Ballito eco champion welcomes holidaymakers with creative driftwood messages
The goal of the project is to make holidaymakers feel welcome in Ballito, while also raising awareness about ocean and earth conservation.
Philocaly Trail organiser and Ballito resident Mike Gahagan is on a mission to welcome holidaymakers to the North Coast, one piece of driftwood at a time.
Taking a stroll along the boardwalk from Willard Beach to Salmon Bay, you are sure to notice a number of driftwood pieces nailed to the boardwalk, each with its own unique message.
Mike said the goal of this project was not only to make holidaymakers feel welcome when visiting Ballito this festive season, but also to raise awareness about the ocean and earth conservation.
“The messages are simple,” Mike said, but he hopes each piece of driftwood will inspire happiness in people, while also helping to spread the message of keeping our local beaches clean.
“The North Coast’s drawcard is tourism. We need to look after this to remain relevant as a holiday destination,” he said.
Some of the driftwood pieces also pay tribute to the Ballito Urban Improvement Precinct, a public/private partnership tasked with improving public spaces, service areas from the Ballito Business Park down Ballito Drive and on the beachfront from Zimbali to Willard Beach.
The Courier caught up with Mike at the weekend just as he had finished putting up 48 pieces of driftwood which he had collected locally.
While collecting driftwood, Mike also picked up 385 plastic bottle caps which ended up filling a 5-litre bottle.
“These will go to a Durban factory which melts them down to produce protective flooring used in kiddies’ playgrounds,” he said.
The Philocaly Trail walk is held twice a year and began in 2019 after floods emptied rubbish from inland communities into the ocean, which spat it back out onto local beaches.
It takes five days to complete the beachside journey from Mtunzini to Sheffield.
For more information on Philocaly, visit the Facebook page at @PhilocalyTrail.
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