about going to L'Agulhas tomorrow - the most southern point in Africa.

Till then...

A productive Oudtshoorn morning saw us giving a short talk to the staff of the Protea Hotel, Riempie Estate. They had been kind enough to sign the scroll and contribute their R1's towards the project, and were looking for a little more insight into what the concept is all about - something we were only to glad to help out with!

Another exciting addition to our day...and scroll, was the SAPS Band Western Cape. We saw them as we were pulling out of the hotel this morning, and jumped at the opportunity to share our message.

A great response had us unrolling the scroll over the bonnet of the car for them to sign and show their support.

To the Protea Hotel staff and the SAPS Band - Thank you!!

A beautiful drive back over the Oteniqua Pass led us to Holy Cross School in George - a primary school of 398 students. The excited chattering of the students as they entered the hall gave way to an interested silence!

As usual, more hands and questions than we had time for, but great answers for those that we did! Like we have said before - if this is the response from the youth, then our future is in good hands!

Thank you to Holy Cross for their support.

And then with the day to ourselves, we decided to spend a leisurely afternoon in Mossel Bay: Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the mildest climate year round...second only to Hawaii.

Next up Robertson...the heart of Route 62.

A cold and chilly Oudtshoorn morning found us awake at 07:30, getting ready for breakfast and a meeting with the Executive Mayor, Councillor Diana de Jager at 09:30. After an hour long chat and a nice cup of tea, we left with both the scroll signed and a better idea of the good hearted person fronting the Oudtshoorn Municipality - Councillor Diana de Jager, thank you for your time this morning.

Next stop for the day was one of the 7 wonders of Southern Africa - The Cango Caves. These caves are of an ecological importance as the caverns began forming 20 million years ago and there is evidence of people inhabiting the caves from more than 80 000 years before the caves were "discovered".

Knowing this, we set off to do the adventure tour - 90 minutes through the heart of the Cango Caves, with exciting passages and narrow chimneys. There are impressive limestone formations such as stalagmites, stalactites and completed columns, where a stalagmite and stalactite have met.

This tour had us thrilled as we got to explore the different caverns - the guide occasionally dimming the lighting to give us an idea of what it would have been like for the original explorers!! Between 90- 100% humidity in the caves and a steady temperature of 18 degrees had us all glowing slightly after our adventurous excursion!

Probably one of the most awesome things we have found on this trip...As they say: a true GEM!!! Definitely a double thumbs-up from the 1+1=1 team!!

And of course no trip to Oudtshoorn would be complete without a visit to an Ostrich Farm. Oudtshoorn is the largest town in the Klein Karoo - it became a bustling city in about the 1870's when the feather market was booming in world fashion.

We decided to stop at the Cango Ostrich Farm, where we did a tour of the farm. This tour was awesome. We got to feel an ostrich egg ( which equates to about 24 chicken eggs: now THAT is one big omelette!! ) and even stand on it -to get an idea. f its strength.

Interesting fact: An ostrich egg can bear about 100kg's. Another interesting fact...while the ostrich egg is the LARGEST egg - the bee honey bird has the smallest egg...and you can fit 4700 bee honey bird eggs into ONE ostrich egg! Boggles one's mind, doesn't it!!

The guide then took us to see the ostriches. Betty, a young female...took quite a fancy to Jonathan and "kissed" him as the guide places food in Jonathan's mouth for the ostrich to take. Must say the look on his face was...as Mastercard says... "priceless"!!

We then decided to take the bull by the horns...or should i say the ostrich by the wings...and ride an ostrich. Think Jonathan almost fell over laughing, as I tried to mount and then careened around the arena. Not the most comfortable steed I will admit! But what fun - it was like riding a loose cannon. There is definitely a lot of power under all those feathers!!

An awesome day from our side - lots of fun and adventure...and we know know what makes Oudtshoorn such a place to visit!! Thanks to everyone involved - all our super guides - and of course our new ostrich friends for making our day!!

Getting lost in Knysna this morning on our way to find Oakhill School was as good a way as any to start the day...A day crisp yet sunny met us both meandering along the lanes of Knysna, enjoying the views over the lagoon...and at the same time trying to make haste towards our first appointment. A winning combo!

Both the senior and junior students at the school responded enthusiastically to our presentations...getting involved in asking interesting questions!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time this morning with the students, and left with two scrolls filled with signatures and well wishes! Thank you to the great students of Oakhill School - and to Linda for helping coordinate.

Our day continued as we held a telephonic interview with Namaqualand FM to update them on the Drive and how the listeners could get involved. Let us just hope there were millions of listeners...

Will have to say that our drive on to Oudtshoorn was a spectacular one. The Oteniqua pass was simply amazing. Green rolling mountains, brief views back of the sea, jagged mountain crags, all set against the crisp blue sky...made this drive probably one of the most memorable. The time flew as the ostrich spotting began!!

Oudtshoorn, our next stop, is a town set in what is fondly known as the "Little Karoo". It is also home to the worlds LARGEST ostrich population... no small feat I should imagine!

Needless to say; one of our activities tomorrow will simply have to be riding an ostrich...something that has almost become a national sport in towns like Oudtshoorn...so on that note; "Giddy-up...and will let you know how it goes!"

*Sa & Jon*

The Bloukrans Bridge is the largest single span concrete arch bridge in the world! It is also the highest road bridge in Africa and in the Southern Hemisphere...

...of course this could only lead adrenalin junkies to one thought - creating the highest commercially operated bungy jump in the world! With a free-fall of about 4 - 5 seconds, and a falling distance of about 160 - 180 metres - this gives you the ultimate opportunity to "Face your Fear"!

Yes it's scary or perhaps it's even stupid, but this morning found us waking up with only one thought: We want to do it!!!! This was something we had wanted to do since the beginning of this drive...so now the time was right, and we had much built-up anticipation!

We left Knysna at around 09:00 with nerves in Sarah's tummy, NOT mine! Ok, that's not true - I was slightly scared. It's amazing how nerves beforehand almost get the better of you as more than once we joked about just driving straight past!

Needless to say we made our way to the registration counter, signed our lives away and committed to the jump. Sarah marked Jumper # 11 ( J11) and myself J10. Much to Sarah's dismay as she had hoped to be brave and jump first!

In all honesty looking back, the hardest part of the whole exercise was the walk along the specially made catwalk under the bridge...Why do they always make them out of...MESH!

Meaning of course that your eyes are naturally drawn to the plunging gorge beneath. A question forms in our minds - "Why do we always put ourselves in these crazy, insane positions?"!

We now find ourselves at the jump site with no chance of a return to the comforts of solid ground - this being said, the staff and awesome sounds being played more than get you into the right frame of mind - the mind to JUMP, the mind to Face your Fears!

Ankles tied, a couple of hops to the edge of the platform, arms out and then 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BUNGY - in that moment there is no more fear, you find your body just jumping on its own accord, and then the pure adrenalin rush of the 120km/h free fall - Freedom!

Over sooner than you would believe, you are hoisted back up after spending a few seconds hanging upside down, admiring the beauty of the gorge. Hand shakes and high 5's gave us the heady feeling of knowing that we had conquered the worlds highest bungy - Bloukrans!

"Fear is temporary, Regret is forever."

The weekend has arrived...but work continues...9h30 found us driving through the drizzle to George...the "City for All Reasons". George is a bustling little city set in the heart of the Garden Route.

There we met with the Executive Mayor, Councillor Phillipus De Swardt, and Deputy Mayor, Councillor W. T Harris.

We spend about half an hour explaining the aim of the 1+1=1 Pledge Drive, and are proud to say that we now have the scroll signed on behalf of the George Municipality.

Thank you for offering us your time on a weekend...and definitely appreciate it! Thank you too for your interest and support for our project.

With the rest of the day to ourselves, and the sunshine starting to part the clouds...we set out to explore the beautiful little town of Knysna.

We are highly anticipating the bungee tomorrow ( and slightly nauseous at the thought! ) check out the blog tomorrow for the updates...

*Sa & Jon*

Wow - what a whirlwind day!! 5h30 had us up and dressing...and as the sun rose over the harbour we were making our way through the city to our first appointment of the day...a radio interview with Bay FM, one of Port Elizabeths Local radio stations. Time being short, we gave the studio staff a rundown of the project and they decided to call us for a telephonic interview, which we could do on the road...

This decided we headed back to Woodridge College and Prep to pick up the scrolls that we had left. The school had given us great support.

As we drove out, and started making our way along the N2, Bay FM called - and we did the radio interview. It was short and sweet and well...let's hope that the message got out to lots of listeners!

The road towards Knysna is an adventure on its own. The scenery was breathtaking...and comical. Craggy hills, fields of proteas, thick forests and large bridges spanning gorges - making us think twice about our decision to do the Bloukrans Bungy - the highest bungy in the world...but no fear: we'll do it! On the comical side of the drive: we did see a sign to dial a cow....hmmm - go figure.

A combination of bad road works and slow trucks had us a bit frustrated as we found ourselves zigzagging town, and finally reaching Montessori School a few minutes late. One again, our apologies for this!

Had a great presentation to the junior school - with a fantastic response. The kids really got involved and answered questions, and made the talk such a pleasure.

We visited a few of the classrooms getting the students to sign the scroll and their complete exuberance over this project made us smile. Their Gardening Club, as seen above in the pic were so proud to show us their "green fingers". With their enthusiasm and our tight schedules, we left the scrolls with them -to be picked up later.

Thank you Tonya for your support and for having us at the school.

We next made our way to to Knysna Municipality to meet with Councillor Eleanor Bouw-Spies...the Mayor of Knysna. It was a pleasure to meet with you, and have you sign the scroll and support our project. Also thank you for your positive reaction - we would love to hear from you again in the future.

Will definately say that we were running on a bit of a minute-to-minute time schedule, but after our manic moring things definately seemed to catch up again.

Walking out of the Mayors Office, we were met by Bill Fussel, one of the directors of the volunteer programme Travellers Worldwide in South Africa. He led us to Thembelitsha School - in the Concordia location, which was our next appointment for the day!

Despite the short notice, the school princpipal kindly organised for us to meet with about 240 of the students- Gr6 & G7's.

A lot of hype to sign the scroll after the presentation...had the teachers doing "crowd control" as the students formed rows, and jostled in about 3 at a time to sign the scroll...adorning it with lots of colours, and names.

A tree planting ceremony after the scroll-signing completed our visit. We hope that the Orange Tree bears fruit for the future.

Thank you to Bill Fussel and Sharon Dreyer from Travellers Worldwide, and to their volunteers who also helped out! Also a big thank you of course, to everyone at Thembelitsha.

The idea that the day had been completed had us smiling even more, as after this chaotic week, we headed back to our hotel with that knowledge that we could now take a break...that said - we still had to change a tyre, and head back to Montessori School for our scroll - which after the tyre incident had smiles on our faces again. The colour-filled scroll is definitely an indication of their committment and effort - thank you again!

Off to meet the mayor...the wonderful mayor of George!

Bye

*Jon and Sa*

"Be the change you want to see in the world"

Another busy day today - but what a fun one. The day started out quite sunny, but then the Windy City lived up to its name...and became quite blustery.

Did a great presentation this morning to Theodor Herzl School. The Gr 7's, 8's and 9's were a super audience! Think that they really enjoyed the 1+1=1 concept and were excited by the opportunity to plant their own seeds.

The staff from Theodor Herzl were very friendly, and we enjoyed our time chatting to them over tea. We would like to thank Anita for accepting the tree on behalf of the school - and for helping with our visit. And to the students - you guys were great; keep that enthusiasm!

We then took the scenic drive through to Amakhala Conservation Center - The Center was started about 6 years by Jennifer Gush. her aim was environmental education and research.

Today the Amakhala Conservation Center held an early World Environment Day. About 45 students from 4 different local schools attended. The kids topic today was global warming - as they got taught about terrariums, windmills and solar cookers. They learnt by "doing" and all walked away with smaller versions of the above ( terrariums made with plastic coke bottles, windmills made on pencils etc. )

It was great fun for us to share our message with the kids although a little tough as it needed to be translated into Xhosa as we went along.

Will definitely say the kids loved the opportunity to draw pictures on the scroll and receive their very own seed to plant and look after.

Our tree planting ceremony was much anticipated - and enjoyed by all...as everyone participated and added their handful of soil towards planting the tree.

We hope that the message that we left with the kids today, will take root as well as the tree that we planted. Thank you Jennifer and Thecha, and all the other staff for making today possible.

Another highlight of our day was our visit with Councillor Lonake on behalf of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. We thoroughly enjoyed spending the better part of an hour discussing the project and their local initiatives.

We are proud to have the support of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. To Councillor Lonake, and also Liziwe - thank you for your time.

Off to Knysna tomorrow - land of tiny seahorses, and great oysters... catch you there.

*Sa & Jon*

Definitely a morning worth remembering! We arrived at Woodridge Schools to give our presentation and got to sit-in on their special morning assembly. They had some guest performers doing traditional African dances to drumming. It was great to watch! Made us wander how quickly we could add some break dancing into our presentation...or not so much.

Needless to say Jonathan left the dancing to professionals...but gave a great talk to the Junior School ( 365 children ), who seemed excited at the opportunity to make a difference and sign the scroll!

Woodridge is set on a beautiful backdrop between Van Stadens Pass and the Van Stadens Flower Reserve. What lucky kids to be able to learn and explore the world in an environment like this...

We also got to give a short presentation to Woodridge College to about 335 of the students. A very attentive audience that was great to speak to. Let us hope that some of those facts sink in, and they each realise their own potential to make a difference.

Thank you to Alan Campbell and Gary Baines for their involvement in our project. It was such a pleasure to meet with you this morning and we wish Woodridge Schools all the best. Good luck "greening" those school grounds Anthony.

A quiet afternoon spent catching up on "paperwork" and organising the next few days...No sunshine along the Sunshine Coast ironically, maybe tomorrow.

Will let you know...

*Sa & Jon*