First for Water

Last year's exploratory walk in the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve

'Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet'

Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese monk and peace activist

A passionate love of all life and a yearning for deeper meaning and purpose is bringing together an inspired and inspiring group of people who’ll walk the waters of South Africa’s Eerste River on 27 and 28 September.

Each is driven by a great love affair with the natural world and recognition of how their footsteps have brought them to this pivotal time and place when humanity needs to heal its relationship with Mother Earth and her waters.

The Eerste River Walk is an invitation to celebrate the sanctity of water and to find ways for diverse local communities in the greater Stellenbosch area to work together to protect the precious life-sustaining waters.

Event coordinators Lydia van Rooyen and Charl Pienaar say the pilgrimage will start at 1pm on Friday 27 September with a walk to the pristine headwaters in the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve. Crystalline water will then be collected from a waterfall and poured the following afternoon at a ceremony during The Festival of Talents at Die Braak in the centre of the Stellenbosch.

Walking against the magnificent backdrop of the Jonkershoek Mountains

Anyone interested in learning more about the river is invited to join along the way and walk with the waters on a part of the time-honoured journey to the ocean. More details will be published soon.

The pilgrimage is the vision of members of the Eerste River Crystalline Water Tribe and at least three years ago it was agreed to follow the example of the California-based source-to-sea Walking Water initiative.

Last year a small group walked the route as an exploration and recce for the more ambitious 2019 event, with international water activist Geoff Dalglish among them.

He stressed that the walk was not intended to be a march or a protest, but in common with the international Walking Water initiative is a prayer and an action that recognises that Water is Life and our common ground worldwide.

Geoff and others carrying sacred waters collected from the source of the Eerste River. Eerste means First in Afrikaans, a language spoken by many South Africans

“Water connects us – humans, animals, plants and all life – and this pilgrimage walk is intended to be a celebration, an exploration and an opportunity to listen in humility to the waters and the many voices of our watershed and ask: How might we serve? What is ours to do?

"We walk towards the vision of a regenerated environment. Our approach is to work in a way that is synergistic, collaborative and future-orientated, revolving around a simple bottom line: for the enhanced protection of all life."

I like to think we’re now all together in the FLOW - For the Love of Water.

Visit www.walking-water.org and www.earthpilgrimafrica.org

Water from the source is poured in a ceremony in Stellenbosch last year.