Wageningen University MSc student Egle Draugelyte recently completed field research for her thesis on stakeholder and social learning in Kouga catchment of Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve. The likeable Lithuanian takes a moment to stop and reflect on her highlights from life spent on the road – and encourages new faces to follow her footsteps (or bakkie tracks, as the case may be…).
My personal reflection:
Some months ago, I began a wonderful journey in the Kouga River Catchment. With the PRESENCE Learning Village as a base, I travelled there for a few months to listen to the farmers and other stakeholders in order to understand the area and its particularities. During this quite limited amount of time, I had a lifetime experience which brought to my attention many new insights. Each day was coloured by different farmers’ perceptions and attitudes, and each of them had a unique story to tell which helped me to create a better representation of this area.
This journey I shared with another student from the PRESENCE Learning Village, Clara. We worked together and crossed paths many times on the roads of the Kouga Catchment. This area is particularly diverse by farming practices, people, and nature; each day of my journey I discovered something new. For instance, one of my days began at a remote landowner and artist’s place in the Kouga Wilderness; later, my day was continued at a recycling project for school children in Krakeel; and finally, my day was completed at a meeting with a game reserve farmer next to Haarlem. ‘Living on the road’ is one of the best expressions for my time here: being on the road from one farm to another, being on the road from the PRESENCE Learning Village to the Kouga Catchment and back. This movement and feeling of getting somewhere was inspiring for me to go on further and further to other amazing places where I had not been before.
The farmers and other stakeholders that I met in the Kouga Catchment showed such an abundance of friendliness and willingness to communicate. Meetings were lively with jokes, and it was so easy to feel a great atmosphere and interest in initiatives. Each meeting built on to the next with confidence and the possibility of working towards living landscape*.
My journey went by very quickly towards its end, but the memories are residing. On the one hand, the number of places I visited, the knowledge shared, and the contacts made will remain for my own. But on the other, the continuation of this process will be for the following students to take on their own…and continue to share. Now it is time for somebody else to discover the hidden beauties of the Kouga River Catchment.
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