Dressing the dunes

Saturday morning saw people arrive on foot, scooter and surfboard at South Beach for a cup of coffee and an aloe in support of the annual Umdloti UIP Arbour Day.

There was great excitement about the aloe adoption procedure, as children and adults donated some money, chose an aloe and tied their name tag around it.

Eight-year-old Ashton Uren took great care in choosing his aloe and is excited to own one of these healing plants.

“Aloes are pretty and they can help you when you are sore,” said Uren, while picking up his heavy aloe to find a spot for it on the dune.

Umdloti UIP manager, Terry Rens, said the goal of the Arbour Day was to get people involved in looking after their environment and particularly the dunes.

She added that they chose aloes, because they are drought-tolerant plants.

Furthermore, aloes offer many health benefits such as relieving sunburn, healing minor wounds, removing those morning raccoon eyes and soothing dry, cracked feet.

Besides sponsoring the 126 aloes, AON also brought a bright red gazebo, which gave the new aloe parents some shade and a fun spot for the children have their faces painted.

Almost all the aloes were sold and have been planted along the beach, giving the dunes a stylish look in their protective, pretty clothing.